The impact of surgery clerkship grades on applicant competitiveness for orthopaedic surgery residency match

Medical school clerkship grades are an important method for applicants to distinguish themselves when applying to residency programs. Given the lack of standardization among medical schools in the clerkship grading process, it has become more challenging for orthopaedic surgery residencies to ascertain the true value of surgery clerkship grades between applicants. This letter to the editor is a response to the article by Hoy et al., “Analysis of variability and trends in medical school clerkship grades,” and offers further perspectives on the variability of surgery clerkship grading and its effect on applicants.