<p>I love dermatology and want to be a dermatologist so bad! The problem is that it is super competitive. How should I build a resume to get into dermatology? What activities related to the field should I do during college/ this summer</p>
<p>Like for all competitive specialties, there is very little you can do during college that will boost your chances of matching into a residency. It will be your performance during med school that will determine your eligbility for derm. You will need a USMLE score in the top 5% nationally, top grades from your didactic coursework in med schools, honors in your clinical rotations, derm research done during med school with publications, and outstanding letters of recommendation from your attendings in your derm rotations.</p>
<p>Charting Outcomes in the Match: Characteristics of Applicants Who Matched to their Preferred Specialties</p>
<p><a href=“http://b83c73bcf0e7ca356c80-e8560f466940e4ec38ed51af32994bc6.r6.cf1.rackcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/chartingoutcomes2011.pdf”>http://b83c73bcf0e7ca356c80-e8560f466940e4ec38ed51af32994bc6.r6.cf1.rackcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/chartingoutcomes2011.pdf</a></p>
<p>Derm is on pp. 31-43.</p>
<p>There’s pretty much nothing you can do before medical school to realistically improve your chances at any residency. You can do some of your general pre med stuff in derm (shadowing, research, volunteering) but you should have other clinical exposure since there’s no guarantee that you’ll be a dermatologist if you get into med school.</p>
<p>You wouldn’t be looking to have multiple kids and work 30 hours/week, would you? If that came totally out of nowhere I apologize but you sound a little like another famous poster and your low post count makes me suspicious.</p>
<p>No activity during college are relevent to Dematology residency. Wait until Med. School. Do extremely well on the Step 1- like 250+, get good grades and do Derm elective rotations and AI in IM, do research, publish (preferrably) and you should be all set. I am not sure if Derm. is like all competitive residency. They surely apply to many more programs than all others. </p>
<p>College performance does not have any impact on the residency you will go into. In Medical school, you would need an extremely high step 1 USMLE, and strong recommendation letters from dermatology professors, preferably from the dermatology chairman.</p>
<p>Be aware however that residency programs use a matching algorithm to place graduated medical students into residencies, not a pure applicant-acceptance-rejection system. Meaning that, it is done in such a way where you can only get accepted to one residency, and you do not have complete control over where that will be. You should google this if your interested.</p>