High-Pass average during 3rd year with an honors in medicine, but only got a pass on my AI (honored and high-passed other medical electives 4th year). Apparently the attendings who wrote my evaluation are notorious for never giving honors to students on their AI. How much will this affect me in residency apps? I'm already worried at the very few interviews I have received up until this point (242 step 1, 245 step 2, research experience, decent extracurriculars, top 25 medical school, and applied to a very wide range of academic and community programs mostly out west). This is bothering me so much because I don't actually have any clue as to how mucht his really affects my app. Is it a dealbreaker to most academic institutions even though the rest of my app is solid?
Only a Pass in AI? Help?
- Thread starter DrDre3000
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When did you do your AI? Will it be on the transcript that gets sent to schools (mine was uploaded a month or so ago, so if it was a recent one it might not be on it)?
I wouldn't expect it to be too much of a deal breaker, as it's just one component in what sounds like a solid application. I doubt it would even be brought up in interviews, but I guess you should probably be prepared to say something about it if it is.
Good luck!
I wouldn't expect it to be too much of a deal breaker, as it's just one component in what sounds like a solid application. I doubt it would even be brought up in interviews, but I guess you should probably be prepared to say something about it if it is.
Good luck!
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Is the school H/P or H/HP/P.
I would check with the dean about which grades go on your transcript. Some schools cut-off at the first two grades of fourth year.
All in all, it is unfortunate, but it sounds like the rest of your application is solid. I would not worry about it too much because it is not something you can change. I would politely pass it down to the MS3s to avoid those attendings. I am sure program directors know how subjective and random grading can be during the clinical years. You have solid objective evidence (USMLE scores) along with other good grades... so go in there confident.
I would check with the dean about which grades go on your transcript. Some schools cut-off at the first two grades of fourth year.
All in all, it is unfortunate, but it sounds like the rest of your application is solid. I would not worry about it too much because it is not something you can change. I would politely pass it down to the MS3s to avoid those attendings. I am sure program directors know how subjective and random grading can be during the clinical years. You have solid objective evidence (USMLE scores) along with other good grades... so go in there confident.
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I dunno...if it just happened, I'm sure the OP could contest it (if you think it's unfair). And obviously never giving "Honors" is ridiculous.
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Honestly, it's hard to say.
The MSPE is coming out pretty soon, and it should give a histogram of how many people got what on your Acting Internship (we call it sub-internship at my school). If it shows that very few got HP or even H or your Acting Internship, then you should be fine. Hopefully, not the other way around.
The MSPE is coming out pretty soon, and it should give a histogram of how many people got what on your Acting Internship (we call it sub-internship at my school). If it shows that very few got HP or even H or your Acting Internship, then you should be fine. Hopefully, not the other way around.
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I agree with the underdog. If others at your school often get Honors on their AI's, and you did not, then it could hurt you definitely. I think it could hurt anyway, as at a lot of places there tends to be grade inflation in 4th year and so people may expect to see Honors on a subI. Particularly if grading is pass/HP/Honors then that would be bad to get a Pass. What's done is done, however. Your board scores are quite strong for an IM applicant. It sounds like you go to a solid/well known med school. My suggestions at this time would be:
1) pick out two or three places that you've applied and really want an interview, but haven't yet heard from r.e. an interview. Get a friendly faculty member(s) to make a phone call or send an email on your behalf to try to see if he/she can get you an interview. This may work better if the person is a full professor and/or has some connection to that particular hospital or residency program. Personal connections can matter. Trust me on this. Now is a good time to swallow your pride...may want to wait a few weeks, though, as many interview invites probably haven't gone out yet.
2) I agree with warning other 3rd year students off of the particular attending(s) or AI that you did. If students start never taking this rotation then maybe your school will realize there is a problem.
3) Finally, introspection is always in order whenever you get a low grade or bad evaluation. It sounds like these attending(s) may just be particularly harsh graders, but it never hurts to go back and think about what you maybe could have done better. Sometimes it's also interesting, if you can stomach it, to get some feedback from people who have trashed you on an evaluation; it usually needs to be taken with a grain of salt, but sometimes you can still get some interesting and helpful insights.
1) pick out two or three places that you've applied and really want an interview, but haven't yet heard from r.e. an interview. Get a friendly faculty member(s) to make a phone call or send an email on your behalf to try to see if he/she can get you an interview. This may work better if the person is a full professor and/or has some connection to that particular hospital or residency program. Personal connections can matter. Trust me on this. Now is a good time to swallow your pride...may want to wait a few weeks, though, as many interview invites probably haven't gone out yet.
2) I agree with warning other 3rd year students off of the particular attending(s) or AI that you did. If students start never taking this rotation then maybe your school will realize there is a problem.
3) Finally, introspection is always in order whenever you get a low grade or bad evaluation. It sounds like these attending(s) may just be particularly harsh graders, but it never hurts to go back and think about what you maybe could have done better. Sometimes it's also interesting, if you can stomach it, to get some feedback from people who have trashed you on an evaluation; it usually needs to be taken with a grain of salt, but sometimes you can still get some interesting and helpful insights.
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Contesting the grade is a good idea... didn't think of that.
For the MSPE, I do not think they have grade distribution for fourth year electives (reviewed it recently and only had distributions for first, second, and third year courses, and then the five ratings for your class rank).
The thing is that these people know exactly what these sub-Is mean... so it is fairly mean to nail you with a pass if you worked hard.
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What are these "five ratings"? Is that a standard thing across all schools? I hadn't heard of it before.
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I apologize... it is usually rankings by four.
You can see on page 9:
http://www.aamc.org/students/eras/resources/downloads/mspeguide.pdf
Some schools will assign adjectives to the quartiles. Depends on how the school does it. You can see on appendix D (page 9) on the above link that the top of the class is called "with distinction" while the bottom of the class is called "below average." This statement is sometimes used in the conclusion of the MSPE as stated on page 8 of the document ("Summary").
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Thanks for the good link/info.
I guess my school doesn't assign a term to the quartiles, or at least if they did, it wasn't explained. Hmm.
