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Stanford Health Care-CA

Stanford

Stanford, CA

NRMP
1820080A0 / 1820080R0
ACGME
0800521020

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

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stanfordstanford dermstanford healthstanford health care

Fame & Shame

2025–2026 Derm

4 entries

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 20 of 27

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< someone deleted the #1 ranks for UCSF. What was it last? <I think it was the same as Stanford, so I made it 5

#12282019-2020 DermMar 23

agreed

Mar 23
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<Get it together people!

Mar 23
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Yeah can we please stop being so uncool now that ranks are in and any of your motivations to be a troll are gone! honestly, it's probably not us. more likely to be the program itself...<why would they even care, I'm sure they have more important things to do

Mar 23
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um, we live for this juicy shit too

Mar 23
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LOL @ a program being petty enough to come in and change it to 100 ppl ranked it 1

Mar 23
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not that one

Mar 23
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<hilarious how there are 20 more 1st ranks than 2nd and 3rd. I guess its all those people that only got one interview and it happened to be Stanfrod, Harvard or another top program. smh. I'm losing faith in my future colleagues...

Mar 23
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I highly doubt that. People are probably just not filling in their top 2 and 3 bc they're mostly concerned with getting their number 1. I initially only filled out 1 and 2 out of laziness. Not sure if your comment was a joke or not... but most of those people have more than 3 interviews. <it was sarcasm

Mar 23
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ah, very dry.

Mar 23
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Stanford's was also pretty solid <Most beautiful campus on the planet

#10692019-2020 DermMar 23

UCSD. Straight to the shores/cove x2

Mar 23
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The Wake bus tour with Dr Feldman was awesome! We even stopped for delicious BBQ. Second time i type this because felt the need to delete my comment

Mar 23
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,

Mar 23
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can

#13132019-2020 DermMar 23

Hi folks! My name is YJ Kim; I've met some of you on the interview trail. For those of you who didn't match, I am so sorry. I wanted to plug in this research position for my amazing research mentor, Dr. Kavita Sarin, who is looking for an experienced clinical research coordinator to help run trials in skin cancer and medical dermatology. Send CV to Ksarin@stanford.edu. I have nothing but great things to say about her!

Mar 23
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UCSF sent an email saying that they wouldn't but they also are doing 2nd looks is what was posted earlier

#10422019-2020 DermMar 23

From my understanding the 2nd look is a GME-wide initiative and not derm specific or indicative of rank

Mar 23
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Seems like both did. But UCSF is more of a URM thing

Mar 23
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why the misinformation? Stanford did not send out RTM calls and UCSF invited SOME (not all) URM interviewees to a GME-wide second look. Why are we propagating so much BS?

Mar 23
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scroll down and you will see people got RTM Stanford calls

Mar 23
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ohh I see now

Mar 23
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There is a person here who is absolutely desperate to match at Stanford and is spreading lies like crazy. I talked to a resident and they said they had NOT done RTM calls. The same person here keeps deleting/changing posts and is a genuinely manipulative person

Mar 23
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<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

#6172019-2020 DermMar 23

x2 you never know what people want. Most people at the top end up fitting in somewhere.

Mar 23
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< 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

Mar 23
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regional and totally random. And heavily influenced by rotators, connections, compelling reasons someone wants to move.

Mar 23
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< seems unlikely x2 << has ANYONE gotten off stanford's waitlist?

#8542019-2020 DermMar 23

Very very doubtful. There aren't very many interviewees to begin with. Also, the residents have sent out emails to the applicants already.

Mar 23
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<< very unlikely

Mar 23
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From the post, which was published in November 2015: "First of all, before I even get into the interviews themselves, I just want to say don’t panic if you don’t have a high number of interviews yet. Dermatology interview invitations come out later than all the other fields, so you can still expect interview invites to roll in through December and even into January. So step one is to take a deep breath and calm down. Schedule all your prelim and transitional interviews now while you have time and try to get as many of those out of the way in November and December because January, the month where the majority of derm interviews are, will be a wild ride."

#3452019-2020 DermMar 23

I feel like this is easy for her to say since she did residency at NYU

Mar 23
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also she was coming from stanford

Mar 23
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half of the applicants here have >4 interviews. more than half of programs have sent out interview invites; the rest are top tiers or something. that is a like 60+ chance of matching. so now yes, i am panicking.

Mar 23
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But how does that help?

Mar 23
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figure out if i need to take another year or alternative career options? also does anyone really think there's going to be a huge trickle in january?

Mar 23
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yeah with conflicts, probs

Mar 23
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i guess thats my only other hope but im real uncomfortable abbout it, not sure if they're seriously going to rank me or its a waste of my money

Mar 23
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Top tier: UPenn Harvard UCSF NYU Mayo Michigan, Emory, Henry Ford?) and Michigan and Mayo are not top tier. Would add Stanford, Hopkins, and UCLA instead)

#3152019-2020 DermMar 23

would also add UTSW https://www.mdedge.com/dermatology/article/157864/practice-management/us-dermatology-residency-program-rankings-based/page/0/1 <<what is the difference between this article and the doximity rankings? Is there more validity to one vs the other? << lol, someone put UCLA in top tier (UCLA isn't even a Department, it's a Division) >> lol UCLA low tier for sure << realistically, probably middle to low, great overall health system but will always have hands tied and no real ability to grow

Mar 23
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UCLA is a solid program, strong surgical training, lacks the super complex patients of some more intense programs but it depends on what you are looking for in your training << I don't think anyone's saying it's a bad program, just not a top tier, that's kind of silly

Mar 23
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UCLA is the perfect example of a low-to-mid tier program that is nonetheless quite competitive given it's in California. Again, there's often a disconnect between prestige/quality of training and competitiveness. Location, location, location.

Mar 23
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No way that Hopkins and UCLA would be top tier over Michigan and Mayo

Mar 23
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Mid-tier: OHSU, Iowa, Minnesota, UPMC >> Would probably put MN as low tier? >> Thoughts? Why? >> Minnesota would probably be in same tier as OHSU, Iowa, UPMC. Iowa has great faculty, but I think it does suffer from being in a relatively non-diverse, predominately white, smallish-city in Iowa. Minnesota, OHSU, and UPMC are in more urban environments with at least UPMC and Minnesota having more ethnic / racial diversity, (Portland is super white as well). Also, no one should trust that MDedge nonsense x5

Mar 23
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To be fair they tried to make an objective measure. Many of the opinions here leave out some good programs and add in top medical schools that are not top derm programs

Mar 23
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MN, Iowa as med-high tier? Would drop UPMC to low tier (just feel like no residents really enjoy it there but maybe that's just me lol)? And Iowa usually as a top 20 program on almost all ranking systems (though you cant always trust these things so who knows). I think its one of those places that suffers in many peoples minds because they have a not-so great med school and its in the mid west, but the derm program is actually extremely well-respected independednt of those facts

Mar 23
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1. Penn 2. UCSF 3. NYU 4. Harvard 5. Stanford 6. Northwestern 7. Emory 8. UTSW 9. Hopkins 10. Wash U 11. Mayo 12. Michigan 13. Iowa 14. HF 15. OHSU 16. Colorado 17. Minnesota 18. Utah 19. Cornell 20. Vanderbilt

Mar 23
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<-What is this list based on? Its totally inaccurate. Hopkins and Vanderbilt are mid tier programs at best. No Yale? No UW? No Wisconsin? No Miami? No Sinai? Cornell over Columbia? UPMC is definitely mid to top tier. Also, tiers maybe, but I dont understand how you can possibly rank 1 vs. 3 vs. 8 off the cuff << yeah, 1-3 is pretty standard, gets messy with next 5 I was about to post how accurate this list is. Some of the programs listed above are no way in the conversation. You can maybe disagree with Wash U/Cornell to the left tho. I'd agree Vanderbilt too high too

Mar 23
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<Yale for sure. x4 . Think that list is pretty accurate for top 20 minus Wash U, Cornell, and Vanderbilt. Would replace with Yale and Columbia. And Cleveland Clinic maybe. <<I question the order of some of these too. Hopkins is not a top 10 (but it is a top 20 probably). I agree that Sinai, miami, Columbia would also be top 20. Vandy should not be on that list and neither should a few others.

Mar 23
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<How good are the following programs: UPMC, Hopkins, UCSD, Miami.

Mar 23
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I think those are all decent programs (mid-top tier?). I would say that I typically view Hopkins as a mid-tier program (they don't have a lot of diversity in terms of training sites, though Hopkins itself is a great hospital). Miami is typically considered a Top 10 program - but they also are quite disorganized, old facilities, longer hours (Saturday clinics). UPMC takes a lot of MD/PhDs and has great Mohs training, though I never found their program actually attracts people who want to be there. UCSD is solid, somewhat basic-science focused. It's outshined by other programs in California (e.g. Stanford, UCSF, USC) and San Diego has great weather / beaches, though admittedly isn't the most exciting place to live / lacks a lot of arts / culture compared to most bigger cities in the United States.

Mar 23
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name me a state with better Mexican food tho

Mar 23
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stanford << disagree. Residents talked more with each other than with applicants during the resident dinner lol -- just goes to show how tight knit and happy of a group they are. (or how little they actually see of each other)

#10172019-2020 DermMar 23

I thought the people at Harvard were fantastic x2.

Mar 23
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The Harvard residents are super shady. They have secret hang-outs but dont invite the residents that arent "cool" enough. Serious mean girls shit. Lol. Very clique-y.

Mar 23
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Wait where did you hear this? FAKE NEWSSSSS << I didn't "hear" it. I experienced it. If you don't believe me, go confront one of the "popular" residents about it.

Mar 23
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LOL love how in the cell to the left Stanford residents are called tight knit and happy for sticking together and Harvard residents are called cliquey

Mar 23
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If you feel "left out" by the residency class, maybe you're the weird one

Mar 23
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harsh lol

Mar 23
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Penn > UCSF > Stanford = Harvard >> all others . (x2 though I did not go to one of these, I have the same order for the other 3, but it varies alot with who you happened to talk to) ^sounds like someone's desperate to go to Harvard/UCSF/Stanford : )

Mar 23
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haha I agree with this order, and I am ranking Penn 1. If people are actually trying to alter ranks by these orders, that is kinda sad....if it works that's even more sad lol

Mar 23
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UCSF and Penn were my favorites x5 <- damn lol, you guys are very lucky to have interviewed at both

Mar 23
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didn't interview at UCSF, but had the other 4 "top 5" programs and agree Penn residents seem closest. I would put NYU up there as well

Mar 23
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utsw residents were chill! did not expect that x2

Mar 23
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very pleasant surprise. The program moved up on my list based on the people there which I was not expecting

Mar 23
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Hopkins residents were so fun and nice! x3

Mar 23
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Yes

#5642019-2020 DermMar 23

people still sent LOI. The no thank you note thing is more to make it easier for us since it does not make an impact. LOI probably will not make an impact either, but if you want to it should be fine x2

Mar 23
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Anyone have a sense how much these lists move? Feeling freaked out that im probably not ranked extremely highly anywhere and wondering whether ppl get in usually anyway even if no where really ranks them top 5-10

Mar 23
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A lot of interviews interviewed the same people so that helps! One applicant can only take up 1 spot. I counted up all the unique spots that there are for my interviews ex 2 spots, 5 spots, 4 spots etc ... and that gave me some comfort

Mar 23
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honestly, sometimes I just hope everyone gets what they want and nobody wants the same program as me. lol x2

Mar 23
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Radio silence re: late breaking but not sure if they went out. Anyone hear rejection or acceptance?

Mar 23
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just got notified today

Mar 23
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accepted or rejected?

Mar 23
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yes it was a mass email

Mar 23
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how many people do Stanford interview?

Mar 23
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thank you!

Mar 23
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very unlikley to get trickles the other date since many people want to switch to that one since it does not have conflicts so they have waitlists / swaps for that date. There will probably be more trickles for 1/10 though at Brown and other programs.

Mar 23
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lol this is funny I see this here, I’m a PGY 1 who did a research talk at penn state last year, I was the only one who didn’t wear a suit, also was one of only 2 people without a PhD. Didn’t really matter I think the talk went well and multiple attendings at interviews the following day seemed genuinely interested in what I had talked about... but it did stand out to me that I should have probably worn a suit lol

Mar 23
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Uhh yah probably 95% of us

#6112019-2020 DermMar 23

don't think it's that high

Mar 23
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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

Mar 23
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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?

Mar 23
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how many people do you think get all 5 of the top 5 places? 4/5? 3/5?

Mar 23
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~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.

Mar 23
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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

Mar 23
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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

Mar 23
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First world problems. same.

#4152019-2020 DermMar 23

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

Mar 23
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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.

Mar 23
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lolololololololololololol... sorry not actually taking joy from the conflicts, just laughing at the fact that the top programs are all interviewing the same people.

Mar 23
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< that would be suprising. do you go to a low tier school? Mid-tier

#2192019-2020 DermMar 23

that was a stupid question on my end. what even is high/mid/low tier? like top 10/40/100 or something? but to harken back to your situation, the only things I can think of that could be adversely affecting you other than being from a "low" tier school would be not taking a research year / limited research or your geographical area. <I agree with you. I can't really think of much else besides geography and below average research. I have read all but one of my letters and they were strong. I really don't know what to do at this point.

Mar 23
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I'm sorry, friend. I'm assuming it is then the combination of geography and below avg. research. But I'm also SURE you're going to get interviews. Just hang in there! Nothing else you can do now, and with a 260 you clearly worked hard already.

Mar 23
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Yes minus the 260 :D

Mar 23
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Glad to have you on my team << 260+ can give you that same "top tier" school curse where some programs may think you're out of their league. Hang in there, we're with you

Mar 23
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im <260 but PhD (non-research track) and it doesn't look good. low tier school, did good aways, got LoR, SILENCE, it's crazy that this is happening.

Mar 23
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0 interviews at all? <aside from internal no << did you get interviews from your aways?<--any updates for you?

Mar 23
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top tier med school, 260+ Step 1, 15 publications, great LORs, 0 interview invitations. I'm devastated

Mar 23
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Yooooo that SUCKS. Are there a lot of applicants from your school with your stats or better?

Mar 23
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yes. double digit applicants, all similar .

Mar 23
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damn I'm at a double digit school with way worse stats...now I know why I'm not getting invites

Mar 23
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dang OP of this cell, man I feel for you. That is rough, but there is no way you do not match and get a lump sum of interviews at some point.

Mar 23
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TBH, OP, if you're at a Harvard/Yale/Stanford etc. school, chances are you're going to match your home program. You're fine.

Mar 23
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As someone from a top school with a top home program, not true. I wish that I could match into my program, but the schools want a residency class filled with the best folks from other great institutions to add influx of new idea, skills, and connections to the class. This is true ESPECIALLY if there are a ton of us.

Mar 23
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im really starting to realize how big a factor the # of people applying from my school is

Mar 23
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# of people applying is a factor but applicants from top schools are typically safer with fewer invites at top programs compared to non-top school candiates with mid/low tier interviews. Top programs want applicants from top schools so you're competing with a small pool of applicants for all the spots at Harvard/Yale/Stanford/Penn/UCSF etc.

Mar 23
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This . If you look at the people in the Y/H/S/P etc. schools, 80% of residents are from that program, 15% from another Y/H/S/P etc., and MAYBE 1-2 a year from a more "random" school—and that person 100% either had a 100th percentile Step 1 score and/or connections. Also, if you look at their match lists from the past couple years, not a SINGLE one of those programs had an unmatched applicant. So not sure why you're "devastated" when you have a 100% chance of matching—and likely at your home or another top program (unless your personality sucks).

Mar 23
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Swap out Yale for NYU, and you have the proper list of top programs.

Mar 23
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I seriously dont know how this process works. thats insane . <<Not OP (have way lower stats than that lol), but as someone who goes to a top 5 place I can say with fact that there is not a 100% chance. I do not know how all top programs work, but the fact is even though we have more residents than the average program, the number of applicants from our school is greater than th enumber of spots. On top of that, our school does not rank its own first (but yes 1/2 the porgram tends to be our own/research/rotators). It is a top programs and it wants the best from the country. If you look at our match list it looks AMAZING, but it never mentions the people who do not match. I know for the last 3 years, there was 1 or more unmatched derm. We're all in this shit together

Mar 23
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<--- I review applications. While there are some programs that highly value Step 1 score -- I think applicants overestimate how much most programs care about these things. I don't think there are any functional differences betweeen applications with a 240 versus 260 on Step 1. Again, the more important differentiators are clinical grades, letters of recommendation, research, and personal statement (probably in that order). << Agreed, and same is true for whether Top/Mid med school

Mar 23
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< It's really heartening to know that, thank you! Do you know if most programs feel the same way you and the program you're at does about scores? And what programs really do care a lot about scores?

Mar 23
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< does anyone know if school look at clinical grades out of 6 or 7 rotations? (aka including neurology or not?)

Mar 23
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im pretending this entire day didnt happen so im willing to let a row slide - meme<<lmfaooo that made me laugh << why cant i get interviews based on how i can make people laugh? - meme

#3522019-2020 DermMar 23

if I were a PD i'd interview you << thanks :)

Mar 23
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wait what row??

Mar 23
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someone trolled stanford

Mar 23
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<The Stanford and Harvard posts were lies

#10672019-2020 DermMar 23

I got Harvard and NYU RTM calls x 4 <lol

Mar 23
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pretty sure NYU said specifically that they would not be contacting us

Mar 23
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They just said that to the scrubs

Mar 23
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so you mean when the PD said that to the entire interview day, she decided we were all scrubs? lmao

Mar 23
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