Med School Grades

[FutureDO2016]

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I was wondering how big of a role med schools play for anesthesia programs (pharmacology/physiology)? Do program directors care about the first 2 year grades or they just focus on board scores and letters of rec?

Would having mostly C's and average grades limit my chances or a decent board exam score would make up for it?

 

[Dejavu]

I was wondering how big of a role med schools play for anesthesia programs (pharmacology/physiology)? Do program directors care about the first 2 year grades or they just focus on board scores and letters of rec?

Would having mostly C's and average grades limit my chances or a decent board exam score would make up for it?

I am not a PD and am so not asked to be involved with resident selection where I work (I am just a POA (plain old anesthesiologist). Smarter guys than I get asked to interview and select the residents. I just get to teach them a few tricks from an old guy, once they get chosen.

However, to answer your question, in med school I was always just off the peak of the left side of the bell curve, but yet, here I am.

 

[Per4mer8]

I had multiple PDs/interviewers mention my phys/pharm grades fwiw. I'm not saying average grades is a huge deal....but they undoubtedly notice

 

[partydoc]

I was wondering how big of a role med schools play for anesthesia programs (pharmacology/physiology)? Do program directors care about the first 2 year grades or they just focus on board scores and letters of rec?

Would having mostly C's and average grades limit my chances or a decent board exam score would make up for it?

I think class rank is more important than specific grades. Most schools are H/P/F anyways.

But either way, be prepared to discuss during interviews.

 

[Guillemot]

nobody talked about my grades during interviews.... they may or may not have cared, but they didnt discuss them.

 

[RK.md]

Hard to tell exactly what a given program looks for, but it's fair to assume that most who offer you an interview have already deemed your grades/board scores "good enough" to match. The interviews tend to be laid-back and career-centered anyways. 🙂

 

[musli]

They sure don't help, but speaking for me, clerkship grades are significantly more important. It would be unusual for an applicant to have consistently poor preclinical grades but do consistently well on both boards and clerkships, though, so it's hard to give a logical answer.

Also, my department's interviewers generally don't have access to applicants' grades / scores, so no conclusions can be drawn from the fact that they fail to mention them.

 

[FutureDO2016]

what do you mean they don't have access to grades? Don't applicants have to submit a transcript of all the grades?

 

[Stellar Clouds]

what do you mean they don't have access to grades? Don't applicants have to submit a transcript of all the grades?

He's saying that the PD doesn't give the transcript to the faculty who perform the interviews. Probably done to reduce bias. Rest assured (or uneasy) that programs have your grades.