As far as I understand it (just a 3rd yr. student), usmle scores are almost binary ... you need a certain score to not hurt your chances of getting interviews, and beyond that it's largely a novelty ("ooh, didn't even know the scores went up to 290 ..."). 230 sounds like it's in the "will not hurt you in most places" category.

As far as GPA ... I don't know how that translates to the more common H/HP/P scale, but sounds like somewhere closer to H than HP ... in which case that could help considerably. Of course, then you gotta figure in much more important factors like LORs, your school, its relationship with the program, etc etc.

In other words, not an easy question to answer, but your scores sound to me to be in the "wouldn't hurt you much if at all compared to other much more important things" range.

b

The other thing is, I'm also wondering whether I should audition at a very competitive program where I have little chance of getting in -- Harvard in my case.

On one hand, you could say that that's exactly where you should do an away ... because doing an away there means you have a small but finite chance of getting in, as well as a decent chance of having enough rapport with just 1 or 2 attendings who might write you very good LORs from the very good program. If you choose instead to do the away at "lesser" program, you have almost no chance of getting into the excellent program, *and* your LORs may have less clout.

I guess it could go either way, and depends on how big getting into the top program is. For me, it's the location, not the program ... I feel like I need some chance to get into a Boston program, even if it's tiny.

What do you wiser orthopods think?

b

For programs that have a Step I cutoff a 230 will be good enough for some but will also be below the level of many. Another big factor for programs that have a cutoff system is AOA status. Also, there are many programs that don't have specific cutoffs and will look at the total package. For the specific programs mentioned research is also important.

Crackbone