Cali programs

[JOEYSOBANK]

So I hear that Cali derm programs are extraordinarily difficult to match into if you are not a state resident.
Hypothetically speaking, let's say a really hungry, competitive applicant (grades, etc.) came out of a lesser known school from another coast who hadn't done research for a year at California program "X" but would really like to be there:
(1)How much will doing a good audition rotation help?
(2)Will the good audition even get this person an interview at some places?
(3)By doing a rotation at Cali school "X" and getting a good letter from a faculty member there, will that help this applicant's chances at Cali school "Y" (assuming no grudges, etc are hanging around b/w depts.)?

I know there is a ezpub50 site, but was wondering if anyone here would be able to provide this hypothetical applicant a few answers. Oh, and if anyone has answers, I have another "hypothetical friend" who has questions that need answering about another topic 🙂

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[ny skindoc]

An audition rotation can help if you do really well on it,but thats difficult as there will be other hungry,competitive applicants with you-its hard to get to know attendings on these electives.They may offer you an automatic interview but in and of itself it may not count for much.Its better to try to some kind of research project at an institution and get to know attendings influential in the dept who can support your application.A lot will depend on truly how competitive your application is overall.

 

[MrHide]

my very specific advice is to do a research rotation with Dr. John Koo at UCSF. he's very well-respected in the field of psoriasis and both students who matched into derm at uci (from uci med) this year did away research rotations at ucsf to work with him. he and weinstein are probably good colleagues in psoriasis. Dr. Koo is really motivated in getting med students published and that is absolutely key. if i were you, i would start asking about this now before he gets a deluge of requests.

to answer your questions: doing a rotation of any kind at ucsf does NOT guarantee you anything in terms of getting an interview there. but it doesn't hurt. i know uci generally gives courtesy interviews to its rotators. just have strong numbers cause i know most of these ca programs have hi "filters" and cut-offs to screen applicants.

and i agree with the other post. it is general consensus that research away rotations working with one faculty memeber is infintely more fruitful than 4-weeks of clinical auditioning/bootlicking/posturing. good luck.

 

[Reg]

I agree with Mr. Hide, that's why I'm taking 5 years to complete medical school (maybe more). I'm very interested in Derm. Actually, I'm so interested that I took an entire year off to do research (outside of a few clinical rotations in emergency medicine, which I'm also interested in). I start this fall with my research. I'm a Tulane 3rd year student, and realized with this year's match that dermatology would be almost impossible for me to match in if I didn't focus more on that particular area of medicine. I have an outstanding step 1 score (260), but I have zero derm stuff on my CV. If you are serious, I say take some time to concentrate on this goal. Take an extra year to manuever yourself into optimal position, and for the rest of your career you'll be thankful you took a year (or two) to get yourself into your choice field.