Mass General Brigham-MA

at least one fellowship from each

Doesn’t matter. All about your instagram presence at that point< HAHA

100% true

depends on how many giveaways/month

This may be dumb to say but maybe Stanford since the population may be most like private?

<<Dude, NYU for sure

NYU wasn't one of the OP's posted programs

< per an IM resident at one of the two programs, MGH is more clinically focused, and BWH is better for people with interests outside of clinical medicine. Accordingly, wards @ MGH are much more intense than those at BWH (q4 30hr call), and you do 6 months of this as a prelim.

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.

skin of color as in red man syndrome?

oh good question! I would like to know too

My guess: Mt. Sinai, Wake, Howard, UCSF, Harvard, U penn, NYU

< you forgot UTAH

NYU??? x2

absolutely NYU << dang one would think that best skin of color training would occur in places with high % skin of color pop (Detroit, Birmingham, Baltimore, etc)

really UTAH?

I think sarcasm

What about Henry Ford, Emory, UNC, NW? Henry Ford PD actually felt the need to reassure us during the interview presentation that they get to see skin cancer at community clinics because the main hospital is so heavily just skin of color

<I rotated at UNC and felt it was very diverse - agreed, very pleasantly surprised

Another vote for Wake Forest! Amy McMichael is an amazing doctor and person!

<- WF faculty seems diverse, but their patient population is still pretty rural and not as diverse

yes, but Dr. McMichael has an interest in SOC so tailors her teaching/clinic to that. She gave a talk to our program a few years ago, hence the fangirling.

Also, Hopkins has a specific initiative to support underrepresented minority faculty and residents.

and Penn

Uhh yah probably 95% of us

don't think it's that high

Let's say 800 people apply... they probably interview 40-50 so max they're inteviewing is 5% of candidates... no? I mean ball park << when you say AND, you're multiplying stats right, so im going to assume that at least 90% of people missed out on all of Harvard, Stanford, UCSF, AND Penn

So to make this simpler, what are the chances of getting an interview at one the top 5, say UCSF, Harvard, Stanford, NYU, and Penn?

how many people do you think get all 5 of the top 5 places? 4/5? 3/5?

~10%, ~12%, ~15% respectively I'd say? ---- Probably 15-20 people get 5/5 for the top 5. I've realized that it's mostly the same people getting all the top 10 interviews." <- coming from one of these schools i can tell you that this is not the case and the number with all 5 is much fewer.

I'm sure there are some godly people out there with all of the top 5 plus the next top 5, and ideally they will drop some of them for the rest of us :p<<<guilty :) but have trickled many invites so wishing everyone the best of luck

sigh managed to get NYU/harvard/stanford/UCSF...and no penn...and ive lived near penn my whole life. idk what went wrong there, was my top choice

16th is such a tough day :( too many conflicts so sorry!

i heard shit things about northwestern so maybe not there << What is the problem? << Overpromise and underdeliver. They talk up their projects, tell you you'll get x number of publications by whatever time, tell you they'll mentor you through the application process - and at the end of the day you'll maybe see your PI once a month << and then they don't interview all their research year people lmao << ya fml << Def heard avoid northwestern for research fellowship. They use you for free labor.

<< That sounds terrible. Anybody with experience at Harvard or UCSF? Even Upenn but that would hard for my SO << I have had several friends at Harvard who swear by their expeirences there << wherever you go, def pick clinical research over basic science research (more pubs). also don't just go for the fancy names, look into places that would actually match you after spending a research year there (not to say that you're not good enough for harvard/ucsf/penn, but also top programs historically don't give a crap if you spent time with them)

I don't know if I agree about a place that takes their fellows. It's not a bad strategy but also a mentor who fights for you can go really far!

Are there any specific people or groups that are worth reaching out to? How did you guys find where to go? << I have heard of people having success with Kroshinsky at Harvard, Koo at UCSF, Rosenbach at Penn, and Mostaghimi at Brigham

I did research with Mostaghimi. He wasn't around most of the time and I didn't find the experience that fulfilling tbh << Not sure why comment was deleted. Seems like someone has an agenda. I worked with Mostaghimi and thought he was really dedicated to me and his other students. If you are thinking about working with him he will put you in touch with people who have actually worked with him and you can get a sense of what their experience was like. Don't believe everything you read on these boards.

I found my research year by talking to just about every upperclassman who had done one in the 1-3 years before me. Really variable year to year and I agree that big name places can be a let down. There's just no way Harvard cares when they have so many research fellows. heck, they a least a few of their own med students didn't match last year so don't expect an interview.

<< Can't speak for insitution at large but both at Harvard and other institutions the specific individual that you work with is the most important part. Look at the people who have worked with these attendings in the past, they've genreally done well. Do your homework, find a person and talk to peple who have worked with them before

IU had to soap all 4 spots i think << IU is Indiana University?

yes

< how do you know? Is there a list of SOAP spots?

i saw it on the 2018-2019 spreadsheet around match time

Anyone know what happened with the IU program? I heard it may have been an ERAS submission error since they are otherwise regarded as a good program. Has any derm program ever had to SOAP all spots?

So I still have a chance to match into derm?

meh weird if it was a error cause I heard they matched like 1 of the spots and others were SOAP

ooooh i didnt know they matched 1 << didn't they match someone from Harvard? Was that through SOAP?

yes i think so

wow a Harvard med student didn't match? << I heard a couple of harvard people didnt match derm... << HOW DID THEY LIKE THEM APPLES

wow that's crazy! did they have disciplinary problems?

yeah one of them got DUI

the one that matched IU or unmatched?

IU

lol damn

how was this info even leaked lmao << a resident on one of my aways had just come back from leave.....for a DUI. Their mug shot came up on Google next to their professional headshot.

how long a leave do you have to take for a DUI? Not that I'm planning on getting one lol

LMAO, also its amazing they let him/her come back

wait you're saying the Harvard student that matched at IU got a DUI?

didn't UMASS or UCONN match all IMGs, was that through SOAP or intentional? << I heard from a few reliable sources that UMass intentionally matched 2 IMGs and took 1 resident who was switching from another specialty at UMass. They did not SOAP and from their website it looks like one of the first times ever they didn't take at least 1 of their own students. Not to say non-traditional applicants don't deserve a shot, but there are many fantastic US MD seniors who didn't match last year.

Indiana matched 1 of their 5 spots last year without the SOAP. They have 5 spots every 3rd year (back to 4 this year).

so what's wrong with the program? How come they had to SOAP? <I rotated there - there was one mean attending but everything else seemed good - not sure how I’d explain it being the only program that needed to SOAP and having 80% of its spots go unfilled (before the SOAP)

not getting an interview from a program you rotated and got a LOR from ...< same boat x2< yeah I'm pretty sure living in a third world country with limited food and water could be more depressing but I think its a close one --- Nope, I would rather live in 3rd world country than not get an interview from a rotation

<< might I ask which programs these are?

I'm also curious -- TONS << Many top-tier programs (ie harvard), Miami, Colorado... There's definitely more

It goes fully from 8 am-4pm (resident who interviewed there)<thank you!

wow, wasn't expecting invite (external and no ties to Cali), but I think our PD has connections to the program <UCSD is known as a very score dependent program, do you have high scores? << derm range but not ridiculous

external and no Cali ties and got interview too

high step 1 (265+) lower CK (240's)

why do you think your CK is lower? I would have guessed you'd score high 260s on step 2 with that step 1 score! Not necessarily true; some people here w/high board scores with no UCSD invites...

Personalized email? or group? GROUP

Anybody know if multiple batches of invites went out for them in prior years or just one?

I bet only 1 day WTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF< damn wanted this so bad Are dates confirmed 1/9 and 1/16?

yes <are people wanting the 9th ? No one has heard back re their date yet right (i will lose my mind if I can't go)

have not heard back yet

Just heard back <eek im scared. what time did you reply, I think I emailed in five min.

responded in ~3min< are you ninth or sixteenth? <anyone not hear back yet...? <just heard back for 1/9. responded in 3 min<still haven't heard back for the ninth and responded in four wahhh

also 1/9

pretty sure we all asked for 1/9 lol 1/16 is a shitshow< just got the 9th

same! 1/9

why would 1/16 be a shitshow??? Penn and Harvard ???

just that week has a lot going on on both coasts and midwest

Congrats! San Diego is so incredible x 1

Got skunked by the top 10, but got my top choice! << same here! x3

any rotators get an invite?

yes i did

wooooot San Diegoooooooo

Doubled my derm invite total today!

congrats!! x2

yeah seems pretty impossible to make but thankfully theirs did not seem mandatory (Harvard's was more strongly worded to attend)

< yeah I am driving though. wanna hitch a ride?

LOL <if some folks are leaving right after or together I would be down to share the Uber to the airport

I just emailed the coordinator to see whether she thinks it's possible to make the 6:40pm JetBlue flight

if you're talking about the Harvard interview, the coordinator confirmed that the AM session (starting at 7:30am) is scheduled to end at 1:30pm.

is there an AM and PM session? I thought the email said the interview day goes from 7a-5pm? Although my email said to arrive at 9:15am...?

I think there are 7:30, 9:30, and 12:30 sessions. I was told to arrive at 7:20.

So I should ask when the 9:30 session ends but presumably 3:30?

probably<<confirmed with coordinator that 9:30 session will end at 3:30, not sure about the other ones but i think we can assume they will last around the same length.

<similar struggle for me, ended up booking two flights in event I can't get out early enough.

which two flights?

booked the 6:40p jetblue

The UCSF pre-interview dinner was amazing. I would try to attend it. I thought it was 10/10 better than Harvard's. Just sayin.

Historically about 16-18 << only? doesn't Harvard interview like 30-40?

It's been historically low. Want to say less than 40, maybe closer to 20-30).

could I ask where you got this figure from?

My memory, I matched a couple of years ago. I didn't interview there but I had friends who did.

why are you still checking this spreadsheet lol

speak for yourself, man, I appreciate wisdom from the elders

OP here, thanks.. I'm still here because I actually want to help lol

where are you for residency?

Midwest, big program. Want to maintain some anonymity still I guess.

thank you for being here OP

I've heard it's common in derm for programs to interview ~10 applicants per spot but that the very elite programs often interview fewer. Someone last year told me Harvard was ~5 per spot

It is not that low! People post ridiculous stuff on here. Last year Stanford interviewed 40.

First world problems. same.

c'mon it's still a problem for this person << yea dude dont be a dick

literally no one's gonna want the 1/16 date since UCSF is 1/15, Penn is 1/16 and Stanford is 1/17 bro...and I'm assuming people getting these programs get the lot of the others...good luck x2 << Yeah if you look at the interview swap page a small group of elite are all having conflicts at the same dates and the same places. Nobody is going to "swap" a non-conflict for a potential conflict.

lolololololololololololol... sorry not actually taking joy from the conflicts, just laughing at the fact that the top programs are all interviewing the same people.

yup, better late than never right? <<Yeah just don't want to be seen as annoying, but I am having trouble scheduling another interview bc I don't know which date the first one is

Is this for Harvard? I don’t think anyone has heard back yet from there? <<Yup. I don't want to piss them off but I do need to know the date...