USMLE Secretariat
3750 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104-3102
Telephone: (215) 590-9700
Fax: (215) 590-9460
E-mail: [email protected]
This is the contact information for the USMLE Secretariat. I will be writing letters, and you all should be as well. Physical letters would be better than emails. Make your voice heard. For those who don’t understand what’s happening with this new Pass/Fail system that is being proposed, I will try and highlight some of the issues that will arise. If the USMLE step 1 becomes pass/fail:
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IMGs will have a much much harder time matching because the Residency programs will start looking at school name/prestige and school GPA more. Also, they will start looking at published research, clinical rotations, and LORS much more because their importance will increase, which would make it extremely difficult for IMGs to match because it’s very difficult and expensive to get these things (research, LORs, etc…). The only thing that IMGs have over the AMGs (American medical graduates) is the USMLE score. If this change happens, residency programs would rather choose AMGs with more research, LORs, and clinical experience than an IMG who only has 1-2 month rotation and a Pass in Step 1. An AMG who barely passed the USMLE would match much easier than an IMG with a very high passing score, as it wouldn’t make a difference.
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AMGs from low tier med schools would have a much harder time matching as school prestige would be a huge factor now. Students wouldn’t be able to compete against med students from higher ranking med schools such as Harvard, Stanford etc…
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Where would that put the Step 2 CK and CS? I heard one of the suggestions at the conference was to increase importance of the Step 2 CS; perhaps even make it numerically graded.
All in all, if it concerns you, write letters. Your voice will be heard.