Table 3.

Average score of criteria that may negatively affect the acceptance of an applicant to residency programs in Kuwait, 2011

Rank	Criteria	Score*
1	Received disciplinary action in medical school	3.83
2	Received failure in a required clerkship	3.54
3	Took extended time to graduate for academic reasons	3.47
4	Spent a long period after internship to apply for a residency program	3.10
5	Graduated in the lower third of class	2.98
6	Received a failure in a preclinical course	2.84
7	Had family responsibilities	2.27
8	Did not participate in extracurricular activities during medical school	2.16

*Scoring scale:

5 = critically concerning; if present usually guarantee rejecting the applicant.

4 = very concerning; if present is likely used to reject the applicant.

3 = not very concerning; may be considered to reject applicants if there is a strong competition between applicants.

2 = rarely considered as concerning; rarely used to reject applicants.

1 = not a concern; not used at all in rejecting applicants.