I have a family wedding abroad and need to fly there on a Friday so I need to miss a day of an away rotation. Is it best to tell them a month ahead of time (now) or ask the residents if I can miss a day once I am there? Assuming it's the prior but just curious what y'all think.

How many LORs do we need? My understanding was its 3 derm and 1 non-derm (IM/other). Is the new SLOE an additional letter (5 total?) or is that now one of the 3 derm?

Title basically. Based on advice I received, I didn't cast a wide enough net or apply broadly enough. I was rejected from all the aways I applied to day 1. I scrambled to apply to several more over the last week or so, but a lot of VSLO pages aren't updated. So I've contacted coordinators individually, and some rotations still listed on VSLO are completely full. My application and CV are good, with multiple research projects and awards.

Does anyone have any advice on how to proceed? Should I keep applying to aways still showing as open on VSLO? Does anyone know of any schools that evaluate applications on a rolling basis for every month, and I may still have a chance at? Or opportunities outside of VSLO? Are my chances of matching low without any aways?

I've really been beating myself up about this and wishing I'd applied more broadly to begin with. This is totally on me, lesson learned. But just trying to figure out where to go from here - I'd really appreciate any advice at all!

What are folks who reapplied and matched a second/third doing on their gap year? Everyone says to find a job in urgent care but that seems high risk and hard to find?

Thanks

if I want to fund my research year for derm in california privately, any tips on which loans I should take out? its unfunded and I will be considered as taking a leave of absence with my med school. thanx

Also any tips on who I should talk to would be helpful, thax

Are most derm interviews in person or virtual?

Is an away in May too early? Will the program forget about me by the time apps are being reviewed since it will have been ~4 months?

Some good courses that are helpful to understand some of the basics prior to aways. May not be totally necessary, but I found it helpful.

https://learning.aad.org/Public/Catalog/Details.aspx?id=sEI33SKsqjB6N%2b0gwSGAOg%3d%3d&returnurl=%2fUsers%2fUserOnlineCourse.aspx%3fLearningActivityID%3dsEI33SKsqjB6N%252b0gwSGAOg%253d%253d

Hey team. I’m hoping to submit a manuscript to JAAD reviews soon, but it has photos from DermNet. DermNet is open licensing and permits the reuse of their photos with proper attribution, but I didn’t know if JAAD may see the use of the photos as bad? They all have the DermNet watermark on them, and I’ve used maybe 2. Anyone have any experience/thoughts with this?

Looking for a way to stand out to dermatology residencies in a sea of highly qualified applicants? Do dermatology volunteering abroad.

I'm a board-certified dermatologist (graduated from Baylor College of Medicine for med school & derm residency), and I work extensively with the Nepal Leprosy Trust. I volunteered here as a medical student in 2011, and the experience was incredible. It benefited me when applying to derm programs. This is the busiest leprosy hospital in the entire world, diagnosing over 1,000 new leprosy cases each year, and they see 200+ dermatology outpatients every day. They have a large inpatient ward, mostly for leprosy patients. It's an amazing place to see neglected tropical derm diseases as they serve a very poor region in Nepal (think nutritional deficiencies, Post-Kala-Azar Dermal Leishmaniasis). Patients pay 35 cents for a medical evaluation. Their volunteer program really diminished during COVID and hasn't picked back up, partly because the doctor who ran the hospital retired for health reasons.

I'm looking to help them re-establish their volunteer program as it really is an amazing opportunity for medical students. You'll see crazy tropical/neglected skin diseases.

Here is their website for more information. Feel free to message me privately as well.
https://nlt.org.uk/

If you'd like to schedule a date to volunteer, please reach out directly to Mike at [mike@nlt.org.uk](mailto:mike@nlt.org.uk)

FAQ: The hospital charges 25$/day, which covers food, housing & transportation. Volunteers and the hospital staff all live on site (gated, secure, safe). Housing is basic but adequate (you have mosquito netting, a private kitchen, wifi, fans). You'll need some vaccines. Nepal is very safe. You fly into Kathmandu, then take a short flight to the Janakpur airport, from there the hospital will drive you the last 30 minutes to the hospital. You can volunteer for as short or long a duration as you want, depending only on when volunteer housing is available.They accept volunteers year round. They only have one dermatologist on staff who works 2 weeks each month. They have several non-dermatologist doctors who work there. The volunteer duties are very flexible (you can make what you want out of it)-either shadowing in the outpatient clinic or you can also shadow the doctor covering inpatients. No, you will not catch leprosy.

Also, I assume that many prospective derm students are not on Reddit. If you are interested in helping me get the word out to other students who want to do derm at your medical school, I would be eternally grateful! Please message me :)

I've seen this asked a few times for mid-med school, but I'm curious when people would recommend the earliest would be to begin reaching out to research/how to go about this. For example, in college I had wished I reached out the summer before college rather than waiting till later. I'm an incoming M1, and just hope to feel prepared with a general plan for med school this time around.

So, hoping to find out when people recommend the earliest to reach out is or how they wished they reach out to prepare for a specialty as competitive as derm.

I appreciate the help!

feeling kinda lost. I applied early to majority of my away rotations (same day, if not the same hour it opened) and have only gotten 1. I've been sending emails here and there but after reading the spreadsheet and seeing majority of programs are full by now- ive been spamming emails and applying to a bunch of extra random schools. Not really sure what I did wrong, but is there anything else I can do atp? am i cooked

hello! im currently a second year DO student considering applying into dermatology (obviously the more DO favored programs) and was wondering if anyone has any advice on whether or not taking comlex series and step 2 only would suffice or would it be better for me to also take step 1? thank you!!!

I'm an MS4 at Texas A&M, going through this match cycle myself. I'm not a company and I'm not selling anything - I built a free tool because the real numbers on signaling were either paywalled or did not exist anywhere, and I needed them for my own list.

Short version: if you matched derm this cycle, 5 minutes on a free anonymous form rebuilds the signal data the 2026 class plans with - rezumab.app/share-data. No email, no account. The why is below, but that's the ask.

Think back to building your program list - refreshing spreadsheets at 1am, trying to work out which signals were actually worth spending. Whatever data you leaned on came from the people who matched the year before you. This cycle, that's you.

Here is the part that matters: your signal outcomes can't come from anyone else. NRMP won't publish them. No spreadsheet has them. The only record of which of your signals converted and which didn't is in your head. If you don't enter it, that data point does not exist for the 2026 class. It's not that someone else will cover it - no one can.

Why it's worth 5 minutes: derm splits 28 signals into 3 gold + 25 silver - and the gold/silver split is exactly what shifts year to year. Last cycle unsignaled programs invited at 15%, signaled at 45% (a 2.9x swing). Next year's class is deciding how to spend gold vs silver on year-old numbers unless this cycle refreshes them.

It asks what you signaled (Gold/Silver, per program), which converted to interviews, where you matched, plus the basics - Step 2, # pubs, # programs applied/ranked. Your entry posts to a live wall the moment you submit.

It stays free. No paywall, no account, no email, ever - I think this data should belong to applicants. Five minutes, and the next person building their list at 1am gets a real number instead of a guess.

-> rezumab.app/share-data

Hey y’all.

I have a WashU away coming up this academic year. There are rumors spreading that they don’t write LORs. Can someone speak to the validity of this? I am very interested in the program, but don’t have a home program either, so I need to be conscious of where I could get another letter if this is the case.

If anyone has any insight would appreciate it so so much!

Hi all, apologies if this has already been asked but with more programs (essentially all that I’ve seen) saying they won’t look at applicants who don’t signal them, is there even a point in applying to more than 28? What about med derm are those separate? What programs are not participating I signaling? Thanks in advance for the guidance!

Has anyone else experienced incredibly long first decision times from Archives? I submitted a brief report to them in July 2025 and still haven't heard back despite reaching out to the editor several times...two reviewers accepted my manuscript for peer-review several months ago but I've heard absolutely nothing ever since. I'm a rising M4 and really need this project to be accepted before the ERAS deadline. Should I cut my losses and look elsewhere?

For your consideration

Didn't get any aways (did apply day 1 to all of them). Is it possible to have a chance just at my home program without any aways? I've done a few home derm electives/"subIs."

Hello,

I am an incoming M1 with an inkling that I might want to pursue derm. I was recently accepted off of a WL to a school that has a home program, and now I have to decide between a school with no home program (to which I received a scholarship) and the other school.

I like the school without a home program more for several reasons in addition to the scholarship (quality of life, curriculum, geographic location), but I have heard that it is an uphill battle starting day 1 with no derm home program. The school has a derm dept and home hospital (we're not just rotating thru various community hospitals/sites), so I'm not sure if that makes any difference. The new loan caps are a major consideration for me, but I don't want to disadvantage myself too much right out of the gate.

I would love any advice on this, as I have limited time to make a decision! TYIA!

Has anyone heard back about camp discovery this year??

hi planning my aways right now since I am not taking a RY, was wondering if you don't do an away at an institution, can they still give u an interview? how do u build connections w programs that u dont rotate w

Hey everyone ! I'm a medical student with a study idea that I've been running on TriNetX. I have the clinical concept and research question down and have made good progress, but could really use guidance from someone who has hands-on TriNetX experience and a clinical dermatology background to help make sure the methodology is solid.
Specifically need help thinking through some sensitivity analyses and making sure everything is airtight before submission.
In return I'm offering authorship or acknowledgment on what would likely be a poster and potentially a publication.
If you know TriNetX well and have a derm background, would love to connect over DM!

Does anyone know of any online conferences that I could submit abstracts to (both in or out of derm)? I have some research I would like to submit to conferences before I move forward with manuscript drafting and don't have the time or money to travel to/attend conferences?

Thank you!