Matching into mid to top-tier Internal Medicine Programs with a Pass in the IM Clerkship?

[Superobvious]

I recently got my IM clerkship grade back, was expecting at the very least a high pass based on shelf performance (86%ile) and the "high pass" and "honors" evals I received. Ended up with a Pass and met with the director to see where the discrepancy was. Performed exactly average on the OSCE and the evals were normalized on bell curve so even if I did really well on evals they were essentially "down graded" in a sense. I have really good written comments for my MSPE for my IM clerkship, but the Pass is really making me reconsider if I'll be able to match into good programs, especially since I am couples matching (SO is matching Peds). Will looking into areas like Chicago or San Diego be out of the question? Or programs like Cleveland Clinic?

For those who matched into one of their top ranked IM programs with a Pass on the IM clerkship, how was the rest of your application? Can I reach out to one of y'all for advice? I would be happy to share the current state of my application with anyone willing to help or reach out. First 2 years of med school I was in the 2nd quartile performance-wise, if that makes any difference. So far Honors in Psych, Pass in OBGYN, and now Pass in IM.

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[voxveritatisetlucis]

School tier? Research? AOA?

A pass probably won’t hurt too badly but Chicago, Northwestern, UCSD are fairly tough. Obviously if you go to one of these schools ,you’re fine.

Look at UIC, Loyola, Rush, Scripps Mercy too

Scripps mercy is a community hospital.

 

[Billiam95]

Evals normalized on a bell curve? Sounds like some star spangled BS.

 

[Superobvious]

Evals normalized on a bell curve? Sounds like some star spangled BS.

Unfortunately true. Is the only clerkship we have that does this. Others just use the evals you get to assign a grade of H, HP, or P.

 

[Superobvious]

School tier? Research? AOA?

A pass probably won’t hurt too badly but Chicago, Northwestern, UCSD are fairly tough. Obviously if you go to one of these schools ,you’re fine.

Look at UIC, Loyola, Rush, Scripps Mercy too

Scripps mercy is a community hospital.

State school, mid-tier I suppose. Research so far is 2 poster sessions, 1 publication (2 additional on the way for 2 other projects), 1 conference poster, entire year of gap year research (2000+ hrs) that I can't get my name on papers for because it was for collaborations with pharm companies. Not AOA.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Aim for 260+ step 2

 

[NotAProgDirector]

Not all passes are created equal. At some schools, 15% get H and 85% get P. At others, <2% get Pass.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Not all passes are created equal. At some schools, 15% get H and 85% get P. At others, <2% get Pass.

How much of a bump would you say that somebody gets from getting honors at a school where less than 2% get honors? Would it be equivalent to say a 250 step or gold humanism?

 

[NotAProgDirector]

How much of a bump would you say that somebody gets from getting honors at a school where less than 2% get honors? Would it be equivalent to say a 250 step or gold humanism?

These are unanswerable questions. Each program evaluates applicants differently

 

[Tenk]

Time to network!

 

[WhatAreMyChancesPals?]

Not all passes are created equal. At some schools, 15% get H and 85% get P. At others, <2% get Pass.

Yup. At my school, you need to get like... ~55th percentile on the Shelf to qualify for honors, and unless you really pissed someone off you typically honor the eval and thus the rotation. Sort of a shame tbh, since we're a low tier school we could benefit from the stratification.