<p>I was wondering if someone could explain to me the gpa and mcat equivalents for medical school students applying for residencies. For example, I've heard people say that succeeding at medical school outweighs going to a prestigious one and not doing very well. What sort of record of achievement is there during medical school? (grades, tests, etc)</p>
<p>Grades, USMLE scores (Steps 1 and 2), research achievements</p>
<p>LORs .</p>
<p>What if someone is solely interested in Clinical and is excellent at it but cares little for pursuing research concurrently?</p>
<p>Well, it’ll rule him out of a few specialties and a few hospitals, but otherwise shouldn’t matter too much.</p>
<p>Its also probably important to point out that your 3rd and 4th year grades (clinical rotation grades) are more important than your grades in the first two years. Unfortunately, the clinical rotation grades are much more subjective.</p>
<p>Or in some cases, it’s fortunate that they’re more subjective.</p>
<p>To make it as clear as possible, the 8 hours spent taking Step 1 of the USMLE are by far the most disproportionately important 8 hours of medical school. The next most important block of time is the interview at the residency program…</p>
<p>It’s not actually that simplistic, but I think that kind of provides some perspective.
Let me qualify that a little bit though - Step 1 score is the most important thing to keeping your options open. If before starting 3rd year, you’re interested in possibly doing derm, physical med & rehabilitation, family, psychiatry, or neurosurg, getting a Step 1 score of 255 is going to keep all those options open. Get a 220, and while no door is absolutely closed, it’s going to take some surprises to get into a derm or neurosurg program. In psych and PM&R, a score of 220 might even make it difficult to get into some top programs. </p>
<p>But if you bomb your interviews, that could keep you from matching into your preferred specialties as well.</p>
<p>Of course, it’s possible that after doing some clinical rotations, you might fall in love with internal medicine, and because of family reasons want to stay at your medical school’s residency program…then your clerkship performance will become important so you perform to an acceptable standard.</p>
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<p>nothing new there…sounds alot like the MCAT in undergrad or the SAT in highschool</p>
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<p>sounds alot like med school admissions</p>
<p>…what i’m trying to get at is that there is basically a repetitive cycle (with minor quirks) that starts in high school and continues on</p>
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<p>Except that there are no retakes with the USMLE. You only get to retake if you fail the test. If you pass, but don’t like your score or don’t think its representative of your knowledge… tough s–t thats your score.</p>
<p>And the margin of error for interviews is less. Residency interviews ARE FOR A JOB. The people you’re talking with are trying to figure out what it’s going to be like to work with you for the next three to seven years, not just make sure that you’re able to marginally carry out a basic conversation. In the “nice” specialties, like peds, your scores matter a lot less than they do in med school admissions, so the interview (and the suggested “fit” it predicts) is increased in relative significance. Even in competitive specialties, like ENT or derm, how you get along with your interviewer might make for a difference of 3-12 spots on the programs’ rank list…important when they only take 3-6 residents per class.</p>
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<p>While it is possible to study and master all the material on the SAT or MCAT, the shear volume of potential material on the USMLE rewards focused study over brute force. Complicating matters is the fact that many basic science instructors have no idea what’s on the USMLE or even what’s important to know for clinical practice.</p>
<p>The USMLE carries more weight than the MCAT because medical school grading schemes vary widely and can be difficult to compare: some schools are all pass/fail for the first two years, some schools use holistic grading, and some use traditional letter grades.</p>