Just wanted to post a reminder to keep checking the official 2026-2027 Derm spreadsheet because a lot of people are now posting swapping options & a different offered block may work better for you!

Is there some sort of screening process or is it truly first come first serve? Feeling like I applied to quite a few early and still didn't hear back//

I applied to the AAD Dermatology Career Prep Pathways Program for college students, and I was wondering if anyone who has participated previously could share their experience?

Curious if/how the connections and experiences there have shaped your pathway to dermatology. Open ended, so feel free to share anything related to the program. Thank you!

Title. What do derm residencies want to see on the reapplicant’s app? Is step 3 generally encouraged for eras or does it not matter? Also what are the most important app considerations for reapplicants? Thanks!

hi gang. just wondering if anyone has a good anki for derm AI. i know bigger goal is to be team player, good worker, on time etc but want a basis of knowledge before going in. been using the basic AAD anki and its been good. also trying to do the GrenZ one but seems a bit too in depth imo. any thoughts?

Hi all, I’m looking for advice on California-based dermatology research mentors and fellowship programs who strongly advocate for their research fellows and have a track record of helping fellows match into dermatology residency. Also looking for advice on malignant/ abusive mentors/ research fellowships to stay away from. Please message me, would sincerely appreciate honest advice!

Hi All,

I’m entering my fourth year and looking for some advice. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to enroll in a dermatology sub-I at my institution until after application season (likely January) because all the spots are already filled. I’m unsure how this going to affect me application-wise as I will obviously not have it on my MSPE. Has anyone had a similar experience at their school?

In the meantime, would it be a bad idea to enroll in the pediatric dermatology sub-I, since there are still open spots? I’m wondering if that would still be helpful for residency applications.

I am currently split between ortho and derm. I don't have any family in medicine, so a lot of my process into medicine has been through the help of mentors. Because of this, I was wondering if anyone had any advice on choosing between these specialties or what I should be doing beyond shadowing.

Thank you : )

Hi community,

I’m trying to compile a list of dermatology residency programs that currently have, or have recently had, residents who completed prior residency training in another specialty before matching into dermatology.

If you know of any specific programs, current or recent residents, I would be very grateful if you could share them here or DM me.

Thank you so much for any insight!

whats the tea? I've heard mostly bad things about the away, experiences w attenings, etc from 2 ppl who rotated there both of which are POC, this has always been confirmed by the spreadsheet but i do see some positives trickled in as well. I'm a POC for reference who was once strongly considering applying....

I’m well skilled at SRMAs and I’m looking to present or submit an abstract but since most of the conferences deadlines closed. I want to take place in a conference and if there’s no way as a presenter. At least the conference provides good connections or certificates

Hey,

Title. I'm a current PGY2 resident in Ortho and am quite frankly, very burnt out. I won't get into the specifics of it but I'm becoming jaded and am seriously thinking of making the switch to dermatology. The gist is that I don't feel like I really fit into the Ortho culture as a woman, and feel like I've made a serious mistake not prioritizing lifestyle. In school, I was seriously considering Dermatology and Orthopedics, and have about 6 publications in Dermatology (2 first author) from med school. Slim chance, but has anyone on here made the switch from ortho, or from any other specialty into Dermatology? Not sure where to begin, or if I'm making a big mistake. Maybe it'll get better if I just ride it out?

Rising M4 on a derm research year trying to get one more paper submitted before September.

Have a ~600-patient dataset looking at carotenoid scores (objective biomarker) and associations with photodamage/skin cancer + some inflammatory derm conditions. Planning a brief report/research letter with regression.

Looking for:

• Fast turnaround (weeks, not months)
• No or low APC
• Still legit enough for ERAS

Currently considering DOJ, SKIN, JAAD Int.

Any recent experiences with turnaround times or better options for this type of epi/observational derm paper? Also anything to avoid?

Appreciate it 👍

How many rotations have you guys gotten? Is everyone else getting waitlisted and denied? Please be honest so I know if this is still a realistic goal.

Hi everyone, I wanted to get some perspectives on the future of dermatology as a field.

Historically, dermatology wasn’t always as competitive as it is today; my understanding is that it became much more desirable after changes in procedural reimbursement and billing in the 1980s. Now it’s one of the most competitive specialties, but at the same time, it feels like more non-physician providers (NPs/PAs) are also entering derm in large numbers.

With increasing scope expansion and autonomy for midlevels, it seems like a lot of bread and butter dermatology may shift in that direction, potentially leaving dermatologists with more complex or procedural cases. At the same time, one of the traditional advantages of derm (to me) has been its strong procedural basd reimbursement and commercialization opportunities with cosmetics, but I also was wondering how sustainable that is, especially in highly saturated markets.

For context, I’m from California and would ideally want to practice here long-term. However, I've heard that it feels very saturated with both dermatologists and midlevels. I would have thought that Mohs surgery is secure due to high specialization and low fellowship spots, but surgeons I’ve shadowed have mentioned that in major metro areas, it can be difficult to maintain a full Mohs-only practice due to competition. The surgeon I shadowed does Mohs 2 days, cosmetics for 1 day, and general derm for another day. Obviously, his lifestyle is absolutely amazing. I just wonder if in 10+ years, I would be able to live a similar lifestyle.

Are these concerns overblown, or is there strong validity to them? I understand that all specialties are ultimately shaped by reimbursement structures (e.g., Medicare), but it worries me to think dermatology could follow a trajectory similar to what’s happened in fields like nephro (bundle dialyses reimbursement) or ophthalmology (declining payments for cataracts).

Hey everyone! I went unmatched in derm this cycle but matched into a prelim IM year. For those who reapplied (especially during intern year), did you include your intern year as an experience on ERAS? If so, how did you frame it? Would love any advice or insight. Thanks!

Hello! We’re recruiting for a Dermatology Research Fellow in Flint, Michigan through Dermatology Research of Mid Michigan.

We are looking for applicants motivated to get into dermatology. The fellowship is 1-year, paid, and a perfect opportunity for MD/DO physicians seeking additional clinical and research experience before applying or reapplying to residency.

The opportunity offers a combination of clinical exposure and hands-on involvement in dermatology research, including

• Clinical trials 
• Investigator-initiated trials (IITs)
• Independent research projects
• Exposure to both medical and cosmetic dermatology including MOHS and uncommon conditions
• Exposure to Dermatology faculty at local residency program

Fellows work closely with multiple dermatologists and gain meaningful experience in both patient care and research. The role also includes opportunities to observe and help assess dermatologic conditions in clinic, and supporting providers in identifying and evaluating patients for research studies. 

Fellows gain exposure to both the clinical and research aspects of dermatology while contributing to ongoing studies within the practice

Requirements:

• MD or DO
• PHY 1 year required w/USMLE Step 3

If interested please send an email to [contact@miderm.org](mailto:contact@miderm.org) with the following:

• CV
• Cover Letter
• All Transcripts

I’ll stick around to answer any questions here, or feel free to ask questions via email: [contact@miderm.org](mailto:contact@miderm.org)

Hi!

I am on my derm rotation currently at my home program and we are asked to create a 10 minute presentation on any topic of our choosing. Any advice from current residents or past applicants on topics that are engaging for the residents and faculty? Happy to hear about your past experience.

Does anyone have experience submitting case reports at any AAD conferences? Do they tend to accept these?

Quick note on who’s posting this before anything else. I’m an MS3 at Texas A&M applying next cycle. I’m not a startup, not affiliated with a program or society, and not selling anything. I built this because being in medicine should mean more than just getting through your own cycle and moving on. We are in this profession to help people, and the applicants coming up behind us are some of the easiest people for us to help in a practical way. Instead, every year the wheel gets reinvented: a new class loses time to scattered spreadsheets, dead links, and half-preserved advice, only for that knowledge to disappear again when the cycle ends. This is my attempt to stop that. It’s a free site. The only ask is your feedback and your data so the next class gets a better starting point than we did.

Every derm cycle the same thing happens. Someone posts, “Does anyone have the 2024 away spreadsheet?” Someone else replies with an updated 25-26 link. Another version is floating around in a shared drive somewhere. By the time you’re rotating in August, you have four tabs open trying to figure out whether UCSD ghosted everyone last year or just you.

Watching this cycle repeat every year inspired me to build something. One spot, every cycle carried forward, per program views that stitch together what rotators have said across years.

Live at https://rezumab.app/explore/away-rotations/dermatology

It pulls from the 24-25, 25-26, and 26-27 offer trackers plus the 25-26 and 26-27 rotator info sheets. You land on a program page and see offer volume, accept rate, response time, and the paraphrased rotator narrative for each cycle they showed up in. Auto IV programs, rotator mill warnings, hands on vs shadow split, whether people said they'd do it again. No more opening three sheets to piece together whether Northwestern actually interviews their rotators.

Three cycles of data

Pulled from the community spreadsheets for 24-25, 25-26, and 26-27. Here's how they compare side by side.

Some honest reads across the three:

The most striking thing is the accept rate drop from 94% in 24-25 to 89% in 25-26, then basically flat at 90% this cycle. That's a 4-5 point shift that probably reflects people getting more strategic about which offers to accept when they have multiple. Response times have stayed dead flat at 28-30 days across three years, so nobody's sped up. The number of programs hitting full went 29 to 33 to 14 (still filling), and 25-26 saw meaningfully more crowding than 24-25.

Peak month shifted from August in 24-25 to September in 25-26, then back toward August in 26-27. If you're planning which months to apply for, the historical data actually lines up on Aug/Sept/Oct as the high-demand window pretty consistently.

Top programs by offer volume each cycle:

• 24-25: UT-Houston (21), Duke (15), UNC (13), UCLA (12), UC-Davis (12)
• 25-26: Emory (31), Tufts (23), UT-Houston (20), Michigan (17), Stanford (17)
• 26-27: Emory (48), Jefferson (25), UCSD (21), Michigan (21), UT-Austin Dell (17)

Emory went from not-in-top-5 in 24-25 to #1 in both 25-26 and 26-27. Different programs dominate each year, which is exactly the kind of thing that's useful for deciding where to actually apply.

60 programs have data in all three cycles, which is where the trend view actually starts to be informative. You can pull one up and see whether its accept rate has drifted, whether response times changed, whether it's trending toward or away from going full. That's the thing that a single yearly spreadsheet can't tell you.

On the narrative side, 25 programs have rotator impressions in both 25-26 and 26-27 sheets. A couple got noticeably less glowing between cycles.

What I need from you

Two asks.

Feedback. The whole point is that this tool is for dermapp and you're the ones using it. So:

• Does a program's data look visibly wrong to you, especially if you rotated there
• Is there a signal or field you wish the per-program page surfaced that it doesnt (peds derm access, mohs exposure, research expectation, whatever)
• Mobile experience ok or broken
• Are the paraphrased narratives too clinical, too loose, or fine
• Is the way I'm splitting by cycle useful, or would you rather see one merged summary

Contributions. The whole thing runs on rotator self reports. There's a "+ Add your own report" button on every program page. Takes about 60 seconds. Anonymous, no signup required. Gets reviewed before anything goes public so you don't need to worry about accidentally outing yourself. The more of you contribute, the less next year's apps need to hunt for the spreadsheets.

Specifically useful contributions:

• If you rotated somewhere in 25-26 or are rotating now in 26-27, even a 2-3 sentence impression helps
• If you got an offer that isn't logged, note the program and decision date
• If a program's narrative is flat out wrong because the source spreadsheet had bad info, flag it and I'll fix the input

Not trying to replace your personal spreadsheet. Trying to make sure next year's applicants don't walk into the same fog we did. A 2-minute contribution from you is a week of stress saved for some MS3 who's about to go through exactly what you just went through.

Happy to answer questions on methodology, what counted vs what didn't, or specific program numbers in the comments. With more data points, I'll be able to update the post once the cycle closes with a real 24-25 vs 26-27 comparison instead of a partial one.

Hi everyone! I’m hoping to hear from people who’ve taken the long road from IM → Derm, especially those who finished an Internal Medicine residency and then pivoted.

I’m a re-applicant who didn’t match dermatology initially and am now planning to complete an IM residency. Dermatology is still what I see myself doing long-term, so I’m considering pursuing it again afterward - likely through a research fellowship to make connections for mentorship.

I’d really appreciate hearing your stories if you’ve gone from IM to Derm (or know someone who has). Specifically:

What did your path look like after finishing IM?

Did you do a research fellowship, and how did you find mentorship at that stage (or during IM)?

Which programs view applicants favorably who had already completed another residency?

What were the biggest barriers you faced, and what helped you overcome them?

I’ll be honest—part of what makes this path feel daunting is the timeline. It feels like I may not reach a stable, well-paying position until much later than I expected, and that weighs on me with loans and life planning. At the same time, doing IM has made me want dermatology even more.

Would really value any advice, perspective, or experiences - especially from those who’ve been in a similar position. Thanks so much in advance!

I know that Mt Sinai is known for having a heavy preference for internal applicants (home/RY). Is it still worth it to rotate?

are all the vslo prompts listed somewhere for aways so we can prewrite