To the MSIIs, IIIs and IVs: what should i be doing as an MSI?

[rackd8ball]

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To anyone with any experience:

What should I be doing as an MSI? I'm an MS1 at hopkins. I probably want to end up in a competitive residency in NYC. I feel like a freshman all over again. So here are my questions to the "upperclassmen" out there...

-What are the major criteria on a residency application?

-Do preclinical grades matter? Class rank? I don't know how hard I should be studying. Grading is 5% honors / 15% HP / 80% pass. I've been falling short of high pass, but above mean.

-Activities? Do they matter in a residency application?

-Making connections with profs? preceptors?

-How should I be looking ahead to summer activities, second year, research opps?

 

[CaptainJack02]

answers to all your questions can be found here:

Iserson's Getting into a Residency

 

[SaltySqueegee]

Not surfing SDN... and you should be studying your biochemical pathways and anatomical structures... 👍

Regards,
-Sarcasm

 

[Gut Shot]

Drink heavily.

Iserson's is great, but it will make you feel like you will have a hard time matching in FP in rural Mississippi if you're not AOA, President of your class, have several publications in Nature, and recently saved the life of the Surgeon General with an emergency cric.

 

[Entei]

The most important thing to do is to chiiiiiiiill ouuuuuuuuut. I'll explain in smilies, because pictures are nice and laid back.

First year should be a little of this , this , and maybe some of this . There will be a lot of this 😕, but it's ok because you'll see the important stuff again.

There's plenty of time later on for the 😱 and . Most of that amounts to a lot of and anyway.

I've been told that eventually this will happen, but I haven't reached that stage yet.

Good luck.

PS I hope all the smilies don't break SDN. ^^;

 

[principessa]

That's great. I'm definitely feeling some 😕, but after getting through the first fake test, it's time for a little bit of

 

[felipe5]

Entei's response is probably one of the best posts I've ever seen on SDN......you rock dude

 

[azzarah]

Well, if you are getting above avg, you might end up with a HP in Molc&Cells....don't give up just yet. 😉 If I could go back to first year, I would just try to learn as much as possible and not worry about grades too much. You are here to become a good doctor.
"Don't listen to anything your classmates tell you, cuz they are all full of ****." That's the best advice I got from a fourth year during anatomy last year. 🙂

 

[rackd8ball]

Well, if you are getting above avg, you might end up with a HP in Molc&Cells....don't give up just yet. 😉 If I could go back to first year, I would just try to learn as much as possible and not worry about grades too much. You are here to become a good doctor.
"Don't listen to anything your classmates tell you, cuz they are all full of ****." That's the best advice I got from a fourth year during anatomy last year. 🙂

That last sentence is great advice! Thanks.

 

[elayboy]

It's posts like these that feed the Hopkins stereotype. As a recent Hopkins grad, I would agree with all of the other posts. What you should be doing now is concentrating on your classes and having fun. You will not have as much time later on in your medical career. Besides, this is the only time in your medical career where you will have protected time to learn in an organized setting. Once clinical responsibilites start, you will find that you miss having "protected time" purely for learning. I would not worry about residencies right now, as Hopkins will do an excellent job of preparing you without any additional effort on your part. So bottom line, relax, learn, and don't worry about residency at this point.

BTW, I found Iserson's to bit quite intimidating. I would take everything he says with a grain of salt.

To anyone with any experience:

What should I be doing as an MSI? I'm an MS1 at hopkins. I probably want to end up in a competitive residency in NYC. I feel like a freshman all over again. So here are my questions to the "upperclassmen" out there...

-What are the major criteria on a residency application?

-Do preclinical grades matter? Class rank? I don't know how hard I should be studying. Grading is 5% honors / 15% HP / 80% pass. I've been falling short of high pass, but above mean.

-Activities? Do they matter in a residency application?

-Making connections with profs? preceptors?

-How should I be looking ahead to summer activities, second year, research opps?

 

[missmod]

i think the OP's stemmed from being a confused MSI...not from a "stereotypical" hopkins student. everyone says that first year should be for relaxing and chilling out, but i'm an MS1 and i've never been through 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year to really appreciate the free time i have now.

of course, everyone tells us MS1's to chill out and have fun BUT wouldn't it be easier to stop studying anatomy to go watch Team America if you knew that honors don't matter much or that its ok not to know what you're doign for the summer yet? we just need a little reassurance... that's all. 😳

It's posts like these that feed the Hopkins stereotype. As a recent Hopkins grad, I would agree with all of the other posts. What you should be doing now is concentrating on your classes and having fun. You will not have as much time later on in your medical career. Besides, this is the only time in your medical career where you will have protected time to learn in an organized setting. Once clinical responsibilites start, you will find that you miss having "protected time" purely for learning. I would not worry about residencies right now, as Hopkins will do an excellent job of preparing you without any additional effort on your part. So bottom line, relax, learn, and don't worry about residency at this point.

BTW, I found Iserson's to bit quite intimidating. I would take everything he says with a grain of salt.

 

[WatchingWaiting]

answers to all your questions can be found here:

Iserson's Getting into a Residency

I know Iserson is considered to be the big **** of residency advice, but, frankly, for an EM doc at the University of Arizona with an MBA from the University of Phoenix, I'm not sure he is any big authority to be writing a guide to competitive residencies. Here is his bio:

http://www.galenpress.com/iserson_bio.html

I read his book over the summer (between MS1 and 2), and I didn't find it very insightful or helpful. The fact that he didn't even have the mean USMLE stats for residents in different fields, which is a pretty big contributor to the competitiveness for the surgical subspecialties, rads, derm, and the like, also kind of made me question the actual value of that book. How honestly can you assess the relative competitiveness of getting into different residencies without Step I scores? The fact that the national average Step I is like a 217 with a 17 SD, and orthopedic surgery, neurosurgery, derm, rads, ENT matched students have a mean Step I in the 231-235 range is a much better indicator of their competitiveness than what percentage of the positions are unfilled per year, which provides little to no adjustment for self-selection on the part of applicants. It's almost like arguing that Finch and Columbia have a similar number of applicants and acceptances, so admission competitiveness to their med schools must be similar.

 

[doc05]

as a hopkins grad, you can get pretty much any residency you want. do a little research in your specialty of interest and maybe lighten up a little.

 

[fun8stuff]

I know Iserson is considered to be the big **** of residency advice, but, frankly, for an EM doc at the University of Arizona with an MBA from the University of Phoenix, I'm not sure he is any big authority to be writing a guide to competitive residencies. Here is his bio:

http://www.galenpress.com/iserson_bio.html

I read his book over the summer (between MS1 and 2), and I didn't find it very insightful or helpful. The fact that he didn't even have the mean USMLE stats for residents in different fields, which is a pretty big contributor to the competitiveness for the surgical subspecialties, rads, derm, and the like, also kind of made me question the actual value of that book. How honestly can you assess the relative competitiveness of getting into different residencies without Step I scores? The fact that the national average Step I is like a 217 with a 17 SD, and orthopedic surgery, neurosurgery, derm, rads, ENT matched students have a mean Step I in the 231-235 range is a much better indicator of their competitiveness than what percentage of the positions are unfilled per year, which provides little to no adjustment for self-selection on the part of applicants. It's almost like arguing that Finch and Columbia have a similar number of applicants and acceptances, so admission competitiveness to their med schools must be similar.

I haven't read the book, but perhaps specific numbers weren't published because they change from year to year. Even the relative competitiveness of certain specialities go in cycles...