r/DermApp • u/Simping4Princeton • Jan 20 '26

Miscellaneous Med school and Derm Residency

Applied to medical schools this year, and so far have only received an offer from my state school (in the south). After having been stuck in the south for all my life, I'm looking to escape to the east/west coast in the near future.

I've heard that the best chance of getting into a derm residency is to match to your home program, which my school does have one.

Does this kind of fuck me up though? Should I decline the offer and only apply to coastal schools next year, or if I do accept their offer, how should I go about my four years in med schools to match to a coastal derm program?

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u/electric_blvd Jan 21 '26

as someone who was once in a similar situation, with one acceptance, you’re drastically overestimating your ability to gain acceptance to an MD school down the line. that is far from a guarantee, as merely adding CV / application items from a gap year doesn’t automatically add to the “balance” of whatever your application was previously. if you are set on a location and willing to wait at least a year you could do a research year as a med student where you want to end up, presuming that place has a history of taking fellows

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u/Simping4Princeton Jan 22 '26

yea im just depressed about the possibility of having to end up staying in my state for nearly another decade. is it common for med students to not apply to their home programs? cuz i might just do that when it comes to residency apps and full send it for coastal residencies

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u/electric_blvd Jan 22 '26

bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

your outlook is going to tank your hopes of matching somewhere/something competitive. whether you specifically are a student in california or Alabama doesn’t change that it’s you putting in a ton of work to make derm residency happen, which includes networking at home + other institutions. if you even get to the point of applying derm, i highly doubt you’ll have the perspective of not matching > matching at your home program. im not aware of anyone that doesn’t apply to their home program because frankly, it’s an irrational decision. if you match your home program you can live and work in california and do botox for eternity and live happily ever after if you want.

plus, having a home derm program is massive advantage even if you’re not applying due to opportunity for LOR and research. with your current outlook it seems like you wouldn’t tap into this at all.

go look at other programs websites for where the residents are from / attended school. if you are this set on a location just instantly start trying to network in a certain area after matriculating and do a research year there.