Step 2 Score for Fellowships?

[Fundamentals]

Hey everyone,

I'm currently an MS4 pursuing radiology residency training in Canada and have my Step 2 coming up soon, as I may potentially consider applying to fellowships in the USA/practicing there at some point. I was wondering if the step 2 score will have any bearing on my application for fellowships, even at competitive sites? Or is it just a situation where they want to know you passed, thanks so much!

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[bashwell]

If it's for a radiology fellowship, and you plan to go back to Canada afterwards, then as far as I know your score doesn't matter as long as you pass. At least this is what Australians who have done fellowships in the US then went back to Australia told me, but I don't know how representative that is.

 

[qxrt]

Fellowships will ask for your USMLE score report, which, by the time you apply, would include not only Step 1 but 2CK, 2CS, and 3 as well. From what I hear, Step 3 does not play a significant role in how they evaluate you, but they do see it, so best that it doesn't stand out as a red flag. I would imagine Step 2 is more important than 3 but less important than 1. And, while they are generally not that important in a fellowship application, I've heard of exceptions where certain fellowships have been known to use the scores as part of their metric, so don't discount them completely. It's program-dependent.

 

[DrfluffyMD]

If a fellowship is competitive, they use it.

 

[Fundamentals]

Thanks for the responses! Step 2 CK is what i'm doing now and will hopefully find some time in residency to complete the remaining Step 1, Step 3. I am only doing these to keep my options open, since there is a greater variety of fellowship opportunities in USA and many reputed sites. Not sure as of now if I will definitely want to continue working in Canada thereafter. I guess I was just hoping having a passable grade would be sufficient and not something that would hurt my app for some uber-competitive fellowship, but I guess in those scenarios they have to use anything and everything to compare applicants.

 

[guytakingboards]

For the most part, I doubt USMLE score's matter that much for fellowship. Even at competitive programs, there are just better indicators of a fellow's performance than tests he/she took up to 7 years prior.

That being said, fellowships are self-selecting and the candidate pool typically has the same high level scores as they did when applying for residency. If your step 2CK score is significantly lower than the average, someone might make note of it and make it a big deal in their committee meeting.

In my own experience, I hadn't passed step 3 when I went on my fellowship interviews for neurorads and some programs certainly made mention of that in interviews. However, i still got interview offers at like 90% of the programs i applied to. I got my score back last week and immediately emailed the score to the programs. Hopefully none of the places on my list already had their rank meeting before my score came back. I find out next month.