MD & DO co'21 Residency Panic thread

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bigindian4891 said:
One of my letter writers ghosted me. This part of 4th year sucks.
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This happened to me and I approached my dean about it as like a “who else would you recommend I ask?”. They not only gave me recommendations but when I got home they had emailed the department chair about it and the person uploaded the letter. I was a bit wary of that letter after that experience but the higher ups can help with other suggestions or other ways of contacting that person if there’s a reason you think that letter is particularly important.
 
I have a rotation that starts on Monday and ends on 10/23. Should I ask for a letter at the beginning or towards the end of the rotation? I want to leave them enough time to write it, but also dont want to seem to eager to get a letter. Anyone have any input?
 
bigindian4891 said:
I have a rotation that starts on Monday and ends on 10/23. Should I ask for a letter at the beginning or towards the end of the rotation? I want to leave them enough time to write it, but also dont want to seem to eager to get a letter. Anyone have any input?
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Ooo that’s tough. If I were you I would feel it out for at least 2 weeks as far as how you think it’s going, and how good/useful/likely to write a LOR your preceptor will be. If it’s going well and they’re used to writing letters, you could probably get one right on time.
 
Does anyone know if we can upload 2 different photos on ERAS and assign by program like personal statements? Or is it only 1 max? I ask because I’ve seen a couple programs that specify white background and that’s so bleh I was hoping not to have to use white for every program. And I’m going to get my ERAS photo(s) in about a week.
 
sunshinefl said:
Does anyone know if we can upload 2 different photos on ERAS and assign by program like personal statements? Or is it only 1 max? I ask because I’ve seen a couple programs that specify white background and that’s so bleh I was hoping not to have to use white for every program. And I’m going to get my ERAS photo(s) in about a week.
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One pic for all programs.
 
bigindian4891 said:
I have a rotation that starts on Monday and ends on 10/23. Should I ask for a letter at the beginning or towards the end of the rotation? I want to leave them enough time to write it, but also dont want to seem to eager to get a letter. Anyone have any input?
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Ask at the beginning. Tie it into a conversation about expectations as one of the things you hope to get out of the rotation. Phrase it that you are hoping to work hard and earn a letter. That way if they are the type of person that wouldn’t write one or something you know what’s up early and have enough time for a plan B. You can send them all your stuff for letter writing along with the deadline after so they have it and can work on it at their leisure, leaving you enough time to send a reasonably times reminder, or time to remind them in person! “Eager” is a good quality in students!
 
bigindian4891 said:
I have a rotation that starts on Monday and ends on 10/23. Should I ask for a letter at the beginning or towards the end of the rotation? I want to leave them enough time to write it, but also dont want to seem to eager to get a letter. Anyone have any input?
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My mentor told me a good way to do it is to tell them you hope to get a letter and ask if they could evaluate you over the month and if your performance is strong, write an LOR.
 
bigindian4891 said:
I have a rotation that starts on Monday and ends on 10/23. Should I ask for a letter at the beginning or towards the end of the rotation? I want to leave them enough time to write it, but also dont want to seem to eager to get a letter. Anyone have any input?
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100% agree with what others said: be up front on day 1 and tell them what you hope to gain out of the rotation, but be humble/casual about it.

I did this on my last rotation and I guess word got out and I ended up with 2 LORs cause a 2nd guy offered to write one too.

They know we need them and if you’re working hard they’ll help you out or find someone that can.
 
Any psych applicants here? How many programs are y’all applying to. I’m an average applicant applying to mostly northeast programs. Pre-COVID/virtual interviews, I was told to apply to anywhere from 30-50 programs ... don’t know if that number should change now that things are so uncertain and others may be applying to so more programs
 
Can anyone comment on whether or not they think its common practice for attendings to ask for residents opinions when writing LORs? I got a LOR for an attending that never really pimped me/I only worked with in the OR, however I felt I performed well with the residents and got good comments from them
 
Scrubs101 said:
Can anyone comment on whether or not they think its common practice for attendings to ask for residents opinions when writing LORs? I got a LOR for an attending that never really pimped me/I only worked with in the OR, however I felt I performed well with the residents and got good comments from them
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I know mine did speak to the residents.
 
Scrubs101 said:
Can anyone comment on whether or not they think its common practice for attendings to ask for residents opinions when writing LORs? I got a LOR for an attending that never really pimped me/I only worked with in the OR, however I felt I performed well with the residents and got good comments from them
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Yeah, I think it's commonplace to speak to the residents who worked with you more than the attending.
 
Anybody here with any idea how many TYs and Prelim programs to apply to through ERAS? I'm a middle-of-the-pack radiology applicant
 
CavsFan2016 said:
Anybody here with any idea how many TYs and Prelim programs to apply to through ERAS? I'm a middle-of-the-pack radiology applicant
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I’m applying 25 total and most are prelim IM with a few TY. I have a home IM that I should be able to match at if I want to but would ideally match at my advanced since I’m couples matching and don’t wanna do a year or long distance.
 
is anyone reaching out to specific programs to express (I <3 you interest) or is it too early/inappropriate? I'm talking more about small community programs near a desired location (and not shotgun messages to top programs everyone wants)
 
theonlytycrane said:
is anyone reaching out to specific programs to express (I <3 you interest) or is it too early/inappropriate? I'm talking more about small community programs near a desired location (and not shotgun messages to top programs everyone wants)
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Def planning to if I don’t get interviews from specific places in the first couple weeks.
 
theonlytycrane said:
is anyone reaching out to specific programs to express (I <3 you interest) or is it too early/inappropriate? I'm talking more about small community programs near a desired location (and not shotgun messages to top programs everyone wants)
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I have with a couple that I really want. Got some reciprocal <3. Was told that they approve/appreciate the early interest (though ymmv and it may be field dependent).

If you reach out now, before ERAS, PDs can talk to you if they want - advice, recruiting, whatever.
If you reach out after ERAS goes live, then they can't, bc rules. So you can only send love letters that can't be reciprocated and are +/--- for believability and effectiveness, as far as I understand it.
 
Any tips/tricks for making sure your interview invites are responded to asap? My school makes us use our school email for ERAS. I've heard about rerouting all eras emails to a separate account and turning off all notifications besides for that account?
 
Espressso said:
Any tips/tricks for making sure your interview invites are responded to asap? My school makes us use our school email for ERAS. I've heard about rerouting all eras emails to a separate account and turning off all notifications besides for that account?
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I set up filters for ERAS and thalamus and maybe there was one more? I’m forgetting now. Then I set up SMS forwarding. I got a text with a special tone and vibrate pattern when those went through.

How to Configure Automatic Text Message Alerts for Important Emails
 
Scrubs101 said:
Can anyone comment on whether or not they think its common practice for attendings to ask for residents opinions when writing LORs? I got a LOR for an attending that never really pimped me/I only worked with in the OR, however I felt I performed well with the residents and got good comments from them
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I think this is common in surgery/surgical subspecialties where you don't interact with the attendings much outside of the OR or a day or two in clinic.
 
Hi,

Does anyone know how to cite publications of an abstract in CV/ERAS? Esp if its been published in multiple journals?
TIA
 
Scrubs101 said:
Can anyone comment on whether or not they think its common practice for attendings to ask for residents opinions when writing LORs? I got a LOR for an attending that never really pimped me/I only worked with in the OR, however I felt I performed well with the residents and got good comments from them
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Depends on the program. I am IM and we get asked for performance feedback on students we work with.

Espressso said:
Awesome, I'll check that link out. Appreciate that. Do all interview invites come through with an ERAS email sender? Or is ERAS in the subject/email?
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No. Thalamus and Interview broker are two other commons ones. The later two often will not have "ERAS" in the subject. At least not in my experience.
 
Would a manuscript published in a journal be under peer reviewed journal article or peer reviewed online publication?
 
@CavsFan2016 @redsox93

redsox93 said:
I’m applying 25 total and most are prelim IM with a few TY. I have a home IM that I should be able to match at if I want to but would ideally match at my advanced since I’m couples matching and don’t wanna do a year or long distance.
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How did you all narrow down your list? I've tallied over 100 preliminary IM/TY programs located in cities at which I'm applying to an advanced DR position. I have no idea how the heck I'm supposed to pick from those, especially before I even have an idea of what my top 5-10 ranklist programs are (i.e. where I'm most likely to end up).

As a side note, also couple's matching and also plan to apply to all preliminaries/TYs associated with my home program in the hopes of sticking with my fiance next year. Redsox, do you plan on listing those program first under every advanced program match?
 
RealHumanBean1 said:
@CavsFan2016 @redsox93



How did you all narrow down your list? I've tallied over 100 preliminary IM/TY programs located in cities at which I'm applying to an advanced DR position. I have no idea how the heck I'm supposed to pick from those, especially before I even have an idea of what my top 5-10 ranklist programs are (i.e. where I'm most likely to end up).

As a side note, also couple's matching and also plan to apply to all preliminaries/TYs associated with my home program in the hopes of sticking with my fiance next year. Redsox, do you plan on listing those program first under every advanced program match?
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Wow we’re like the same person hah. My selection process was pretty sporadic I kinda just picked big cities with prelim programs that are close to my advanced programs. There’s definitely a good chance I’m not gonna end up at the same place but I should at least be in close proximity to the program I match at.
And I haven’t figured out yet how I’m gonna rank everything. I’ll probably order them by proximity to my number one advanced. So let’s say UCLA is my number one and Chicago is my number 2 I’m gonna rank UCLA prelim #1 and then Chicago prelim #2
 
for those going into radiology, are you sending your rads LOR to the TY/prelims? I was wondering if I should get a letter from my IM department or just send my rads letter in as one of my LOR (cause let's be real, I'm just a hospital slave for a yr anyway...)
 
theonlytycrane said:
for those going into radiology, are you sending your rads LOR to the TY/prelims? I was wondering if I should get a letter from my IM department or just send my rads letter in as one of my LOR (cause let's be real, I'm just a hospital slave for a yr anyway...)
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Everyone has been telling to just send the same letters that I send to rads programs
 
sweettalk said:
Any psych applicants here? How many programs are y’all applying to. I’m an average applicant applying to mostly northeast programs. Pre-COVID/virtual interviews, I was told to apply to anywhere from 30-50 programs ... don’t know if that number should change now that things are so uncertain and others may be applying to so more programs
Click to expand...

I’m applying psych! I was told by my school to apply to at least 50 psych and 10 FM/IM as a back up. Not taking their advice on the back up, but right now my list of programs is at 52. I just don’t want to take any chances!
 
I’ve heard of people writing a sentence for each of their experiences on ERAS followed by a bullet point list of their actions. Is this the best way to list experiences on ERAS?
 
Hey guys! Just got my headshots done. He’s going to give me an extra edit that meets ERAS requirements. Within the app where you upload, it says max 150KB, but the instructions outside of the app say max 100KB. Does anyone know which is correct? I would rather 150 if that uploads successfully.
 
CavsFan2016 said:
I’ve heard of people writing a sentence for each of their experiences on ERAS followed by a bullet point list of their actions. Is this the best way to list experiences on ERAS?
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Doesn't really matter. Do what works for you to get your point across. I did all of mine in bullet points, with each point being as descriptive as it needed to be. Some of my friends and 2019 graduates did short paragraphs. I didn't hear a single story of anyone getting comments that their experience section was formatted improperly.
 
Neopolymath said:
"The more you write the less I read"

Words to live by.
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1601771832295.png
 
ughh I wish this was all clearer. I've read the ERAS manual and multiple medical schools' info sheets. Can we only trigger a payment to USMLE which triggers them to send the transcript AFTER we have certified our app? Like does the order go: certify, apply to programs, then pay USMLE/ERAS fees together?! So if we don't certify until 10/21 at 7am and they take hours/days to send the transcript, we wouldn't be complete when the apps get sent?

I authorized release and assigned them to all of my saved programs 10 days ago, but the status is still just "authorized"
 
popopopop said:
Not sure if this has been asked, but I'm considering changing my experiences section from paragraph to the dashes or simply line breaks. What's everyone doing?
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From the other thread... Currently I have mine in paragraph form. I keep hearing mixed things about paragraph vs bullet points etc etc. I don't really have any strong feelings for any which way though.

Also. I plan on submitting later this week. Can someone quickly fill me in on the process, as @sunshinefl was saying.. Once we certify and submit we pay the fee and what else do we have to do to ensure the board reports get sent to programs too?
 
sunshinefl said:
ughh I wish this was all clearer. I've read the ERAS manual and multiple medical schools' info sheets. Can we only trigger a payment to USMLE which triggers them to send the transcript AFTER we have certified our app? Like does the order go: certify, apply to programs, then pay USMLE/ERAS fees together?! So if we don't certify until 10/21 at 7am and they take hours/days to send the transcript, we wouldn't be complete when the apps get sent?

I authorized release and assigned them to all of my saved programs 10 days ago, but the status is still just "authorized"
Click to expand...

Not to make more work for you, but have you tried calling the help line and seeing what they say?

Contact ERAS Client Technical Support
202-862-6264
Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. – 6 p.m. ET
 
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