pass/fail vs grade and residency

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Bomikepa

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i dont quite understand how they evaluate application for residency if someone goes to a pass/fail school and another goes to a school with normal grades....

i know they look at board scores...but is that it? whats the missing link here

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1 & 2 don't appear to mean all that much. Boards, rotations and LOR's seem to hold much more weight.
 
From what I've heard, this is generally how PDs decide:

1. Board scores
2. LORs
3. Rotation grades
4. Publications/research/ECs
5. Class rank/ 1st and 2nd year grades

#2-4 can be interchangeable

so being #1 in the class won't be more competitive than #158 who published a paper?
 
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They often still rank you at pass/fail schools. They don't tell you what specific grade you got on the test, but they still collect that data
 
I've heard that residency directors do not like P/F grades....nothing to get a handle on.

i dont quite understand how they evaluate application for residency if someone goes to a pass/fail school and another goes to a school with normal grades....

i know they look at board scores...but is that it? whats the missing link here
 
From what I've heard, this is generally how PDs decide:

1. Board scores
2. LORs
3. Rotation grades
4. Publications/research/ECs
5. Class rank/ 1st and 2nd year grades

#2-4 can be interchangeable

We've been told that board scores = rotation grades with LORs coming in 3rd.

Residency directors don't really care about your pre-clinical grades for 2 reasons. One is that everyone has to take the board exams and those are an accurate gauge of smart/dedicated you are. Second is that preclinical years don't really mean much in the practice of medicine.
 
I think schools have this bs grade called "high pass" as a way to distinguish students, but most of it falls on your USMLE/COMLEX and your clinical grades. Publications can also be helpful.
 
I think schools have this bs grade called "high pass" as a way to distinguish students, but most of it falls on your USMLE/COMLEX and your clinical grades. Publications can also be helpful.

I've heard of this. One of my family friends went to a top 20 allopathic school and said they had this. She said it wasn't nearly as stressful as it would have been at her brother's school (a top 20 allopathic school that had letter grades). The brother matched into a very competitive field. Sister landed into a less competitive field. I think maybe the grading may have had an influence of how both of them matched. Graduated top 5 in his class I believe. Ridiculously smart guy. By far one of the funniest/laid back guys I've ever met too. He encouraged me that whether I get into a MD or a DO, I should have an idea which field I want to go for as a first year. He said then you can start doing research, communicating with professors/chairman in that branch of medicine as early as possible.
 
From what I've gathered on the forums, schools with P/F systems in place usually utilize class rankings to help PDs understand where a student falls in their grading system. I've also heard of the schools that have P/F system also using Honors, High Pass, Pass and Fail. I guess it's a nicer way of reporting an A, B, C and F grade.
 
Your MSPE (known as the dean's letter) usually has a histogram of how you did compare to your classmates in every class during the first two years, whether it's pass/fail, or letter grades.

Unless you are gunning for very competitive specialties, how you do during the first two years of medical schools, in the grand scheme of things, are not very impactful or significant. However, if you have any red flags (held back a year, academic/honor code/professional violation, etc), it can hurt you.

How you do during your clinical years are also important, and probably more so than the first two academic year. I also look at Step 1 and Step 2. Together with your interview scores, the composite of all the above will be quantify and you will be ranked based on the total score. Of course, the PD (and the residency selection committee) can go over the list, make adjustments (move people up the list, move people down the list, drop people from the list) before submitting the finalized rank list to NRMP (or AOA NMS)


A low step 1 score raises some concern, and I will focus on the LORs, clinical evaluations (and histogram), and Step 2 scores to make sure that Step 1 score was a fluke. It doesn't cancel out Step 1 performance (since it is still factored into our ranking), but when we review the list, we might be more incline to move someone up the list (who was rank lower than we like based on total score, including Step 1) if we overall like that candidate and the only reason he/she is ranked lower on the list is the Step 1 score.
 
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