Congratulations @moonpie! That is exciting news! I haven’t been on CC in a while so I’m a month late on my congrats, but I’m very happy for your D and for you.
Thanks, @icuinNm !!! She actually got another acceptance this week, and is on “high priority waitlist” at another school, which she has been told everyone gets accepted off the HPWL, usually by Feb/march. So… things are going great! She’s happy to have a choice!
So…how are your students reacting to the news that the USMLE Step 1 will be P/F starting 1/2022?
Has it changed their thinking on which med schools to attend?
Does prestige matter more now? 
STEP 2 certainly will, as will didactic and clinical grades (I think you will see lots of schools dropping P/F grading for MS1-2), class rank, AOA-membership, specialty-specific research productivity, audition rotations and preceptor networking.
The most interesting suggestion I’ve seen is there will be a compressed didactic curricula ( 1-1.5 years), earlier entrance into full time clinical training and pressure to move STEP 2 to early MS3 or even MS2–well before June-July-August of MS3 when most students now take it. This will allow students to judge their competitiveness for various specialties and have the time to prepare a competitive residency app.
Research years will gain in importance for most specialties and may become more or less required for most students. (And, btw, this increases even more the cost of a medical education by extending it a year.)
Another suggestion I’ve seen is that admission requirements for med school will increase, pushing some of MS1’s material into undergrad, for things like advanced biochem, and A&P.
My D, a 4th year at xxx, basically did your 2nd paragraph, @WayOutWestMom I think her class is the 2nd or 3rd class to start their rotations in January of their 2nd year.
She did the first part of her step 2 in February of her M3 year, though she just did the second part this past fall.
She has said the school thinks that this new curriculm schedule has raised scores a little bit, though it is still too early to have a clear idea.
The med school both my daughters attended has compressed didactic education. Students finish all their basic medical coursework in December of MS2, take Step 1 in Jan-Feb. (They’re required to have a passing Step 1 score to advance to clinical rotations that start April 1.)
Duke has one year of didactics followed by a research years in MS2.
What a mess!
Apparently Mayo just accidentally sent accepted messages to every single individual who has was asked to send a secondary or has interviewed there. Basically everyone has a account portal for Mayo.
People have cancelled other interviews and withdrawn from acceptances at other schools before they got the “oops! We goofed” from Mayo this morning. Some applicants have retained attorneys are considering suing.
You can bet that heads are gonna roll in the Mayo admission office!
No words.
OMG. I can’t believe even institutions with so much $$$$ funds/budget, don’t manage IT applications. I am not surprised with what I see in my own organization. How bad it has come, so many groups. There are 50 people to direct the 2 rowers in the boat!
Feel bad for the students and also the impact other schools need to react and accommodate students to withdraw their cancellation (which is a fair request).
unbelievable. Every year some school messes it up but still no lessons learned by other schools.
82: "So....how are your students reacting to the news that the USMLE Step 1 will be P/F starting 1/2022?
Has it changed their thinking on which med schools to attend?"
My D is very upset by this change. She has 2 acceptances and a couple more she’s waiting on. Of her acceptances, she was definitely leaning toward the in-state, less expensive, more relaxed (and lower ranked) school . But she wants a competitive residency and is wondering how this will impact her chances. She is afraid Step 2 will “become the new Step 1” as far as screening (in addition to school prestige). Since Step 2 isn’t taken until the end of year 3, she’s afraid she’ll put all her research/EC into the competitive residency and then, if she doesn’t score well enough on Step 2, she’ll have to scramble to rework her whole plan so late in the game.
It makes another school (that she didn’t really like as much) look better since it has more research, a slightly higher ranking and the chance to network with better programs.
Plus, she feels like the Class of 2024 will be the guinea pigs of this change. How do school curriculums restructure themselves when they have been giving months of dedicated Step 1 prep? If pre-clinical time will be condensed, how will that be accomplished in such a short time?
So many unknowns that have her very concerned. I’m trying to caution her not to jump to conclusions. Hopefully we’ll learn more in the coming weeks. Implementation is supposed to happen “after Dec. 31, 2021” but maybe it will take longer to implement? It’s all too soon to know.
Months? Hardly. 4-6 weeks, 8 weeks at most.
BTW, Students are still going to need to study for STEP 1. The quantity and breadth of material tested is enormous and test questions often are focussed on minutiae. Students still need to pass on their first attempt. It’s also very likely the base passing score will rise. (The passing score for STEP 1 has increased every year for the last decade and a half.)
There are a number of condensed pre-clinical curricula that have been in use for a decade or more. These are use-tested and are known to be successful. There are plenty of consulting companies that will come in to assist a school in setting up a new curriculum. Conceivably, the change could be effected over next summer. Though, the first class under a new curriculum will have bumps to be ironed out, this is true whether it’s a switch from 24 months pre-clinical to 15 months pre-clinical or it’s a switch from traditional lecture to PBL.
But there are so many unanswered questions in all of this. Both my daughters have said they’re glad they’re past this newest uproar.
Also to ease your and your daughter’s minds, a small study conducted with UArizona med grads found there was not a substantial difference in residency placements when applicants’ STEP 1 score were blinded to residencies.
Undoubtedly PDs will find a new metric to filter students–NBME exam scores from various clinical rotations? Step 2CK?
Arguably the 2CK is a more useful measure to predict how well a med student will perform in residency. Step 2CK test how well a med student “thinks like a doctor”–the critical thinking process which goes making a diagnosis and development of a treatment plan. Step 1 just tests their ability memorize huge reams of material.
Perhaps additional specialties will move to using SLOE (Special letter of evaluation) when reviewing for residency interview invites. These SLOEs are gotten by doing a monthlong rotation in the specialty. The folks in that program then complete a very detailed review of how the Med school student actually did while doing this rotation. Emergency medicine does this now…and the consensus is that the strength of the SLOEs one receives really is the deciding factor for getting interview invites.
I’m not sure which specialties use this model…if any in addition to EM.
Only EM uses SLOEs.
But I can see more specialties doing something like this in the future. But it’s going to take some major discussions/soul searching inside professional organizations at the national level to get there.
In the short term Step 2CK will become the new Step 1 for residency placement.
@MIMomma I could have written the same exact post! My middle daughter is trying to decide between the state school options, and the higher ranked, higher priced out of state option. It’s so hard to decide now! Even if you think you’re going to go for a certain residency, you have no idea how you’ll feel until you actually do the rotations! My oldest went in pretty set on OB/GYN or peds. She fell in love with surgery on her first rotation, and nothing compared to that after. Now she’s waiting for Match Day 2020 to see where she will do her Gen. Surgery residency, and then hopes to go onto peds surgery fellowship after. So even though my middle is thinking Peds now, she knows that may change. Both top 2 choices have amazing peds options. Just a lot of unknowns on how this will affect our kids who are entering next year!
Unhappy applicants have sent Mayo Clinic over 2000 lbs of mayonnaise as a token of their ire over the erroneous acceptances.
MCAT has already become pretty complicated in terms of a qualifying exam from 2014 one 2015 and so the standards have gone up over the last 5 years. Schools are already sending letters to 2024 admittees stating that their students do quite well on Step 2 due to their superior clinical training.
Interestingly enough some of the top schools don’t seem to emphasize step 2 enough. A stanford grad told me most of their classmates aim for step 1 of 260 but drop by almost 20 points on step 2 because they dont care as much. So this will be a big change in their prep.
REMINDER–
starting today current applicants are able to see and use the PTE and CTE school selection options.
PTE is a non-binding commitment. Applicants are able to reset their choice at any time without penalty
CTE is a binding commitment and applicants MUST withdraw from all other acceptances and waitlists. Applicants who fail to do so can have their admission rescinded.
D’s school sent the premeds a note saying dont touch that site before April.