Another "what are my chances" question...

[melanie78217]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hi guys. I am asking this because I have applied to a bunch of away rotations and had a few rejections which has made me nervous. Hoping these rejections are not reflections on my competitiveness for residency. SO here goes..

I'm applying for derm. Long story short, I loved all my rotations third year and when it came time to do ERAS at the beginning of fourth year, I didn't feel ready to make the decision without exploring some specialties I was interested in but had never had the chance to explore. So I didn't apply and spent my last semester of fourth year doing pathology, radiology, dermatology, etc. Fell in love with derm and so now I'm applying in the fall. So I extended my fourth year (will graduate in dec 2014) in order to keep student status so I can do aways in derm. I could have graduated on time, all requirements were met, but I chose to extend (just to be clear because whenever I tell people I'm graduating late, their first instinct is to assume I screwed up somehow! which is totally understandable but for the purpose of my question, I want that to be clear). So here are my stats:

attended average allopathic med school
GPA 3.9
Step 1 = 250
Step 2 = 248
junior AOA
1 case presentation at my schools research day ( not published), 1 case presentation published in state medical journal
fair amount of of comm service
great lettters emphasizing that my 3rd year faculty think my decision to extend was "brave" and "showed incredible insight" (very kind mentors I have)

I'm weak in research obviously! And I'm worried schools may look at my extension and see it as a red flag. Just need a little reassurance that I'm not totally crazy to go for derm with those two things on the radar. Thank you and please be kind!

 

[pathologyDO]

.

 

[Anastomoses]

I have no idea but I'm wishing you the best. Scores look good 🙂 Maybe try the derm forum?

 

[DermViser]

Hi guys. I am asking this because I have applied to a bunch of away rotations and had a few rejections which has made me nervous. Hoping these rejections are not reflections on my competitiveness for residency. SO here goes..

I'm applying for derm. Long story short, I loved all my rotations third year and when it came time to do ERAS at the beginning of fourth year, I didn't feel ready to make the decision without exploring some specialties I was interested in but had never had the chance to explore. So I didn't apply and spent my last semester of fourth year doing pathology, radiology, dermatology, etc. Fell in love with derm and so now I'm applying in the fall. So I extended my fourth year (will graduate in dec 2014) in order to keep student status so I can do aways in derm. I could have graduated on time, all requirements were met, but I chose to extend (just to be clear because whenever I tell people I'm graduating late, their first instinct is to assume I screwed up somehow! which is totally understandable but for the purpose of my question, I want that to be clear). So here are my stats:

attended average allopathic med school
GPA 3.9
Step 1 = 250
Step 2 = 248
junior AOA
1 case presentation at my schools research day ( not published), 1 case presentation published in state medical journal
fair amount of of comm service
great lettters emphasizing that my 3rd year faculty think my decision to extend was "brave" and "showed incredible insight" (very kind mentors I have)

I'm weak in research obviously! And I'm worried schools may look at my extension and see it as a red flag. Just need a little reassurance that I'm not totally crazy to go for derm with those two things on the radar. Thank you and please be kind!

Probably more helpful for you to paste this in the "Opinion Wanted: What are my chances in matching into Dermatology?" sticky thread in the Dermatology forum.

 

[Wordead]

You didn't actually say if your letters are going to be from dermatologists. 3rd year faculty sounds like youre just getting them from other specialties.

 

[melanie78217]

Probably more helpful for you to paste this in the "Opinion Wanted: What are my chances in matching into Dermatology?" sticky thread in the Dermatology forum.

Will do! Thanks.

 

[melanie78217]

You didn't actually say if your letters are going to be from dermatologists. 3rd year faculty sounds like youre just getting them from other specialties.

One is from a dermatologist, other two are from 3rd year faculty (family medicine doc I worked with for two months and neurologist I worked with for one month). Thanks!

 

[melanie78217]

I have no idea but I'm wishing you the best. Scores look good 🙂 Maybe try the derm forum?

Thank you!

 

[neusu]

Scores are ok. Do some research. Call me later.

 

[atomi]

So I didn't apply and spent my last semester of fourth year doing pathology, radiology, dermatology, etc. Fell in love with derm and so now I'm applying in the fall. So I extended my fourth year (will graduate in dec 2014) in order to keep student status so I can do aways in derm. I could have graduated on time, all requirements were met, but I chose to extend (just to be clear because whenever I tell people I'm graduating late, their first instinct is to assume I screwed up somehow! which is totally understandable but for the purpose of my question, I want that to be clear). So here are my stats:

I have no idea what your chances are, but with a 250 step 1 and 2, you are well above the threshold where you risk not matching due to auto-screening. I.e., at this point nobody can tell you that your chances aren't good enough for it to have a meaningful impact on your decision to pursue derm, so trying to get a feeler at this point isn't going to really do much for you except either add to or ease neuroticism.

But, to be honest, if I were interviewing you and read on your PS or you told me some variation of what is quoted above, I would think to myself "hmm, something doesn't add up." So you went into 4th year undecided on a specialty, decided not to submit ERAS, and instead explored sub-specialties through 4th year electives and otherwise would have graduated on time. This sounds reasonable at first, except that it's unheard of. Virtually everybody submits an ERAS application to something during their last year of school unless they are leaving the medical profession. Plenty of people decide to take an extra year or two, but this is almost always for a very specific reason (e.g., to earn an MPH or MBA or for a family/health reason) and they always submit ERAS in their terminal year. I've never heard about anybody doing an M5 year because they needed more time to make up their mind on a specialty. You did not submit an ERAS application during your M4 year (your terminal year at the time). This could potentially leave someone wondering:

- Did you actually intend on not doing a residency at one point?
- Did you want to leave the medical field? Are you really committed to medicine?
- What was your plan if you didn't find anything you liked 4th year? Step 1. Graduate Step 2. ??? Step 3. Success ?
- Are you someone who has trouble with commitments/making up your mind? Are you going to bail on us first month of PGY-2?
- How are you affording an extra semester of medical school plus an empty semester? Why did you decide to do this instead of apply for a prelim or transitional year where people traditionally go if they are undecided in order to explore different fields while gaining clinical skills and earning money?
- Did you not feel pressure to apply for residency because you are independently wealthy? Does this translate to a flippant attitude regarding residency (meh, I don't need to be here, I'll bail if it ceases to be fun)?
- Is there something you are not telling me? Was there a mental illness and/or LOA involved in this delay that I am not seeing?
- Is this all just a load of baloney and you decided to cash in your step scores for the derm lifestyle but didn't have your ducks in a row in time so are spinning it with this "exploring" story?

I don't see any reason you can't match into derm this year, but you should be aware that these are the thoughts that some people are going to have, and you need to very carefully construct your PS and prepare for interviews to strategically explain your extended schooling and why you didn't apply for anything last year. I think you're going to need more than just saying "I wanted some more time to explore" and hope they move on. Talk with people at your current program to find the best way to approach the issue.

 

[J ROD]

different in derm means no skin for you. Have to be damn near perfect and what you did is weird. I have never heard of it either. Not a bad idea if you really do not know BUT if you want something very competitive it basically flags you as different and why take a chance when we got another person just as good. What you like as 2nd?

 

[DermViser]

I have no idea what your chances are, but with a 250 step 1 and 2, you are well above the threshold where you risk not matching due to auto-screening. I.e., at this point nobody can tell you that your chances aren't good enough for it to have a meaningful impact on your decision to pursue derm, so trying to get a feeler at this point isn't going to really do much for you except either add to or ease neuroticism.

But, to be honest, if I were interviewing you and read on your PS or you told me some variation of what is quoted above, I would think to myself "hmm, something doesn't add up." So you went into 4th year undecided on a specialty, decided not to submit ERAS, and instead explored sub-specialties through 4th year electives and otherwise would have graduated on time. This sounds reasonable at first, except that it's unheard of. Virtually everybody submits an ERAS application to something during their last year of school unless they are leaving the medical profession. Plenty of people decide to take an extra year or two, but this is almost always for a very specific reason (e.g., to earn an MPH or MBA or for a family/health reason) and they always submit ERAS in their terminal year. I've never heard about anybody doing an M5 year because they needed more time to make up their mind on a specialty. You did not submit an ERAS application during your M4 year (your terminal year at the time). This could potentially leave someone wondering:

- Did you actually intend on not doing a residency at one point?
- Did you want to leave the medical field? Are you really committed to medicine?
- What was your plan if you didn't find anything you liked 4th year? Step 1. Graduate Step 2. ??? Step 3. Success ?
- Are you someone who has trouble with commitments/making up your mind? Are you going to bail on us first month of PGY-2?
- How are you affording an extra semester of medical school plus an empty semester? Why did you decide to do this instead of apply for a prelim or transitional year where people traditionally go if they are undecided in order to explore different fields while gaining clinical skills and earning money?
- Did you not feel pressure to apply for residency because you are independently wealthy? Does this translate to a flippant attitude regarding residency (meh, I don't need to be here, I'll bail if it ceases to be fun)?
- Is there something you are not telling me? Was there a mental illness and/or LOA involved in this delay that I am not seeing?
- Is this all just a load of baloney and you decided to cash in your step scores for the derm lifestyle but didn't have your ducks in a row in time so are spinning it with this "exploring" story?

I don't see any reason you can't match into derm this year, but you should be aware that these are the thoughts that some people are going to have, and you need to very carefully construct your PS and prepare for interviews to strategically explain your extended schooling and why you didn't apply for anything last year. I think you're going to need more than just saying "I wanted some more time to explore" and hope they move on. Talk with people at your current program to find the best way to approach the issue.

I didn't think a prelim or transitional really allowed one to explore different fields, or at least not non-MS 3 specialties.

 

[atomi]

I didn't think a prelim or transitional really allowed one to explore different fields, or at least not non-MS 3 specialties.

Transitional years were traditionally for students who needed extra time to figure out where they wanted to go and provide a broad based internship with exposure to a variety of fields. These days there are very few students in TYs using them for this purpose given that they require stellar USMLE scores to obtain as they have instead turned into cushy pgy-1 crash pads for derm, rads, and optho. So there aren't as many "elective" months as there used to be (which in many TYs and some IM prelims can be in almost anything). Extending medical school for an extra year solely to explore has never been a traditional option, and like I said, is pretty unheard of. Unfortunately, you are expected to make a decision and graduate on time.