third year grades

[thefifteenth]

---

Members don't see this ad.

how important are third year grades in terms of getting into a competitive residency for pathology? my first 2 years of med school went quite well and i have a good step 1 score (>250) but i am getting stressed out about my clerkship grades that seem a bit out of my control. I'm an american grad and a very reasonable person to be around.
bottom line....if i just pass or high pass third year, will that exclude me from top path programs?

 

[mlw03]

probably not. that step 1 score will trump a pass in psych. don't stress too much and just focus on learning the clinical stuff that'll help you pass step 3 and obtain your license, plus will give you some insight that will make you a better pathologist, regardless of your ultimate area of specialization.

 

[pianoguy05]

Agreed with above...I'm convinced that the point of 3rd year is just to pass random shelves and attempt to become acquainted with clinical medicine. 3rd year grades - barring you don't fail a clerkship - much like the Dean's Letters/MSPEs, are irrelevant in the presence of an above avg Step 1 and AMG status.

 

[2121115]

3rd year grades matter very little. Just don't fail a rotation and you'll be fine, even for top programs. Just make high board scores and do well on your pathology elective.

 

[KCShaw]

This question gets asked a few times every year, and they're all almost identical. I suggest searching the forum because I don't think the answers are changing very much.

 

[thefifteenth]

are you all saying third year grades don't matter too much for residency in general or is that specific to pathology? it's just hard for me to accept when all throughout medical school i'd always heard that third year grades are much more important than preclinical grades.

and do residencies see shelf scores? or just the final clinical grade?

 

[KCShaw]

I'm not even sure what a shelf score is, and certainly don't remember reviewing any of them while reviewing residency applicants. I don't know exactly what is shown in that program anymore though. If it's on your transcript then I guess it's "available" for those who want to go digging, but for the most part people scan through only a few specific fields when doing their quick and dirty cuts/interview decisions. Medical schools like to put the fear of something in you -- the more fear the better, evidently. There are a lot of things that can separate the masses, but mainly it all revolves around Step I, for better or worse. Otherwise, pass or better, and do a pathology rotation including AP for some actual experience in what pathology really is.

Whether you got a 93.2/100 or a 87.6 on your psychology rotation almost certainly is meaningless when applying for a pathology residency or for life in general. It might matter to those specialties filtering through thousands of applicants every year and needing to separate the 226 of them with a >250 Step I, I suppose -- fortunately or unfortunately, that doesn't apply to many, if any, pathology programs.

 

[deleted314957]

if you can fog a mirror you can get into a path residency

 

[2121115]

are you all saying third year grades don't matter too much for residency in general or is that specific to pathology? it's just hard for me to accept when all throughout medical school i'd always heard that third year grades are much more important than preclinical grades.

and do residencies see shelf scores? or just the final clinical grade?

I'm saying they don't matter tremendously for pathology. For other residencies, yes they matter a lot. Pathology is a different ballgame. If you are going into internal medicine or surgery, then yeah you better ace 3rd year. If you are going into pathology, not so much. In pathology, you better rock the Robbins stuff from second year, anatomy/histology, and Step 1.

 

[thefifteenth]

if you can fog a mirror you can get into a path residency

im not talking about matching into path in general. i'm talking about matching into a top one.

 

[KCShaw]

im not talking about matching into path in general. i'm talking about matching into a top one.

Fog a mirror with a very good Step I.

The older I get the more I realize that something doesn't have to be believed in order to be true -- although I remind myself to keep an open mind all the same. Seriously, pathology programs are smart enough to realize that it doesn't get taught in medical school, and that large swathes of medical school, while an OK background, have only little to do with the day to day practice of pathology. So why bother checking detailed grades in obstetrics? One of the biggest problems path programs face are residents who hate it and do poorly or drop out because they simply didn't realize what they were getting into. Not because they weren't academically competent, although that happens too. Step I is just a surrogate for basic academic capability. Then programs get to start teaching you pretty much from scratch.

To be highly competitive, it's still almost all about Step I and having done at least one rotation in a working (i.e., not purely academic with nothing but PhD's and folks on grants) pathology department. After that, some research experience may help, already having contacts at a brand name institution, and maybe grades somewhere down the line -- other things being equal, which they NEVER ARE. But, in my experience, there simply aren't vast numbers of pathology applicants with top Step I scores, and some of those are paranoid personalities who have no interest in pathology but apply anyway because they think everyone's supposed to apply to a few "fall back" options. All of which means..let me see..if you have a very good Step I, you're a fat leg up and can expect a lot of interviews. After that, it's up to your personality and style to impress and make whatever you are on paper actually seem worthwhile. And not look like a dork whose only interest is competing better on paper.