<p>So I am doing a little research project for my statistics class where I am looking at the top medical schools in the U.S. and comparing the USMLE scores for graduating students. Basically I am trying to see which programs seem to do the best job preparing their students.
Problem is, USMLE scores are not so easy to come by for all schools, from what I can see. Every medical school is more than happy to provide acceptance rates, as well as average MCAT scores for entering students. USMLE scores, not so much. Surely they must keep track of such things.
Has anyone come across any web sites or publications that list such information comprehensively? It would save me the trouble of contacting each school individually, or looking at each school's web site one at a time (I am looking at over 100 schools...).</p>
<p>Hope you all are well and that your studies are progressing smoothly.</p>
<p>Do a search on SDN and you will find threads that contain the supposed USMLE scores of various schools. Be careful though, a lot of those averages are heresay.</p>
<p>You are correct that med schools are very reluctant to release USMLE scores. They know that performance on the USMLE is an individual effort and that neurotic premeds would misinterpret USMLE scores. Med schools don’t want to be put in a position where they are teaching to the boards, no more than college bio or physics professors want to teach to the MCAT. If you teach to the boards and you give students enough time off to study for the USMLE’s, you will see high USMLE scores (for example, University of Flordia’s average score is better than many top med schools’).</p>
<p>Yeah, UF is very proud of it and will tell anyone who will listen. My friend who interviewed there said they mention it through the entire day. But it is something to be proud of.</p>
<p>keep in mind UWash is almost entirely in state students and their average input numbers (GPA/MCAT) are lower than most other top school. That’s the problem with looking at this data - of course schools like Penn/Baylor/WashU/Mayo are going to have high numbers, they take people with very smart people who have proven to be very good at standardized tests.</p>
<p>I will agree with you that Chicago’s is surprising though, given that the same logic should apply to them.</p>
<p>1) There’s fairly significant correlation between MCAT scores and Step 1 scores. It shouldn’t be a surprise that schools with higher entering MCAT scores do better and it may not reflect how well they teach.</p>
<p>2) There some schools which really emphasize USMLE material in their coursework and others which decidedly don’t.</p>
<p>3) As I’m sure BDM and S_C can attest, often each class within a school has it’s own unique personality, and despite lectures and topics which remain fairly constant from year to year, how each class responds to them varies. </p>
<p>4) When 93% of individuals pass on the first try, bragging about your 100% pass rate loses a significant chunk of meaning. </p>
<p>5) This may all become a moot point, if the NBME moves forward as proposed to creating some form of exam that combines all aspects of Step 1, Step 2 CK and Step 2 CS (and probably charges like 4 grand for the experience), which is supposed to be the case for students accepted to start school this fall (or maybe next, I forget).</p>
<p>6) Perhaps a more telling stat is the difference in scores between Step 1 and Step 2 CK…I’m not sure the exact measure of correlation between the scores, but at least they’re on the same numerical scale (though the raw scores may not/probably aren’t scaled in the same manner), so it appears that judging patterns of the data is more reliable. If there’s any correlation then consistent patterns of improvement for a school would demonstrate effective clinical instruction.</p>