Low-pass/marginal for Surgery

[BigSkyMontana45]

I just found out I low-pass/marginal-pass Surgery clerkship. Got a 72 on the shelf, but got hammered on a evaluation with across the board 1s on a 0-4 scale.

I want to go into Internal Medicine and become a hospitalist. How screwed am I with the match? I don't care to go into anywhere prestigious, but somewhere that can get me a decent chance of matching into a fellowship. Thank you!

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[Instatewaiter]

I just found out I low-pass/marginal-pass Surgery clerkship. Got a 72 on the shelf, but got hammered on a evaluation with across the board 1s on a 0-4 scale.

I want to go into Internal Medicine and become a hospitalist. How screwed am I with the match? I don't care to go into anywhere prestigious, but somewhere that can get me a decent chance of matching into a fellowship. Thank you!

Depends on other factors like your board scores and strength of your medical school. It is very different if we are talking about a guy with a 260 on step 1 from Penn with honors on everything else vs a guy with a 192 from the Caribbean who barely squeaked by everything else.

Tell us about yourself. Broad terms are fine like low 220s from a mid tier midwestern md program or 210s from west coast DO school.

 

[BigSkyMontana45]

Depends on other factors like your board scores and strength of your medical school. It is very different if we are talking about a guy with a 260 on step 1 from Penn with honors on everything else vs a guy with a 192 from the Caribbean who barely squeaked by everything else.

Tell us about yourself. Broad terms are fine like low 220s from a mid tier midwestern md program or 210s from west coast DO school.

MD midtier. P for everything else. 230s step 1.

 

[Code Blah]

If you get 250+ step 2, and you knock your acting internship during MS4 out of the park and get great evals (and thus great recommendation letters from those attendings), you'll have a shot at large academic programs like UKentucky, UTennessee, etc. If in addition, you have great research, then you'll have a shot at the next tier like Baylor, UTSW, Vandy, etc. Otherwise, apply broadly, and apply to a lot of community programs. Some community programs like Ochsner in NOLA and Kaiser in Cali have decent fellowship matches.

 

[WeeBay]

I would be much more worried about WHY you got such a terrible eval. You shouldnt be screwed because of the grade, but I would be concened that you are doing something really wrong, or are giving a really bad impression to some people... and that can get you blacklisted from entire specialties.

 

[general admission]

The truth is that everything matters. To what extent is another story, and probably not one worth scrutinizing too much. In general, try your best to do well at everything that's still within your control. In this case, that's Step 2, the rest of your clinical grades, publishing research, and getting fantastic letters of recommendation by knowing your writers, being personable, and working hard.

To answer your question more directly, it's not optimal, but by no means the end of the world. Assuming all else stays steady, you'll easily match somewhere that will give you great training to be a hospitalist. Just w/ what I know, I would aim to apply to University Academic programs like Indiana, Case, Kansas, etc (depending on your geographic region), with some reaches (Mayo, Chicago) and safeties (community programs). You can sort out those specifics later.

Also, as has been said, you need to sort out why you received poor evals. As someone recently in your shoes and now on the other side of the equation, things like that are rarely inconsequential or a mistake on the evaluators' part - we notice what you do, how you behave and your desire to learn. Be honest with yourself with the goal of improving for next time.