Derm less competitive this year?

[SkinPath]

Interesting data from the NRMP:

539 total applicants to dermatology this year compared to 567 last year --- a relatively significant drop specially because there were only 338 spots offered last year compared to 372 (sum of categorical and advanced positions) this year.

Must be an isolated event and we obviously need to observe the trend in coming years to make any conclusions, but one cannot help but wonder if the desirability and/or competitiveness of dermatology is starting to decline. A function of too many residency spots being created/added on, perhaps?

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[pupster]

Interesting data from the NRMP:

539 total applicants to dermatology this year compared to 567 last year --- a relatively significant drop specially because there were only 338 spots offered last year compared to 372 (sum of categorical and advanced positions) this year.

Must be an isolated event and we obviously need to observe the trend in coming years to make any conclusions, but one cannot help but wonder if the desirability and/or competitiveness of dermatology is starting to decline. A function of too many residency spots being created/added on, perhaps?

How are you getting the current #s? I don't see anything on NRMP.

 

[SkinPath]

2011:
http://www.nrmp.org/data/2011Adv Data Tbl.pdf

2010:
http://www.nrmp.org/data/resultsanddata2010.pdf

 

[opencomedo]

I think I will wait to see the stats of the applicants to Derm before deciding if it is becoming less competitive or not. It really wouldnt make much sense that fewer would apply simply because there were more spots. If this were the case I would expect more applicants, perhaps diluting the "talent pool" of applicants who have positioned them selves well.

It may simply be that people are deciding to apply elsewhere if they feel they aren't well qualified. Of course I would have no explanation as to why there would be such a change in just one year (unless the transition to VRAS made it hard for some people that were on the bubble to do away rotations so they just decided to pursue another specialty, which I find unlikely).

 

[SkinPath]

"It really wouldnt make much sense that fewer would apply simply because there were more spots. If this were the case I would expect more applicants, perhaps diluting the "talent pool" of applicants who have positioned them selves well.'

Oh, I did not mean that just because there were more spots, fewer students would apply. What I was trying to say was that the competitiveness of derm this year was lowered by having more spots available in the setting of a reduced number of applicants.

 

[FixItUp Chappie]

2011:
http://www.nrmp.org/data/2011Adv Data Tbl.pdf

2010:
http://www.nrmp.org/data/resultsanddata2010.pdf

If your numbers are from the NRMP, then it is not a true and exact assessment of those who applied to dermatology. I think the NRMP list only contains those who ranked at least one program. There was a significant portion of applicants who did not receive any interviews, and would therefore would not show up in the NRMP data. There were also those candidates who may have interviewed for both plastics/derm or ophtho/derm and decided not to rank their derm programs in the end (I know a person like this).

So it's possible that given these numbers that Derm was "More" competitive than last year, because fewer applicants were offered interviews, and therefore able to rank at least one program on their match list. It is also still possible that there were fewer applicants to Derm this year, as the OP contended, but it is tough to make this assessment from the NRMP data. The ERAS data (I'm not certain if they make this public) would let you know how many people actually "applied" to derm.

OR, a less scientific way: if there were any "slip ups" this year where a program sent out a non-blind copy mass rejection email, (like last year) one could see exactly how many recipients received the rejection, add ~40 to that account for the people offered interviews, and calculate how many people applied.

 

[DubZteR]

Interesting data from the NRMP:

539 total applicants to dermatology this year compared to 567 last year --- a relatively significant drop specially because there were only 338 spots offered last year compared to 372 (sum of categorical and advanced positions) this year.

Must be an isolated event and we obviously need to observe the trend in coming years to make any conclusions, but one cannot help but wonder if the desirability and/or competitiveness of dermatology is starting to decline. A function of too many residency spots being created/added on, perhaps?

A more effective way to gauge competitiveness is to look at the % of spots filled by US seniors. The higher the percentage of spots filled by US seniors, the more competitive the match becomes in that specialty.

For 2010 categorical derm positions this was 74.2% vs. 92.9% for 2011. For 2010 derm advanced positions this was 82.1% vs 82.3% in 2011.

The only other two specialties with higher percentages of US senior filled advanced spots for this year's match are plastics (89.5%) and rad onc (90.3%).

 

[311]

well if it was less competitive then I'm sure glad that I applied this year

 

[comedone]

well if it was less competitive then I'm sure glad that I applied this year

+1

 

[pupster]

+1

lol

 

[solitarydancer]

Maybe I'm reading the chart completely wrong but... on table 1, it says 283 US senoirs matched in dermatology, for a total of 339.
Does that mean 56 of them are IMGs? Isn't that extremely high for dermatology ??

 

[sensitive skin]

I think most are post-internship/fellowship, re-applicants. Very few IMG's attain US derm residency...those that do seem so highly qualified that they are on par w/attendings several years post training (just reviewing past IMG matches and what they have done in their careers). I'd take this any day over US seniors who match because of nepotism.

 

[FixItUp Chappie]

Maybe I'm reading the chart completely wrong but... on table 1, it says 283 US senoirs matched in dermatology, for a total of 339.
Does that mean 56 of them are IMGs? Isn't that extremely high for dermatology ??

Yeah, I agree with the previous poster. The 56 spots were likely almost exclusively reapplicants. Over the last several years, there have usually been somewhere between 0 and 5 IMG matches.

For you Canucks though, St. George's University (Grenada) has matched one resident in each of the last two years in a Canadian derm residency.