Residency prep is always stressful with all the tasks we need to complete, and it can be overwhelming. My goal with this post is to help with ERAS and reduce the extra stress that comes along by laying out what is expected from you to complete your application!
[Required documents]
-Personal statement (you should have a well-scripted PS for EACH specialty you intend to apply to)
-Letters of recommendation (minimum 3 – many programs want at least 1 letter to be of the same specialty you are applying to)
-USMLE transcript (you need to authorize for your scores to be released to ERAS & ASSIGN them to your programs)
-Medical School Performance Evaluation (MSPE – this needs to be uploaded by your school – assigned automatically to ALL programs you apply to)
-Medical school transcript (also uploaded by your school – assigned automatically to ALL programs you apply to)
-Photo (2.5in x 3.5in, 150dpi, file size 150kb) (if you’re an IMG, you will need to upload your photo through oasis and after 24 hours, it will be updated on ERAS) (*you must ASSIGN the photo each program**)
-ECFMG Status Report (this is uploaded automatically by ECFMG with your USMLE/ECFMG ID number – **this is NOT the same thing as your USMLE transcript!**)
[MyERAS Application]
Majority of the ERAS application is filling out the blanks with information from your CV, so I highly recommend working on your CV throughout 3rd year of medical school and updating it as you go. Although there are many sections within the application, I wanted to go into more detail for the experience and publication sections because these are often the most confusing.
Experiences:
The experience section seems to be the most difficult for applicants because unfortunately, many applicants do not have much to put down for each category. But do not be alarmed if you lack many experiences. It is not always about the number of experiences but instead about how meaningful they were to you and your path in medicine. You should be able to talk about these activities/experiences because they will be brought up during interviews and you want your conversation to flow naturally when discussing them.
The three categories are work, volunteer, and research. For each experience, you need a description. And in this description, you want to show the program what your role was, what you may have learned, the skills you acquired, and even how this experience helps you in the future as a physician. You can either put this information into paragraph or bullet form, this is up to you.
For each experience, there will be a spot for you to put down a reason for leaving. Although you could leave these blank, I recommend that you fill it in with any type of reasoning. Many of my experiences came to an end due to moving away for school and so I filled the box with “concluded experience upon starting medical school” or “concluded experience upon start of the COVID-19 pandemic”. The reasoning does not have to be detailed or long, but it looks much better than leaving something blank on your application.
Publications:
This section is straightforward since you are simply listing your publications and presentations with the correct citations. I recommend finding a website that will create citations so you can copy and paste.
{The most common options}
-Peer reviewed journal articles/abstracts
-Poster presentation
-Oral presentation
Articles that have not been published can still be entered. You just need to put down the status of your article as either “submitted” or “pending a decision”.
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