Advice needed for student with no home derm dept

[DermMatch]

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I received this PM; the writer agreed that I could post his/her inquiry for general feedback.

"Hey guys,

I'm currently a 1st medical student at a school that doesn't have a Dermatology Department or residency program, so I was wondering if I could get some advice.

During the summer after my 1st year, I plan on doing research with a hematologist/oncologist. Our school only gives us a 5 week summer break, so I didn't think that would be enough time for me to go do research at another school that had a Dermatology program. This hematologist/oncologist doctor isn't a dermatologist obviously, but his research is on melanoma. He isn't a residency program director either, so I don't know how much influence he has or if I can get a great recommendation letter from him. What do you guys think about this idea?

Also, the summer after my 2nd year, I have set up plans to go do research at another school with a Dermatologist there (MD/PhD). I tried contacting the residency program director at that particular school to do research with him, but that PD referred me to this MD/PhD since he is the head of the Dermatology Research Center at that school.

Other than that, I have just been shadowing a private practice Dermatologist in the local community. I also plan on starting to shadow another private practice Dermatologist who is pretty well known in the area. Is it possible to get recommendation letters from these private practice Dermatologists or do the recommendation letters have to be from academic doctors?

Do you guys have any other advice for someone like me who is at a school without a Dermatology Department and residency program?

Thanks in advance!"

Comment.

 

[DermMatch]

Quick starting feedback: Recommendations must come from academic dermatologists.

 

[cancerman51]

i think you are off to a solid start. not much else to take care of.

obviously, the issue that plagued me at my medical school was that you clearly tended to get higher grades on clinical rotations if you could say " i'm gonna be an ob" "i'm gonna be a surgeon" etc, so i would just be wary of looking like dermatology is the only thing that you care about because it probably will hurt you on rotations.

talk about a rock and a hard place, huh? but its just how it is.

 

[Cirrus83]

Not sure how his schedule is set up, but don't you need your summer after 2nd year to take your boards? I'm not sure if the summer after 2nd year is the best time to be doing research unless your school has a really long break between boards and rotations. Doing poorly on the boards in order to cram in a research project during that summer would be a pretty bad idea.
But again this is without knowing what this person's schedule is like, I know our school's 2nd year summer schedule makes it impossible to study for the step and still do a meaningful research project without compromising one or both.