USMLE score

[BamaAlum]

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Hey guys,
I'm currently busting my butt studying for Step 1. I have taken a couple of practice exams and I keep scoring around the mean. I am taking the real deal in 2.5 weeks so I can still pull it up, but my question is this: If, worse case scenario, I score around the mean will this hurt me in less than two years when I start applying to programs. I am 99% sure I want to do path. My uncle is a pathologist and I work in his lab every chance that I get and I love it. So, I have pretty good exposure to the field. I would like to do my residency in the Southeast(UAB, Vandy, Emory, etc.) I know that I am probably freaking out for no reason, and I am definitely jumping the gun, but I wanted to see what all the path pros here had to say.

 

[cookypuss3]

The programs I've looked at seem to be happy with anything >200. God bless America. 👍

 

[cookypuss3]

Oh hell, who am I kidding. God bless pathology. 👍 👍

 

[yaah]

The more "other" things you have on your application, I would say the less important the step I score becomes. Having path experience, good clinical grades, whatever.

I don't think anyone can really give you a definite as to whether an average step I score will hurt you. I doubt it. The more competitive programs like to see higher scores but they do still look at the whole application.

I wouldn't worry too much. Do the best you can, get some rest in the next couple of weeks before the test (and especially the night before), do lots of practice questions and understand why you are getting them wrong. You'll be prepared it sounds like.

 

[cookypuss3]

A good U-🙂 (Get it? Heyyy) doesn't hurt, yadda yadda yoda. But thanks to the experience you're getting in your uncle's lab, you'll be able to "Speak Pathology" in your PS-BS, at your interviews, and so on. People will know that you know what you're getting yourself into.

I think that's the most important thing, actually. Those damn guttersnipes, as previously stated, have some romantic vision of what the life of a pathologist might be. Residency people just want to know that you're down and enthusiastic for the right reasons. Once they see that you have put in some serious time at a lab, and STILL want to do it, you'll be taken much more seriously.

 

[yaah]

I think that's the most important thing, actually. Those damn guttersnipes, as previously stated, have some romantic vision of what the life of a pathologist might be. Residency people just want to know that you're down and enthusiastic for the right reasons. Once they see that you have put in some serious time at a lab, and STILL want to do it, you'll be taken much more seriously.

Lifestyle, lifestyle, blah blah. I agree. Whatever happened to good old fashioned "working for it?"

The good news, so far, is that the characters with "malignant CV syndrome" (a.k.a. those who volunteer until they collapse in a pool of their own filth, publish a billion papers by sucking up, ace all of their exams, and have political connections to boot) have yet to discover pathology as a field where they can spread their wings and attempt to dominate. Perhaps they are just not that smart, and stick to fields like derm where they don't have to know as much. As soon as they discover that it might be not as tough to get a residency at a "top ten medical institution" in pathology, we might be in trouble, invaded by a group of impeccably dressed, outwardly friendly yet inwardly conniving, uber-competitive simpletons.

I would hope, however, that malignant CVs would not be enough to get a residency spot in this most intelligent of fields. You have to want it, Smahty Jones! (I hate horse racing too.) If I ever am privileged enough to help select residents, I will see through their exaggerations and braggadocio, this I pledge to you, the serious future pathologist.