What looks worse: withdrawing or getting poor grade on rotation?

[amphatoast21]

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I'm currently on my Medicine Sub-I and considering withdrawing. My other grades are strong (mostly honors), and my application is otherwise solid, but this Sub-I is really not going well. My feedback has been very negative so far (I've been told I'm barely passing), and likely not going to get better. If I'm not going into Medicine, would a Withdrawal (W) or Pass look worse on my transcript? At my school, a Pass is very rare, and most students get High Pass or Honors.

 

[Bonejorno]

Just get the pass. Doing it twice isn’t gonna make the second time any better or easier

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

I would figure out what the problem is and fix it...

 

[mrbreakfast]

Unless you're going into path or psych I would be more concerned about the fact that you're "barely passing" your medicine sub-I. Is there a reason you aren't doing well?

 

[Giovanotto]

Unless you're going into path or psych I would be more concerned about the fact that you're "barely passing" your medicine sub-I. Is there a reason you aren't doing well?

Ew, chill. I've "passed" medicine, the entire group of us did. Didn't mean we were any less competent than the others, it just meant that our attending was "special". I swear I don't know how anyone takes years 3 and 4 grades seriously. Maybe at other schools things are different, but at my school its so subjective I hope nobody actually cares unless you fail.

 

[afib123]

Ya like the above commenter said, pretty subjective. If you are barely passing and they are going to fail you, sure withdraw but have a good reason and I am not suggesting to completely lie but maybe try to find a solid reason.
Also, if you are failing because of an horrible professor which can happen rarely, that is ok. But if not fix those issues. IM is one of those fields that there should be no reason to not doing well if you try hard. Read a ton on your patients. Go check on them every few hours. Show up few hours early. Stay later than everyone else. Write stellar notes.
I mean unless you have a extremely rare patient, Uptodate should have everything you need from history to take from patients to diff diagnosis to labs to treatment options that you can offer on rounds.
By checking on the patient every few hours, calling social workers, PCP offices for collaterals, you can do well without even having much knowledge.

 

[mrbreakfast]

Ew, chill. I've "passed" medicine, the entire group of us did.

We're not talking about your third year medicine clerkship. This is your fourth year sub-internship. I feel fairly confident in saying most schools (and most residency programs) expect you to honor whatever sub-I you choose to do, and most students do.

Also, if you're planning on applying to academic residency programs, don't be surprised if you are asked about passes on M3 clerkships during interviews.

 

[CherryRedDracul]

I'm currently on my Medicine Sub-I and considering withdrawing. My other grades are strong (mostly honors), and my application is otherwise solid, but this Sub-I is really not going well. My feedback has been very negative so far (I've been told I'm barely passing), and likely not going to get better. If I'm not going into Medicine, would a Withdrawal (W) or Pass look worse on my transcript? At my school, a Pass is very rare, and most students get High Pass or Honors.

Was this feedback more specific or were you just told you are barely passing? Something sounds fishy if your grades have otherwise been very good.

 

[Giovanotto]

We're not talking about your third year medicine clerkship. This is your fourth year sub-internship. I feel fairly confident in saying most schools (and most residency programs) expect you to honor whatever sub-I you choose to do, and most students do.

Also, if you're planning on applying to academic residency programs, don't be surprised if you are asked about passes on M3 clerkships during interviews.

You're kinda right, but I'm still not super impressed until a student actually fails the rotation. Then I'm concerned for either negligence or sheer incompetence versus malignant program vs personality issues.

I'll be VERY annoyed if that comes up.

 

[takeurmeds02]

Was this feedback more specific or were you just told you are barely passing? Something sounds fishy if your grades have otherwise been very good.

Yea, this is my concern. It sounds anomalous.

 

[ortnakas]

To me, a withdrawal from a rotation would look weirder than a pass.

 

[RangerBob]

I was not aware you could withdraw from a clinical rotation-I’ve never heard of anyone doing that. I would think that would be a huge red flag in an application. A pass is fine. Plenty of people just pass the majority of their clerkships.

It will look odd if all your other clerkships are high pass/honors (though it sounds like pretty bad grade inflation if that’s generally what everyone gets...), but I’d think it’s still better that a W.

 

[Anony-mouse]

in my medical school withdrawing from a clerkship was not an option, or at least one that isn't seriously considered. where do you go if you don't mind me asking?

 

[Anony-mouse]

Agree with the previous poster that withdrawing is going to look worse than just accepting a pass.

 

[nimbus]

I'm currently on my Medicine Sub-I and considering withdrawing. My other grades are strong (mostly honors), and my application is otherwise solid, but this Sub-I is really not going well. My feedback has been very negative so far (I've been told I'm barely passing), and likely not going to get better. If I'm not going into Medicine, would a Withdrawal (W) or Pass look worse on my transcript? At my school, a Pass is very rare, and most students get High Pass or Honors.

Isn’t a 4th year subinternship required? If you withdraw, will you do a sub-I in surgery, peds, or OB? It is probably best to ask your residents and attendings how you can improve on this rotation and stay the course.

 

[mrbreakfast]

in my medical school withdrawing from a clerkship was not an option

Isn’t a 4th year subinternship required? If you withdraw, will you do a sub-I in surgery, peds, or OB?

A sub-internship is an M4 elective (so it can be withdrawn from, I think) but most programs require to complete at least one before graduating. Some schools just require you to do one of any of the offered ones if your specific field doesn't have one (at my program the EM sub-I was popular) but other programs require a medicine sub-I for certain specialties as well. For example I know some programs want their neurology students to do both neurology and medicine sub-Is.

For any rising M4s, if you have to do a sub-I that you won't use letters from, do it after final grades for ERAS to avoid OP's problem.

 

[Anony-mouse]

I'm pretty sure sub-i's are required for graduation. They were where I went.

 

[ciestar]

I'm pretty sure sub-i's are required for graduation. They were where I went.

My school requires two

 

[differentiating]

I went to a school where 2 sub-Is are required, one of which has to be a medicine sub-I. Honors for that sub-I are capped at 60%, iirc, so obviously not everyone is able to honor the rotation - and for most people pursuing other fields, I don't think it matters much for them (though they also tend to do it later in the year. If you're interested in medicine, it'll obviously be a red flag. As others have said, though, given how unusual withdrawals are in medical school, I'd imagine that would also be a red flag.

Since you said you're not interested in medicine, I'd take the P. I had a P on one of my sub-Is (albeit not my medicine one) and still matched in my preferred field at a good program.