Regardless of whether you have the grades or not, your chances of staying in LA are slim. For starters, there are so few spots. UCLA has on average anywhere from 5-9 (this coming year) students going for derm, many of which have done extensive research with Modlin/Kim or elsewhere. UCLA generally has two spots reserved for their clinical program, and two for STAR (research oriented --> meant for post doc work for md/phds). Sometimes they take three clinical (like this year). USC is extremely inbred and usually give two of their three spots to their own. If you are at USC, you definitely have a better chance, but they too have many going into derm (last year there were nine students going for derm) as well as students form other med schools doing year long clinical research projects. UCI generally reserves one of their spots for one of their fellows (2 yr fellowship s/p pgy-1). That's about it for LA (dont even mention Martin Luther King). I guess the main message here is that these programs generally take applicants they not only know, but who have proven themselves through research or extensive clinical rotations. Seeing that your interest is somewhat new, i am guessing you have not done any significant derm research, let alone introduce yourslef to the key people (modlin, kim, woodley, etc) I am not saying you have no chance in derm, just not in your ideal locale. You have to be realistic with your goals
