What are my changes thread?

[purple pearl]

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I am a US medical student and I an terrified of not matching. My school told us that the Match is much more competitive now with so many more medical schools and qualified applicants. No one from my school has sat down with me and looked at my numbers- and told me where I could realistically match.... I do not have my heart set on any particular specialty (I did rule out psych, peds, and surgery). Pathology, IM, and family are amongst consideration. I wish I had decided earlier, but i wanted to keep "an open mind." I did some generic research with poster presentation.

I want to do something I love, but also something I fit into and within my scope. Most of all, I do not want to stay up all night worried about matching..
Step 1: 228, clerkship grades all low- pass, but FM,IM,Surgery: almost failed.. I just didnt know how to study/burnt out but did fine on evals.

The clerkship grades are why I am worried.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[NotAProgDirector]

It depends on what you mean by "low pass".

If you mean: My school is H / HP / P or H / P and you get P but just barely, then there is little to worry about. PD's are unlikely to be able to tell if you were just barely passing, or just below HP. All we'll know is that you passed. As a US grad with all passes and a just below average Step 1, you'll do fine in the fields you listed. You're not going to get invites from top programs, but you'll probably get invites from both university and community programs.

If you mean: My school has an H / P / LP grading system, and I have multiple LP's on my transcript, that will be a bigger problem. My experience is that the number of students getting LP is quite small -- usually less than 5%. If you get just one, many programs will consider that a fluke. With multiple in your cores, that could easily be a problem. You'll still match, assuming you're applying for the less competitive fields. But now you'll need to apply more broadly, looking at less geographically attractive programs.

 

[vistaril]

It depends on what you mean by "low pass".

If you mean: My school is H / HP / P or H / P and you get P but just barely, then there is little to worry about. PD's are unlikely to be able to tell if you were just barely passing, or just below HP. All we'll know is that you passed. As a US grad with all passes and a just below average Step 1.

have US med student step 1 averages been rising so much lately that 228 is now BELOW average? When I took it 7-8 years ago the US average was like 215 or so. I know it's gone up a lot lately, but I didn't think the average was now 230+. I was guessing more like 225 or so.

 

[purple pearl]

Thank you for the input! My school is just H/P/F but you are ranked and what not. I would be happy to go to just about anywhere🙂
My step average was 224 for my particular test but my rank is likely less than <50% of my class! I also do not know how to explain my deficiencies! Interviews will not be kind..

 

[Paddington]

If you want to match, instead of worrying about your credentials/grades, worry more about where you apply to. If you apply in a smart way, you maximize your chances of matching.

There's people with good grades going into FM, who only apply to competitive programs or ones in desirable cities and end up unmatched. But that's not surprising at all, because there's a lot of people just like them applying for those same few spots. You need to apply to a specialty that you're interested in and have a shot at, and apply broadly in terms of competitive and less competitive programs, as well as potentially with some geographic variety. Keep a few "reaches" and plenty of "backups".

 

[NotAProgDirector]

have US med student step 1 averages been rising so much lately that 228 is now BELOW average? When I took it 7-8 years ago the US average was like 215 or so. I know it's gone up a lot lately, but I didn't think the average was now 230+. I was guessing more like 225 or so.

You are correct. I must have had a brain fart when I wrote this. The average is in the 220's somewhere.