Grades on Away Rotations

Dear Dr. Levine,

At my school, no honors are awarded for any student during their fourth year sub-internships and electives. The grading system is satisfactory and unsatisfactory no matter how well you perform on an away rotation. Being that there are many outstanding applicants who apply for orthopaedic surgery residency positions that have honored the majority of their away rotations, I was curious how much of a disadvantage this puts students at my school in who are applying for competitive residencies like orthopaedic surgery.

Thank you.

It is very important that your transcript denotes that HONORS is not available as a grading option for your 4th year sub-I's. As long as this is noted then it should not hurt you - if it is not clear, however, then it could be detrimental to your application.

Good luck --

wnl

Dr. Levine,

Thank you very much for your response.

Unfortunately, my school's fourth year grading process isn't explained anywhere on the transcript. It is mentioned very briefly in an appendix on our MSPE, which can be easily overlooked due to the fact that you'd have to search for it and residency program committees understandably have a ton of work as it is reading through hundreds of applications on top of their already busy schedules.

I did have a couple more questions with regards to this situation I'm very much hoping you could answer:

Do some residency programs screen based on honors earned in orthopaedic surgery electives and sub-internships?

Can strong letters of recommendation help balance out this situation, or will letters hold less weight or possibly not even be looked at because honors listed next to orthopaedic surgery electives and sub-internships is expected by residency committees?

Thank you very much again for taking the time to read and reply to my post. It is very much appreciated.

I would say that most places do not screen based on sub-I's and look more at the other criteria that has frequently been discussed on this forum. If it comes up during an interview of course you can simply point out that Honors was not an option. Yes, strong LORs can be very influential depending on who wrote them and how strong they are --

good luck

wnl