The Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS®) is a program that transmits applications, letters of recommendation, Medical Student Performance Evaluations, medical school transcripts, board scores and other supporting credentials from a residency applicant and his or her designated dean’s office to program directors using the Internet. The ERAS application has multiple sections, including demographics, academic record, experience and personal statement. The experience, or activities, section is where applicants describe their accomplishments – research, clinical, volunteer, teaching, paid work. The ERAS experience section allows the applicant to demonstrate his or her distinctiveness as a candidate.
Some of the most useful residency application advice I can offer includes ensuring that your experience section is at its best: Here are some tips for an excellent ERAS activities section:
- Ensure your descriptors relay the substance of your accomplishments. Although you are familiar with your achievements, your reader is not. You will not get “credit” if the reader does not understand what you have done.
- Use full sentences. Some applicants erroneously use phrases in their activity descriptors. You are submitting a formal application, and full sentences are therefore appropriate.
- Avoid abbreviations. Those that you think are common might be unintelligible to the reader.
- Avoid flowery language. Write in a streamlined format.
- Avoid complicated medical terminology unless absolutely necessary to convey a point. A layperson should be able to easily understand your descriptors.
- Do a spell and grammar check. Do not submit only to be embarrassed by a simple error.
Finally, consider working with a professional. Because applicants can unknowingly undermine their chances of success with poorly compiled application materials and underdeveloped ERAS, a qualified, personalized medical residency admissions consultant provides a great advantage. Getting into residency has become increasingly competitive and you cannot afford to submit sub optimal materials.
Residency consulting companies come in a variety of forms. Some are bigger businesses that focus on admissions to several types of graduate programs – not just medicine. Others are smaller and provide a medical focus, but have a pool of consultants of varying quality. Finally, elite companies offer both the medical focus and a highly experienced consultant who works one-on-one with clients. These professionals are ex-admissions officers from highly respected medical institutions. They have the inside knowledge of how residency admissions work, providing individualized guidance to optimize applicants’ personal essays, ERAS and interview skills.
When choosing a residency admissions consulting company, a candidate should verify the company’s references and research its consultants. It is best if the company does not assign written materials to outside editors who cannot be evaluated. Elite companies that offer both the medical focus and a highly experienced consultant who works one-on-one with clients offer a large advantage for pre-residency applicants, especially during these competitive times.
