In Need of Urgent Advice!!

[ProcedeMD]

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I am a US medical graduate with these stats:

step I- 230+ and step II- 240+, no pubs, summer research fellowship, initially applied for categorical internal medicine and decided to switch to dermatology. completed one year of Internal medicine and began a clinical research fellowship in Dermatology that ended abruptly just last month because of licensing issues.

Left my program in good standing and got a great letter from my IM program director plus great letters from Derm faculty including my PI at the research fellowship.

Applied to about 45 derm programs and no interviews so far, about 17 rejections. I'm almost losing all hope. My faith is all i'm holding on to. Didn't apply to any backup specialties but I have lots of financial obligations and i'll hate spending another 3yrs outside of residency (which will be the case if i reapply next yr)

I have considered anesthesiology/radiology but never did rotation in anesthesia during med school or internship and don't know anyone in the field.

Please advice me!!! Thank you so much in advance. Feel free to PM

 

[SkinPath]

I am sorry you are in this situation.

It may be too late now to apply to a backup specialty. Even Pathology, which is generally not competitive, may not interview you. You might have to scramble for another specialty should you end up not getting any dermatology interviews.

Look into programs with clinical research fellowships that absorb their fellows directly --- Mount Sinai, UAB. Or other programs that have a good track record for matching their fellows --- CWRU, Roger Williams, etc.

Another option would be to contact your categorical IM program and ask if they will take you back in as a second year resident. Re-apply to derm as a 2nd year IM resident.

 

[kralwok]

I don't really have much advice -- just feel bad that this thread has 128 views and only 1 response.

I am in a similar situation though do have a few interviews. Not sure what to do if I don't match but it will probably involve either 1.) scrambling into something (still not sure what and am confined to a particular city) or 2.) trying for something outside of the match. I may need to take another year off for option number two. I am imagining it will get harder and harder to get back into things the more time I take off... Sometimes I think about doing a research fellowship b/c I really want derm, but that would mean me taking even more time off before I could start derm and at that point I feel like it would be too late for another specialty if derm didn't work out again.

There are lots of anesthesia PGY2 spots outside the match. I am not sure what the timeline is for applying to them if you wanted to start next year... I think it is really hard to explore other fields now that you are not a student or resident. You could maybe shadow some doctors/residents at your home program if they would let you. Good luck. I hope things work out for you.

Oh, and I wouldn't continue in IM if you didn't like it. I thought about this option, but am SO glad I didn't do that. But if you do like IM, then you could consider approaching your old program or other programs. Just be aware that if you want to apply to derm again only some programs will take people who have already completed another residency.

 

[SkinPath]

Anesthesia, Radiology and similar specialties are not that easy to get into anymore. They have become very competitive as well. You may try getting into them but don't think that they will be all over your application just because you are competitive enough to apply to derm. The moment they see you have done a derm research fellowship, they'll know you are using them as a backup and that will not sit well with them. They have more than enough qualified applicants to choose from.

The beauty about IM and Pathology as backups is that you can always make an argument that they are very closely related to derm. Medical Derm is something that you can say you are interested in to support your decision to do IM then re-apply to derm. Path is self-explanatory --- you can say that dermpath will be your ticket to studying your passion which is skin.

 

[goodies]

the best thing to do is to withdraw your application and reapply for another research fellowship or at least be in contact with a dermatology program... and involve yourself heavily in research as soon as possible. publish as many papers in dermatology as possible this year (at least 10). trust me, this is doable. get as many strong dermatology LOR's as possible. reapply the next year. you need to show that you are committed to dermatology and prove that you are going into it for the right reasons. your best chance is to reapply next year after having at least 10 publications (at least a couple "published" and a few "submitted") on your application AND stronger dermatology letters.

 

[ProcedeMD]

Thank you all so much for your advice. They have been well-taken. I will look into all the options. More than likely will scramble if i don't get any interviews or match. The sad thing is that it won't be dermatology most likely and my choices will be limited. I dread the idea of going back to IM or taking on pathology.

I have looked everywhere for an immediate clinical research fellowship opening in dermatology or other fields remotely related but can't find anything so far. However, I'm not sure if I can summon up enough strength and hope to continue a research fellowship if there's no hope for starting dermatology residency by 2011 (latest)

I will check out UAB, Mount Sinai and others that you've suggested.

Thank you once again. Please keep the advices coming if there's more.

Best of luck to everyone!

 

[SkinPath]

UC Irvine, I believe, also automatically absorbs their fellows.

Look into UT Houston with Stephen Tyring.

CWRU has a lot of research fellowship openings.

Cleveland Clinic with Ed Maytin also has a very high likelihood of absorbing you as a resident.

Good luck!

 

[N-Surge]

Also, next time apply to 80+ programs. It is really hard finding any rhyme or reason as to why certain programs pick to interview certain people.

 

[Renova]

Look into programs with clinical research fellowships that absorb their fellows directly --- Mount Sinai, UAB. Or other programs that have a good track record for matching their fellows --- CWRU, Roger Williams, etc.

How do you know that those programs directly absorb their fellows? Is this an official policy in writing somewhere, or is just based on word of mouth/previous track record?

 

[asmallchild]

How do you know that those programs directly absorb their fellows? Is this an official policy in writing somewhere, or is just based on word of mouth/previous track record?

You'll very rarely (read: never) get something like that written into your research fellowship. But past track record is a good predictor for future fellows and I can confirm that both Mt Sinai and UAB are great at absorbing their fellows.

 

[N-Surge]

It only makes sense for a program to absorb people they know. In fact, I'd argue that one of the "unique" things an aplicant brings to a program that they have visited is just that, they have worked with the faculty and residents and both parties know what they are getting on a personal level. To the OP, I'd definitely go for the Derm fellowship if you want Derm. If you want Radiology you could probably do the same.