Step II or Sub-I for first block? Struggling...

Whether or not you decide to take Step 2 early or not, one thing to consider is that you dont necessarily need the score to be released by Sept 1 to be early. The majority of programs I interviewed at didn't send out invitations to interview until after Nov 1 when the deans letter comes out. With that said, depending on your school's schedule you could probably do your home sub-i and maybe even an away rotation or so before you take Step 2 and your score would be available to the majority of places you apply to before they make decisions for interviews.

Yeah, that's interesting. The consensus amongst the residents here is that ~1/2 programs nationwide start to download/evaluate applications on Sep 1st, whereas the other 1/2 wait until the dean's letter. Assuming that my CK score doesn't show up until mid-Sep, can I rely on the notion that the early cohort of programs will find out and/or care about my score? I would notify them, of course...