U Southern California

Harbor UCLA, USC, UCLA (if research fellow)

USC is trash

for rotating*

I also have a USC away rotation from 8/24/26 – 9/18/26 and also looking to move to the October block if anyone wants to rotate earlier 🙏

Harvard

USC

Even more important than rotation mills are programs that only take their own research fellows. While rotation mills will still interview and match a percentage of their rotators (with variability between programs), programs that only take their research fellows will rotate and interview many of their rotators, but ultimately offer little to no chance of matching for those outside their fellows.

what programs do this besides sinai

what programs do this besides sinai, Mayo AZ

Rotating, signaling, and interviewing at these programs is a waste of time and is performative; they already know who they plan to take for the upcoming cycle

WashU

very true. Do NOT waste your time at Mayo AZ or Sinai. UConn also (at least this year). CWRU as well is a major rotation mill people need to talk more about

UCONN

Penn

Wake

CWRU

northwestern

take a bunch of students for away roations and rarely offer those rotators interviews

Why do programs do this? Seems like a waste of time for everyone involved

Free Labor

What schools are known as "rotation mills"

you don't want to do any research yourself huh

WashU, USC

barely free labor if most of these schools don't let students do much anyways. i think they may not have the bandwidth or a good system in place to thoroughly vet students prior to offering aways but may later realize they are not competitive for their program

Not OP, but the purpose of this sheet is to spread the word... let's not gatekeep (if possible!). No hate!

WashU, USC()

WashU, USC() F*ck USC. Look at last years spreadsheet

its ok ur not missing out the training is skewed to obscure med derm u would need training outside of residency to feel comfortable as non academic/private practice gen derm

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catty resident at Stanford who treated me like sh** during my away and then was fake af during my interview

Two certain Harvard PIs who employ an army of research fellows and leave them hanging, also they play favorites...

weird Case resident that made tiktoks talking shit about the rotating med students

name and shame!!

not OP but sounds like Vinod Naubidiri or Steven Chen

Was this a PGY3??> lol i wish i could shame one place so much but it's too small >:( i think i've done enough shaming to the right people though

Someone drop the tea on Case lol they matched only home students

not OP but sounds like Vinod Naubidiri or Steven Chen >> Adena Rosenblatt at UChicago is a damn weirdo, and she has a passive aggressive MA that is rude to all the medical students.

super rude PGY3 at USC Derm I hated working with her

lol i wish i could shame one place so much but it's too small >:( i think i've done enough shaming to the right people though

how do Nambudiri and Chen play favorites?

yesss harvard is super bad institution nobody apply yall

Harvard RYs have good match though, why not apply? I see RYs who did research with Chen matched Harvard... like?

sounds like some salty people here this year

every year there are, always happens after match :P

i can't edit my comment but was being sarcastic w/ the nobody apply comment. the OP sounds a bit salty - not trying to invalidate the stress of RYs especially at a top institution that attracts great students

super rude PGY3 I hated working with her

Agree some oft the PGY3s at Case are so toxic

was the stanford resident a pgy-2?

case residents are so fake

I don't think this is true. The PD at Penn is VERY clear they DO NOT do post II communication. he feels very strongly about it

same with UCSF's PD..> the whole thing strikes me as BS especially with the earlier link to an article with a paid mentoring service

I know people who got rtm calls from penn pd

sure buddy

I heard people who got Pen was for tracks and not by PD

100% serious that I know schools that do post-ii communications/rtm calls when they tell everyone that they are hellbent on no post-ii communication. Just beacuse a PD says it does not mean they won't do it experiencing this gave me trust issues tbh lol

PD's will do anything to get the best of the best, RTM calls happen because programs are selfish

well at least i know i'm not the best of the best yeee

I matched at one of the programs listed above, no RTM call. This rtm thing was absolute bs

elaborate lol

USC did that when I was there

whet lol.

the place i was talking about is NOT USC

so spil…

UC Davis!

why?> More protected time/chill than others, more personalized mentorship, less commuting between sites

don't listen to this wild advice 😂😂😂 southern Cali >>>>>> Sacramento

lol yeah this is an odd take unless you have fam/connections out in sacramento.

this is 100% someone trying to get you to rank the LA programs lower lmao. UC davis def does not have more 'protected time' and does have quite a bit commuting between sites?

yea Davis and Sac sucks ass

do you want culture or weather?

yall crazy if u choose nyc over socal

lived in both, socal is more relaxed and the people are nice/less in a rush

dude SoCal alllll the way, do you love freezing and hate good food??

walkability is important but i love warm weather. ahhhhh

which of those two would impact your QoL more?

as a resident in nyc i so disagree but choose whatever makes you happy :) i couldn't be happier myself. quality of life is amazing and i am having so much fun > Agree. I'm a NYC stan through and through and I grew up in SoCal.

I'd rather be in the middle of nowhere, Kentucky than brace the cold in NYC

it's fine fr! and so worth it!

went to NYC for med school then socal for residency: i think NYC more fun to live in, socal better to do residency/work in

socal x 1000>> It's all preference, I prefer NYC to Cali for the social aspect >look at ur astrocartography chart

18 weeks

how'd you liek the interview? Kinda nervous bc it's a band new program

nervous about prelim is wild. were only nervous about derm here

not true lmao. It's valid to be nervous for new program. It's not like you can talk to any residents. Since it's USC I'm sure that they aren't starting from scratch so see if it's worth it in terms of elective vs wards vs night/icu vs perks liek you usually would from other prelim ty

hellooo same person that said that they had insider info re: need for us to drive far away to diff sites - same insider info, seems it will be high workload. no i'm not trying to sabotage anyone's rank list u gunners lol. the admin seem nice though and seem like they would be receptive to feedback as new program

high workload? I feel like it's just normal ward work. 1 week of nights on icu. It's 9 weeks of wards, 6 weeks of micu, 3 weeks of ER , 18 weeks elective, 12 weeks of ambulatory and 4 weeks vacation. Seems as cush as it gets

the person was talking about amount of patients not the weeks.

holy smokes, is it really 18 weeks? like 6 blocks of 3 weeks?> yea I listed more info to the left

I'd say majority of programs are actually first come first serve! So it's really important to make sure to apply soon after VSLO opens for the program, connections matter more for the programs that more intensively review away apps (ex., the ones that interview you during or guarantee interviews after)

Thank you!!

some require a personal statement, so I would get one done, doesn't have to be a great one! also get your vaccinations updated and some require urine drug screens so check program requiremennts

Any insight into what the personal statement for this would entail? Any suggestions on the overall format/content/focus we should include?

basic format is why derm, why specific program, what qualifications you have, there are some examples online for away personal statements that may not be about derm specific, but you can use it to tailor to derm

Connections

How would I go about getting these said connections or is it too late?

do not apply to USC

Connections usually mean people you've worked with from M1-M3 that you've become close with, sometimes these mentors are willing to reach out to programs you are doing aways at to help you get a spot

agreed that connections should be from earlier in med school, would not recommend trying to meet a new mentor in the next few months and immediately asking them for help w away spots - I think that would be offputting for most people

what about people without a home program?

what was the question?

idr getting an obviously inappropriate question, but what's an example of an inappropriate Q?

no, loved the interview day

If you saw me there then you know what to do next time you see me

every co-applicant I spoke to was great no clue how they're gonna rank everyone

great school with great residents! I'll be ranking them high!!

there were a couple interactions that had me legitimately laughing like quoting them to my friends afterwards. culture is great (from what I saw) and it seems that USC faculty have a knack of finding a great group of applicants personality-wise. seemed to vibe well with most. Harvard and USC are very good at picking cool people.

my classmate interviewed there and said it was all women applicants

facts

slayyyyy queens

where is a program to ensure I only have male applicants/residents?