<p>Hi, I know this is kind of a stupid question but I was wondering how good a life does a derm lead? Besides the controllable hours and outrageous salary for just looking good, what else do they have to do everyday? </p>
<p>Also, anyone got a good explanation as to how hard it is to get into derm school and the names of some of those schools? Plus, if I wanted to be a derm, what can I do to prepare myself?</p>
<p>Looking at a lot of really gross rashes, tumors, and skin lesions. You deal a lot with acne. I've looked through a couple clinical derm book and was about ready to puke it was so gross. Think about it, you only get patients who have first gone to their Primary care doc, and then the primary doc was unable to help (or so grossed out themselves)...</p>
<p>Sorry, that was a pretty negative view of derm, it just doesn't appeal to me, I apologize for that.</p>
<p>That said you do not go to "derm school". You get into a dermatology residency program after medical school through the National Residency Match Program (NRMP), also know simply as The Match, which is administrated by the AAMC. </p>
<p>Why is it so hard to get into derm? The issue is that there is very few spots (275 spots in 2002), with a lot of people ranking it in the Match, (545 applicants in 2002). Given that programs have their option of who ever they want, they get to pick and choose the most elite applicants. The number of people that apply is high because of the lifestyle. So the competition means that high board scores and great grades are very important for getting into one of these programs.</p>
<p>I couldn't find a reliable list of program rankings so I can't answer that.
Things you need to do include getting into medical school first. I would suggest that you try shadowing a derm, to see if you really are interested in looking at skin lesions all day. Other than, work your ass off in med school, get phenomenal grades (AOA designation is almost a requirement), great board scores, great letters of rec from program directors during your clinical rotations, do some audition rotations during the fourth year at programs that you are somewhat interested in and really wow them to get to a good letter of rec from the program director (instead of a house officer or attending), see if you can get some relevant research during your basic science years, and really just do everything to the max.</p>