MSPE/Dean's Letter key phrases

[inositide]

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After reviewing a few different MSPE/Dean's Letters, I can see that there are certain phrases used in the summative part of the letter which are probably what program directors will look at. Most of these phrases are positive or neutral and very rarely are they overtly negative. The way in which the phrases are different is in how positive they are. There will usually be a one line summary of your academic achievement which is pretty much self explanatory (ie. he/she has an excellent academic record or he/she has struggled academically at times but has always persevered, etc etc). Then there will be 1 or 2 sentences describing (or predicting) the med student's future potential or what can be reasonably expected. Variants include:

1. He/she has strong potential and will make great strides in the presence of rigorous supervision.
2. he/she will require additional attention during a residency/training program, but he/she is very receptive to teaching and will progress well.
3. he/she should do well in a residency/training program
4. he/she will thrive in a residency/training program
5. he/she will be an active/strong/reliable/welcome addition to any residency/training program.
6. he/she will be a pleasure to have as a member of your house staff.
7. he/she will be a superior physician-in-training and will contribute tremendously to any residency program.

These are just a few examples.

 

[BStein76]

After reviewing a few different MSPE/Dean's Letters, I can see that there are certain phrases used in the summative part of the letter which are probably what program directors will look at.

Our MSPE has a generic format that describes our academic careers starting from high school to medical school with the bulk of the letter containing comments from all our evaluations (good and bad comments) with little to no freedom in editing the comments. In the last line of our MSPE, the adjective describes where we are in proportion to the rest of the class😳utstanding, excellent, very good, good and fair. Our school does not tell us how the adjectives are determined. There are also bar graphs in the appendix that give a visual representation of our ranking relative to the class for pre-clinical and clinical grades.

 

[superdood68]

1. He/she has strong potential and will make great strides in the presence of rigorous supervision.
2. he/she will require additional attention during a residency/training program, but he/she is very receptive to teaching and will progress well.
3. he/she should do well in a residency/training program
4. he/she will thrive in a residency/training program
5. he/she will be an active/strong/reliable/welcome addition to any residency/training program.
6. he/she will be a pleasure to have as a member of your house staff.
7. he/she will be a superior physician-in-training and will contribute tremendously to any residency program.

These are just a few examples.

some of these comments are rough. ouch.

 

[metastatic dz]

I have also heard similar stories about the dean's using specific coded language. In fact, I recently had my MSPE meeting with the dean of my medical school, and it was quite obvious when he let me read the letter. I'm sure it varies from school to school, but it seems that mine likes the "outstanding, excellent, good, etc" spectrum of words to choose. I know they also like to place your exact numerical rank if you're in the top 20% of the class. Otherwise, they may just put top 1/3 or top 1/2 if applicable. One would hope they wouldn't put top 3/4...thats just mean.

 

[Tar Heel Born]

I've been told by my advisor that to many program directors, the only thing that matters in your MSPE is that adjective in the last line - outstanding, excellent, very good, good, or fair. In this case, it's not such a great thing to be "very good."

 

[Ice-1]

Are you sure that program directors pay that much attention to this? I've got lots of interviews from places where the programs have not even downloaded the Dean's letter from ERAS, so I don't know how much difference it makes. Another thing is, a dude from last year's class told me that his Dean's letter rated him only as "satisfactory" in the last sentences and he still got plenty of interviews and a good residency slot with only fair grades and scores.

 

[metastatic dz]

its hard to say how much value the PDs put into the last statement of the MSPE. And considering that Internal Medicine as a whole is one of the least competitive specialties out there, these PDs are probably getting a nice mix of "good" and "fair" applicants. The most competitive programs probably look for that code word. But the second question is...can't they gleam exactly how good of an applicant you are by your LORs, scores, transcript and 3rd year evals on your MSPE, etc?

I seriously doubt that they'll learn anything more in the last paragraph/line that will change their impression of you.

 

[Fermi]

Our school has explicitly told us that they have abolished "code phrases" like "s/he will make a👎 Nobel-prize-winning/outstanding/good/fair/malpractice-risk physician" in favor of just giving a uniform endorsement without positive or negative qualifications. Hopefully this is the case, and hopefully they explain this fact somewhere in the letter so program directors aren't trying to read into it.

 

[raph91]

I finished one interview (doing an away rotation) and I think there is some weight. One of the faculty I met asked specifically what comments people made about me during my rotations. After all, most of us can find a few physicians who we know will write something that is at LEAST okay ... but the comments made by the people we work with say a lot ... and this is best seen in our Dean's letters.

Also, the program director asked specifically if my Dean's letter was done, if I had gotten a chance to read it, and if he (the dean) or my faculty/residents on various rotations had said anything that I'd like him to know. Now THAT is a difficult question.

So I think there is some weight to the Dean's letter, but I don't think it's the "one line makes or breaks you" deal. Though one line CAN deliver some harm (e.g., the applicant is an idiot or something like that) but it's unlikely that most would write something like that.

I know the format for my school's Dean's letter is he starts with reiterating some good terms my past rotations used to refer to me followed by a review of what he thinks of me based on my activities, grades, etc. along with a line about my standing in the class (outstanding, excellent, very good, good, etc.) and then a short couple of lines stating what he thinks of me overall as a candidate.

So there is some weight I think ... after all, why else would a program director ask me about it specifically?