Thanks everybody for the response. I don't mean to rub anyone the wrong way. I guess I am just feeling frustrated and a little down after going through another core clerkship without pulling off an Honors even after busting my ass of. I absolutely killed it clinically on the wards but performed a very mediocre job on the shelf. Makes me wonder I might very well go through this entire year without getting a single honors.
And the thing is, I get a sense that many people here on SDN and at my institution somehow makes getting anything "non-honors" seem so terrible, which adds to more frustration/anxiety on my end.
If you're at a top 10 place, you might still be able to get into a decent place or a more competitive specialty (probably not the most competitive places or specialties though) despite average scores as long as you're geographically flexible. Meet with the relevant people at your school, ask them to make calls for you, etc.
Also, there are plenty of "average" specialties that are still good for average students. For example IM is a great specialty and you can potentially subspecialize in a "competitive" subspecialty like GI or cards. You don't have to be at a top academic program to have a chance at competitive subspecialties like GI or cards either. If you do well at a decent enough academic IM program, you could have a shot.
The majority go into internal medicine or general practice. What are the competitive specialties that you desire? Don't let your scores keep you from trying to get into what you want. There's more than one way to skin a cat, as the saying goes.
I suppose. To be honest, I am extremely interested in Ortho and Urology. I rotated through those services during my surgery rotation, and that was the moment I felt like I finally found something I love and something I can see myself doing for the rest of my life. I wish I had came into med school knowing I'd like to go into something super competitive like that so I can start networking, doing research, and etc. If I were to go into IM, I'd definitely want to go into Cards or GI or Pulm/crit., something hands on.
20-30% is a lot, so I certainly wouldn't say "only." Starts to make you wonder how much of an honor "Honors" really is when you start handing it out to a third of the class.
Exactly. Ours is about 10% and we just have Honors and Pass so its extra stressful.
The % is closer to 20 than to 30, as it varies from rotation to rotation. I don't have a problem w/ the % of honors at my institution because I've heard a few institutions that barely gives out any honors (like yours 10%), but I've also heard of many institutions that give out way more honors than my institution.
@NWwildcat2013, so if only 10% of students get honors and the other 90% (you at Michigan?) gets pass, does that mean there's a significant number of people who are going into surgical specialties like plastics, neurosurg, ortho, urology, ENT, ophtho, Gen Surg who ends up getting just a "pass" on Surgery rotation? Because based on the 10% honors, hypothetically in a class of 150, there should be around 15 people who gets honors on the Surgery rotation. But there has to be more than 15 people who ends up going into those specialties. And that's not even including geniuses who are going into IM and other non-surgical specialties who gets honors on surgery rotation.
If you browse around SDN long enough, you'll find plenty of threads saying "You must get honors on surgery" to go into one of those specialties or "If you get a High Pass, you need to explain to the residency programs why you didn't get honors", which sounds a little absurd to me but hey, it's probably true.
Average students go into IM, FM, Peds, Psych, Anesthesia, Radiology, EM, GS, PM&R, and OB/GYN.
The pickings sure are slim.
Yeah. you are right. Except I don't want to go into FM, peds, psych, anesthesia, radiology, PM&R, or ObGyn. I'd consider IM, EM, or maybe GS (probably not).
According to MSAR, I'd say it's "anything they want to, except the uber specialties".
That's because about 60% of MD grads go into non-Primary Care fields for PGY1 choices. Unfortunately, MSAR only lists "Internal Medicine" as a choice, and thus we don't know if people will subspecialize.
Only 5% of Einstein grads go into Psych, for example.
Thanks for providing the stats!
There's this weird phenomenon that happens with medical students; they think because they've had to be in the top ~5% their entire lives that all of a sudden because they're in the 50th percentile of medical students that they're destined for a bottom tier career.
Let's assume all Step 1 test takers become physicians (not accurate, but close enough), and you scored the median. That means you scored higher than ~half of all doctors in the US. That's not the same as scoring the median on the MCAT, which would mean you scored higher than roughly zero doctors in the US.
Being average, or even below average, amongst a group of the best students in the country is something you should be proud of. You may not be competitive for a few very selective specialties available to only the top ~10% or so, but matching a "good" residency does not mean you need to be in the top of your class -- or really anywhere close to it. Most ACGME residencies are "good," and while it's impossible to really do an objective analysis on this, the distribution is a lot closer to 80-15-5 (good-ok-bad) than the 20-20-60 that most students seem to think.
This. This is what every medical students should know. It's easier said than to actually accept it. I've told myself this over and over again, but I always let SDN and other people influence how I feel about my performance in medical school, which is very frustrating.
