Texas STAR Survey

[NotaCop]

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Sorry if I'm just naive, but I had never heard of this before today. Seems super useful. Anyone at A&M have a TAMHSC login and willing to share? PM me

If anyone has experience with this data please discuss below. I'm curious what it all entails. Thanks in advance!

Career Support, Texas STAR Data

 

[MSTPlease]

You are not naive. This is pretty new. The class of 2018 is the first class they collected data on. I haven't seen the data but my school was one of the ~70 schools that participated. The goal is to provide schools with more actionable residency application data than charting outcomes has. A survey was sent to all the 2018 people shortly after match last year asking us for info like step scores, how many classes we honored, research experience, extracurriculars, awards, etc. The main advantage/purpose of this being that it also asked us to select the programs we applied to, where we got interviews, how we ranked the programs and where we matched on our list. My understanding is that the schools that participated will be able to see the anonymized data so that they can advise students on what kinds of students get interviews and/or match at specific programs within specialties rather than the specialty only data that NRMP puts out in charting outcomes. It's frankly pretty shocking it has taken this long for someone to do this. I assume they are collecting/adding the 2019 data and if your school is one of the ~70 involved, your admin should have access.

 

[sella.turcica]

If anybody has access and wouldn't mind sharing the excel file, please PM me!

 

[afib123]

So stupid that every school doesn't do this

 

[NotaCop]

You are not naive. This is pretty new. The class of 2018 is the first class they collected data on. I haven't seen the data but my school was one of the ~70 schools that participated. The goal is to provide schools with more actionable residency application data than charting outcomes has. A survey was sent to all the 2018 people shortly after match last year asking us for info like step scores, how many classes we honored, research experience, extracurriculars, awards, etc. The main advantage/purpose of this being that it also asked us to select the programs we applied to, where we got interviews, how we ranked the programs and where we matched on our list. My understanding is that the schools that participated will be able to see the anonymized data so that they can advise students on what kinds of students get interviews and/or match at specific programs within specialties rather than the specialty only data that NRMP puts out in charting outcomes. It's frankly pretty shocking it has taken this long for someone to do this. I assume they are collecting/adding the 2019 data and if your school is one of the ~70 involved, your admin should have access.

Thanks for your excellent reply!

 

[studentdocftw]

I also believe the AAMC is working on a national tool as well, "The Residency Exploration Tool". It has a website, but not sure when it will be accessible.

 

[MSTPlease]

I also believe the AAMC is working on a national tool as well, "The Residency Exploration Tool". It has a website, but not sure when it will be accessible.

Let alone accessible, when will they start collecting the data? I don't believe AAMC knows where I got interviews and how I ranked programs. NRMP and AAMC are two separate entities.

 

[MSTPlease]

So stupid that every school doesn't do this

If you mean stupid that not every school is participating, I agree. If you mean stupid that everyone isn't doing what A&M is doing I disagree. The power of the data is the volume so there's no reason for "each school to be doing it" for themselves. My memory might be incorrect but I believe A&M invited all the allopathic schools to participate and only ~70 agreed to do it.

 

[enalli]

I believe A&M invited all the allopathic schools to participate and only ~70 agreed to do it.

Only? That's basically half.

This sounds promising, but I think making use of the data will be more difficult than most expect.

 

[vernhart]

If you mean stupid that not every school is participating, I agree. If you mean stupid that everyone isn't doing what A&M is doing I disagree. The power of the data is the volume so there's no reason for "each school to be doing it" for themselves. My memory might be incorrect but I believe A&M invited all the allopathic schools to participate and only ~70 agreed to do it.

Correct me if I'm wrong but it seems as though you need to be a Texas A&M student to access the data? If I were a school I would not participate unless the data would be released to my school once collected

EDIT: just saw your previous post in which you state exactly ^that lol. There a way to find out if our school is one of the 70?

 

[afib123]

If you mean stupid that not every school is participating, I agree. If you mean stupid that everyone isn't doing what A&M is doing I disagree. The power of the data is the volume so there's no reason for "each school to be doing it" for themselves. My memory might be incorrect but I believe A&M invited all the allopathic schools to participate and only ~70 agreed to do it.

well each school is different in terms of their competitiveness during the match (or maybe not, I am not sure that's why there needs to be more data). So each school should contribute to A and M data and also have data on how their own students are doing in the match.
My school is in the process of doing this and I am guessing are going to compile data from the last few years and create a matching outcomes replica, which is overdue. They should have been doing this for a long time.

 

[MSTPlease]

well each school is different in terms of their competitiveness during the match (or maybe not, I am not sure that's why there needs to be more data). So each school should contribute to A and M data and also have data on how their own students are doing in the match.
My school is in the process of doing this and I am guessing are going to compile data from the last few years and create a matching outcomes replica, which is overdue. They should have been doing this for a long time.

Depending on the specialty, "the last few years" might be <10 people. How valuable do you think that data really is? What if only 1 person in that group applied to the program you are interested in and didn't get an interview but has a higher step 1 than you? Does that mean you are doomed? What if instead you have 50+ people who applied there and you could clearly see that the average step 1 score of people who interviewed is similar to yours, not that other person?

 

[MSTPlease]

Correct me if I'm wrong but it seems as though you need to be a Texas A&M student to access the data? If I were a school I would not participate unless the data would be released to my school once collected

EDIT: just saw your previous post in which you state exactly ^that lol. There a way to find out if our school is one of the 70?

Ask your admin? Idk, I was the first class the data was collected on so I have zero idea how schools used/disseminated the data.

 

[MSTPlease]

Only? That's basically half.

This sounds promising, but I think making use of the data will be more difficult than most expect.

Yeah, but that means the majority of schools aren't participating in what seems to me to be a no-brainer thing to participate in.

 

[afib123]

Depending on the specialty, "the last few years" might be <10 people. How valuable do you think that data really is? What if only 1 person in that group applied to the program you are interested in and didn't get an interview but has a higher step 1 than you? Does that mean you are doomed? What if instead you have 50+ people who applied there and you could clearly see that the average step 1 score of people who interviewed is similar to yours, not that other person?

Not really. Will still be useful for competitive specialities. And will be even more valuable for internal medicine, pediatrics ,etc. I am not saying the stats should not be included in texas a and m data, I am saying both things should be happening.

 

[sella.turcica]

Not really. Will still be useful for competitive specialities. And will be even more valuable for internal medicine, pediatrics ,etc. I am not saying the stats should not be included in texas a and m data, I am saying both things should be happening.

Since when is n=1 useful?

 

[afib123]

Since when is n=1 useful?

If it is not useful, don't use it. No one is forcing you to. I think it is beneficial to see what kind of programs people from my school are getting into with their statistics. I also think it's good to see an overall survey like is being done at texas a and m. It can't be that hard for my school to put in numbers and spit out some data for the last 5 years and they are finally doing it this year, which I think is long overdue and stupid that they didn't do it till now.
There is no harm in my school doing an internal survey of our students and giving us data on what kind of interviews they are getting with their statistics and at what kind of programs. I am sure there are ton of reasons, but two obvious reasons 1) does the prestige of school affect the types of interviews that students are getting. Is my 250+ score the same as a 250+ score from prestigious universities and if it's different, how different is it. Do I need to apply more broadly than someone coming from a prestigious institution 2) what kind of regional bias is there? My step score and clinical grades from an average midwest university will fetch totally different interviews than someone coming from the east or west coast.

 

[Med Ed]

Let alone accessible, when will they start collecting the data? I don't believe AAMC knows where I got interviews and how I ranked programs. NRMP and AAMC are two separate entities.

The NRMP and ERAS are sharing data with the AAMC to build the Residency Exploration Tool. And they have a lot of data to share.

 

[Ung Hoang Phuc]

STAR survey is so helpful. It helped save a bunch of dinero on my interview trail, since I only focused on those programs that fit my profiles. Matched to my #1 and did not attend unnecessary interviews

 

[differentiating]

MS4s at participating institutions received emails recently about filling out the survey if we wanted; the deadline at our school for turnaround to MS3s is 4/15 or something like that. That being said, I have no idea how many of my classmates will actually fill it out, so its utility may be limited.

 

[sanfran256]

does anyone have access to this? IF so can you PM me the spreadsheet?

 

[vernhart]

does anyone have access to this? IF so can you PM me the spreadsheet?

same

 

[7331poas]

same

+1

 

[sella.turcica]

Me too please

 

[slatewater]

+1

Me as well please!

 

[Catahecassa]

.

 

[Crk3639]

Would also like to get access to the file if this exists!

 

[Alpal5703]

Me too please! 🙂

 

[agedwhitecheddar]

same here pls

 

[watermelon master]

any update on this? why is this information not easy/free to obtain?

 

[Terps1011]

STAR survey is so helpful. It helped save a bunch of dinero on my interview trail, since I only focused on those programs that fit my profiles. Matched to my #1 and did not attend unnecessary interviews

Did you apply to less schools based on the data... that was my plan

 

[bobjonesbob]

any update on this? why is this information not easy/free to obtain?

Talk to your school admin / student representatives about this. The data is provided to schools who participate in the survey. This is done as an incentive to get students to actually fill out the survey.

 

[ZatAnteater]

+1 for IM data?

 

[watermelon master]

Bump

 

[NotaCop]

In order for your school to get access, they have to contribute to the survey themselves. I have access, but I cannot give that out. If I did, it would involve giving you guys my school email login and password, which would obviously be dumb to do lol. Unfortunately, it is kind of an interactive tool which cannot be converted to an excel file easily. If anyone wants to spend their time doing that, be my guest but I do not have the time or energy. Sorry guys! Bother your school to join so your next years class will have access!

Exactly correct.

To be perfectly honest, I didn’t find it all that useful when my school sent the access out to us, however this is in regards to a relatively small specialty. For the larger fields you may find more value in it though.