Multiple red flags, how many programs to apply to?

[worriedpeds]

I know its the 11th hour, just wanted to get feedback on how many programs I should apply to before giving ERAS all my money. US MD student, mid-tier school in midwest. I'm just not a great test taker unfortunately and its been a tough road thus far.

Red flags: Had to repeat one first year class, Step 1 = low 200s, failed Step 2Ck = 206 (just found out)

My LORs are excellent, clinical evals are great, high passed peds, honored my Sub-I, have one publication and multiple posters (though none are in peds, thought I wanted to do a different specialty at one point), good leadership experiences. I know these things don't make up for my poor performance, just a few positive things in my application.

I'm registered to take CK again in mid October so I'm prepared to not really be in the first wave of interviews as I don't have the option to hide my CK failure. Right now I've saved 75 programs, predominantly community or community/university (per Frieda). Is that too many? Too few? My application is all ready to go just wanted some last minute advice. Thanks!

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[GoSpursGo]

Sorry to hear about the CK score. The good news is that, according to charting outcomes, you still stand a decent chance if you apply broadly: 188/194 allopathic seniors with a step 1 score between 200-210 matched, and even 16/18 with a step 2 score between 200-210 matched. It's obviously not great that you failed, and that you are low on both scores, but you still have a pretty good chance of matching if you are realistic about where you apply. Clearly it's really important that you update your application as soon as you have a passing CK score, and if you can get a CS score prior to rank order list time that would be helpful too.

I'd like to say that you could apply to fewer programs, but it's all dependent on how risk averse you are. Personally I applied to too many programs even though I knew it was more expensive. Much easier to apply to too many programs and decline interviews later than apply to too few and be sweating if you only get a handful of interviews.

 

[BabyDoc86]

Agree with above, even though it's expensive and I'm sorry this happened to you, better to apply very broadly and narrow it down later. Good luck!!