Post your school's step 1 avg

[pekq]

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I am curious as to what the average for step 1 is at each med school. If you know the average for your school, can you please please post it?

 

[jakstat33]

i'm at a non-top 20 (according to US News) west coast MD school, we avg 2-3 pts above mean

 

[Duke2004]

Duke.. 230
step 2 is 210

 

[mpp]

Here's a list from another thread (I added Duke in there). Don't know how valid these are as they are supplied by SDNers.

Baylor: 242
Case Western: 225
Duke: 230
Indiana University: 222
Mayo Medical School: 236, 234, 230 (2003, 2002, 2001)
Mount Sinai: 228
Northwestern: 233, 230 (2003, 2002)
University of Iowa: 223 (2002)
University of Florida: 227
University of Pennsylvania: 236, 235 (2003,2002)
University of Pittsburg: 227
University of Southern California: 220
University of Virginia: 227 (SD = 21)
UTMB: 223
UTSW: 226, 228 (2003, 2002)
Vandy: 231-236

 

[Idiopathic]

Baylor medical school...242 mean Step 1??? But UTSW in the mid 220's? I know this is all anecdotal, but a 242 average is pretty darn high.

edit: even though it doesnt mean anything, I sincerely doubt it.

 

[sacrament]

Here's a list from another thread (I added Duke in there). Don't know how valid these are as they are supplied by SDNers.

Baylor: 242
Case Western: 225
Duke: 230
Indiana University: 222
Mayo Medical School: 236, 234, 230 (2003, 2002, 2001)
Mount Sinai: 228
Northwestern: 233, 230 (2003, 2002)
University of Iowa: 223 (2002)
University of Florida: 227
University of Pennsylvania: 236, 235 (2003,2002)
University of Pittsburg: 227
University of Southern California: 220
University of Virginia: 227 (SD = 21)
UTMB: 223
UTSW: 226, 228 (2003, 2002)
Vandy: 231-236

If the average Step One score is about 214 (which I just read somewhere) and yet none of these schools has a Step One average below 220, then either only the schools with high Step One scores are reporting (which seems likely looking at some of the names), or the numbers are BS.

 

[Jalby]

Baylor medical school...242 mean Step 1??? But UTSW in the mid 220's? I know this is all anecdotal, but a 242 average is pretty darn high.

edit: even though it doesnt mean anything, I sincerely doubt it.

That's the "rumored" step one score. I don't believe it at all.

 

[fernj1975]

It seems that the average step score for individual schools is analogous to penis size; a little embellishing is involved.

 

[pekq]

Those schools are all in the top 50 so it's quite possible they are the ones with above average board score.

 

[Idiopathic]

Simply put, the mean Step 1 score will shift somewhat from school to school, but to believe that the top 50 schools all have well above the mean and the bottom 50 all have well below the mean might be misleading. I would be very surprised if ANY school outside of Harvard or UCSF (i.e. the absolute top 5) averages 242 on Step 1.

 

[Idiopathic]

That's the "rumored" step one score. I don't believe it at all.

Go to bed...

 

[Jalby]

It seems that the average step score for individual schools is analogous to penis size; a little embellishing is involved.

If that was the case Columbia P and S should have the highest score. (read it again out loud a few times)

 

[BlackPuma]

👍

If that was the case Columbia P and S should have the highest score. (read it again out loud a few times)

 

[phllystyl]

If that was the case Columbia P and S should have the highest score. (read it again out loud a few times)

you ruined it with the ()s.

nice though 😉 😀 👍

 

[DarksideAllstar]

Simply put, the mean Step 1 score will shift somewhat from school to school, but to believe that the top 50 schools all have well above the mean and the bottom 50 all have well below the mean might be misleading. I would be very surprised if ANY school outside of Harvard or UCSF (i.e. the absolute top 5) averages 242 on Step 1.

A friend of mine is now at a 4th year at UCSF and they did not average a 243 when his class took the test in 2003. He said it was in the 220s, which says to me that these obscenely high averages are inflated.

 

[pekq]

A friend of mine is now at a 4th year at UCSF and they did not average a 243 when his class took the test in 2003. He said it was in the 220s, which says to me that these obscenely high averages are inflated.

The 242 for Baylor is probably a rumor. I am surprised that UCSF is 220ish because it's been rumored to have one of the highest step 1 avg. I have also heard that Harvard's step 1 is nowhere near as high as one may expect.

 

[Jalby]

A friend of mine is now at a 4th year at UCSF and they did not average a 243 when his class took the test in 2003. He said it was in the 220s, which says to me that these obscenely high averages are inflated.

I don't think I could believe a score in the 240's for any school except maybe Mayo, and that's jsut because they have like 32 students and you can get much more variability, whereas all the other schools have 100 people. One person gets a 200 and you need 4 people scoring at 97.5 percentile to get up to the 240

 

[pekq]

This is rather lacking. Do schools refuse to even tell their own students what the average score is?

 

[IlianaSedai]

I'm at a Top 50 and I can say for sure that Top 50 does not necessarily mean above average on Step 1. There is a lot of year-to-year variation and lots of times when you take the AVERAGE of everyone in the class from the best student to the worst, you get... *drumroll* average. That's probably a good reason why most schools don't publicly release their scores -- because once you take a good look, you might find that a high ranking does not necessarily pay off in high scores.

Some years are also aberrations. For example, at Yale in the mid '80s, "in a single year, 17 students failed Step 1 of the USMLE." [ source ] Not to put a bad wrap on Yale, but I read that article a few months ago and it kind of highlights the fact that curriculum problems and reforms can make a big difference. And with many schools still shifting between traditional and systems based curricula, I wouldn't be too surprised to see variation in scores from year to year. The students are the ones who end up paying the price for curriculum issues and crap. 👎

 

[Jalby]

This is rather lacking. Do schools refuse to even tell their own students what the average score is?

Not really. I only know ours because it was published in the health sciences campus newspaper.

 

[pekq]

The best curriculum for boards is probably USMLE prep course like what NYMC and the carribbean meds have. I'd be interested to know the board average of heavily PBL oriented schools (Cornell, Rochester, Harvard).

 

[k2002]

The 242 for Baylor is probably a rumor. I am surprised that UCSF is 220ish because it's been rumored to have one of the highest step 1 avg. I have also heard that Harvard's step 1 is nowhere near as high as one may expect.

yeah, i go to another boston school and our administrators said our avg is suprisingly the same as hms, which is 220 (1 point above last year's national mean).

 

[EctopicFetus]

here is the deal there is no way in hell that those averages are true. I go to a non-top 50 school and they always show us how we did as a class on the USMLE. In the past 3 years we finally have beaten the average which I believe was 216 or so. All i know is we have been 2-3 points above the national average for the past 3 years. To say Baylor has a 242 average... Thats just a joke. I doubt any school has an average over 233.

 

[pekq]

There are schools with averages above 233. Mayo is one of them for sure, it's on their website. Harvard = 220? I guess it's true that PBL schools get lower averages? But Harvard and Cornell have strong matches so I guess it's one of those things where most people do well but those that don't fail miserably? Scary...

 

[DarksideAllstar]

But Harvard and Cornell have strong matches so I guess it's one of those things where most people do well but those that don't fail miserably? Scary...

Or their match is strong because of name recogniton, which I assume comes into play heavily if you are from an Ivy or "Top 10" university. 🙄

 

[optiplex]

just my 2 cents, how you do on step 1 does not depend on which school you go to. A school's average is high, then good for them, it is a good calling card for the medical school. But, really in the end, step 1 depends on how much energy you put into it...

and one other thing, in the end of the day, step 1 score is just one consideration out of many to get into a residency...and if you kept up with the posts...I am sure you know which how residency program operates...top schools get into top programs...and if you are going to a lesser known school, work hard and you will end up in a great program of your choice...there is no room for slackers.

 

[Jalby]

just my 2 cents, how you do on step 1 does not depend on which school you go to. A school's average is high, then good for them, it is a good calling card for the medical school. But, really in the end, step 1 depends on how much energy you put into it...

Totally wrong. I have had ~110 days since I finished all new material, and have been able to study a lot in the time. Now that I am at 29 days til my boards, if I was just starting I personally would be soooooo far behind where I am right now. I'm guessing my curric will get me 15-20 points.

Now that's just one aspect of a curriculum, and I definately am one of the people who would benefit the most from this, but curriculum does matter. Heck, my school jumped 5 points when they put in a new curriculum.

 

[daisygirl]

Totally wrong. I have had ~110 days since I finished all new material, and have been able to study a lot in the time. Now that I am at 29 days til my boards, if I was just starting I personally would be soooooo far behind where I am right now. I'm guessing my curric will get me 15-20 points.

Now that's just one aspect of a curriculum, and I definately am one of the people who would benefit the most from this, but curriculum does matter. Heck, my school jumped 5 points when they put in a new curriculum.

I completely agree with Jalby. My school did not let out till May 18th (I think- I don't remember anything at this point), and I DID NOT have anytime to study for step I prior to finishing the year. I'm taking step I on June 26th and I'm feeling the pain of having a very traditional curriculum. If one is let out of school earlier, one can put in a great deal of time when studying for step I.
I have no f'n clue how I'm going to review two years of material in thirty days. I have spent a great deal of just today studying hematological cancers (that is one chapter in BRS!!!!). Ok, done with my bitter tangent.....

A good curriculum will make your life easier so that you can find time to study for step I during the pre-clinical years.

 

[phllystyl]

A good curriculum will make your life easier so that you can find time to study for step I during the pre-clinical years.

Agreed. Getting out mid-may as well, I too feel the pain of taking 1-2days off and then launching headlong into 30 days of madness, still pretty burnt from finals. The amount of time a school gives you can make a huge difference.

 

[bigfrank]

Actually, PBL schools consistently produce higher Step I averages. University of Missouri-Columbia: 226 last year ('03), 224 the year before that, don't know about 2004 yet.

 

[Papking]

There is no question that time alloted to study makes a huge difference. I am at a school that gives you 6 weeks after your final exams to study for the boards before our first 3rd year rotations begin. So if you want a little vacation before 3rd year you get less than 6 weeks. There are many schools that give their students much more time than this and that will definitely make a huge difference in how much ground you can cover.

The best rankings would compare scores from students who have been given an equal amount of time to prepare for the boards.

 

[pekq]

Just a thought: If Harvard's avg is seriously 220, then perhaps all that talk about your USMLE step 1 being most important and your school's rep least is a pile of crap. Of course there are other things involved in residency placement but Harvard's match is so good that u'd expect it to have 230+. Schools with higher USMLE doesn't have as good of a matchlist as Harvard.

Btw, post more averages please!!!

 

[mountaindew2006]

Just like most people here, I too got out of school very very late (early/mid may). As such, I am severly limited in my time to review all of TWO years.

Furthermore, what ticks me off is that there are those Caribbean schools (Ross) that get out literally b/w 3-4 months ago (most of their curricula are about 1.5 yrs) and get so much more time! We all know what they do. They mostly go to kaplan, etc and as we know kaplan tells you what to know and not to..

In the end they get waaaaay more study time, not to mention their professors CONSTANTLY tell them, KNow this and know that for the boards. Why? Well, cuz they have to pass the boards to even practice here in the states. So essentially these folks have had DRILLED into their heads wht to know and not too. In addition, if you have say 3-4 months extra its not hard to go on the internet, buy all the sources and STUDY them like crazy and do well on the boards. Truly I find it sort of unfair. The funny part is that most of them say that they are better than DO students (that's why they didnt apply to DO school..i think they wouldnt have gotten accepted). In my opinion, I would have rather done DO and stayed in the states since I think their curriculum is very comparable to ours.

SOrry, i just heard some students the other day talking about how much time they got to study for this thing and i was like 😱 I just feel that to truly be able to compare us all, people should get out around the same time w/ equal prep time and then SEE how the scores measure up.

my two cents..

 

[pekq]

I betcha even with 3-4 extra months, they still have a lower board average just because of the average caliber of their students. From what I have read about their curriculum, it's basically a Kaplan USMLE course. They might as well rename themselves Kaplan Medical or even better... Princeton R school of medicine. That 3-4 month off thing is seriously unfair still, those students should play by the same rule as us if they want to practice in the USA.

 

[mountaindew2006]

on the same token...i've heard several of them state personally how their school is better than some US schools. I mean aside from the 'ivy schools', i cant imagine even ONE school here in the US which is bad as theirs. I dont care what US school, what URM you are, I think US med schools simply on admissions standards and quality of education is far more superior. Just the fact that I've known several kids that went straight out of high school into these caribbean schools shows their caliber (and these were kids of very rich parents that went there after HS, and not because they were smart, but cuz they failed out and their parents had the loot).

yah so true man, it's not fair. even foreign grads period, many of them who are MDs have had more time. They should have it where US grads both MD and DO are scaled differently from others!
Not to mention, if we let in all these foreign grads, the demand will MDs will be that of all those computer techie jobs--especially since now almost anyone can fly to an island grab a diploma and come back (and I've been told now, that many of those schools over there now offer MD/MPH, etc programs to attract students from one carib school to another. and you get the two degrees in about the same length of time) 😡 Prolly shoulda gone there to get two degrees for the price of one

 

[phllystyl]

HQ, we have a threadjacking, in progress... Over.