San Francisco, CA
Applicant sentiment — from 150 anonymous posts, 2016–2027
5.5 / 10
What anonymous posters said
Anonymous posters frequently discussed the interview process, including timing of invite calls, rejections, and Step 2 score requirements before rank lists. Several commenters described the program as highly regarded for clinical training and subspecialty exposure, though opinions on workload and culture varied, with some calling it demanding and others disputing negative characterizations. Multiple posts noted few internal candidates remain for residency and suggested California ties may be helpful in admissions.
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. Elitist (to no one's surprise), and many faculty give preferential treatment to rotating medical students from more prestigious schools. As much as they emphasize being socially attuned and progressive, at the end of the day, they're just another ivory tower institution masquerading as a social justice warrior.
❌1. You don't actually HAVE to be a former pediatrician to apply for this and be considered. Wish I knew this earlier, I would have applied.
❌2. Interviewer made disparaging comments about where I went to school
💬1. It does say on their website "preferred but not required;" I wonder if they've taken applicants w/o previous peds residency. > guess we will find out soon > this is the first year of the track and it seemed like everybody was an MS4 during the interview +1
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love seeing the class roster of programs programs that passed me up - admittedly butthurt but makes me feel a lot better that i didn't end up there!
if we're thinking about the same person, lol i know exactly who you're referring to
Fill out the Match List!! I want to know who my future co-residents are! x4
f
@OP - yikes...i'm as bitter as can be about my application cycle but holy SHIT at being jelly of the other people who matched at programs lmao.
How important is it to do research year for derm match?
if you come from lower ranked school or a school without a derm department, I wholeheartedly recommend it. The connections you make are invaluable. << Unless your app is spotless or your home institution wants you, you'll need a research year. It's quickly becoming the new norm x2
Not necessary if you have AOA-level grades and great letters. I was able to match without a research year x3 << to give another perspective, research is very important if you want to match at top academic programs (Harvard, UCSF, the like).<<got interviews at most of the top 5 without a research year. i dont think its necessary. << did you do any research?
<< N=1 but I had AOA, 250s/270s, good letters, and here I am unmatched x1
sorry to hear that. are you soaping? << Had 1 soap interview, had lots of people email/call to support me, no offer<aw im so sorry, what do you think went wrong? << no idea, I think they just interviewed a lot of people and liked them more than me I guess
maybe personality? I myself am an introvert, and I feel like people in derm treat introversion like a disease << they're missing out. sending you a virtual hug. << thanks. It sucks to get hopes up a 2nd time and fail, but I'll just do my prelim and apply again. Failing that, research fellowship << can't imagine how difficult it must be to have been disappointed a second time. glad you have a plan, and best of luck my friend<<I'm in the same spot as you, interviewed yesterday for a SOAP spot and was really hoping it would work out. As much as I'd love a spot to be open in round 2 I know it's unlikely. Just wanted you to know you're not alone in this process. Best of luck to you!
Do you guys mind sharing what program you interviewed yesterday? I myself am PGY1 in prelim right now soaping and didn't get a spot in round 1; how do we know if SOAP spots get filled for that specific program?< The list gets updated at the end of each round; each round lasts 2 hours then i guess it gets updated at 2 PM EDT< yes it gets updated at 205
How many intervieews did you have AOA/ 250/270 are crazy stats. << I had 9 interviews, 2 of them med-derm <<sorry you didnt match. I had 260s+ on steps and didnt match but was able to match to spot during my prelim year
How many interviews did you have? << 9 total, 2 med-derm, 2 from my aways, 1 from home. So I got only 4 random derm interviews
Lucky for anyone who put colorado or tufts #1<why, -- because they are gauranteed to match their #1 choice <not if they were unranked!
very few people go unranked, you have to be super shitty, most people aren't super shitty
<so even new programs like st lukes fully matched but not tufts or colorado? wth
I bet the new programs interview a ton of people to ensure they don't go unmatched. Like maybe 20:1 vs normally programs are 10:1. CU only had like 4?:1
feel like that still doesn't make sense tho right? like UNC interviews 5:1 and I think of them similarly to colorado. just a strange ass situation << Sometimes programs overshoot and interview all 260+ AOA from top 10 schools who all end up at Harvard or UCSF. That's probably what happened to DEnver
yeah also if they did only interview 19 people and have 6 spots then they're closer to 3:1
wow 3:1!? that's.... not a smart move.
this situation is just super unlucky and unfortunate because it confirms a program's worst fear and will discourage programs next year from saving everyone time and money by interviewing fewer applicants/spot
it was an insanely low number of interviews... do 1:5 if you are so confident (which a lot of the ivy leagues do), not 1:3. that's literally idiotic << Not even the top 5 could get away with a 1:3 ratio... Agreed 1:5 is the lowest even the best programs should drop to
St. Lukes Interviewed 120 people for 2 spots, It was impossible for them not to match
LOL WHAT << They thought they would get approved for 4 spots, so they did 120 which is 30:1, then a month ago they sent an email saying "sike" we just have 2 spots <- interviewed there and got such bad vibes from the program. DNR. <- just curious what your bad vibes were, as I also interviewed there but didn't see any red flags except for them being brand new
Looking at the survey tab was a horrible mistake. Lots of people ranking my top programs highly as well :(
it's derm. i've made peace with going anywhere on my list
< same :( / same as well, everyone loves the same 15 to 20 programs :( there goes my match to somewhere I care about
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
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 :))
Ugh omg can we please be adults and not randomly add 100 on the rank list tab
I know at least 104 other friends that ranked KCUMB-GME Consortium #1 with me / y'all are the worst sometimes // thank you to whoever fixed it
< someone deleted the #1 ranks for UCSF. What was it last? <I think it was the same as Stanford, so I made it 5
agreed
<Get it together people!
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
um, we live for this juicy shit too
LOL @ a program being petty enough to come in and change it to 100 ppl ranked it 1
not that one
<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...
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
ah, very dry.
Radonc applicant here. I just wanted to say thank you for cleaning up our dumpster fire of a rank order list. So many people would just go there and troll. TBH I did some trolling as well since I figured it was just peeing in an ocean of piss. Who told you about our awful spreadsheet?
piggybacking here... the interview impressions tab says UCSF does RTM calls, but I think this is last year's info, because they explicitly said they would not be doing it this year. Can anyone confirm yes or no?
all I can confirm is that we got an email explicitly saying they weren't going to. whether or not they did I have no idea but I know I didnt get a call haha
A few have but I think we don’t want to say
< I don't understand this post? x4// There was a lot of trolling on our rank order list, and someone from here posted a message saying they fixed it and they were from here. That's all. -- Oh well thanks, congrats kind derm friend for helping our Rad Onc Friends!!! Happy Ending!!!
why not..?
too much gamma ray exposure I think << it became malignant
Any other programs offer a diversity second look other than UCSF?
Yale; MCW; stanford
Wash U
<we're all these through the derm departments?
Thoughts on a separate RTM tab? with info on RTM calls in past years?
way too many tabs already <- noone asked you. kidding
this is on the interview invite page in post communication
it just says no everywhere on the post-communcation except UCSF, not exactly the most useful info
Reposting (deleted on error): Can people comment on why most say UCSD > UCLA? My understanding is UCLA has more specialty clinics and arguably a more diverse patient population. UCSD is no doubt a growing and strong basic science research department, but clinically is it any better?
Most rankings are based on research output is my understanding
faculty turn over at ucla is an issue -- regardless still one of the best programs in the country. Both are powerhouse programs
really? Both powerhouses?
people on this sheet throw around "one of the best in the country" and "powerhouse" and the phrase "hands down" like its candy on Halloween x2; "powerhouse? powerhouse? we got UCSF and Stanford crushing it on the west coast, and about 20 stronger programs than UCSD and UCLA, and ya'll want to talk about powerhouse?"
Don't think you can go wrong with either. For me it would come down to am I an LA person or San Diego person.
So did Stanford and UCSF RTM calls really go out or what?
yes
UCSF sent an email saying that they wouldn't but they also are doing 2nd looks is what was posted earlier
From my understanding the 2nd look is a GME-wide initiative and not derm specific or indicative of rank
Seems like both did. But UCSF is more of a URM thing
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?
scroll down and you will see people got RTM Stanford calls
ohh I see now
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
On interview day, UCSF residents seemed genuinely happy and faculty were exceptionally warm, yet I've heard the culture is malignant and residents are overworked/stressed. Am I missing something? << No, that's pretty representative of the culture. I dont think it's malignant at all.
I also rotated at UCSF and interviewed here and can say that this reputation of "malignancy" is not real at all. I thought interview day was totally representative of how the faculty are at baseline when I worked with them.
also rotated at UCSF and thought the people were genuine and kind
Thoughts on which of the top 10 programs had the best residents?< stupid question x 2. They're all putting on a show.
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)
I thought the people at Harvard were fantastic x2.
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.
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.
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
If you feel "left out" by the residency class, maybe you're the weird one
harsh lol
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 : )
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
UCSF and Penn were my favorites x5 <- damn lol, you guys are very lucky to have interviewed at both
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
utsw residents were chill! did not expect that x2
very pleasant surprise. The program moved up on my list based on the people there which I was not expecting
Hopkins residents were so fun and nice! x3
speaking of RTM calls, UCSF sent out an email saying they won't be doing that this year :(
So is it true that UCSF doesn't like to take their own for fear of training their own competition? I know mohs attendings don't like the idea of training another mohs surgeron that is from the same area as he is basically training his competition. Should I keep it a secret where I see myself or flat out lie to a PD if they ask where i want to work in 5 years? << This is absurd and is completely false. They usually keep some of their residents every year for peds and Mohs. It varies year to year, but UCSF is very much interested in keeping their own residents for fellowships. Not sure where this ridiculous lie started.
I've heard this about other places. One school mentioned they no longer have a peds fellowship bc too many peds derm were ending up in that city . I wouldn't lie though, maybe downplay
lol, that sounds ridiculous. Peds derm is one of the specialties with the biggest shortage. I can't picture peds derm being saturated anywhere, but who knows, anything is possible in Boston/LA/SF/NYC???
How did Harvard, Stanford, Penn, NYU, and UCSF come to be the definitive top 5 programs? It seems like no one can agree on anything, except that these are the top 5. Makes me wonder how this was determined and why places like Yale/UTSW/Michigan/Mayo/etc aren't considered top 5?
<- i feel like a lot is based on history no? I know at NYU they trained some of the trailblazers in derm (like way way back) and it was also big during the AIDS epidemic -- That's good to know. Tbh, I actually don't know much of anything about derm history, and wasn't aware. So do you think they got their reputation mostly based on years of continuous contributions to the field?
NYU is the top creme de la creme program.
i would cream myself to match any of the top 5 x2 <My mentors have mentioned slightly different lists to me that they consider the top programs (though 3-4 of those always make the list), so it is all subjective. <<< Thanks for the input, good to know that they may not be as static as they seem
< would love to hear your mentors lists
Tufts, Harvard, BU, UCLA, UCSF
LOL <why are 3/5 in Boston? That just doesn't sound right to me.
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this is sarcasm, right? I loved meeting some of the people who are going to ucsf <- sounds like jealousy or unpleasant interactions?