In premed, it was pretty straightforward
high gpa, high mcat, some volunteering
I just got accepted to med school and i'm having trouble understanding what makes you competitive for the residency process.
I go to a pass/fail school, and really dread research.
This is one of those questions that is just so broad that you can just answer by saying “read SDN”. That said, I’ll try to make compare/contrast medical school and residency admission factors.
USMLE v MCAT: Both the most important factors, but the USMLE becomes more high stakes as it’s a one-and-done.
Medical Grades v GPA: Your M3 grades weighted way more than your M1/2 grades which is a new thing vs. undergrad where junior year isn't weighted more. Overall class rank isn’t super important unless you’re in the bottom 50 (in which case it may hurt for some competitive programs that screen). Overall the GPA is probably more important because it’s one number weighting all your courses equally whereas your medical school grades come from numerous places and tell a story that can be interpreted differently by different people.
Extra-Curriculars: They’re an unwritten requirement in undergrad and used to truly make yourself unique for medical school, but virtually irrelevant in residency. That said, having none becomes a problem as you have nothing to talk about during interviews... To be honest though, I got a lot of questions in my residency interviews about my undergrad ECs...but if I hadn’t scored XYZ on Step 1, i wouldn’t have even been invited for an interview.
Research: Way more important in residency applications. Sorry to break the news to you, but having minimal research and applying to a competitive field is a big red flag. Even having minimal research and trying to apply to higher ranked academic programs in less competitive fields like IM/Peds will be a fruitless venture because those are competitive since most people doing those are gunning for fellowships. An exception to research is EM. It’s a nice thing to have, but they could care less.
Volunteering: Did none in medical school, had to do 200+ hrs in undergrad to even be considered.
School Brand: It’s funny how if you really think about it getting that Cards fellowship or Ortho residency really starts from high school. You need to get good grades with a tough AP courseload to get accepted into a name brand college to then get accepted into a good medical school, which then leads to a good residency. I will say that if you want to break the cycle somehow, the place to do it is to take an extra year and get into a top medical school. If you go to Harvard and get a 3.4 GPA and 28 MCAT, you’re not getting into an MD school whereas if you go to Harvard medical school and are near the bottom of your class and score 225 on Step 1, you’re could still be competitive for quite a few things you would have to kiss goodbye to at a lower tier MD or DO school.
