Step I Score Limbo

[blondemed]

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Hey all, I scored 236/99 this July and have conflicting thoughts as to whether I'm truly satisfied - it's "close" to the 240 mark therefore making me a good candidate for some of the more competitive residences such as radiology, which I may have some interest in (haven't had my elective yet). I know surgery and derm are probably out so no worries there. I'm from a mid-tier med school in the NE, have few activities/positions in my class (some charity health work at a student run clinic, tour guide, tutoring), and did basic science neuro research during my 1st summer with no publications. Given my sort of "blah" CV at this point I'm wondering how much my score will help me in residency applications. Any thoughts???

 

[DOCTORSAIB]

Hey all, I scored 236/99 this July and have conflicting thoughts as to whether I'm truly satisfied - it's "close" to the 240 mark therefore making me a good candidate for some of the more competitive residences such as radiology, which I may have some interest in (haven't had my elective yet). I know surgery and derm are probably out so no worries there. I'm from a mid-tier med school in the NE, have few activities/positions in my class (some charity health work at a student run clinic, tour guide, tutoring), and did basic science neuro research during my 1st summer with no publications. Given my sort of "blah" CV at this point I'm wondering how much my score will help me in residency applications. Any thoughts???

You're a "good candidate" for radiology but not so much for surgery?

Who lied to you?

Rads is MORE competitive than GS my friend. Do some research on the NRMP website. It's all there.

 

[peter90036]

or ... just apply

 

[Pinkertinkle]

You're a "good candidate" for radiology but not so much for surgery?

Who lied to you?

Rads is MORE competitive than GS my friend. Do some research on the NRMP website. It's all there.

He probably meant plastics.

Is your score going to help you? Not really. Is it going to rule you out? Not really.

 

[pseudoknot]

Maybe the OP meant that she wasn't interested in surgery or derm, thus didn't have to worry about those matches.

Is it rude to wonder how one could be so smart as to get such a high score, yet too dumb to find out the most basic facts about specialty competitiveness?

 

[blondemed]

1. I'm a she not a "he"
2. I'm not interested in plastics, GS, derm ... I know rad is a competitive field, I'm sorry if I miscommunicated
3. I've looked at the various score breakdowns before posting - my fear is that while I have the paper score required I may not be as involved as some of my peers who have tons of volunteer/international experience, publications, etc. and that might hurt in the application process.

 

[pseudoknot]

1. I'm a she not a "he"
2. I'm not interested in plastics, GS, derm ... I know rad is a competitive field, I'm sorry if I miscommunicated
3. I've looked at the various score breakdowns before posting - my fear is that while I have the paper score required I may not be as involved as some of my peers who have tons of volunteer/international experience, publications, etc. and that might hurt in the application process.

3. There are papers that have been published about residency selection in various fields. They all say that Step I and clinical grades are by far the most important things, and that ECs don't matter much. The only thing is maybe research, but it's not too late for you to do some case reports or get involved with a chart review...kinda BS but it's how the game is played and most med student "publications" are not first-author Cell papers.

Read these two articles:
Brandenburg S, Kruzick T, Lin CT, Robinson A, Adams LJ. Residency selection criteria: what medical students perceive as important.
Med Educ Online [serial online] 2005;10:17.
Available from http://www.med-ed-online.org

Adam D. Bernstein, Laith M. Jazrawi, Basil Elbeshbeshy, Craig J. DellaValle and Joseph D. Zuckerman
Orthopaedic Resident-Selection Criteria
J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2002;84:2090-2096.

If you have trouble getting them PM me for PDFs.