MSPE anxiety help

[Adale]

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so I know this is mostly for anxiety relieving purposes...but then again, isn't this what SDN helps with???

Anyhow, I just saw my MSPE and 90% of the clinical evals are "excellent/outstanding" and even some best student all year/one of the best I have ever had. The other 10% were "very good". No bad evals at all. I also got a PhD, published, etc.

So, I had academic trouble in my first clinical rotation, not passing the exam and therefore had to repeat the rotation/exam. I also didn't do well on my step 1, a bit below average.

My concern is the Dean's last paragraph, which says So-and-so is a "good" medical student. I imagine this can only be because of my fail + sub-par board score. I know for a fact that my school does not send a table/chart with the meaning of their "code word."

My question is since a lot of top programs seem to wait for the MSPE, how much weight is placed on this "word." Or do they wait mostly to see the clinical evals, etc.

Thanks in advance for words of encouragement!

 

[heyjack70]

You said:
"Anyhow, I just saw my MSPE and 90% of the clinical evals are "excellent/outstanding" and even some best student all year/one of the best I have ever had. The other 10% were "very good". No bad evals at all. I also got a PhD, published, etc. "

Sounds pretty damn "good" to me. I especially enjoy how you slip in the fact that you're an MD/PhD in that last sentence; nonchalance is prized in residency applicants.

You're applying to psychiatry, right? Calm yourself. I would only worry about "good" if I was applying to derm or ophtho. And Step I score: my fellow residents have a large range of scores from 195 to 240 and I think I'm at a top 20 program.

 

[Adale]

haha. I did start off by saying it was to be a therapy session right?

In all seriousness, I was just surprised by that. I mean, I don't really understand the significance of these "code words." Seems kind of silly.

But I guess my concern was more of why the MSPE seems so important that schools wait to give interviews and whether it was dean code word versus the written evals which was so important to wait for.

I have had enough people on here (and people I have moaned to off SDN) tell me not to worry. Just helps settle that the written comments are most important.

Thanks!

 

[Doc Samson]

There are no code words.

 

[Adale]

Are you saying I have suffered from a delusion of reference??? 😀

j/k, by "code word" I meant the summary statement by the dean at the end of the MSPE, where some schools call their student "outstanding," "excellent," etc, then say ie. "outstanding= top 15th percentile of class" etc.

Anyhow, thanks for the input! Excited to get these interviews started! Good luck to everyone!