I am currently a senior at an undergraduate institution and i am preparing to begin my medical school career in August. So, i was just wondering, what sort of undergraduate data do residency's ask for? Undergraduate GPA? MCAT scores? Undergraduate publications? Undergraduate scholarships? Do they care about this information or is it strictly what you accomplish during medical school? Thanks.
Undergraduate Stuff and the Residency Application
- Thread starter JayX
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Unless its something really remarkable, things that you did in Undergrad usually dont go on a residency application...and i highly doubt they ask for Ug GPA or mcat.
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Out of curiosity, I was looking at fellowship applications awhile ago, and believe it or not, one of them asked for college GPA and MCAT. I doubt they do anything with those numbers, but it still seemed weird.
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fellowship apps?? you mean as in post residency? wow
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Yeah, it surprised me, too. I think it was UNC's app, in fact.
edit: nope, not UNC's, but they do ask for your major and "class standing," whatever that is. Have a look: http://gme.unchealthcare.org/resForms/gmeapplication
edit: nope, not UNC's, but they do ask for your major and "class standing," whatever that is. Have a look: http://gme.unchealthcare.org/resForms/gmeapplication
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ill be damned.....maybe ill email and ask them whats up.
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No one cares. Maybe some rad-onc programs want your college GPA but otherwise nothing. I have interviewed for med at JHH/MGH/UCSF/Duke and all the associated hospitals and nothing's come up, although I did put a college publication down in my ERAS app. No one cares about your undergrad, except for your interviewer who may like you more because you went there, judge you because you went there, or feel an inferiority complex before you went there.
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if you think it looks good, put it on your eras... it won't hurt (unless you go overkill)... I think i put like 3-4 undergrad things (I was a TA as a sophomore for instance, I did research) and had minimal questions about them. but med school dominates
Agree with this. I put some of my volunteer stuff from undergrad on there, (Volunteer ED, Coach Hockey, Coach Baseball) because I didn't do much in Med School, and got a few positive responses from interviewers about it, but nothing negative. If it's good and/or you need space filler, put it in.
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Is there any stuff that a pre-med can do to get to work on his/her future residency app? Like if I am interested in a certain field, would it be worthwhile to try and get in on some research and publish something in the field before starting med school?
I realize that this is incredibly gunner-ish, but I just want to avoid the mistakes of my undergrad, where I could have taken my first years of college more seriously. I just want to be as competitive as possible.
Inb4 "dude just relax while you can." I enjoy this stuff, so getting involved with it very early in the game is a win-win for me! Thanks!
I realize that this is incredibly gunner-ish, but I just want to avoid the mistakes of my undergrad, where I could have taken my first years of college more seriously. I just want to be as competitive as possible.
Inb4 "dude just relax while you can." I enjoy this stuff, so getting involved with it very early in the game is a win-win for me! Thanks!
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Agree w/above. Have never had anyone in internal medicine or cardiology ask about any undergrad GPA , test scores or activities. Sometimes people are curious about where one did undergrad, but usually as some sort of conversation topic and/or to know what region of the country you come from.
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So what's different about radiation oncology that they would care about undergrad GPA?
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Anything competitive (Rad Onc, PRS, Ortho, etc.) tends to have more requirements to differentiate the candidates/separate the wheat from the chaff.
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What she said.
When you've got 1 or 2 spots and 100 applicants who all have PhDs, got 260+ on both Steps, have multiple first author Nature, Cell or NEJM papers and were elected to AOA halfway through their Gross Anatomy course because waiting any longer would be embarrassing to the AOA chapter (i.e. the standard Rad Onc, Derm, PRS applicant pool), you need something more to tell them all apart. So they go back further in the academic history.
I imagine PRS applicants will soon have to provide pre-school transcripts. I'm already bribing my 4yo daughter's teachers just in case.
Very funny. Makes sense, in an extreme way. I'm just taking a wild guess: PRS stands for Plastics and Reconstructive Surgery? Or could be for Post-residency surgery? Because I'm also surprised fellowships even want undergrad stuff.
Do non-competitive residencies even need to look at one's undergrad diploma? Maybe degree comes up in background search? What do the residency's background dig entail? I think military/VA residencies would include more in background search than civilian residencies. Because even VA uses FBI/DHS/CIA searches.
I don't think primary care fields would bother glancing at applicants' transcripts and MCAT reports if applicant freely offered them.
