I had known I wanted to do dermatology from day one of medical school. I tried to get a jump start on everything that is considered essential to getting a derm residency. I went to grand rounds as much as I could, I joined the student interest group at my school, went to free dermatology health fairs, tried to get honors in all my classes, and did research in derm between first and second year. I thought that by trying to ace step I, continuing to try to get honors in rotations, and publishing a few more case reports that I'd be likely to match. My advisors all quoted about 80+% odds of me matching based on all the data they could see on my ERAS application. I received 9 interviews which is considered fairly good, though not the magic 10 that everyone talks about. In march I was devastated when I found out that I didn't match on "black monday". I couldn't understand how some people at my school matched with 4-5 interviews or weren't AOA or had only decided on derm during fourth year but managed to match. It is a very frustrating thing when you feel like you did all you could do but it just wasn't enough. We are all very high achievers if we're going into derm... we have to be to get into residency.... so obviously any set-back, any failure, i.e. not matching, is very very hard to take.
The first few weeks after match week, I shed a lot of tears. Luckily I had my friends from med school who were always around and tried as best they could to make me feel better and change my attitude to one of determination and a more positive outlook. I can tell you that the first few weeks were the hardest and it was still pretty hard for the rest of the year until graduation. Obviously 99% of the MS4's were extremely happy because they had matched and knew what they would be doing for the rest of their lives. It was hard to be around everyone who was so happy when I was so sad. When I started intern year, rather than being more depressed because I was working 80 hour work weeks, I was actually happier than I had been in awhile. I was around people who weren't fixated on the match and partying but rather I was so busy at work and everything was so new, I didn't have time to feel sorry for myself.

There are a few things that got me through this intern year being un-matched. One of the biggest reasons is the fact that the founder of the group, Kelly Werlinger, who took her life during intern year after she didn't match into dermatology, had gone through the same pain I was going through by not matching. I knew that I had to stay optimistic and re-apply no matter how long it took. I thought about what I would want to say to Kelly to try to get her through the struggle of not matching and vowed to try to help others who go unmatched in the future so that no one else feels like they have nothing left to live for. Matching into dermatology is an amazing accomplishment and not matching is devastating in the short-term, but not worth someone's life.

This year I focused on submitting a few more articles during intern year, it kept me busy and kept my mind off re-applying! I applied to every school and made my ERAS application stronger in whatever way I had control over. I tried to be even more outgoing at every single interview and was actually invited to 11 interviews this year. Also, this year I interviewed at three programs who had spots "outside the match" meaning normal med 4 students can't apply because it's for a derm spot starting that upcoming July, when they would be interns. So when people tell you that it's harder to re-apply, take that with a grain of salt. Multiple places who interviewed me also said that they looked at my determination and passion for derm as a plus and it actually helped me get the interview there and that it would help me on the rank list. So don't lose hope when reapplying!
The attitude that helped me was that fact that people going into general surgery take 5 years to be finished, internal med people who do fellowships take 6 years to be done and I figured I was pretty silly to be so upset about taking 5 years instead of 4 years for derm. Dermatology is an amazing field and I don't think it should matter if it takes one extra year.

This year I MATCHED at my #1 program. So rather than be sad I didn't match last year, I can look back and feel relief that I'm not at my last choice from last year when I applied. I know that everyone says that they would be happy going anywhere, but I still feel that getting my top choice is going to make me happier in the long run than my least favorite last year. So don't get too down on yourself if you didn't match, it can definitely happen and I was prepared to try a third time if this year reapplying didn't work out. I would have done a research fellowship.

One last pearl is to stay on top of emailing one or two programs that are in your area and you really like the whole year after if you go unmatched. It's amazing all the inside news you might get about where places are opening up "outside the match" spots and it just shows that program how dedicated you are that you are managing to stay in touch while you're a busy intern. I agree with the other support stories on this page regarding advice for improving your chances so I won't repeat those. Just stay positive and know that in the long run you will be so happy when you become a dermatologist!!!

-Reapplicant