Philadelphia, PA
Applicant sentiment — from 150 anonymous posts, 2016–2027
7.0 / 10
What anonymous posters said
Anonymous posters frequently grouped this program among a small set of highly regarded dermatology programs, citing strong research output and academic focus. Several commenters described procedural/reconstructive training positively and characterized the culture as supportive with happy residents, while some posts suggested connections or away rotations may help with interview chances.
AI-generated summary of opinions expressed in anonymous, unverified posts. It describes what posters wrote, not verified facts about this program. Based on these 150 posts · Updated Aug 2026 · Contest or respond to this entry · Takedown & right of reply
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< same :( / same as well, everyone loves the same 15 to 20 programs :( there goes my match to somewhere I care about
Its not really a surprise that people are ranking places like Harvard, Penn, Stanford, UCSF, etc. highly...
mrw no one is ranking my #1 as #1 or #2, which means i might match there and i would be very happy :))
Hi! Penn's website says by the first week of december, which usually means the last week of november or first week of december. And I think hopkins is coming out this week! << Penn is likely next week, by the 25th
yea Penn's website says by 11/25 I believe<<any source on hopkins coming out this week?
<<people have been saying Hopkins for the last 2 weeks lol
Yes, internals only > internal day was this month, 1/9 is an external day
yes penn internal was this month
op of this box: totally misread that as 12/9 sorry for the confusion don't think 1/9 is internal only
1/9 is for people who are lower on the pre-interview rank list. Dec was internal
Where do you get this information from that 1/9 is for lower on rank list <lmao you people
<< Lol at this troll. 1/9 is not internal and date has nothing to do with rank list.
<knowing that I’d still become a board certified dermatologist << , and to OP, the program probably feels the same way about people who they ranked highly and didn't match with them. <what do you mean by "OP"
Speaking of this, does anyone know on average how far down their list people tend to match? do most people match into one of their top three? -- Absolutely not in derm, some do, but I doubt it's even half. I have the same question, maybe a PGY-1 who already match or a derm resident can help with this one <^PGY1 matched last year. This is a great question, there's no good data on this, it's anecdotal and you have to reason through it. The overall answer is, it's not as common to match top #1-3 as in IM or EM or Peds etc (larger specialties) because class sizes are so much smaller, and it's more competitive. It's also not uncommon, at least to match within your top 3. The way I see it play out is, there's kind of 2 scenarios (2 kinds of applicants) where you're MORE LIKELY to match #1 (not a guarantee and not the only 2 ways but just more likely) -Scenario 1: If you're a very strong applicant and have multiple top 5/10/20 invites, AND one of those programs is your #1 etc., you're more likely to match at your top choice. Those programs usually have larger class sizes so the statistics are much in your favor. Furthermore you're in a group of top applicants who will sort themselves out based on geographic preferences more than actual program rankings (they're all kinda similar in the top 10). -Scenario 2: You're a good applicant overall, and your top #1etc. choice is a program of superior interest or fit to you - e.g. your #1 happens to be your home program where everyone loves you and wants you to stay, or you are from a program that's in your hometown which is very regional - for example let's say your #1 is Penn State and you're from Hershey PA and you make it known you want to be there with family - then you're much more likely to match there as long as they liked you since they know you're a safe choice for coming there and having support etc. This is kind of a niche so you'll know if you're a scenario 2 applicant. -also this is all just like my opinion man
< on last year's spreadsheet, on the stats tab, lots of people matched at their 1st and 2nd choices, but it's hard to get a sense of overall how people match
Yeah but maybe thats just a bias based on the people who posted
<PGY-1 matched last year to #12, but honestly not at all dissapointed. There is a notion that not matching #1 there is something wrong with you/ you would be unhappy. Truthfully I would be dissapointed if I matched #15 and 16, but otherwise I would be ecstatic anywhere else.
<- I only have literally half the number of interviews (6). This does not bode well for me :(
< ya super scary for us folks that cant really go 10+ deep into our rank list because we dont have that many invites
it kills me that people are having this decision haha. Like obviously really impressive, wow, that's amazing and I am not diminishing your accomplishments, but its just amazing to me the thought of choosing between 4 top 5 derm programs<<i feel very blessed and grateful indeed! and doing my best to pay it forward and be fair to decline invites I have no intention of going to << yay you kind soul - try to judge by your interview day or ask current medical students/residents - look for fit if location means nothing to you
<Harvard for baller academic/research connections and opportunities, lots of med derm, less clinically heavy; NYU tons of clinics/Bellevue which you'll get baller, academics also good, UCSF work hard af but has a bit of everything and is great; Stanford is like the most supportive of the top 5 and will likely have the most good-feeling experience ... idk I'm a PGY1 that interviewed some of these so I don't actually know anything <<thanks for your insight! what do you mean harvard is less clinically heavy? like more inpatient experience? <<there's less resident clinic autonomy, you work a lot with attendings in specialty clinic and it's less ownership of your own patients, but it's like that anyways at the top academic programs as opposed to a small community program, just heard it's more accentuated at Harvard<<interesting, so are residents mostly just presenting patients and writing notes rather than coming up with management plans? <i imagine yes since you're seeing super complex patients at a tertiary care center<dang, fair enough. thank you! << "just present and write notes instead of coming up with management plans"? Is that an actual, serious comment? You think the residents just present the patient then stand there looking blankly at the attending waiting for them to just hand them a treatment plan? If you see complex patients, you learn how to come up with complex plans
< thanks for the input! What about penn?
PGY1. Loved Penn program (didn't match there but had it ranked #1). Amazing faculty, good autonomy, everyone seemed happy. Great exposure to procedures as well (which I felt was a weakness at Harvard)
Stanford - happy residents, assume great clinical experience (although no one seems to emphasize this as much about Stanford); UCSF - one of best if not best clinical experience in the country for complex derm, work you very hard though. Others I don't know as well. Go with your gut and where you felt like the personalities of the residents were most similar to yours.
Penn is the best all-round plus the procedural skill > Harvard. Stanford would be my #2 for the supportive vibe and innovation.
UCSF and Penn are definitly the two best/most well-rounded programs in the country. All the other "top" programs have significnt weaknesses (i.e stanford and harvard have weak derm surg, etc). NYU residents seem to work the hardest and seemed to me to be the least happy.
< almost had a heart attack when i saw those two names lol.
Out of curiousity do you consider those programs comparable. I've been at both departments and feel like they are very different (both good/amazing, but totally different imo)<very different yes, but each amazing in their own respective way. Im near the area of both and would be very happy at either
anyone care to elaborate on how they're different?
The cities are very different, faculty size and resources. While Hopkins is great and better than most places, Penn is in another league with a lot more going on in regards to clinic, research, etc. Very few places can compare to Penn. I personally would also be ecstatic to match at either if I'm lucky enough to get interviews. << Philly & Baltimore tho... <lol<<theyre both great cities that get a lot of bad rep. if you havent actually lived in either of them I wouldnt be so quick to talk. << I'm good never going back to Baltimore thx<good it doesnt want you there anyway
<<agreed that was brutal to make a new row with that nonsense. Heart is still racing lol x2
< ok here's an example. in ADDITION to being a rockstar applicant, connections are what get you to the top programs. example: one of the people who matched penn last year? her brother is a resident in the derm program at harvard and presumably knows the harvard and penn PD well. that sort of thing.
fml looks like my parents should have had more kids
LOL same. But I'm just saying this to say that you REALLY shouldn't feel bad / wonder why you're not getting an interview to top programs. There is SO much backdoor dealings etc that go on behind the scene that in reality almost none of the slots are open to just a good applicant without any STRONG connections of some sort. <- another example: one of the UCSF residents has an uncle who is a dermatologist at UCSF
LMAOOOO this is too good
But I thikn the IN ADDITION point is important, having a connection but being mediocre doesnt work as far as I can tell.
<so if we got an interview to a top program without being internal or rotator, do we assume someone had a connection or said something on your behalf?
no, assume you just got an invite, but know chances are low you won't match :)
That's not nice >:(. OP, you've earned that interview, especially without obvious connections. You should go rock it and show everyone what you're made of.
sometimes the truth isn't nice :/
Or maybe you shouldn't take out your frustriations on random people online.<<with that mindset, people wouldnt match from external schools then
not true, the girl who matched penn whose brother is a derm resident at harvard went to northwestern. and to the other person, that's pretty presumptous of you - I'm just being honest. How you decide to take that honesty is on you, not me.<<well thats exactly what im saying, barring no other "real connections" how do people match at a program they are not from.
to be clear, outside of the top 10 programs it's a whole different world. This level of neoptism is almost unique to these programs. <- equivalent of legacy status for undergrad
I knew an applicant who's father-in-law was the chair of a derm department....so needless to say they got an interview at that institution. Other "ties" are research. Some programs really favor their research fellows....who can spend one year or MORE doing research for the department. Often unpaid or super low pay. There's a lot of politics. I'm sure other fields are similar but because derm is small, the effects feel (and probably are amplified).
to add another great story, my friend told me that one of the people who matched to cornell last year? her mom is derm at cornell. connections are everything!
Unfortunately its near impossible to interpret RTM calls on this spreadsheet
even when it says x2 or x3 it could be a random fake post from 1 person
Exactly
Yale might not do R2M but they are known to make it very clear that they want you so if there's been no correspondence, that's definitely a sign - also Stanford and Penn has indeed sent out calls
Yale won't get everyone they want, so don't worry if there is no correspondence from any of these programs
If a place has sent out RTM calls and you didn't get one... would it be unusual for you to still match there? x2 << not impossible, but your chances are much lower
<Not really. The applicants who are getting r2m calls at these locations are getting r2m calls from all the others that do them as well, and everyone can only go to one program.
toxic. malignant. NO BUENO.
I think you will have to feel it out, but pretty sure it is good. In the top ~5 I don't think any programs is known to have a particularly bad culture.
thank you for expanding! For the person who said toxic, why?
I was joking. People there seem happy
No idea what that person is talking about (edit: they were joking. I'll leave what I typed). Culture at Penn is great. Residents are really happy and faculty are as well. I think the number of hospitals and amount of complex med-derm means that residents work a little more than average (for derm lol) but I've been very impressed with how they maintain that family/community vibe despite the appartent reputation as just a machinistic academic powerhouse. Mentorship is also second-to-none. Lots of opportunity to tailor things to whatever you want to do.
< amazing, thank you!!
you got it! <3
They're all top 10 programs. Mostly depends on what you want to specialize in and where you want to live<<could you elaborate more on these programs and future specialization ? x3
Harvard and Penn are very similar academic programs with strong emphasis on research and inpatient derm. NYU has better clinical volume/training. << NYU has probably the most "different" vibe of those - great clinical training...but a very large program with MANY facult, long hours, and historically not the happiest residents. Penn is great - probably a bit more "supportive" and "coddling" than UCSF or Harvard.
Seriously can we move on from this drama? 96% of us don't give a shit about Penn one way or the other. x1000 Can somebody explain how it's legal for state and local governments to lock down entire US cities? I get that there is a public health crisis, but I still don't see how this supersedes the bill of rights > it supersedes it, the same way you have a freedom of speech but can be arrested for going into a movie theater and shouting fire while there's no fire, every right has it limit.>> trump supporter ladies and gents here's one legal justification for a lockdown: https://verdict.justia.com/2020/03/15/lock-us-down-suspend-habeas-save-the-nation
<<Correction 99% of us don't care about Penn one way or another x3
we have the screenshots, let's move on
<< Coronavirus is raging, people are stuck at home, the economy is falling apart, doctors and nurses are dying.... LITERALLY every problem is much more important right now, so if your feelings were hurt this cycle, suck it up and MOVE ON
congrats! how many interviews does Harvard usually give out?
~30 << not true
more? less?
def more. they have 8ish spots. << wahhhhh I wanted this one!!!
probably closer to 60 invitations
seems like a lot. their yield is probably high <lol no WAY is it 60
It's probably the same as most other programs, ~40. But if you look at the match list from last year, for example, not a single person on that list wasn't connected in some strong way. So likely applicants are ranked before interviews and it doesn't change much after interviews.
Fake news. Not everyone last year was connected to the program
Who wasn't? x2
Even the non-Harvard rotators had gone to Harvard for undergrad << This.
This also applies to Penn. x2 << Basically applies to every top program in the country
Based on my extensive sleuthing, it 100% applies to Harvard, Penn, and Yale. As in you're SOL if you don't have a strong connection of some kind. To a much lesser degree, it applies to Stanford and UCSF
Definitely less with UCSF since they don't have an undergraduate college :)
but you have to have CA ties
Stanford and UCSF to a much lesser degree yes, but CA ties are almost required
disagree no california ties and got UCSF
aren't you a special cookie? We're talking about people who matched, not interview invites you snowflake
I was going to say what this person to the left said, but not as rudely. Yes I'm talking about people who MATCH, not get invited for an interview.
lol got it. thanks for the non-rudeness person #2 i get what ur saying<<what exactly do strong connections mean for these top programs? Like regional, rotating there etc?
reposting from edit history:
congrats superstars!!! are any of you external without any connection/away?
myself x5
that's so awesome, congrats friend!
thank you amigo/a!
Are you guys from other top schools though or have 260+ Step scores? There must be some method to this madness, it can feel so random sometimes x2
I think if it were just 260+ they would still have a lot of work to do to pick candidates. Doubt a place like HMS has to go just based off stats to pick their bunch.
Not true, there's only around 40 applicants with step 1 scores > 260 and they likely interview around 40 candidates" >> as an interviewee, I can tell you the assumptions above are not true x4
what assumption? x2<<needing 260+ step scores.
<hey guys is harvard a good program; first time hearing about it
I think they’re relatively new, I wouldn’t rank personally
yeah my PD asked if its a community program when I mentioned it
My PD didn't recognize the name, is it DO? << I thought it was in the Caribbean, I didn't apply for that reason.
oh SHIT it was spelled with an H in the front; been calling it ARVARD
either way, I think the program is low on brand recognition. who would go there?
yeah the interview date conflicted with a race in my city (which I organized, for just myself) so I declined it
yeah probably not worth the money of flights and hotels, tbh. good call. <I've seen ads for this school inbetween my youtube vids I think
:'D >> Heard Harvard is on probation and might not get accredited next year :/ Pretty poor reputation
LOLOL
Rotated at Harvard. They have overall good breadth of training with MGH, Brigham, BIDMC, few other sites. Lots of research opportunities and seems supported by the department. I found the resident surgical skills, dermatoscopy skills, and skin cancer screening skills were subpar at least in comparison to my home program. The department is great and has lots of leaders in derm - but it has a bit of of a very "old-school" feel with lots of white-haired, Caucasian males at the top of the leadership chain. It definitely has an old-school, East Coast medicine feel. This was sort of a turn off for me. Some of the faculty are primarily research clinicians who work 1/2 day a week in cinic - some of these attendings have really not maintained good clinical skills / not particularly interested in clinical medicine and it clearly showed. The number of faculty is huge - which means many residents don't get a lot of exposure to working 1:1 with a smaller group of faculty (there a few expections - for instance, Kroshinky who runs the inpatient service and is just overall the best person ever). Overall, my take home from my experience there was that Harvard has good training and great research opportunities, but that "prestigious" programs aren't necessarily everyone's preference / despite Harvard's own self-perception as "the holy grail of medicine", you can get similar high-quality of training at other less prestigious institutions.
did you get an interview?
no
oh no! you seem really nice, I'm sorry. thanks for the write up! x 2
< Is Kroshinsky nice? I've heard not as positive comments about her, but I much prefer to believe she's as nice as some people have said. Did you interact with Mostaghimi or Chen while you were there? I thought they are both big on inpatient? Were they nice? << Kroshinsky is a superstar x3
are you 3 internals?
not me. Did a research year with her
oh so you're matching Harvard? ;)
<-- Korshinsky is nice. So is Mostaghimi. I didn't work with Chen.
thank you!
Dr Chen is seriously the nicest person on the planet, encourages even med student autonomy in clinic/inpatient
Have heard conflicting things about Mostaghimi though. Heard he can be hard to get along with from an external rotator there
Are you serious?? Hard to get along with in what way? He seems like he'd be so nice and funny! << seemed judgmental and not very friendly << maybe he just has RBF (resting bitch face lol)?? I really don't want to believe he's not as nice as seems :(
< did your friend who was a rotator recieve an interview? << yup
<< white-haired white dude leadership is a thing at a lot of derm programs.... suprised it's still a thing I thought we were in more modern times
No, they attached a sheet with hotel rates too
Which Derm programs offer free hotel? Henry Ford, Mayo-Rochester, Mayo-AZ... others? Penn State, I'm there this week.
Nice
Geisinger pays fo hotel as well
Mayo-Jacksonville too
Southern Illinois university as well
Loved it, but thought the faculty were more intense than other top 5 programs
Amazing program. Absolute favorite hands down.
best program in the country. hands down. A tier above the other 4 in the top 5
People with other top 5 interviews outside penn really trying hard to reduce the competition... x3
or ppl being honest... crazy right?
California resident is doing all the trolling
<< same here because that's me! i think i get along better with people who are really honest and work hard, having a great sense of humor is a cherry on top - meme > I feel like the admissions committee at my school selected against people with a sense of humor; so hard to come across. But lots of people who are honest and hard working
Did your school have grades or P/HP/H for preclinicals? I feel that schools with a more emphasis for grades end up with more serious students. I don't know whether that's associative or causative.
nah we're P/F. maybe we're just boring
< don't get me started on the bullshit that is grading. my school has restricted honors for the top ten percent of the clerkship overall, while other schools have a set number you have to score above. talking to other students on away rotations really opened my eyes to how much each school is different and how little programs care besides seeing the "H" next to the subject.
I went to a school with unrestricted honors. After getting some of my feedbacks, such as ([Name] was one of X students getting honors for this rotation), I realized that in the end, only 15-20% of students ended up getting honors anyway. They set the goalpost (specificed ahead of time) knowing that anyone could meet that standard, but very few people would actually make it. Ultimately, I think this was the right approach because people could still work hard for themselves, regardless of whether or not they met the challenge. << yep this is a great attitude to take to it if the goalposts are properly set! someone's schools had to get 90% on evals, 80% on shelf, unrestricted number. i was like....lol what.
Thoughts on UCSF testing straight P/F grading for clinical clerkships?
In general, I don't think UCSF has an amazing match list compared to Harvard, Penn, and Stanford if we remove the in-home matches. I do think that it will make things harder for the PDs << it might also skew towards the name. P from Harvard? Who even cares, it's Harvard. No H from MidTierStateU? LOL what a pleb. So i dont think UCSF policy will really change anything in the MSPE. << also would reduce the stress level for clinical clerkships. << P/F curriculums may have shifted pressure onto Step 1, could P/F clerkships put more pressure on Step 2?
possibly. Or more pressure on the LORs
Maybe they will move us over to EM's standardized letters of evaluation. I know that some admins in dermatology wanted to do that this year but they were not able to do so. >> 2 cells over in E
I understand that most derm PD's or people reading apps have a sense of individual schools and what the typical grade distributions are << it was made better this year by including graphs in the MSPE
really? I hate those graphs. fucks over half the people in the class << i mean im the OP in the cell to the left. it clearly shows <20 people in my class getting honors directly next to the text for my evaluations so IF, and big IF, the person actually reads why i didn't get honors, they can see that it was only a select few who did. idk, from the underachiever pov, it looks good. << Point taken
i think it'll start depending more on school prestige and LOR maybe like you said, and of course step scores. good school prestige begets good LOR so it's a trickle-down system all the way to the interviews haha. holy shit i forgot about SLOE, imagine that in Derm! hell no, fuck SLOEs. Hate being reduced to a single number/grade as if I were a cow << lol look at the charting outcomes and step score distribution, or like filters that exist already. i hate it too but sometimes its gotta be done
I'd rather be evaluated on the quality of my LORs than another hoop to jump through. Step 1 (and to a lesser extent, Step 2) is enough of an objective measure.
But still, you'd be surprised. In the state of California, Stanford and UCSF had middling average Step I scores compared to places UCLA and UCSD, probably because the students knew that Step I wouldn't matter as much for them in the perspective of other program directors would be happy to have some Stanford/UCSF students as part of the program.
do we have official numbers on these? I don't doubt that it exists, but it'd be nice to know the extent of the disparity of avg Step 1 scores of accepted derm applicants from top vs mid schools
I don't know, I go to a top 3 school. I got a slightly above average score for derm, and my Dean and PD told me that I should be "competitive anywhere" although they did warn me that the places that I'd get interviews may seem random and that I may not get all the interviews that I wanted (and I didn't)
Also at a top 3 with derm average step and don't have many interviews (but others here do). maybe trickles will come
<< prestige man, prestige. its exactly what you said, they'd love to have a person from x program on their resident and potentially staff roster. for us mid-low tier schools, we gotta kick ass on step 1 and etc to have a shadow of your position, potentially with not as good LORs << do we need more hoops to jump through, though? I don't think the answer to leveling the playing field for students not from the top tier schools is to create yet another metric. We have to do so much already, from getting a good Step 1 score, to kicking ass on clerkships, doing research, etc << true man. someone down the sheet suggested having a set number of programs to apply to, like 20 or so, i think that might really be playing with fire and lead to a LOT of people unmatched or SOAPing, both applicants and programs << for sure. we'd need a transition period or something. couldn't ERAS spend a fraction of their $$$ to hire a data scientist to study the optimal number of programs to apply to? << they did that, for derm it was high 30s. let me see if i can find link
https://students-residents.aamc.org/applying-residency/filteredresult/apply-smart-data-consider-when-applying-residency/ i think that is what we are discussing - meme
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on the opposite end, looking at the list stressed me out because places I ranked high others didn't and places I ranked low others ranked high. Makes me wonder if I messed up my ROL x2