The Perfect Applicant Doesn’t Exist. But the Real One Does.

During the application season, my DMs fill with variations of the same painful sentence: “I want to apply to dermatology, but I’m not perfect like everyone else.” And every time, I wish I could reach through the phone, sit across from that person, and tell them the truth that I didn’t learn until far too late: no one is perfect. Not even the people who look like they are.

We polish our accomplishments until they shine. We crop out the failures. We never talk about the weird gap year that wasn’t planned, the board score that wasn’t ideal, the research project that fell apart, or the rotation that humbled us. But those stories are real. And they count.

When I interviewed for residency, the moments that bonded me to programs weren’t the moments where I recited my CV like a script. It was the moments where I was human. Where I talked honestly about what challenged me. Where I shared what shaped me. Programs are not looking for flawless people. They’re looking for people who know themselves.

Perfection is fragile. It shatters under pressure. Realness is durable. When you understand the journey it took to get where you are, you develop the kind of grit that programs trust.

Think about the physicians you admire most. Are they perfect? Or are they resilient? Compassionate? Self-aware? Able to grow? No one is inspired by someone who’s never fallen. We’re inspired by people who got back up.

So if you’re worried you’re not the “perfect applicant,” I want you to hear me: good. That means you’re real. That means you’ve lived. That means you bring something to the table that statistics can’t measure.

Programs don’t save their spots for perfect people. They save them for the right people. And you might be exactly that.

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