Third year grades?

[rach4214]

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How important are third year grades in applying for residency in anesthesia? I'm talking actual numbers here, like if you wanted to match at a top tier program (Brigham, MGH, Mayo, Stanford, etc.), what kind of honors/high pass/fail ratio are we talking about here?

 

[Eta Carinae]

are you serious dude? what kind of H:HP😛:F ratio?

ok:
H 1 : HP 1 : P 2 : F 10

Seriously? I think you and I and every other med student know the answer to that question.

Obviously, if you can honor everything, that should be your goal.
An F in Family or Psych may not preclude you from interview invitations or even from matching but you will be asked to explain it on the trail.

A P or F on your anesthesia rotation might suggest that you don't care as much about the field as you seem to think, IMHO; And that you should probably do something else.

Bear in mind the increasing popularity of Anesthesia and the fact that for all residency spots combined in all fields, there are now more medical school graduates per year, hence stiffening competition for spots in general.

If I were you, my question going into clinical rotations would NOT be, "how low can I go?" but, rather you need to make sure you're as competitive as you can possibly be.

And make sure you bust your chops on the big two, medicine and surgery, in addition to your anesthesia rotations because medicine letters will also help buttress your application in addition to your anesthesia letters.

 

[Eta Carinae]

You should also check out this article in Anesthesiology

Anesthesiology:
September 1991 - Volume 75 - Issue 3


Relative Importance of the Factors Used To Select Residents: A National Survey

Frankville, D. M.D.; Benumof, J. M.D.

 

[Eta Carinae]

Here's yet another (very old) article that breaks it down as such:

Factors To Select Residents/ Wagoner et al.
Journal of Medical Education. Jan 1986.

Factors that determine PD selection of a resident, overall among all specialties:

1. Clerkship grades 3.91 (scale 1-4, 4 being highest)
also had a pretty narrow Std Dev, so pretty consistent among PDs.
2. Elective grades of specialty
3. Class Rank
4. Step 2 (obviously not applicable to every program; again, very old article)
5. Grades in other clerkships
6. Step 1 score
7. AOA status

 

[switching2gas]

One of my friends who matched at one of those schools got Honors in every clinical course. Another friend who matched at another one of those schools got Honors in every course except for one (HP in FM.)

 

[itwasalladream]

haven't matched yet, but i've gotten pretty good interviews (some of the more competitive ones being brigham, ucsf, stanford, duke) with very average grades. Probably didn't honor a single thing, but didn't do poorly in anything. Apparently got very good letters (which wasn't tricky -- just work your ass off during the anesthesia rotation). I did do well on step 1, which along with the letters counters the average grades pretty well. No interviewer yet has mentioned my grades.

don't sweat it too much.

 

[ymgc]

Just to echo itwasalladream, I too have sub-par grades (only 1 clinical honors in family med) and have interviewed at MGH, Columbia, BIDMC and Northwestern. Your Step 1 score is by far the most important criterion for landing interviews. Most places invite well before your dean's letter and transcript are sent out. Good luck, man

 

[rach4214]

awesome. thanks for the great feedback. What kind of step 1 score are we talking?

 

[lazylikeapanda]

From charting outcomes from 2007 for the field of anesthesia, both median and mean score for those who matched was 220 for step 1. So score higher than that if you can. If you're step 2 score sucked, do well on Step 2. I dont know what a good score is for step 2 but I'd imagine something better than national average. My PD likes scores greater than 230s. However, he also states that numbers and grades don't mean much if 1. you have no personality 2. your an arrogant douche 3. you don't well play well with others.

If you want to go to a prestigious sounding program then rotate there during your 4th year and brown nose.

Search this forum and check the sticky as people may have posted and answered questions you may be interested in.

 

[checkov]

awesome. thanks for the great feedback. What kind of step 1 score are we talking?

It's important to not lose sight of the fact that an application is much more than just a set of 3rd-year grades and a USMLE Step 1 score.

With that said, during my interview at the Brigham, I was told by the program director that most of their residents have 2-digit Step 1 scores of 99 -- I'm guessing that this converts to a 3-digit score that equals or exceeds 236.