Peds chances with below avg board score

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doitforkids

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Hi everyone!

I'm a DO student with comlex level 1 score of 475. I'm still waiting for my comlex level 2 score, but I don't know if it'll be any better than my level 1 score.

What are my chances at ACGME programs? I do better in person than on standardized tests. I have good LORs. I just want to match into peds and love on the kiddos!

Should I apply broadly? Is 100+ too much? Which residencies will automatically reject you without usmle score?

Thank you all in advance! 🙂
 
Chances at large academic centers are extremely low (most require Step 1 or have > 500 cut off score). However, if you've done an away and crushed it....you might be able to sneak in.

Good news though: there are a lot of programs. Apply broadly to places that don't require usmle and see what happens.

Did you apply to the AOA peds match?

Good luck. Fingers crossed you crushed the level 2.
 
With the obvious preface that no one has a crystal ball, I can tell you anecdotally that I got a similar score on COMLEX 1 and got about 10 points less on COMLEX 2 (yea I was pissed). I'm assuming you didn't take USMLE (I didn't either). I felt like I had a pretty strong application in terms of experiences, LORs and clinical grades, my preclinical grades were probably a bit below average.

I was told to only apply to 25 schools which I thought was way too few. I ended up applying to about 40 schools which I came to by looking at all of the schools from ohio up to maine and down to virginia with DOs (minus NYC). I ended up with 15 interviews, went on 13 and felt pretty good. Don't bother applying anywhere that doesn't have DO students there. I did apply to several places that were all international students and went on probably 3 interviews that I was unsure if I wanted to rank, but in the end did because I decided it was better than not matching. So bottom line I would say within whichever geographic region you are interested in, apply to all of the schools that have DOs at them and don't require the COMLEX

Also I only applied ACGME, once you interview at places that are dual you can let them know that you want to do AOA match, but none of my top choices were AOA.

Last thing would be that I remember when interviews started going out feeling crushed that I only had a few and some people at the site where I was rotating were complaining that they only had 20 so far. Don't let that crap get you down! They aren't going to go on all of those interviews unless they are insane, so more will come your way. I got several offers in November and one in December.

Good luck!
 
arewethereyet... said:
With the obvious preface that no one has a crystal ball, I can tell you anecdotally that I got a similar score on COMLEX 1 and got about 10 points less on COMLEX 2 (yea I was pissed). I'm assuming you didn't take USMLE (I didn't either). I felt like I had a pretty strong application in terms of experiences, LORs and clinical grades, my preclinical grades were probably a bit below average.

I was told to only apply to 25 schools which I thought was way too few. I ended up applying to about 40 schools which I came to by looking at all of the schools from ohio up to maine and down to virginia with DOs (minus NYC). I ended up with 15 interviews, went on 13 and felt pretty good. Don't bother applying anywhere that doesn't have DO students there. I did apply to several places that were all international students and went on probably 3 interviews that I was unsure if I wanted to rank, but in the end did because I decided it was better than not matching. So bottom line I would say within whichever geographic region you are interested in, apply to all of the schools that have DOs at them and don't require the COMLEX

Also I only applied ACGME, once you interview at places that are dual you can let them know that you want to do AOA match, but none of my top choices were AOA.

Last thing would be that I remember when interviews started going out feeling crushed that I only had a few and some people at the site where I was rotating were complaining that they only had 20 so far. Don't let that crap get you down! They aren't going to go on all of those interviews unless they are insane, so more will come your way. I got several offers in November and one in December.

Good luck!
Click to expand...

Thank you that was motivating. Did you apply to FM as a back up? My advisor is pushing me to apply to both but I really want peds...


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
PediatricMan said:
Thank you that was motivating. Did you apply to FM as a back up? My advisor is pushing me to apply to both but I really want peds...


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
Click to expand...

You're welcome, I'm glad! I did not, my advisor was in the opposite direction, and way too confident. Applying to 2 specialties sounds incredibly stressful imo, so I guess at the end of the day would you rather scramble or match family? I picked scramble, but was grateful it didn't come to that.
 
arewethereyet... said:
You're welcome, I'm glad! I did not, my advisor was in the opposite direction, and way too confident. Applying to 2 specialties sounds incredibly stressful imo, so I guess at the end of the day would you rather scramble or match family? I picked scramble, but was grateful it didn't come to that.
Click to expand...
Did you end up matching at a uni ACGME program?
 
That's really encouraging!
 
I'm interested too. I have very similar stats as you.
 
Can you please PM me too? I would greatly appreciate it
 
Could you PM me as well? Much appreciated
 
PediatricMan said:
Pm’d You
Click to expand...

Hi, I'm also in a similar boat and would truly appreciate any advice on what programs to apply to and how the interviews were.

Thank you so much!
 
Could you PM me as well please? Really interested! Thanks!
 
Could you PM me as well. my lvl 2 is 60 pts worse than lvl 1, i feel like i need to start rethinking places to apply.
 
Could you please PM me as well? Really interested - thanks!
 
@PediatricMan Hi I know it is a bit late for this but would you mind PM me you list of places you interviewed and eventually matched? Thank you so much!
 
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