Stanford, CA
Applicant sentiment — from 150 anonymous posts, 2016–2027
6.2 / 10
What anonymous posters said
Anonymous posters frequently group this program among a small set of highly regarded dermatology residencies. Several described residents as happy and well supported with favorable quality of life and compensation, while some noted comparatively weaker derm surgery or Mohs training. Many posts also debated whether post-interview check-in or 'RTM' calls occurred, reflecting persistent rumor and uncertainty around recruitment communications.
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
✅1. All of the hospitals are beautiful
❌1. I heard that their Peds Derm spot is guaranteed to whoever their current research fellow is, the nepotism runs deep. Good luck.
❌2. Most stressful interview day. No breaks between rooms. Rapid fire of very challenging questions and follow-ups. Felt very judged with every answer I gave. PD responded with rudeness after I asked a basic question.
💬1. well the shame is clearly not true as this year's peds match was not the research fellow +1. very organized interview day and responsive coordinator. > hated this interview day seemed like they were trying to see how you do under stress
Page 18 of 27
if I want to be a private practice cosmetic dermatologist, should I go to Harvard, Stanford, Penn, Pitt, or Yale?
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
speaking of all these top programs....is it, in theory, harder to match or are you more likely to go lower on your rank list if the majority of your interviews are from top programs? Or is it the opposite, where if you've gotten these interviews you're probably a really strong candidate and wouldnt fall too low on the rank list
<the top programs also happen to be some of the larger ones, so chances go up. Top programs end up interviewing many of the same people ... so think about it if there's like 40 ppl interviewing at all the tops, they can only go to 1 program ultimately, so those spots open up ... and people have family/geographic ties that bind them ... so your chances end up being better than you think if you're in the group interviewing at all the tops since you never know if like e.g. Penn is your top choice, some people might choose UCSF or Stanford over it since they have to be in SF for their spouse's finance job etc
x2 you never know what people want. Most people at the top end up fitting in somewhere.
< okay so there are something like a few hundred seats though right? Like so the top 40 take the top 5-10 programs, and then everywhere else is regional or what? like its not like only even the top 100 people would match
regional and totally random. And heavily influenced by rotators, connections, compelling reasons someone wants to move.
alright if you had the choice of Harvard, UCSF, Stanford, or NYU, which would you choose and why? At this point im not sure how i would choose between them other than location but are there any merits/weaknesses to these programs to know about?
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.
Anybody else miss out on Harvard and Stanford and UCSF?
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
Anyone get waitlisted by Stanford? Resident told me they give out a few of these. << YES I was waitlisted...not holding my breath
also waitlisted. Anyone have stories of people getting off this WL? <the only time there's WL movement is when there's overlap dates; this year Stanford has no overlaps with the other top 5 so less likely I think
< you a rotator or internal?
neither
Has anyone ever gotten off a Stanford interview waitlist?
I have no idea, but I'd imagine probably not
Stanford rejection x12
very sad about this one :'(
They said they've got the strongest applicant pool to date this year. Truth or just making us feel slightly better...?
I think this is something they can just easily say every year without upsetting anyone and making everyone else feel better
I don't even read the rejection emails. It's all nice, diplomatic fluff.
still sad about this...
Stanford! (Rotator), Email
x7 (External)
<< Congrats!!
:( darn no email.
how many does Stanford interview? You can ask your resident buddy but I've heard not very many because literally every faculty member in the department will come to interview you.
seems like only 6 interview spots based on the acceptance cell
When is Stanford gonna drop!?!?
Predictions for this week??
Colorado x2, Utah, brown x2, stanford x2, Saint Louis, UCLA
Mizzou and SLU?
I wish Stan woud just come out already..x2
< so much for before December....
chances are it'll come out next week <100%
< this person has been calling Stanford next week for a while. Obviously reading between the lines this is a Stanford student or resident. Just chill out until next week guys
Prediction: Stanford tomorrow?
nope expect it the week after
is this a guess? or do you know. The PC and website said: end of november
Hope so!
Since we're already discussing Michigan, any other notoriously malignant top 5/ top tier programs? > wtf is happening. supposedly every program is malignant?
Any program with daily didatics before 8am. <name names x2
UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI HAS DIDACTICS AT 7AM EVERY DAY << HF has morning lectures <<LOL someone deleted UCSF being malignant
UCSF is malignant
how are 7am lectures = MALIGNANT? I think people are confusing working hard and dedicated learning with malignant LOL << I don't think anyone is conflating 7AM with malignant. It was a seperate question.
the initial response though spoke of lectures before 8am = malignant, so it can be inferrered the subsequent responses were in the same vein
I've heard that Stanford is very very....NON malignant <uhhhhm i've never heard that before
originally it said not malignant, some foo edited it
resident lurker here FYI UCSF's lectures start at 8 am everyday not 7 am. There is a 7:30 am dermpath session before lecture on Tuesdays.
COME ON, UCLA AND STANFORD. RELEASE YOUR INTERVIEWS ALREADY! x1000000
<< Waiting for one here too but I dunno, it looks like last year UCLA didn't send out invites until after they'd interviewed the internals, so it might not be until Decemeber.
Is anyone else potentially doing a philly to san francisco flight on Jan 16th and hoping we can leave earlier in the day?
Did Stanford go out already?
no, but maybe for internals?<is Stanford coming out today?
predictions for which programs come out next week?
Colorado x2, UCLA, UCSD x2, UT Austin x2, University of Florida, Hofstra, Brown, maybe USC, Stanfordx2?
stanford comes out first week of december
source?x2
< how do you know? x3
<yeah fake news. PC told me they'd come out by the end of November
Some posts are shown because their comments mention this program.
at least one fellowship from each