Do residency directors care about those awards? Or is someone at the same school who doesn't have a full tuition scholarship on the same footing with someone who does?
Would residency directors be impressed by a full tuition scholarship?
- Thread starter janey243
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How would they even know? Dean's Letter? I highly doubt it would come up unless you highlighted it in your PS, which has as much chance of coming off the wrong way as it does of impressing someone.
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ERAS allows you to list awards/accolades/honors etc. If you put it in there they will be able to see it.
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You want to advertise that you aren't a slave to humongous debt and don't really need this job as much as the next applicant who will suffer through anything without complaint just to keep his job so he can pay off massive school loans, and this is supposed to make you look attractive?
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haha this
D
deleted116380
Indentured servitude...the new way of healthcare.
Thankfully I finished med school with manageable debt so I could theoretically leave intern year and get a "regular" job and pay it off. That was just an extra benefit to planning well prior to that and was not an initial goal of mine.
To the OP, you can put it on your application, but I would just put the name of the scholarship and not the amount.
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Certainly list the scholarship, you earned it, and then if they ask you about it in the interview be able to describe why you received it and who it is in honor of etc. No need to tout it though.
Survivor DO
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I'm curious, what others think on this. I sort of feel like using a med school scholarship that you were awarded before you started (obviously you had stipulations to keep it) is like mentioning your high MCAT on a residency application.
Of course, if I was in your position I'm pretty sure I would list it as an award/honor.
Of course, if I was in your position I'm pretty sure I would list it as an award/honor.
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I think it's pretty useless for the most part. Especially if you're at a school that gives out a lot of scholarships. For instance, most people at Mayo have some sort of scholarship and UCLA just got a huge scholarship donation so that 30 people a year are on scholarship (just to name two).
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No one will care one way or another, especially not program directors...you got about 101 things that are more important in your residency application than scholarships.
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No not really. It would matter very little if at all.
It should be in your CV and in your ERAS application under Awards and Honors as Bacchus mentioned.
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I assume we're talking about merit scholarships.
Will some other applicants be putting it on their application? Yes.
Does that give them a competitive edge over you? At most a tiny tiny bit. PDs have 101 things that are more important.
Do some schools put it on the Dean's letter? Yes. My school's deans letter will note that you majored in biology at Harvard and graduated PBK and magna cum laude, and entered medical school as a distinguished student scholar, or something like that.
Will it hurt you to put it? No. PDs tend to always want more information than not. This is like the debate about preclinical grades. On one hand, PDs say preclinical grades are 'somewhat important' (3 out of 5) and past surveys have shown that PDs would greatly prefer to see preclinical grades than a pass/fail transcript. On the other hand, ranked against 15-30 other factors considered in resident selection, preclinical grades falls in the bottom quartile in terms of importance. Somehow you have to reconcile that this is important on an absolute scale but not on a relative scale.
Why is this relevant? A merit scholarship indicates that 1) you were recruited to some extent, and 2) you entered as one of the top students. The former is relevant in case you go to some less prestigious school than your premed credentials might give you credit for. School name matters a little. So a scholarship is a bit of an excuse in that area. The latter is relevant because if you are going into residency applications as an AOA student, that in conjunction with the scholarship demonstrates you have a long-term history of excellence compared to your peers.
Will people actually be thinking that? Probably not. It's possible though.
Do residencies care about undergraduate/college stuff? Probably only a little, if at all. Most surveys of PDs do not ask about undergrad stuff. When it is asked, it's rated like a 4.8 out of 10 (as important to ortho programs as being an MD/PhD), lower than most factors. That said, ERAS has a place for you to upload undergraduate transcripts. Most programs don't require this, but some competitive programs do. SF match (ophtho) requires it.
Why would they care about undergrad stuff? 1) As stated above, they want a demonstrated history of sustained excellence. 2) They look for any way possible to stratify applicants. Is the fact that you went to Harvard rather than Podunk U for undergrad going to make a difference? Probably not.
Is this like putting down your MCAT? A little. Again, the occasional residency programs require your MCAT score. I presume it's along the same reasoning as above (history, stratification). However, the MCAT is a little different because, as a standardized test of knowledge, it gets overshadowed and superceded by Step 1. The achievements that lead you to getting a merit scholarship are different, more comprehensive, less defined, and do not get directly superceded by a more proximal measure.
Will some other applicants be putting it on their application? Yes.
Does that give them a competitive edge over you? At most a tiny tiny bit. PDs have 101 things that are more important.
Do some schools put it on the Dean's letter? Yes. My school's deans letter will note that you majored in biology at Harvard and graduated PBK and magna cum laude, and entered medical school as a distinguished student scholar, or something like that.
Will it hurt you to put it? No. PDs tend to always want more information than not. This is like the debate about preclinical grades. On one hand, PDs say preclinical grades are 'somewhat important' (3 out of 5) and past surveys have shown that PDs would greatly prefer to see preclinical grades than a pass/fail transcript. On the other hand, ranked against 15-30 other factors considered in resident selection, preclinical grades falls in the bottom quartile in terms of importance. Somehow you have to reconcile that this is important on an absolute scale but not on a relative scale.
Why is this relevant? A merit scholarship indicates that 1) you were recruited to some extent, and 2) you entered as one of the top students. The former is relevant in case you go to some less prestigious school than your premed credentials might give you credit for. School name matters a little. So a scholarship is a bit of an excuse in that area. The latter is relevant because if you are going into residency applications as an AOA student, that in conjunction with the scholarship demonstrates you have a long-term history of excellence compared to your peers.
Will people actually be thinking that? Probably not. It's possible though.
Do residencies care about undergraduate/college stuff? Probably only a little, if at all. Most surveys of PDs do not ask about undergrad stuff. When it is asked, it's rated like a 4.8 out of 10 (as important to ortho programs as being an MD/PhD), lower than most factors. That said, ERAS has a place for you to upload undergraduate transcripts. Most programs don't require this, but some competitive programs do. SF match (ophtho) requires it.
Why would they care about undergrad stuff? 1) As stated above, they want a demonstrated history of sustained excellence. 2) They look for any way possible to stratify applicants. Is the fact that you went to Harvard rather than Podunk U for undergrad going to make a difference? Probably not.
Is this like putting down your MCAT? A little. Again, the occasional residency programs require your MCAT score. I presume it's along the same reasoning as above (history, stratification). However, the MCAT is a little different because, as a standardized test of knowledge, it gets overshadowed and superceded by Step 1. The achievements that lead you to getting a merit scholarship are different, more comprehensive, less defined, and do not get directly superceded by a more proximal measure.
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