Interested in Derm, but not a lot of resources

[RedWingsFan05]

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Hey guys. I'm relatively new to SDN, so I look forward to being active on this forum and meeting others. I'm an M1 and am really interested in derm, stemming from under-grad experiences in the hospital. However, the school I attend doesn't have much derm resources or research going on. Our hospital does have a department chair of sorts, but again there's not much.

And so I'm getting a little scared about jumping on the derm boat and, three years from now, not being a competitive applicant. I'm confident that I'll do well on the Step 1, that I'll be able to get honors in most of my pre-clinical classes and most clerkships, and optimistic about my AOA chances, but basically what I'm concerned about is:

1) Not being able to have many (if any) derm publications
2) Not having a "home" institution to get networked with, as I know with derm, residencies often take their own students who they know well
3) Who will write my letters?

I've read through many other posts on here that are similar, and have read things such as
- Getting in touch with other med schools and their derm depts
- Away rotations
- Taking a year off to do derm research
But I'm just worried that even if I am able to do research at a different institution, that's no guarantee that they'd write letters for me or go to bat for me. And I don't want to wait until away rotations since those are mostly in the 4th yr. And I see a lot of posts on here about students with eight pubs or students concerned with only 2 derm pubs. I'm just having this huge internal struggle right now, and would really appreciate any advice.

Thanks,
Concerned M1

 

[asmallchild]

Hey guys. I'm relatively new to SDN, so I look forward to being active on this forum and meeting others. I'm an M1 and am really interested in derm, stemming from under-grad experiences in the hospital. However, the school I attend doesn't have much derm resources or research going on. Our hospital does have a department chair of sorts, but again there's not much.

And so I'm getting a little scared about jumping on the derm boat and, three years from now, not being a competitive applicant. I'm confident that I'll do well on the Step 1, that I'll be able to get honors in most of my pre-clinical classes and most clerkships, and optimistic about my AOA chances, but basically what I'm concerned about is:

1) Not being able to have many (if any) derm publications
2) Not having a "home" institution to get networked with, as I know with derm, residencies often take their own students who they know well
3) Who will write my letters?

I've read through many other posts on here that are similar, and have read things such as
- Getting in touch with other med schools and their derm depts
- Away rotations
- Taking a year off to do derm research
But I'm just worried that even if I am able to do research at a different institution, that's no guarantee that they'd write letters for me or go to bat for me. And I don't want to wait until away rotations since those are mostly in the 4th yr. And I see a lot of posts on here about students with eight pubs or students concerned with only 2 derm pubs. I'm just having this huge internal struggle right now, and would really appreciate any advice.

Thanks,
Concerned M1

If derm is what you want, it's a gamble you'll have to make. You'll just need to make sure you are more aggressive about seeking research and away opportunities when the time comes. In the meantime, I would focus on your preclinical studies and Step 1.