With the boards switching to P/NP, is this making any of you think twice betfore attending schools with a P/NP grading system? (especially for those of you thinking of specializing in the long run)
P/np
- Thread starter snikki
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I think a big reason for it switching is so that students focus on getting a more holistic education, rather than just worrying about numbers, so I wouldn't mind going to a school with a p/np system. But this is just an uneducated guess, so you might want to do more research. I personally would like to go to a school that provides a lot of extracurricular options with boards going to p/np.
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Schools with P/NP grading systems would make me worry about specializing. I asked a representative at Roseman (they are P/NP) how they plan on helping students get into specialty programs and he talked about how they will have different forms of evaluation from professors throughout their 4 years that will help them get into a program. I am just unsure of how it would all work out.
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do not let this factor into your decision. 2 reasons:
1) a different exam(s) will ineveitably fill this roll. this is already occuring w/ OMS programs utilizing the NBME exam as their entrance criteria
2) look at the schools who do not use a numerical grading system (e.g. P/F, Honors/P/F): Harvard, Columbia, UCSF, UCLA, UConn, etc). Historically, these schools have placed a high number of applicants into specialty programs. This will not change when the boards are P/F. Even when one compares rankings of applicants between schools, how meaningful is it to compare 1st @ Columbia vs 1st at Nova? It is not that useful to compare ranks between different schools.
choose schools based on your affinity for their program/curriculum/location, not on ideas of how you think rank will pan out for residency placement.
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P/NP rocks.
