Derm vs IM => Ranking

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frazzledmeatball

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Hi! I am finalizing my rank list now and would appreciate any insight. I genuinely love both Internal Medicine and Dermatology and dual-applied (was advised to do so since the Derm match is notoriously competitive). I am grateful to have gotten interviews to both, even to top programs in both which was very unexpected. However, I love different things about each and am struggling to decide how to rank them. I would appreciate any insight!

  • Internal Medicine: Particularly interested in GI based on rotations/research/personal connection, Love the complexity, procedures, acute care, longitudinal relationships, and meaningful impact. Less NP/PA and AI encroachment. I know training is more intense, and I don't mind this now but do wonder if I will mind this in the future especially in terms of family planning down the road.
  • Derm: easier to incorporate research (I want an academic career no matter what field), good lifestyle/flexibility which I may appreciate more in the future as I age, lower malpractice risk. But unsure if I’ll find the physiology as interesting and I know derm boards are notoriously difficult; cosmetics don’t appeal to me; more susceptible to AI/midlevel; fear of feeling “less heroic" as some mentors have warned me but unsure how true this is
A little more about me: I love patient interactions (super extroverted), want something that's a mix of clinical + procedures, interested in a research career with a public health focus, I want to be passionate about what I do for a long time which makes this decision super challenging

How do people who loved both decide? How much weight should lifestyle vs meaning vs AI concerns get?
 
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