The March 2014 Association of Professors of Dermatology Newsletter contains information of interest to dermatology applicants and residents. In this letter, Dr. Suzanne Olbricht wrote about the procedural dermatology match. It discussed the week long “audition rotation” or “mini-rotation” that some applicants take at other institutions. This type of rotation may raise state licensing issues and malpractice insurance. Currently very few applicants who apply widely fail to match into a procedural dermatology fellowship because there are so many programs available.
Dr. Alexandra Kimball wrote an article, “Advice for Medical Students.” She indicated that the “magic number” for a dermatology match is 7 (most applicants who have 7 or more interviews have a very high chance of matching). She also indicated that failing to match after two attempts makes it harder to match on the third or fourth try. This suggests that the second application should be significantly improved from the first attempt (different letters of recommendation from academic dermatologists, additional published articles, additional presentations, advanced dermatology fellowship work). It is also harder to match with Step 1 scores lower than 230 because of interview cutoff scores employed by some residency programs.
Dr. Matt Zirwas wrote an article about the future potential for standardized letters of recommendation. Other competitive specialties like orthopedic surgery have found them helpful. These letters may be more like a checklist or Likert Scale. Eventually some dermatology programs may require letters of recommendation in this format. He did recommend that applicants develop longitudinal relationships with academic dermatologists as well as rotations.
The University of Texas Medical Branch Dermatology Interest Group (UTMB DIG) is a resource for medical students interested in Dermatology as well as for dermatologists and residents.
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