Hi everyone. M3 here and thinking about aways. Is it worth doing aways at the top programs? < The advice I received is to focus more on doing aways at programs that may be interested in taking you, and that you would be happy training at. It may not be your first choice, but a good fit nonetheless. Top programs are unlikely to interview you based on away rotation performance alone. The rest of your application should be among the top derm applicants as well. << Agreed on this. Depending on the tier of your particular medical school, don't do audition Derm rotations at top-tier Derm places like Harvard, UCSF, Penn, NYU, Stanford, etc. thinking that you're somehow just going to so "wow" derm attendings w/your med student derm knowledge & hard work that you'll either get an interview or that you'll get a stellar letter to be able to use to get interviews at other places (keep in mind that these places have their own home med students going for Derm whom they have worked with for years). That's just not how it works, unfortunately, even w/stratospheric board scores. Wouldn't matter even if you read & memorized all of Andrews. Choose the location and institution of your audition derm elective carefully (talk w/your home derm program faculty mentors, w/previous graduating Derm alumni from your institution, etc.). It can sometimes mean the difference between matching vs. not matching. < what if you have strong connections at top programs and then do an away there, ie stanford/upenn mentor for 2 years and then do an away? << If you have strong connections (I'm assuming you did research w/that Stanford/UPenn Derm mentor for 2 years and were relatively productive) then yes, it could very much help. This is where showing your academic record and CV to that Stanford/UPenn mentor would help.