too late for derm this cycle?

[Laughing Gor]

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Hey guys,

So i guess this is a fairly common story, but recently I have been strongly considering dermatology as a specialty. However, I am an M4, and had been on the path to pursue rads/IR until now. I was attracted to the visual diagnosis and the combination of technology and procedures aspect of rads, but now I see that patient and social interactions are what get me through the day. While a generalization, i feel that derm offers visual diagnoses, protected time, a mix of quick follow ups and new patient encounters, the opportunity to be an expert in a medical field, as well as small procedures.

Is it too late to consider applying to derm this cycle(ERAS opens in 2 days!!!)? I am from a middle-tier midwest school, AOA, 260+ step 1, honors in all clinicals, but no significant research. I have been thinking of ending my away rotation in rads early and going back to talk to the derm department at my home program to see if i can hop on a project as well as do a rotation to get a LOR. I want to avoid taking an extra year unless ABSOLUTELY necessary, and am trying to see what my options are.

Any thoughts would be welcome!

 

[Sailor Senshi Dermystify]

Hey guys,

So i guess this is a fairly common story, but recently I have been strongly considering dermatology as a specialty. However, I am an M4, and had been on the path to pursue rads/IR until now. I was attracted to the visual diagnosis and the combination of technology and procedures aspect of rads, but now I see that patient and social interactions are what get me through the day. While a generalization, i feel that derm offers visual diagnoses, protected time, a mix of quick follow ups and new patient encounters, the opportunity to be an expert in a medical field, as well as small procedures.

Is it too late to consider applying to derm this cycle(ERAS opens in 2 days!!!)? I am from a middle-tier midwest school, AOA, 260+ step 1, honors in all clinicals, but no significant research. I have been thinking of ending my away rotation in rads early and going back to talk to the derm department at my home program to see if i can hop on a project as well as do a rotation to get a LOR. I want to avoid taking an extra year unless ABSOLUTELY necessary, and am trying to see what my options are.

Any thoughts would be welcome!

Hmmm, this is your first post, so why are you asking these types of questions now!

AOA, 260+ and HONORS in all your clinical classes are amazing and I think not having research will kind of slow you down in the app process.

I honestly, don't know what you should do because I am only a pre-med student 🙂.

Good Luck though and hopefully one of the Residents or Fellows can answer your question.

I thought you were TROLLING at first, lol. :troll:

 

[HoganHulk]

You would probably match in derm but most likely at your home program. Top derm programs want grades/scores as a prerequisite but go after people from big name schools who have research and interesting applications. Rads seems to be more grades and scores focused.

I think you'd probably match into a top 10 rads program in the country and land a nice IR fellowship out of it.

I think you'd probably get a decent number of derm interviews, especially in the mid-west where they tend to ignore many applicants from the coasts, and would match but at a less prestigious place than you would match for rads.

Then again, to most, derm is derm.

 

[mohderm]

First of all it seems like the first two responses to your post were from pre-med students or med students at the most. Take those with a grain of salt.

It is definately not too late to apply. Most derm programs won't download your app until after November 1. It will be alittle more difficult to get LOR from derm faculty. As for research, it is good to have, but by no means required to match into derm unless you want to match into a top tier program. Focus on more clinically oriented programs and not those with a research emphasis. I had one case reports and <240 board scores and was AOA. Ended up with 10 interviews and matched at my number 1. Go figure. I will say away rotations area good if you could manage to squeeze one in before say Christmas break.

I say go for it. I know when I review apps this year I am looking for a normal person that I feel I would enjoy working with on a daily basis. There are programs for those who are socially awkward geniuses and there are programs for us "average" applicants who just enjoy dermatology. My 2 cents anyway.

Hey guys,

So i guess this is a fairly common story, but recently I have been strongly considering dermatology as a specialty. However, I am an M4, and had been on the path to pursue rads/IR until now. I was attracted to the visual diagnosis and the combination of technology and procedures aspect of rads, but now I see that patient and social interactions are what get me through the day. While a generalization, i feel that derm offers visual diagnoses, protected time, a mix of quick follow ups and new patient encounters, the opportunity to be an expert in a medical field, as well as small procedures.

Is it too late to consider applying to derm this cycle(ERAS opens in 2 days!!!)? I am from a middle-tier midwest school, AOA, 260+ step 1, honors in all clinicals, but no significant research. I have been thinking of ending my away rotation in rads early and going back to talk to the derm department at my home program to see if i can hop on a project as well as do a rotation to get a LOR. I want to avoid taking an extra year unless ABSOLUTELY necessary, and am trying to see what my options are.

Any thoughts would be welcome!

 

[Laughing Gor]

thanks for the input guys! i guess there is a silver lining to this tumultuous situation. i am just hoping my home program is supportive.

how many LORs should i consider to be a minimum to apply?

 

[vicinihil]

I think most places are looking for 3 LOR's but you can probably get away with 2 for derm and a strong one in another field from faculty that loved you

 

[username456789]

I think most places are looking for 3 LOR's but you can probably get away with 2 for derm and a strong one in another field from faculty that loved you

3 Derm letters specifically? That wasn't my impression, but maybe you know something I don't know.

 

[molmol]

if you want to match into a "big name" derm program, you'll need strong derm research. otherwise, you'll match without difficulty.
i matched at a competitive program with 2 derm letters and 1 from a surgeon who knew me well.

 

[Laughing Gor]

thanks for the advice again. I was told by an advisor that because of my lack of research and late interest, I should focus on smaller and/or community-based programs. Can anybody list a few, or point me to where I can find out which ones they are?

thanks again!

 

[molmol]

if anything, do what most applicants do: apply everywhere.

 

[Dral]

Yeah, if you try to pick and choose or apply where you think you may be more likely to get interviews, you'll probably get burned in the end.

 

[DocLan]

How come you are against taking a year if that's the only knock especially from all your advisors?

 

[JDMD243.0]

Hey guys,

So i guess this is a fairly common story, but recently I have been strongly considering dermatology as a specialty. However, I am an M4, and had been on the path to pursue rads/IR until now. I was attracted to the visual diagnosis and the combination of technology and procedures aspect of rads, but now I see that patient and social interactions are what get me through the day. While a generalization, i feel that derm offers visual diagnoses, protected time, a mix of quick follow ups and new patient encounters, the opportunity to be an expert in a medical field, as well as small procedures.

Is it too late to consider applying to derm this cycle(ERAS opens in 2 days!!!)? I am from a middle-tier midwest school, AOA, 260+ step 1, honors in all clinicals, but no significant research. I have been thinking of ending my away rotation in rads early and going back to talk to the derm department at my home program to see if i can hop on a project as well as do a rotation to get a LOR. I want to avoid taking an extra year unless ABSOLUTELY necessary, and am trying to see what my options are.

Any thoughts would be welcome!

Where do you want to go? If you are open minded and have an interesting personal statement I'm sure your numbers will get you an interview at least at a few programs. If you are aiming for the big name programs you might have a little more difficulty. I found myself in a similar position last year after getting off the Ortho train and decided to delay graduation and do research in the Derm department to make sure it was what I really wanted. Best decision I made in medical school and now I'm applying with strong research background.

 

[Laughing Gor]

Where do you want to go? If you are open minded and have an interesting personal statement I'm sure your numbers will get you an interview at least at a few programs. If you are aiming for the big name programs you might have a little more difficulty. I found myself in a similar position last year after getting off the Ortho train and decided to delay graduation and do research in the Derm department to make sure it was what I really wanted. Best decision I made in medical school and now I'm applying with strong research background.

How far along the application cycle were you when you decided to delay graduation? I am weighing my options at this point, and it makes perfect sense to fix my lack of research by taking a year to finish some derm projects. Of course, i'd be bummed to not match w/ my classmates and get post-school life started (the reason why i would like to see if i would be able to match this year), but it may be better to not be hasty.

 

[JDMD243.0]

How far along the application cycle were you when you decided to delay graduation? I am weighing my options at this point, and it makes perfect sense to fix my lack of research by taking a year to finish some derm projects. Of course, i'd be bummed to not match w/ my classmates and get post-school life started (the reason why i would like to see if i would be able to match this year), but it may be better to not be hasty.

About this time last year. I was locked into Ortho and had my surgery rotation late so took me awhile to see the light so to speak. I just talked to several mentors and student affairs at my school and it wasn't that hard to have my graduation extended 6 months until December of this year. It kind of sucked not matching but I hung out at match day and walked with my class so I didn't feel like I missed out on that much. It does of course mean that you are a med student for an extra year with all of the annoyances of taking out an extra two semesters (summer and fall) of student loans. I am also going to be scraping together awards, lab research salary, reserve pay (I'm in the ANG) to make ends meet in the spring until internship year starts.

On the plus side, I have all my med school queep complete so I am free to do research with anyone and everyone. I'm involved in about a dozen basic science and clinical research projects. I have a bunch of papers in various stages of publication. I had completed ERAS last year and saved it so filling out ERAS this year has been a breeze. I am doing 5 externships including 2 month research/clinical externship at UCSF because, again, I have no med school queep tying me down. After interviews are over with, I will have nothing but free time to split between research, down time, and extra-curricular pursuits. Plus its fun to mock my former classmates who are working their tails off in residency while I flit around the campus and country 🙂

 

[sore eye asses]

About this time last year. I was locked into Ortho and had my surgery rotation late so took me awhile to see the light so to speak. I just talked to several mentors and student affairs at my school and it wasn't that hard to have my graduation extended 6 months until December of this year. It kind of sucked not matching but I hung out at match day and walked with my class so I didn't feel like I missed out on that much. It does of course mean that you are a med student for an extra year with all of the annoyances of taking out an extra two semesters (summer and fall) of student loans. I am also going to be scraping together awards, lab research salary, reserve pay (I'm in the ANG) to make ends meet in the spring until internship year starts.

On the plus side, I have all my med school queep complete so I am free to do research with anyone and everyone. I'm involved in about a dozen basic science and clinical research projects. I have a bunch of papers in various stages of publication. I had completed ERAS last year and saved it so filling out ERAS this year has been a breeze. I am doing 5 externships including 2 month research/clinical externship at UCSF because, again, I have no med school queep tying me down. After interviews are over with, I will have nothing but free time to split between research, down time, and extra-curricular pursuits. Plus its fun to mock my former classmates who are working their tails off in residency while I flit around the campus and country 🙂

Yeah, flitting around the country really can't be beat. And don't even get me started on international flitting...

 

[Dral]

Yeah, flitting around the country really can't be beat. And don't even get me started on international flitting...

A bunch of my med school friends just flitted to Las Vegas but I could flit there because I'm stuck in intern year. fml. I can't wait until I can flit again.

All jokes aside, I just remembered to expand my vocab. I knew SDN was good for something.