MSPE/eval comments that genuinely help

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Seems like most MSPE comments are just generally/vaguely positive. Are there any comments that truly stand out in the eyes of interviewers?

I was able to rotate with a few attendings that gave very positive/specific comments (eg. knowledge/skills/presentations at the level of an intern/PGY-2, knowledge base far above peers, one of the top students I've ever worked with, etc.) but they were on rotations outside of my preferred specialty so I can realistically only get a letter from one of them at most.

In general, do PD's read these comments/if they're pulled into the Dean's letter do they raise eyebrows? Or are they only valuable in letters. And are there any other "coded language" things that can signal positively or negatively to PDs (ie. if the eval talks a lot about being on time, etc. maybe a poor signal)

 

[collegestud2013]

Strongly positive comments in the MSPE will help slightly if the PD actually reads it though these alone won't move the needle much (definitely not in lieu of usual big determinants of competitiveness like step 2 scores, research, class rank, medical school reputation), especially if it's from a rotation not in the specialty you're applying to. With programs getting hundreds to thousands of applications each year, PDs (and other attendings in the program review apps) will not have time to read every line of your everyone's MSPE; though nowadays they're probably AI tools to help them screen and summarize comments in these apps (eg to screen for red flag comments).

Any negative comment in the MSPE will stand out like a sore thumb to residency PDs, as the default practice at most medical schools is to help their students by weighing positive comments more (and AI tools nowadays can probably screen for these much more easily than in the past). If there a negative comment from any core 3rd year rotation that makes it to the MSPE, I would push hard to go after who in your school has the authority to change it to get it taken out.

 

[Med Ed]

Seems like most MSPE comments are just generally/vaguely positive. Are there any comments that truly stand out in the eyes of interviewers?

Not anymore. All comments in the modern era are emulsified and homogenized to ensure they are maximally interchangeable and uniformly uninformative.

Honesty only creates friction.

 

[mistafab]

Only negative comments stand out really. They can completely tank you. Most people on paper look about the same except for hard metrics (like grades, if given, and step scores), which program they are at, who their letters are from, and lines on their CV. After that - it is all interview. If you are invited to interview, you are good enough on paper to match. The rest is just fit.