Weight of clerkship grades

The top 10% gets Honors and the next 15% get High Pass. Otherwise there is only satisfactory. I'm not sure what percentile/score would fail, but it's not many of us. I've been pretty middle of the road on most rotations (my guess would be 60th percentile or so), but in the satisfactory range. The Ortho electives, however, are more subjective as there is no NBME shelf exam. I don't believe they stick to any percentiles. I hope this clarifies things; I'm happy to provide more info if needed.

Gotchya. I am just a current applicant, so I can't say I know what the committee talks about when they are screening applicants. But it is going to be a tough fight for you to get interviews. It all goes back to the numbers game: most programs get 100 apps/spot and will interview the top 10% of their applicants.

How good was your Step 1 score?

The rest of your app seems good, do you know what the issue is with your clerkship grades? Is it personality conflicts, poor shelfs/practicals, or what?

This applies to non-military programs, I don't know anything about the military programs.

A tough fight for interviews as in something I can compensate for by applying to 80 programs? Please be as honest as possible (not saying you haven't been) as I don't want to give up on my number 1 choice but also do not want to waste my/others' time and energy chasing a pipe dream. I got a 245 on step 1. My clerkship grades aren't stellar because of my average shelf scores. The only shelf I really beat my classmates on was surgery so far. My class has been well above the national average typically for shelfs, but I'm not sure what the significance of that is. It's not a personality issue though (I hope) - I've gotten along well with all my teams and work hard.

Civilian programs will be tough with a 245 and those grades, unless you have outstanding research. I would apply to 100+ programs.

However, don't count yourself out at all. My friend had a lower step 1 score than you with similar grades and matched in the military ortho programs. As I mentioned, those are almost entirely dependent on how well you do at your away rotations. You should rotate at as many as possible and bust your ass because those six programs all talk to each other. What branch of the military are you in? I think the Army has it the easiest. Even for the army though, fewer than 50% got an ortho spot.

Teggie wrote: Gotchya. I am just a current applicant, so I can't say I know what the committee talks about when they are screening applicants. But it is going to be a tough fight for you to get interviews. It all goes back to the numbers game: most programs get 100 apps/spot and will interview the top 10% of their applicants.

How good was your Step 1 score?

The rest of your app seems good, do you know what the issue is with your clerkship grades? Is it personality conflicts, poor shelfs/practicals, or what?

I was wondering if it will be a tough fight for me to get interviews as well? I received a 250 on step 1 but have yet to honor a rotation. I have one P(FM 1st rotation) and 4 HP(peds, IM, psych, neuro). H/HP/P scale. 10-20% get honors depending on the rotation. Thanks.