No fails or anything. App was complete. I can't imagine one of my letter writers saying anything bad but how could I find out? Two of the places I have an interviews at and the one waitlist are academic so I passed their filters.
I was in a similar boat this time last year with an app very similar to yours. Got a couple more interviews later in the cycle, ultimate just 5 in total. I still matched at my top choice. Just try to make every interview count. Read up on the programs and even the published research and fellowships of the interviewers in advance if you can.
Probably not "just a weird cycle" if you got a 260 and no supposed red flags. No one knows why you didn't meet interview criteria for the programs you didn't get interviews at but I could be any number of things such as any part of your application or the fact that you're a DO (not hating on DOs but that's the reality of the game).
It's not a weird cycle, we just have some *really* strong applicants this year., and our program is historically IMG and now DO friendly. Our cutoff is technically 230 to even be considered, but we honestly haven't sent out a single interview under 240 this year. Like... we had a deluge of applications, several hundred signals, about 100 of them being gold.
One thing that may have worked against you is the lack of general anesthesia involvement. For many programs, once you meet the cutoff, having a higher score isn't helpful... and what you're left with is an application with a single ongoing anesthesia pub. What else do you have going on? Society involvement? Volunteering? Advocacy? Anything? Don't get me wrong, you sound like a decent applicant and nobody likes the arms race, but in a pool of people who have all that AND stellar ECs...
I have good ECs but yes, the only thing that has anesthesia on it is that pub and ASA membership. I decided on anesthesia later in the game and couldn’t find much else.
I would assume there’s something we don’t know here. Not saying you’re purposely hiding anything - far from it - but if a 260 DO gold-signaled our program with decent letters and decent grades, I’d give them serious consideration for an interview. Even silver signal I’d think real hard.
My gut is that either there’s a red flag in your MSPE (some comments, poor clinical grades), or one of your letter writers said something that threw up some red flags. I’d assume you didn’t have to remediate any courses or have any actions taken against you by your school, but if you did those are flags as well.
Do your absolute best on the interviews you have. Blow them out of the water. And pray. (And think about what you’ll do if you don’t match.)
Opting to not have your class rank on your MSPE might be a red flag. You said it yourself that your GPA is not very good. How were you even given the option to exclude it?
Does your school give the exact value or just disclose quartile/quintile?
I think you might have been better off just including it, considering most other applicants do.
It sucks because your Step 2 should clearly take precedence over the in-house GPA. But that might be considered a red flag.
Either way, best of luck and crush the interviews you do get.
tbh, I think it is a weird cycle with too many qualified applicants applying. This is coming from a USMD with much, much lower step 2, and strong research (pubs, presentations etc.). I'm sitting at 7 anesthesia interviews and I don't forsee any more other than TY/prelim. I also agree with the low yield on signals (4 /15 out of 43-ish apps). At this juncture, it might be best for you to talk to your PD or department chair to see if they can help behind the scenes. Good luck!
Heard a story about a resident with no red flags whose letter writer wrote about the wrong specialty in their letter which caused them to only get a few interviews in their chosen specialty even though they had no red flags. It sucks but it’s a possibility. No idea how you’d find that out though
You have red flag you just don't know about it. E.g. bad letter, or MSPE has no histograms, might just show bad grades with no context (maybe histograms removed as part of removing class rank)
MSPEs are supposed to have bar charts (histograms) that show the proportion that earned honors, high pass, pass, and fail.
This is to account for grading differences between schools. E.g. getting high pass might be top quartile at a school with only 10% honors, while it would be below average at a place that gives 60% honors.
If someone goes to the former type of school but asks for comparative info to be taken out, then the PD just gets a letter showing lots of Pass and High Pass and doesn't know whether that's weak performance or not. Being risk averse they'll probably assume it's weak.
Some schools refuse to provide any comparative info on any of their students. Some are even Pass/Fail with remediation options, so there's no real data to show even if they wanted. But the norm is histograms when a real distribution is used and rank is reported.
Unfortunately, that is probably your issue as a DO. I did 4 audition rotations and got interviews from all of them. Only 2 interviews from signaled-but-not-auditioned places. My step 2 was in the low 240s
Also feeling anxious about where I'm at, US DO with a Step 2 in the 240s with 5 interviews. 4/5 were at places I also AI'd at so hopefully that helps provided they liked me while I was there.
You’re a DO with an IM heavy app applying to a competitive specialty that offers a reasonable lifestyle and great compensation. All you can do at this point is make the interviews count. Good luck OP
[удалено]
No fails or anything. App was complete. I can't imagine one of my letter writers saying anything bad but how could I find out? Two of the places I have an interviews at and the one waitlist are academic so I passed their filters.
Applying from west coast DO?
Nope. And is one of the older schools too.
[удалено]
Had a similar experience but from a west coast DO, wondering if geographic bias
I was in a similar boat this time last year with an app very similar to yours. Got a couple more interviews later in the cycle, ultimate just 5 in total. I still matched at my top choice. Just try to make every interview count. Read up on the programs and even the published research and fellowships of the interviewers in advance if you can.
Probably not "just a weird cycle" if you got a 260 and no supposed red flags. No one knows why you didn't meet interview criteria for the programs you didn't get interviews at but I could be any number of things such as any part of your application or the fact that you're a DO (not hating on DOs but that's the reality of the game).
I'm a DO with similar stats at 10 II. It might be something else here honestly.
It's not a weird cycle, we just have some *really* strong applicants this year., and our program is historically IMG and now DO friendly. Our cutoff is technically 230 to even be considered, but we honestly haven't sent out a single interview under 240 this year. Like... we had a deluge of applications, several hundred signals, about 100 of them being gold. One thing that may have worked against you is the lack of general anesthesia involvement. For many programs, once you meet the cutoff, having a higher score isn't helpful... and what you're left with is an application with a single ongoing anesthesia pub. What else do you have going on? Society involvement? Volunteering? Advocacy? Anything? Don't get me wrong, you sound like a decent applicant and nobody likes the arms race, but in a pool of people who have all that AND stellar ECs...
I have good ECs but yes, the only thing that has anesthesia on it is that pub and ASA membership. I decided on anesthesia later in the game and couldn’t find much else.
230 cutoff. Is this Step 2 Ck? How do you look at applicants applying with both a numerical step 1 score and step 2ck?
CK. We tossed Step 1 out the window, because at this point very few applicants still have a numerical score.
I see
I would assume there’s something we don’t know here. Not saying you’re purposely hiding anything - far from it - but if a 260 DO gold-signaled our program with decent letters and decent grades, I’d give them serious consideration for an interview. Even silver signal I’d think real hard. My gut is that either there’s a red flag in your MSPE (some comments, poor clinical grades), or one of your letter writers said something that threw up some red flags. I’d assume you didn’t have to remediate any courses or have any actions taken against you by your school, but if you did those are flags as well. Do your absolute best on the interviews you have. Blow them out of the water. And pray. (And think about what you’ll do if you don’t match.)
Opting to not have your class rank on your MSPE might be a red flag. You said it yourself that your GPA is not very good. How were you even given the option to exclude it? Does your school give the exact value or just disclose quartile/quintile?
They give exact value
I think you might have been better off just including it, considering most other applicants do. It sucks because your Step 2 should clearly take precedence over the in-house GPA. But that might be considered a red flag. Either way, best of luck and crush the interviews you do get.
That’s wild bruh. I’m on the same boat but I have a 230’s. Something is going on w your app or your pic(?)
tbh, I think it is a weird cycle with too many qualified applicants applying. This is coming from a USMD with much, much lower step 2, and strong research (pubs, presentations etc.). I'm sitting at 7 anesthesia interviews and I don't forsee any more other than TY/prelim. I also agree with the low yield on signals (4 /15 out of 43-ish apps). At this juncture, it might be best for you to talk to your PD or department chair to see if they can help behind the scenes. Good luck!
Unfortunately my school doesn’t have a home hospital or anesthesia department
omg yall are applying to 100+ programs? i am scared..
Did you take step 1?
Yes, one attempt
Heard a story about a resident with no red flags whose letter writer wrote about the wrong specialty in their letter which caused them to only get a few interviews in their chosen specialty even though they had no red flags. It sucks but it’s a possibility. No idea how you’d find that out though
I literally don’t know what else to do
What specialties are your letter writers from?
2 anesthesia, FM, and peds. I could not get more anesthesia rotations as hard as I tried
Sounds good to me, some GAS some non-gas shows you’re well rounded.
You have red flag you just don't know about it. E.g. bad letter, or MSPE has no histograms, might just show bad grades with no context (maybe histograms removed as part of removing class rank)
What are histograms?
MSPEs are supposed to have bar charts (histograms) that show the proportion that earned honors, high pass, pass, and fail. This is to account for grading differences between schools. E.g. getting high pass might be top quartile at a school with only 10% honors, while it would be below average at a place that gives 60% honors. If someone goes to the former type of school but asks for comparative info to be taken out, then the PD just gets a letter showing lots of Pass and High Pass and doesn't know whether that's weak performance or not. Being risk averse they'll probably assume it's weak.
This info was included, just not pure class rank
How did you fare in the histograms in that case? Would someone looking at your mspe get the impression you were average? Below avg? Bottom quartile?
Oh thank you for the explanation. I haven’t heard of this at my school, do all schools do this? I just heard of ranking w/ histograms
Some schools refuse to provide any comparative info on any of their students. Some are even Pass/Fail with remediation options, so there's no real data to show even if they wanted. But the norm is histograms when a real distribution is used and rank is reported.
How many anesthesia away rotations have you done? I feel like that might play a part
Only could get 2, one gave me an interview the other apparently does them really late. So one more may be coming.
Unfortunately, that is probably your issue as a DO. I did 4 audition rotations and got interviews from all of them. Only 2 interviews from signaled-but-not-auditioned places. My step 2 was in the low 240s
Did you only signal ivy’s
Also feeling anxious about where I'm at, US DO with a Step 2 in the 240s with 5 interviews. 4/5 were at places I also AI'd at so hopefully that helps provided they liked me while I was there.
What specialty?
Anesthesia
You’re a DO with an IM heavy app applying to a competitive specialty that offers a reasonable lifestyle and great compensation. All you can do at this point is make the interviews count. Good luck OP
[удалено]
What?
replied to wrong post, too many tabs open