So then what makes this group of 80 stand out? I take valcyclovir (zimivir) Valtrex is not available here. Just wanting to do something does not automatically get you in, how many people did you beat out to get into medical school? except without the gut-wrenching, miserable lifestyle. Derm is no exception to the rule. As rewarding as it was, after three weeks I realized it was not for me. Well, I'm happy to post your cartoon. You're only focusing on the USA residency program and by doing so insulting and ignoring the rest of the world, where people go through the residency because they want to help out people (like many physicians) while being interested more about their skin. Pointing out two counter-examples does not disprove my generalizations, which were clearly stated as such. A field, that is coincidentally almost as competitive and known to be another infamous ROAD specialty alongside dermatology. Passion alone does not get you there. I hardly consider that trivial. CVs can be tailored to better fit the back-up specialties while personal letters can go a long way to explaining the electives distribution. Skin cancer patients are typically older and full of wonderful stories. haha, here's it's known as dermaholiday, and really isn't competitive! It just means there aren’t enough spots. You must log in or register to reply here. NYC dermatology resident and editor of love and the sky by way of University of Alabama and Emory School of Medicine. I was followed for many years by a bad dermatologist. Chart 4 is one of the most telling charts when it comes to residency matching. So, allow me to ask, did you just have a sudden change of heart going from wanting to give the gift of vision to all those underserved patients you worked with in your time off to caring for the misfortunate ones with rare disfiguring skin conditions? Even I look down on pathology and I'm one of them! With that said, sure it's going to be a bit tougher to jump on the plastics or derm train when you're late in the game, as it would be for any specialty, mostly due to less elective/staff exposure and so not as relevant or strong letters, but far more possible in Canada than in the US since other major metrics are not really available - if you had a prior grad degree or some papers, and wove your personal statement nicely with your elective experience, that would probably already put you ahead of some derm applicants. Yes, derm, and other specialties get relatively more applicants than space available and that's been known for a long time. But that wasn't my question. This was not unique to one office, it was widespread. You have your unsubstantiated claims which are easy to refute (the 99% number was obviousy pulled out of your ignorant ass), but ones that you will inevitably defend with some horse**** evidence. And of course, if you match into derm, ppl know you're da sh!t. The safe route is to follow the path for what makes a person competitive for that specialty and I would say, based on my experiences, that if you want derm/optho/plastics/EM than you need to know early and you need to put in the hours.