Why are people freaking out about school prestige when STEP 2 will probably become the next STEP 1?

[CuriousMDStudent]

Title says it all. Been admitted to a T15 but in hindsight I don’t really see all the advantages to it.

After taking some time to think about the news of STEP 1, why do people think school prestige will have a larger role? Won’t STEP 2 just become the next STEP 1 and the application process be similar in general?

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[Chibucks15]

Because SDN is incredible ego driven

 

[efle]

I think all the anxiety that it turns into an Old Boys Top Ranking Club like law school is two fold.

1) Good chance Step 2 CK joins Step 2 CS and Step 1 by being changed Pass/Fail if the exact same situation does arise again.

2) There's no established route to success on Step 2 CK. There's really no UFAPS comprehensive equivalent (UWorld Step 2 isn't nearly as good), no deck of 30,000 flashcards that people can grind through half a dozen times to assure preparedness. It's a much smaller deal right now, with usually only 2 weeks of preparation, and with many students not even taking the test in time for their scores to be a part of their residency match. The idea of this being able to replace Step 1 in just a couple years seems slim.

 

[deleted407021]

This sub is about to go through months of feverish speculation, it's going to be quite the struggle sesh.

 

[GoodNotGreat]

Title says it all. Been admitted to a T15 but in hindsight I don’t really see all the advantages to it.

After taking some time to think about the news of STEP 1, why do people think school prestige will have a larger role? Won’t STEP 2 just become the next STEP 1 and the application process be similar in general?

Maybe Step 2 becomes the yardstick Step 1 was - or maybe it doesn’t. There’s more ambiguity here than many posters, myself included, are comfortable with.

 

[libertyyne]

CK is going to go P/F too in a few years.
CK is delayed and messes with planning.

 

[deleted600623]

As an M1, all I’m worried about is if my scored exam will be retroactively graded as pass when I apply for residencies. I don’t think it makes sense for them to do it but we’re also talking about this governing body that doesn’t really think through a lot of things.

 

[efle]

As an M1, all I’m worried about is if my scored exam will be retroactively graded as pass when I apply for residencies. I don’t think it makes sense for them to do it but we’re also talking about this governing body that doesn’t really think through a lot of things.

It makes a ton of sense to do it retroactively.

Put yourself in the shoes of a PD at a competitive surgical program in 2022. You'd become completely familiar and reliant on Step 1 as your major yardstick, and Step 2 hasn't really been able to replace Step 1 in the short time it's been absent. Most of your applicants are coming from Pass/Fail preclinical curriculums, and many have clinical grades that are inflated, subjective, and generally not that useful. Everyone has a big pile of worthless case reports and middle authorships on small chart reviews. Everyone's MSPE raves about them and refuses to give ranks, or even quartiles anymore.

Along comes Mr. GapYears, who took some time off for research and has a 261 listed for Step 1. Wow! You know what that means!
His friend from the year below him in school, Mr. NoGap, has an extremely similar application with research years prior to med school but a Pass for Step 1.

You rank Mr. GapYears a lot better, and he matches at your program, while Mr. NoGap doesn't. In fact, Mr. NoGap falls surprisingly far down his rank list and is very upset.

Has Mr. NoGap been treated unfairly here? How do we know he didn't get a 270 and was simply unable to show so? Would you be comfortable arguing about it in court?

Seems much safer to just draw a deadline after all the current scoreholders have matched (sans MSTP), and then report everybody and anybody on ERAS as just Pass.

 

[efle]

A couple other things to add:

Some early match specialties that are competitive (Ophtho, Urology) will be very, very hard to get all your cores done and take Step 2 CK in time to know if you're competitive or have a score to show early in the cycle when interviews are being decided.

Some schools have shifted Step exams to after clinical core rotations. This means there would be entire cohorts of students between similar schools (e.g. Hopkins vs Penn) where one group got to display scores and the other group didn't.

There's just no way they can let that kind of advantage/disadvantage play into a cycle in just 2 years. It's gonna be a hard deadline where all ERAS reports is Pass/Fail, retro or not.

 

[Phloston]

CK is going to go P/F too in a few years.
CK is delayed and messes with planning.

So much for being a USMLE tutor. I'll have to start studying for the SATs again.

 

[Phloston]

As an M1, all I’m worried about is if my scored exam will be retroactively graded as pass when I apply for residencies. I don’t think it makes sense for them to do it but we’re also talking about this governing body that doesn’t really think through a lot of things.

Latter part of your statement is highly accurate it seems.

 

[Phloston]

It makes a ton of sense to do it retroactively.

Put yourself in the shoes of a PD at a competitive surgical program in 2022. You'd become completely familiar and reliant on Step 1 as your major yardstick, and Step 2 hasn't really been able to replace Step 1 in the short time it's been absent. Most of your applicants are coming from Pass/Fail preclinical curriculums, and many have clinical grades that are inflated, subjective, and generally not that useful. Everyone has a big pile of worthless case reports and middle authorships on small chart reviews. Everyone's MSPE raves about them and refuses to give ranks, or even quartiles anymore.

Along comes Mr. GapYears, who took some time off for research and has a 261 listed for Step 1. Wow! You know what that means!
His friend from the year below him in school, Mr. NoGap, has an extremely similar application with research years prior to med school but a Pass for Step 1.

You rank Mr. GapYears a lot better, and he matches at your program, while Mr. NoGap doesn't. In fact, Mr. NoGap falls surprisingly far down his rank list and is very upset.

Has Mr. NoGap been treated unfairly here? How do we know he didn't get a 270 and was simply unable to show so? Would you be comfortable arguing about it in court?

Seems much safer to just draw a deadline after all the current scoreholders have matched (sans MSTP), and then report everybody and anybody on ERAS as just Pass.

Good post here.

 

[libertyyne]

So much for being a USMLE tutor. I'll have to start studying for the SATs again.

There will always be demand for people who want to do well on shelves or some other objective thing that they will use to screen applicants.

 

[GoSpursGo]

There is no need for multiple threads on the Step 1 P/F decision. A lot of the concern brought up in this thread has been discussed in the main thread, and while there are no definitive answers at this time the discussion can continue in the main thread: Step 1 P/F: Decision