A few clients have asked me about the new supplemental ERAS application for dermatology, internal medicine (categorical and preliminary), and general surgery (categorical) applicants. The application is more work for these candidates, but the AAMC says the supplemental app will foster a more holistic approach to the residency process. For more information, check out the PowerPoint presentation from a recent webinar the AAMC held on the topic. The supplemental application opened last week.
I’ve received questions recently about the residency personal statement, so I’m including some articles and blog posts that might be useful:
And as always, contact me for help.
Here’s an interesting piece called “Are There Too Many Emergency Physicians?” by Thomas Cook MD, an emergency medicine program director. Dr. Cook chronicles the growth of emergency medicine residency positions from a total of 1821 in 2015 to 2488 in 2019. This rapid growth in the field may lead to an oversupply of emergency physicians.
The paradox here is that only recently there was a shortage of emergency physicians. And back when I graduated from medical school in the mid-1990s, almost no one was applying for emergency medicine. In my class of around 150 students, there were three of us. As the popularity of the show “ER” waxed, the number of applicants to the field swelled. Then, years later, the field contracted again.
Other fields have also recently seen a boom in the number of residency spots, including family medicine, psychiatry, and anesthesiology. Of course, opening up more residency positions is a good thing for medical students (especially international medical graduates) and patients, but the growth in certain fields may lead to a change in the economy of those specialties. It will be an interesting experiment.
If you’re planning to apply in more than one field, you have a challenging road ahead of you, and you should strategize accordingly. Remember that, although your ERAS activities cannot be individualized to different residency programs, your personal statement and letters of recommendation can. Demonstrating commitment to each field through your essay and letters will be a challenge, so take time to write thoughtfully, and make sure you speak candidly to your faculty recommenders.
Above all: Ensure that you assign the correct specialty-specific documents to the correct programs!
This is an important reminder that Wednesday, February 20 at 9pm EST is the rank order list certification deadline. Start now to think about your priorities and specifically, where you will be happiest. Waiting until the last minute and making impulsive changes to your list is not a great idea.
Please make sure to avoid simple missteps in creating your rank order list. Improving written materials and interview skills is important, but all of that work can go down the drain if applicants do not understand basic strategies for the Match. In November of 2015 the NRMP published an article called, “Understanding the Interview and Ranking Behaviors of Unmatched International Medical Students and Graduates in the 2013 Main Residency Match” in the Journal of Graduate Medical Education. The data is especially important for IMGs who represented the majority of unmatched candidates.
Sadly, the authors found that some applicants made strategic errors including the below:
– Not attending all interviews, thus failing to capitalize on every opportunity to market themselves.
– Declining to rank all programs at which they interviewed or not ranking all programs they would be willing to attend.
– Misunderstanding the Match and ranking programs at which applicants did not interview.
– Failing to rank programs based on true preferences or ranking programs based on the perceived likelihood of matching.
Here is an explanation of the Match algorithm. If you do not understand how the Match works, it is absolutely critical that you learn about it to avoid destructive errors.
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
