USMLE Score
- Thread starter uwguy
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I don't know when you took your test but, you can find out how well you did by looking at the small print on your test report. It should give the mean for the exam and the standard deviation. I believe it's about 1 standard deviation above the mean, so you're in the top 15% (you'll have to look at your test data to make sure). The score is good and you should be competitive in just about any specialty as long as you do well and honor some things in the clinical years.
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How do you people know these things?! How exactly does one know what is a competitive score for a given residency or specialty. I mean for med school we could look at the average MCAT reported in USNEWS for particular schools. Where is this information for the USMLE??? This is driving me nuts.
For instance, would a USMLE 1 score of 225 and a University of Chicago degree be competitive for Radiology programs, how about Ortho or EM?
For instance, would a USMLE 1 score of 225 and a University of Chicago degree be competitive for Radiology programs, how about Ortho or EM?
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Posts like this always make me suspicious. . .I'm just waiting for the student looking to stroke him/herself by posting "I got a 264. Is that good?" However. . .225 is definitely below what you want for ortho, and probably radiology too. Not a deal-breaker, but not good. It's ok for EM, although EM is super-hot these days. You may not get all the interviews you want. Get some good letters for whatever specialty you're going in to, it will help a lot.
The SanFran Match does post statistics on the average Step I score for the people who matched so you can go to that site to get a good idea on some of the more competitive residency when they actually put the statistics back up. I was on the site two days ago and could view the statistics, but they must be updating them now, I'm sure they'll be back up for the current year soon. It's <a href="http://www.sfmatch.org." target="_blank">www.sfmatch.org.</a> For Optho: in January of 2001, 379 US Seniors Matched with 227 being Unmatched. The average USMLE score for people matching was 224, for those who did not
match it was 206 and the trend seems to be going up.
Optho is very competitive as you can see and from the numbers, I'd say about as competitive as rads and ortho so a 225 is a good score. You'll still need more than a good Step I score to match though, AOA and clinical grades are key.
match it was 206 and the trend seems to be going up.
Optho is very competitive as you can see and from the numbers, I'd say about as competitive as rads and ortho so a 225 is a good score. You'll still need more than a good Step I score to match though, AOA and clinical grades are key.
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Step I is just one of the things that make an applicant attractive. 232 vs 235, does it really matter? Probably not unless their cut off to interview is 235 regardless of the rest of your application. The point being is that once you reach their step I cut-off, the rest of your application makes or breaks how you will be ranked. Unless you score a 260 or 1SD above their cut-off I doubt that 232 vs 235 really makes a difference. Good job on step I, now make the rest of your application shine.
Pags, we're both applying to radiology this year and I'm from MSU-CHM (the M.D. school) and have been offered interviews from 17 out of 24 programs I applied to in rads. I have a Step I score of 230 which I was very happy with at the time. Step II of 259 but that score wasn't available until beginning of January so all my interviews are from Step I, plus clinical stuff.
I'm just wondering how hard it has been this year being from a DO school trying to get in. With this incredibly competitive year, how have you been doing on the interview trails? You've got an extremely competitive Step I score so I'd assume you'd be doing great. On my interview trail, I saw no DO's at any of my interviews but did see a couple at some transitional year interviews and they all said they were having an extremely tough time with the rads interviews.
Being from MSU and knowing the students from the DO school, I know that you guys have it tough sometimes even when you do so well academically. Hope things go well for you in the match.
I'm just wondering how hard it has been this year being from a DO school trying to get in. With this incredibly competitive year, how have you been doing on the interview trails? You've got an extremely competitive Step I score so I'd assume you'd be doing great. On my interview trail, I saw no DO's at any of my interviews but did see a couple at some transitional year interviews and they all said they were having an extremely tough time with the rads interviews.
Being from MSU and knowing the students from the DO school, I know that you guys have it tough sometimes even when you do so well academically. Hope things go well for you in the match.
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Jim:
What can I say? It sucks. Oh by the way, that 248 was my Step II score. Eventhough I took it back in September, PD's are fixated with Step I scores and don't look at it anyway. My Step I score was 237. I have great grades(number 1 in my class) and solid letters but the numbers ended up like this...
I applied to 41 programs in the Northeast (not the Boston big boys) and received 12 interviews from, I'd say, 5 mid-teir programs and the rest bottom dwellers. 2 of the 12 are considered university programs. Several programs are either at hospitals in severe financial dispair, have severely diminished radiology staff, or are on probation by the ACGME. I did an elective at a program that didn't even offer me a courtesy interview. I have not received any positive feedback from 11/12 programs. And, one program director back in November told me during my inteview that it would be difficult for a DO to match this year in radiology. Believe me, not something you want to hear during an interview.
In the end, I realized that the majority of PD's out there will sacrifice very capable DO residents for the "perceived" reputation of their program.
I have to applaud, however, that 3 of my classmates signed out of the match at Brigham and Women's in Boston for anesthesia.
Good luck in the match, Jim.
What can I say? It sucks. Oh by the way, that 248 was my Step II score. Eventhough I took it back in September, PD's are fixated with Step I scores and don't look at it anyway. My Step I score was 237. I have great grades(number 1 in my class) and solid letters but the numbers ended up like this...
I applied to 41 programs in the Northeast (not the Boston big boys) and received 12 interviews from, I'd say, 5 mid-teir programs and the rest bottom dwellers. 2 of the 12 are considered university programs. Several programs are either at hospitals in severe financial dispair, have severely diminished radiology staff, or are on probation by the ACGME. I did an elective at a program that didn't even offer me a courtesy interview. I have not received any positive feedback from 11/12 programs. And, one program director back in November told me during my inteview that it would be difficult for a DO to match this year in radiology. Believe me, not something you want to hear during an interview.
In the end, I realized that the majority of PD's out there will sacrifice very capable DO residents for the "perceived" reputation of their program.
I have to applaud, however, that 3 of my classmates signed out of the match at Brigham and Women's in Boston for anesthesia.
Good luck in the match, Jim.
I guess I also applied only to Midwest programs (Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois) as well and being from here may give me a leg up I guess. Our school has no honors during the first 2 years, but I honored the majority of my clinical clerkships. Got what is termed "outstanding" on my Dean's letter which is the highest ranking you can get. I had absolutely zero research during medical school but had a lot of basic science research as well as some publications during undergrad but I don't think that helped much. I have great letters but I think everyone else has those as well. Also did a radiology rotation at one of the programs I applied to and I seemed to make a good impression (all the residents said they wanted me there, although the PD is the one who has all the power in ranking). Surprisingly enough, I did not make the AOA cut. I was nominated for AOA but at my school the criteria for AOA is grades, research, community activities and other (meaning it's more impressive if you do great and are raising a couple of children as well) and I didn't have all those qualities I guess (no, I'm not bitter about it lol).
I've gotten feedback from 7 or 8 programs and 3 telephone calls from PD's saying they were ranking me high, would you please consider coming here.
Like everyone else I'm still slightly worried that I may not match, but I think I will. Good luck as well to all you radiology hopefulls.
I've gotten feedback from 7 or 8 programs and 3 telephone calls from PD's saying they were ranking me high, would you please consider coming here.
Like everyone else I'm still slightly worried that I may not match, but I think I will. Good luck as well to all you radiology hopefulls.
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what is AOA?
It's an honor's society for medical students. Every school has different criteria but usually the top 10% or so of students get it and it isn't necessarily based on academics but can be a combination of many things.
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It's most definitely a 99
