Hosp of the Univ of PA (Dermatology/3 yr)

Any thoughts on UCSF vs Penn vs Stanford vs NYU? NYU - Residents seem kind of stressed out but they obviously get incredible breadth in their training. UCSF - similar breadth as NYU, not as busy but also maybe more resident support and QoL (especially with financial assistance NYU doesn't get)? Stanford - also seems pretty great in terms of QoL, great subspecialty training, more chill than NYU/UCSF? Penn - low cost of living, seems like residents are happy and supported there? I'm not really sure what are the specifics that make it so amazing like everyone says since their interview day wasn't focused on selling themselves. But I'm kind of torn. Any advice here?

Anyone else having a hard time on ranking UCSF and Penn? The only big differentiator I can think of is location, otherwise, they're both really amazing. I keep going back and forth.

Do you guys think the reported weekly hours on Residency Explorer are legit? e.g. Penn is at 40 hr/week and NU Northwestern is at 55 hr/week. < what is NU??? < Northwestern < so NW lol? thx tho < People got really anal retentive about how it's NU and not NW, like who gives a duck

mods can we get a T10 tab so we don't annoy everyone with the incoming harvard vs ucsf vs penn vs nyu rows in the next month < For real, I'm struggling with ranking those 4 and there's like 9 other people in the same situation and I get how it can be annoying discussing "1st world problems" < Same < just make one yourself, why do you need the mods to make it

do we have any confirmation/inside info of how many harvard is taking this year? i know they vary every year and looks like a lot of people (me included) are ranking them #1 < harvard rank tally has been tampered, if you check edit history you'll know how < has anyone on here decided to not rank harvard #1? <yes < why < coz ppl like SF or NYC better < I'm guessing people are choosing Penn & UCSF over Harvard d/t better mentorship, QoL, lower COL (Penn), less in-patient, housing stipend (UCSF), and moonlighting opportunities.

"what do people think of the doximity rankings? are they useful at all? << Depends what your criteria are for filtering through programs. < at one point I thought they had actual criteria for the rankings, but apparently it's just alumni opinion? Or am I reading that wrong? Seems like a less than objective way to rank < It's all based on opinion. In the past, there have been a few publications that have attempted to rank programs based on NIH funding, faculty, residents, research output, etc (https://cdn.mdedge.com/files/s3fs-public/Document/September-2017/CT094100189_REV.pdf) but this is outdated now. From what I've been told, you've got the big powerhouses (NYU, Penn, UCSF, Harvard, Yale, Stanford), the great but not quite top programs (Emory, Northwestern, Sinai, Wake Forest, Johns Hopkins, Miami, UTSW), a bunch of solid programs that aren't particularly famous for research or anything but will still train you well and prepare you for a career, and then a few bottom tier programs that have been known to have issues (ie flagged by ACGME, residents don't match to fellowships, program closes midway through a year, etc) < is there anything more recent?"

Do programs have quotas for non-home students? There are so many competitive Penn, HMS, & Yale students applying this cycle that each of those programs could easily fill their residency spots with home students. < I see 4-5 HMS applicants from one of my interviews ehhh. I think some programs defintely love having them or ranking them high < especially when the faculty are alumns themselves < penn has an internal student quota of 2-3 < who are the same 4-5 HMS applicants?? < The same 5 at the Harvard interview < they nice?

How does Penn compare to NYU in terms of culture, workload, etc?

Penn was ...

just saw a conversation on the x vs y sheet I actually want to continue here because i want to hear more about how other urm students see it. I am black and I personally will not train in a program with zero to one black resident no matter how many black faculty they have; in fact if you have super star derm faculty like Penn/Harvard does or a lot of black/urm faculty like UTSW and no black resident or one black resident is is more of a red flag to me than if you had none because either the program is so toxic they gatekeep black students, or the black faculty are enjoying being the only ones that they are not helping recruit more or they are just waiting to someone else trains us and then you hire us because so few people want to do academia. Yes I know diversity is not only in the number of black residents but that is what this post is about and i was wondering how other urm students see/analyze this.

Did Stanford, Harvard, and Penn peeps send thank yous or questions to interviewers? what is standard? < Stop sending this shit to people. Makes it weird for the rest of us and doesn't affect your chances in the slightest. You should be thanking them during your interview and that's enough x2000

im an m3 lurker on here and been seeing comments from people who were disappointed they didnt get an interview from harvard or penn whent they thought they had a good shot. do you guys have any post-application clarity or thoughts about why you may not have? i understand a lot of this is random and stochastic but would really appreciate anyone has any advice for a future applicant. // Anyone who automatically expects a derm interview at top tier derm programs like Harvard or Penn due to having high board scores, high class rank w/Honors on every required rotation, and a few publications is probably not operating much in realistic expectations to begin with.

Does no one seriously have any Penn or UCSF interview day impressions? Not specific questions, just how the day went lol< people are scared to comment on UCSF because there aren't as many applicants interviewing. They can be easily tracked down. // How many do they interview per position at UCSF Derm?< they interview like 25 people for 6-7 spots (clinical track) < UCSF's interview day last week was amazing! Very comprehensive. You get a great sense of the program, residents, and faculty. It lived up to the hype for me! < same! the 1st yr residents that gave the intro talk were hilarious and approachable, totally sold the program to me

Is the Penn IV day that bad?

For Penn interviews, do they let you run over in each breakout room or do you get kicked out automatically when time is up?