Step 1 Cut off - Need your info

This is in response to a message posted in the "rejections 2006-7" thread. Ongoing talk about programs' cutoff points, or if they even use one, will continue to occur. But let us get some objective data for a change, particularly for the applicants next year (which some of us might be), rather than listening to random college deans say things like "greater than 95% of the orthopaedic surgery programs use 230 as a cutoff to have your application reviewed". No offense intended to the poster of the above referenced message, I thank them for sharing and really starting this topic: Please cut/paste this list and add to it if you have another program or lower score than has previously been posted. I am starting with their programs and my own, organizing them by state alphabetically.

UCLA - 230
UC Davis - 230
San Francisco/St. Mary's program - 230
University of Florida - Jacksonville - 230
University of Illinois - 228
Southern Illinois University - 228
University of Kansas - 228
UMKC- 230
University of New Mexico - 230
University of Oklahoma - 230
Oregon Health Sciences - 230
Brown - 228
West Virginia - 228

where did you get this information? I can tell for sure that at least one of those is not true.

Dear dfagod1 and others,

Perhaps I was not clear in my post, my apologies. I am not at all saying that I believe these values represent the cutoff point for any of these programs, but these numbers represent scores that applicants got who later successfully received interview offers at these programs.

I am actually trying to show how low of a score one can have on Step 1 and STILL get interviews. In my experience, this is an area where the necessity to score highly is grossly overstated by most people, and trying to help out future people interested in ortho, but intimidated by people who propagate such information.

Maybe I will be proven wrong and >95% of the programs will, in fact, show cutoff scores of 230 or greater. But I strongly feel this is not true, as indicated in the original post. So, what I am asking for is exactly what you said in your post (if I am reading you correctly). If you know that one of these programs has offered an interview to an applicant with a lower score, then copy and paste the list as requested, and replace with the lower score. Additionally, please add programs. It would be nice for future applicants to have a complete list of programs based on our experience this year.

This would help:
1. Applicants save money assuming the cutoff points next year are similar , if a program actually uses cutoffs (which many do not, and may change their mind in doing so).
2. Applicants direct their efforts in choosing where to bust their asses on sub-internships.[/i]

.... take the list with a bigass grain of salt. i got interviews at 4 of those programs (at which i did NOT rotate) with a sub-220 step 1 score and an interesting application.

Ok, I think I see what you are going for here. You want to show that not all programs have absolute cutoffs, while also trying to find those that do. I cut and pasted the list here, but I put in bold my additions. Those that are saying this list is wrong, please correct it with your experience or first hand knowledge. Please indicate which programs were ones you rotated at, since I think that makes a difference at some programs.

UCLA - 230
UC Davis - 205 (rotated)
Loma Linda -205
San Francisco/St. Mary's program - 230
Stanford-205
Yale-205
University of Florida - Jacksonville - 205 (rotated)
University of Illinois - 228
Southern Illinois University - 228
University of Kansas - 228
UMKC- 230
University of New Mexico - 230
University of Oklahoma - 230
Oregon Health Sciences - 230
Brown - 228
West Virginia - 228[/b]

dportugal - THANK YOU! Someone finally understood. I guess I am not very good at explaining myself.

Novas - I am sorry that my message wasn't clear enough. If you have a sub-220 score and interviewed at places, then I think your information could be very valuable to other applicants in the future. The whole point of my post was so that they could have some data they DIDN'T, in fact, need to take with a "huge grain of salt", as much as possible with an online forum. Good luck this year, and please share if you feel comfortable doing so.

To restate: These scores are either what I, or someone I know, had for Step 1 and received an interview offer THIS YEAR for the program listed. There are obviously multiple other factors in the application process, but just trying to single out the one here for the purpose of cutoff points. If you, or someone you know, had a lower score and received an interview offer, then please post. And yes, I agree that it would also be useful to note the difference b/w rotator vs non-rotator, good call.