Variation in third year grades between schools

[philzaloe]

A friend at a private east coast medical school shared that his third-year grades don't really matter, since grade inflation is notorious at his school, with a third of his class honoring all of third year. As long as you put in some effort, you can expect straight honors.

I attend a public US med school on the west coast, where students on average honor only about 2-3 rotations in third year. Am I at a disadvantage? Are residency programs aware of which schools may grade inflate? If the expectation is that so many students are honoring nearly every rotation, then it would seem like doing well wouldn't help much but doing average would significantly hurt me.

Both schools are top 20 US med schools.

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[Southplains]

A friend at a private east coast medical school shared that his third-year grades don't really matter, since grade inflation is notorious at his school, with a third of his class honoring all of third year. As long as you put in some effort, you can expect straight honors.

I attend a public US med school on the west coast, where students on average honor only about 2-3 rotations in third year. Am I at a disadvantage? Are residency programs aware of which schools may grade inflate? If the expectation is that so many students are honoring nearly every rotation, then it would seem like doing well wouldn't help much but doing average would significantly hurt me.

Both schools are top 20 US med schools.

The deans letter will put your performance in the context of the entire class, as well as provide the quartile you are in, so this can give more accurate description if they want to really analyze your performance. But I’d imagine most times they just kinda look at that stuff and not pick apart each application to that degree. Just do the best you can and if your school is a top 20 it will have a good reputation.

 

[philzaloe]

Thanks. Does honoring all of one's third year clerkships still carry significant weight, then?

 

[DrSnips]

Thanks. Does honoring all of one's third year clerkships still carry significant weight, then?

It tells us in your ERAS what percentage of your class got which grade in each clerkship. I've seen some schools with grade inflation where a clerkship might have 60% get honors, 35% high pass and 5% pass. It really just punishes the top performers in such schools because I won't know if honors means you were top 1% or bottom 50%. Even so, getting more honors is indeed better. It just happens to be more impressive if you are from a school without grade inflation where maybe 10-15% get honors.

 

[philzaloe]

That was very helpful. Thank you!