Neurosurgery- 3rd year MS
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mmmcdowe
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You're just bragging. Are you on your way to a spot? Yes. At my program? Not if I have any say about it.
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Don't worry, as an intern you don't.
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Have you tried going to talk to your PD or chair at your home program? As invaluable as SDN and uncle Harvey can be sometimes, I think that's probably the first place you should start.
I'm planning on taking Step 2 relatively early. Probably in August/September of 2013. I'm guessing you might want to do the same. If you want something, are you going to let a number define you? That's how I've felt about the SATs, MCAT's, and now Step 1. There have been plenty of people with higher scores that have fallen by the wayside along the way. Nothing beats hard work and desire.
Wasn't my intention to brag. If that was how I presented over the internet, I apologize. Although I should be more careful, please understand over the internet, body language and presentation of sincerity are absent. Nonetheless, my apologies.
Wasn't my intention to brag. If that was how I presented over the internet, I apologize. Although I should be more careful, please understand over the internet, body language and presentation of sincerity are absent. Nonetheless, my apologies.
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as far as rotations to not get honors on, fm and peds are good ones, nsg pds won't care as much about those as say surgery or medicine. I only got a pass on FM and have gotten tons of interviews so far. The key for you at this point is to figure out why you aren't getting hps and honors so that you can improve your grades during the rest of the year (several passes third year = no big deal, only passes during third year is less ideal). Are your shelf scores low? Are you having trouble fitting in with your team or showing initiative? Do you need to beef up your knowledge base? Again a few passes in third year is no big deal, but you do need to figure out where you are coming up short and remedy it. If needed ask for more feedback from your prior clinical preceptors to find out what your shortcomings were in that arena. Your board score is fine (average for matched nsg applicants) and you sound like you are in good shape from a research perspective. Good luck!
M
MDPhDeac
You should probably try to figure out why you're "just" passing before you get too stressed about it. At my institution, MS3 is ridiculously subjective. Each rotation has a different grading scheme and some residents/attendings are extremely tough graders. For most rotations groups, only 1 or 2 people get Honors. High Pass is more common, but still not easy to achieve. (It used to just be Fail/Low Pass/Pass/Honors, but High Pass was added because students wanted the gigantic difference between just barely missing Honors and just barely passing reflected in their final grade.)
If you feel like you're getting crushed in 3rd year b/c you can't handle the work load or you're tanking your SHELFs, that's one thing. But if you're killing it and it's just not reflected in your grades, that's something else entirely. If the latter is the case, hopefully you're efforts are paying off elsewhere (i.e. stratospheric USMLE scores, killer LORs, high impact pubs) and/or your school is making it clear in your Dean's Letter that you're dominating the wards (my school makes sure this is the case).
Finally, this is not infrequently posted, but I feel like some folks could use a reminder that people who post on SDN/UH frequently aren't a representative sample of the NSG applicant pool. They're typically rock stars - in part, b/c they've come here and gotten some good advice from those who've come before them. But the bottom line is that you don't need to be a direct descendent of Cushing, get 350s on Step 1 and CK, have two PhDs, 27 first author pubs in Nature Neurosurgery, straight Honors since daycare, and letters from Jesus, Spetzler, and Yasargil to match into a NSG program.
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How big a negative would it be to get a HP in surgery instead of Honors, if you have several other Honors and most of the rest of your grades are HP in 3rd year?
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This isn't necessarily true. I know that at my home program, the younger guys have a pretty big say, as they'll be spending more time with the incoming class than anyone. The 6th year residents also have a huge vote, as they'll be chiefs for the incoming interns.
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Interns are largely off service, not terribly knowledgeable, and typically have not established a level of trust with the co-residents or attendings. While I agree, the younger guys (PGY-2 +) typically have a fair amount of say, the interns tend to not be involved in the department.
Also, FWIW, it is typically the 5th year resident who has a huge vote, as the applicant who will become the intern will be the PGY-2 when that resident is the chief. The PGY-2 is the neurosurgery service slave.
