A top medical school saves slots for students with no organic chem, physics or MCATs

[FutureENTSurgeon]

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Not true. It is only a minor part of what we look at in surgical residency. The letter from your chair and the “good old boy” phone call from someone we know is the most important factor. We see lots of kids who do great on MCATs and do terrible on their rotations and are ignored on their applications.

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<h1>1- I said ONE of the most important factors not THE most important factor</h1>

<h1>2- Are you really going to tell me that the USMLE Step 1 is “minor” factor when a residency director looks at his/her applicants?</h1>

<p>This is a family friends response when i asked him what are the factors for selecting residents. he was a residency director for UCSF Medical Center around 15-20 years ago. </p>

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You apply to residency the beginning of your 4th year. You need to take the all important USMLE Step 1, then you need three letters of recommendation, and depending on the how competitive the residency program (Plastics, Derm., Neurosurgery to name a few) you’re applying to another factor is research. It will be very helpful. Being published is always a huge plus. </p>

<p>Your success at applying to residency is based on. </p>

<ol>
<li>USMLE Step 1 scores (obivous reasons, shows how much you know. the higher the score the better chance you have at matching into your chosen residency. if low some students take Step 2 before applying to better their application.)</li>
<li>3rd year rotation grades (this shows us how much of your knowledge you an apply in a clinical setting)</li>
<li>letters of recommendation (helps a lot if you get it from someone who is famous in their field)</li>
<li>Personal Statement (self explanatory</li>
<li>1st and 2nd year grades year grades (for obvious reason though not as important as 3rd year grades)</li>
<li>extracurriculars (research)</li>
<li>name of your med school (prestige dosent play a very huge role in the applications but it does help)</li>
</ol>

<p>Then after all that you will be invited for the all important interview. Pretty obivious just how important a interview is.

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<p>enough said. Im sure bluedevilmike will agree with most of what i have said about the importance of Step 1 scores. </p>

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That’s absolutely true. The fact that HuMeds do just as well as the rest of us traditional applicants means that you don’t need 32 weeks of orgo and physics to succeed - maybe it’s us traditional applicants who are wasting our time.

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<p>I can understand your argument but lets digress for second. becoming psychiatrist is not the goal for most medical students. Comprehensive O-chem and Intro Physics is best because then you can be better equiped if you choose to go into research. In Research fields such as biochemistry, pathology, pharmacology its very beneficial to have a good background in O-chem. On the other if for the medical students that want to go into biomedical enginnering research a good physics background is essential. </p>

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People like #60 need to remember that this program doesn’t actually obviate the sciences. You will still have to do them in medical school and use them throughout your medical career. If your interest is international public health and NOT physiology, or health policy and NOT science, or social determinants for health and NOT “the immediate biology”–</p>

<p>– then you do not belong in medical school. There are other schools for people with your interests.

For the third time in this thread bluedevilmike I agree with you</p>