advice from dr. levine

hey dr. levine, i want to thank you for your informative posts and helpful advice. I got some helpful information from you last time, at this point i am a third year student at a top 25 school on the east coast. i have a 252 step 1, but i am finding the nature of third year grading to be extremely arbitrary such that i cannot gurantee myself all high passes/honors but find myself getting mostly passes. i work extremely hard but the grading system is just so whimsical. i love ortho and cant do anything else. do u suggest i take a year off for research, or international work? all i really have is my step 1 score, my school name, a few decent extracurriculars and not much else. in order to match at a program like columbia, is there anything else i can do- research pubs from a year off, international work for a year, etc that can make me a better applicant? or do u suggest a research elective- and apply. i dont mind where i get in as long as i can do ortho. even community programs are great...but mu goal is a program like columbia.

Under no circumstances would I suggest that you take a year off given your situation (Unless you truly want to do so to get off the "conveyor belt"). Your USLME score will get you past everyone's screens and then it will come to other issues - your application, your letters of recommendation, etc... I think everyone realizes that not everyone can get Honors on clinical rotations and that it is arbitrary in some schools for sure.

I would apply broadly and I am sure you will get plenty of interviews (we had a Columbia student 3 years ago match who had a 250 USLME score and virtually nothing else particularly distinguishing on his application -- you just need to get interviews and then you're on equal footing with the 40-50 other students also being interviewed by the program.

As always, good luck!

wnl