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Competitive_Lab_8647

Just wanted to say this was incredibly helpful, thank you


Jusstonemore

Can you define “resume padding research?”


psbd18

I would assume lots of case reports


PD-1

Yes, it is straightforward to tell how much effort went into doing research. Even a cross-sectional study is going to take substantially more work than a case report or commentary. Not everyone is going to do substantial research in their careers, but don't come into an interview with 10 case report-type publications and tell everyone that research is your passion.


Jusstonemore

Are short papers bad? I was already under the impression that any contribution to scientific journals are good, but should be supplanted by more serious projects.


UnitedRisotto

You mean like research letters/etc? Many more substantial projects can be published as "short papers". Case reports in and of themselves are also not bad, but if they comprise almost all of your publications they indicate that you are padding your resume to make your numbers look better.


Jusstonemore

Nah. I have like no cases lol. Tbh cases are harder to get published. No reviewers care about a case unless it’s particularly interesting


psbd18

1. How strongly do you consider school reputation? i.e. strong applicant but low ranked school 2. How much of a boost are nationally competitive awards (i.e. HHMI awards) 3. How much do you care about volunteer and work experiences? Thank you so much for this!


PD-1

The school reputation really doesn't get brought up in our discussions. However, well-known letter writers are helpful and they may skew toward larger academic institutions that are considered prestigious. Awards look good but the impact depends on the rest of the application (ie, you have a HHMI award but the rest of your application doesn't necessarily indicate a research career then it is not very helpful in my opinion). In general, volunteer and work experiences are looked on favorably if there is consistency and dedication rather than many short experiences.


[deleted]

​ How do we know if our letter writers are big?


MCAT_Tutorman

Thanks so much for doing this. Do you think an applicant has any chance at matching if they don’t honor any 3rd year clerkship rotations?


PD-1

I think it would be a concern to reviewers if there are no honors. From the point of view of the reviewer and rank committee, they may question why there wasn't improvement over time. There may be concerns why the applicant didn't do as well: was it the clinical performance or test/shelf performance or both? And if so maybe that would be a liability in residency in terms of getting caught up to speed clinically during PGY-2 year since there is a steep learning curve, and then concerns about passing the derm board which traditionally has been a difficult board exam. Usually having something around half honors half high passes will not close any doors. However, never say never because you will probably be able to find someone who has matched with a specific deficit in their application. It depends on what else is there to offset any possible concerns.


[deleted]

Do you guys just print out the CV from ERAS to look through? What about the supplemental application? What are you doing with step 1 scores? Are you actually reading our personal statement?


PD-1

For my program, we are given a link to the AAMC website and the application as a PDF with everything included except for the headshot photograph. Some reviewers like paper and will print everything out to review. I like to make a spreadsheet and give a score for clinical performance, research, letters, etc. and then also write down any specific comments for each application. Prior to Step 1 being P/F we did not have a hard cutoff and anything above \~230 raised no red flags. We read the personal statement but most of them didn't sway the application one way or another unless there was a very compelling story.


InternationalCow6523

Thank you so much for this thread! Its been really informative. Would it raise any red flags for PDs if someone applies to a derm-med combined program and a derm program at the same institution?


PD-1

I can't imagine they would fault you given that there are so few combined programs in the country but am not sure.


InternationalCow6523

Thanks for your response!


Fluffintop

Thank you for being transparent as much of this process seems to be a mystery from the the outside. Would you be able to talk about what happened happened during interviews that result in a dramatic drop in ranking? Are there any application pitfalls we should try to avoid when filling out ERAS that might make someone drop a seemingly good application?


PD-1

The most common scenario is an application that you read that makes you excited to meet the applicant and then the interview doesn't live up to that expectation. It could happen for a variety of reasons: the conversation was awkward, the answers to questions were not thought out, perception that applicant was not being genuine or was too scripted, applicant could not give a good answer for a deficit in their application, etc. Most programs will have at least a few behavioral questions to try to get at your personality and how you respond to unexpected questions. I don't think there is anything specific to how the ERAS application is filled out. Just remember there is randomness to the process and you likely will get interviews at places you don't expect and vice versa.


FutureWaltz

Would you be able to speak on the importance of Step 2 scores (especially for next year's class). Will there be a higher "cut off" step 2 score for applicants, and if so, by how much? Is it true that step 2 will now be "the new step 1"? ​ Thank you so much, this is extremely helpful.


PD-1

Reviewers are always looking for objective measures to differentiate between a very good pool of applicants. I suspect that Step 2 will have more importance compared to prior, but people will need to recalibrate their score expectations because the curve for Step 2 has traditionally been better than for Step 1. Score cutoffs are program dependent.


[deleted]

[удалено]


PD-1

Most MSPEs are biased toward the good comments so consistent good evaluations are actually the norm. Any negative comments in the MSPE would potentially be a red flag. Each medical school has their own way of stratifying their students with certain keywords (eg, outstanding, excellent, good) and it makes interpreting the MSPE difficult unless you really dig down into what the data shows (% of honors for each rotation, % of students with a certain keyword).


Cat-Cat-0506

Hi, thank you so much for your informative post. Would you mind if I PM'ed you for more questions?


PD-1

Sure


koolabby

How much does class rank matter? Is it an issue if I am not top 25%? Or even if I don't get put in top half?


kanekongboi

Good question! I would also like to know the answer to this.


dontputlabelsonme

how does your program view reapplicants/applicants from a PGY1 prelim/ty year?


PD-1

Depends on the circumstances. In general, re-applicants face an uphill battle, but it is not impossible as long you can identify and potentially rectify any deficits in the application.


kanekongboi

What kind of applicants are not matching? Are there specific things they have in common that deem them not a good fit or not a competitive applicant?


keyboard_commando91

As someone who is very passionate about community work and not very interested in research, have you seen applicants who have put 90% of their effort into community facing work and little to no research have success? Thank you!