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- Apr 3, 2013
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I'm an M2 student, and this year after having our Derm block, I've started to become seriously interested in derm. On top of derm being very competitive though, we do not have a derm program here at our school/hospital. After talking to many current derm applicants, if this is a route I pursue, it seems that taking a year off to do derm research would be very beneficial for me, especially to get derm research on my CV and build faculty and program connections.
I have tried to get involved in derm research at a nearby institution and have reached out to our pathology and allergy/immunology departments to see if there are projects I could work on. But I know that I'll be disadvantaged not having a home program who can really get to know me and recommend me as an applicant and who would go to bat for me come interview time. From scouring old posts here on SDN, a lot of people have recommended just focusing on Step 1 and preclinical studying for now, and then focusing on derm. But talking to past and current derm applicants has kind of scared me, as applicants with very strong resumes (250-260+ Step 1, AOA, multiple pubs, etc) talk about only getting a handful of interviews and knowing other strong students not matching.
So can any members here comment on what I should do now or in the future to make myself a good applicant?
How much does not having a home program hurt me? What can I do to alleviate that?
Is matching into derm feasible for a candidate without a home program?
Thanks for the help.
I have tried to get involved in derm research at a nearby institution and have reached out to our pathology and allergy/immunology departments to see if there are projects I could work on. But I know that I'll be disadvantaged not having a home program who can really get to know me and recommend me as an applicant and who would go to bat for me come interview time. From scouring old posts here on SDN, a lot of people have recommended just focusing on Step 1 and preclinical studying for now, and then focusing on derm. But talking to past and current derm applicants has kind of scared me, as applicants with very strong resumes (250-260+ Step 1, AOA, multiple pubs, etc) talk about only getting a handful of interviews and knowing other strong students not matching.
So can any members here comment on what I should do now or in the future to make myself a good applicant?
How much does not having a home program hurt me? What can I do to alleviate that?
Is matching into derm feasible for a candidate without a home program?
Thanks for the help.