derm personal statement, interest in private practice

[deleted647155]

When writing my personal statement for dermatology, how do I portray my future plans in a positive light? I'm interested in private practice/community derm and not interested in academics at all. I just want to work as your local neighborhood friendly derm lol.

But I've also heard that derm programs prefer students who express interest in academics (since academic derms are choosing residents after all).

Any ideas on how to convey my interest in pp derm in a positive light? confused as to how tomwrite this...

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[dermie1985]

When writing my personal statement for dermatology, how do I portray my future plans in a positive light? I'm interested in private practice/community derm and not interested in academics at all. I just want to work as your local neighborhood friendly derm lol.

But I've also heard that derm programs prefer students who express interest in academics (since academic derms are choosing residents after all).

Any ideas on how to convey my interest in pp derm in a positive light? confused as to how tomwrite this...

While some programs won't care whether or not you want to go into private practice (heck, 90% of derms go this way anyway), I wouldn't necessarily advertise it in a personal statement. I've seen it work out for some people...but these, say, are people coming from rural areas without a dermatologist who want to go back and serve their home community. The safe "correct" answer...even if you aren't interested in academic medicine...is academic medicine.

That being said, I don't think discussing patient care and serving your community is incongruent with academic medicine. I might suggest choosing the general themes of why you like clinical practice without stating "private practice" by name.