Blog Archives

Get y’ERAS in Gear

On September 4 (two plus weeks from today) at 9 am EST residency applicants may begin submitting MyERAS® applications to programs. Residency candidates often ask me about the timing of ERAS submissions. These are my thoughts:

1. Yes, getting your ERAS in early helps. As one of my program director friends wrote to me, since the residency application is arguably one of the biggest steps in one’s medical career, getting the application in as early as possible should be a given.

2. On the other hand, if your application is not in its best shape, waiting a few days is preferable to submitting a suboptimal ERAS that will be tossed into the “do not invite” pile. Having said that, you still have 16 days to get your written materials in tip top shape, so there’s no need to plan for a late submission :).

Contact me ASAP for help with your residency application.

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15 ERAS Tips to Boost your Residency Candidacy

Below are tips I’ve cultivated over the years for crafting the best ERAS Experience Section. (Please remember that this year’s ERAS is slightly different from past years’. For more information on the changes, click here.)

1. Include relevant pre-professional accomplishments from college. If you conducted research, for example, list and describe it. Do not include high school achievements unless they were truly unique (worked at the White House, sang on Broadway, published in Nature ;)).

2. As of this year, you have only 10 slots, so avoid minor activities (like an afternoon health fair). 

3. Write in a streamlined fashion. Avoid verbiage. Of note, as of this year, you can choose three most meaningful activities, but you only have 300 characters for each. So while you want to explain why the activity was impactful, you’ll need to keep your writing here especially tight.

4. Use full sentences. It’s a formal application, and you want to make your written materials as readable as possible.

5. Avoid abbreviations. Ones you think are common might not be familiar to the reader.

6. Avoid contractions; they are too informal for an ERAS. 

7. Make sure you spell out your accomplishments clearly. If your reader doesn’t understand an activity, you won’t get “full credit” for what you’ve done. Make no assumptions – not even that the reader has reviewed the experience’s introductory information (position title, location). 

8. Write about yourself and your role – not an organization. For example, don’t use the space to discuss Physicians without Borders. Use it to discuss the specifics of your role at Physicians without Borders.

9. Use numbers to be persuasive. Saying that the conference you organized had 500 participants says a lot.

10. Unless your PI won the Nobel, avoid using supervisors’ and/or doctors’ names in your descriptors as they will be meaningless to the majority of your readers.

11. Do your best not to leave the “Medical School Awards” section blank. Even if you have to simply include clerkships in which you obtained honors (or high honors), fill that section out.

12. If you have not already, consider joining your specialty’s national organization and listing it under the “Membership in Honorary/Professional Societies” section. If you are applying in two fields, take this advice, though. 

13. Try to end your entries with a sentence about how the experience you just described will help you as a future specialist. Making that connection for the reader furthers your candidacy. 

14. As with all good writing, avoid redundant language. Having the word “research” three times in two lines is distracting and demonstrates a lack of originality. 

15. Get help. Don’t submit your residency application without having it reviewed by someone with a lot of experience. You do not want to put forward suboptimal materials for a process that is this important and competitive.

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Don’t Let ERAS Kick Y’ERAS

Just a reminder for residency applicants: ERAS tokens are now available for IMGs, and all residency candidates can start registering and submitting supporting documents on the myERAS website. Even if you aren’t ready to start working on your application, I’d recommend registering and taking a look at what will be required of you. 

Additionally, I suggest you begin researching programs now, if you haven’t already. Residency Explorer allows you to compare your candidacy to those of applicants who have successfully matched to specific residency training programs in the past. You can also search the American Medical Association’s FREIDA database.

Getting started early will help you develop confidence and a strong plan of attack for the upcoming application season.

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How Do I Strategically Apply in Two Fields?

Occasionally I help residency applicants who are applying in two specialties. This tactic can be strategic in specific scenarios, but it also makes the process more complicated. Here are some quick clarifications to help:

1) Different personal statements can be assigned to different programs. This means you can assign your ob/gyn essay to ob/gyn programs and your internal medicine essay to internal medicine residencies. Of course, in this case, you need to have two versions of your statement in the first place, and you need to ensure you assign correctly. 

2) Different letters of recommendation can be assigned to different residency programs as well. (A maximum of four letters may be assigned to each program.) You’ll either need to have letter writers for different fields, letter writers who will craft two types of letters, generic letters (less compelling), or a mix of these approaches.

3) You will have only one MyEras application. It will go to all of your programs. Note that if you list your membership in multiple ob/gyn organizations, for example, that will be viewed by your internal medicine readers as well – and might make them question your commitment to IM.

Contact me for help.

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Five ERAS Platform Quirks to Heed

I’ve been editing a lot of ERASes lately. Let’s briefly cover five quirks of the ERAS platform to help you get through the drafting process. The ERAS platform…

  1. Does not support italics. While journal articles and some phrases (e.g. “summa cum laude”) should be italicized, don’t be surprised when you can’t. 
  2. Prompts you for a supervisor for each activity. In some cases, you simply may not have one, but whenever you can, name someone. A name validates the experience.
  3. Prompts you for average hours per week for each activity. It can be difficult to calculate this number for certain experiences, especially those that are intermittent, but it’s worth making your best estimate rather than leaving the question blank. 
  4. Offers space to include a “reason for leaving” for each activity. Don’t skip this section, but keep your answers brief. 
  5. Limits you to 1020 characters for experiences, 510 for the interruption in medical training section, and 510 for each of the awards sections. Be aware of these limits as you write, so you are not furiously cutting later. 

For tips on how to craft your ERAS, check out this short blog entry. 
Contact me for help with this weird and wild process. 

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About Dr. Michelle Finkel

Dr. Michelle Finkel

Dr. Finkel is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Medical School. On completing her residency at Harvard, she was asked to
stay on as faculty at Harvard Medical School and spent five years teaching at the world-renowned Massachusetts General Hospital.
She was appointed to the Assistant Residency Director position for the Harvard Affiliated
Emergency Medicine Residency where she reviewed countless applications, personal statements and resumes. Read more

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