I couldn't disagree more on these two points. First off, knowing several program directors and having been through this process, I think that it DOES matter, at least somewhat, where you go. We've talked about a "golden ticket" for residency before, but it applies much more so from "top-tier" programs. Everybody knows WashU is a top 5 school. I bet most people don't even know Indiana has an MSTP. It may hard to compare the programs directly in terms of where people go for residency because in general, these two populations of students may have different ambitions. But telling a PD that you went to WashU will impress them for sure. I'm obviously not saying that Indiana MSTP is not impressive, but that Washu is more so.
Secondly, Away rotations are a double edged sword. They can hurt you as well as help you, and should not be used to get your foot in somewhere. This is actually a specialty-specific thing, but in my specialty you will be warned over and over again NOT to do this for that reason. An away rotation should be used to see if you fit in somewhere, not as an audition. And regarding stepI scores... as I hear they are going to do away with a score and go pass/fail on it, making it meaningless (it already is, BTW, since there is no correlation between resident performance and Step I score), which may mean that where you went for school will be that much more important in the future.
I suppose what people say and do are different things, but I was basing my thoughts on 1. a few residency directors talks I have heard and 2. on this paper which came out this year:
Green M et al. Selection Criteria for Residency: Results of a
National Program Directors Survey. Academic Medicine, Vol. 84, No. 3 / March 2009.
Their final results synthesized showed:
Category/ Rank of importance to Res Dir/ Significantly Different from ranks
Grades in required clerkships 1 214
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USMLE Step 1 score 2 514
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Grades in senior electives in specialty 3 614
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Number of honors grades 4 614
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USMLE Step 2 score 5 714
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USMLE Step 2 Clinical Skills pass 6 814
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Class rank 7 1014
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Membership in Alpha Omega Alpha 8 1014
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Medical school reputation 9 1114
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Medical school academic awards 10 1214
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Grades in other senior electives 11 14
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Grades in preclinical courses 12 14
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Published medical school research 13 N/A
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Research experience while in medical school 14 N/A
I would love to hear thoughts on this data