MD & DO Co’22 ERAS Panic Thread

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Steve_Zissou said:
I have a really hard time selling myself. A lot of times, I look at the things I’ve done and think “man, I got really lucky on a lot of things” rather than attributing it to any sort of internal success. I’ve gotta figure out how to sell myself without sounding cocky for this interview season. It really isn’t easy.
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This is literally me. I attribute all of my success to luck. Like, oh that just happened to work out well for me.
 
Steve_Zissou said:
I have a really hard time selling myself. A lot of times, I look at the things I’ve done and think “man, I got really lucky on a lot of things” rather than attributing it to any sort of internal success. I’ve gotta figure out how to sell myself without sounding cocky for this interview season. It really isn’t easy.
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Do u have a sig other??? They are the best at highlighting ur best qualities without going overboard.
 
fldoctorgirl said:
This is literally me. I attribute all of my success to luck. Like, oh that just happened to work out well for me.
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Right? I have two papers waiting to be published with me as first author, how did I get it? I got lucky in contacting the right people. I got good board scores, how did I get them? I got a lot of material I felt comfortable with, for the most part. Etc on down the line, for everything I’ve ever accomplished haha
 
Steve_Zissou said:
Right? I have two papers waiting to be published with me as first author, how did I get it? I got lucky in contacting the right people. I got good board scores, how did I get them? I got a lot of material I felt comfortable with, for the most part. Etc on down the line, for everything I’ve ever accomplished haha
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better to be lucky than good
 
Steve_Zissou said:
Right? I have two papers waiting to be published with me as first author, how did I get it? I got lucky in contacting the right people.
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No, you were smart and picked the appropriate lanes. Working smart > working hard. I tell every M1-M3 if you don’t have a guarantee for a publication and if it takes longer than 6-9 months to produce, walk away. Go volunteer your time somewhere else. I can’t count the number of people at my school who did years of work, only to wind up with another ‘research experience’ on the CV.

You sound like someone who knows how to delegate their time. Always a positive.
 
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How important are aways this year??? Hearing anecdotal evidence that its harder to get this year. If thats true is it possible to get away not doing any this year?
 
Chelsea FC said:
How important are aways this year??? Hearing anecdotal evidence that its harder to get this year. If thats true is it possible to get away not doing any this year?
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I think it's pretty specialty dependent, yeah?
 
Chelsea FC said:
How important are aways this year??? Hearing anecdotal evidence that its harder to get this year. If thats true is it possible to get away not doing any this year?
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I wasn’t able to get an away in the speciality I’m applying to (neuro of all things) so hopefully very unimportant
 
I haven’t had any trouble getting aways, but I applied very broadly since I have no rotations at all through my school and I knew I should probably focus on graduating (like 100+ apps broadly). I’ve gotten five through VSAS so far - two related to each other in a specialty of interest, one in a related specialty that people rotate through when in my desired residency there, and two for graduation requirements (but still have my preferred specialty at that hospital).

Still have a couple apps pending for one more possible month… but I’m okay with doing the rest of the year outpatient if I need to.
 
kazill said:
I wasn’t able to get an away in the speciality I’m applying to (neuro of all things) so hopefully very unimportant
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Applying neuro as well. I was lucky to have found my 2 neuro AIs outside of VSAS very early on before VSAS even opened. I got 2 virtual away electives through VSAS as well, but they aren't neuro related.
 
Matthew9Thirtyfive said:
IM is using SLOEs now?
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thegoodfella321 said:
a general format for department letters, just found out last week. I think they tried implementing it during last cycle.
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Yeah they somehow thought introducing this magic new format in the middle of a cycle (post ERAS opening by far, and after many letters were already in. I think it was pretty late they said it, like close to apps being sent to programs), in the middle of a pandemic, when aways were actively discouraged, was a good and helpful idea.

it actually just caused more stress.
And I think it was mostly ignored last year.

however, it was now close to a year ago that they came out with it so it may be used more this year?
 
wtf. I know nothing about these SLOEs. Would an applicant be screwed if they just submitted the LORs they already had?
 
7331poas said:
wtf. I know nothing about these SLOEs. Would an applicant be screwed if they just submitted the LORs they already had?
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No but I think if you are doing IM you should have a departmental letter as most schools have IM departments (MD that is)......
 
NicMouse64 said:
No but I think if you are doing IM you should have a departmental letter as most schools have IM departments (MD that is)......
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Our department already made letters over a month ago. We are a small program, doubt they followed this script.
 
I didn’t do the SLOE thing last year either for IM. I already had all my LORs in and I couldn’t be bothered. I doubt it matters. Not sure if that helps you guys but wanted to put it out there. Just get it if it’s gonna keep you up at night
 
Ganon said:
Stop it, you are a champion

On another note, I think my PS is terrible
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I think my PS is terrible as well, but I take solace in the fact most PS’s are bland and boring, yet most people match anyway! Don’t overthink it.
 
kazill said:
I think my PS is terrible as well, but I take solace in the fact most PS’s are bland and boring, yet most people match anyway! Don’t overthink it.
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Already used a writing lab, sought professional counsel, and got wildly different advice.

Instead I think it's going to end up like this:


Ganon is a 36 YO w/ H/O decent medical school performance and passing boards.
1. I'd like to match IM
Clerkship grades favor matching IM
Check my good letters, yo
Dem boards, though

2. You want me at your program
Plz rank me to match
I will be good intern
Dem boards

3. Ppx
DVT px NI d/t padua 0

4. Potass
Replete PRN idk
 
Ganon said:
Stop it, you are a champion

On another note, I think my PS is terrible
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I hired someone on fiverr to write two for me, one per specialty. Ended up retooling both so they sound more like me, but the raw material I was working with was great and I’m super glad I had someone give me an initial draft. I regret nothing. It took a ton of angst off my plate.

There are a lot of people on fiverr that edit personal statements, too, if you feel like yours is legit terrible and not just “reading about myself is awkward” kind of terrible.

Edit: just saw you’ve already done all the things lol
 
I'm highly considering asking for another LOR but don't want to put an attending under pressure with a short time frame, so I just want to confirm with you guys: If we submit our eras app when it opens at the beginning of September, can the LOR writer still submit the letter up until Sept 30th when programs are first given access to the apps?
 
hiiiiiiiiiii said:
I'm highly considering asking for another LOR but don't want to put an attending under pressure with a short time frame, so I just want to confirm with you guys: If we submit our eras app when it opens at the beginning of September, can the LOR writer still submit the letter up until Sept 30th when programs are first given access to the apps?
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I believe so. My plan is to ask for a letter at the end of August from my sub-I.
 
Ganon said:
To the PD who offered me a letter without me asking yesterday: if you’re reading this, I cried in my car on the way home. You have no idea how much of an encouragement it was.
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I feel like these people should get an auto-accept to heaven/paradise/whatever’s out there. They’ve earned it.

On a different note, does anyone know at which point programs that are going to be participating have to get their crap together in ERAS? I’ve watched one specialty I’m applying to add new programs at least once a week on ERAS… and there are still nearly 20 fewer programs in it than last year. I want to make my final list already. /impatient
 
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So I have a conundrum and would appreciate all of your fine advice:

I did two sub-I's this year. One in the specialty I am applying to (gas) and one in ICU. got an Honors in ICU but a h/p in my other one. My dean seems to think that I should take the second sub-I (in the field I am applying to) as a pass/fail rotation in order to avoid having anything less than honors in that rotation. What do you all think of this? does having a h/p truly hurt me that much or should I take this just pass fail and then go in with my honored sub-I and everything else pass?

I am not sure if this is overly neurotic or not but I would love to hear what you all think.
 
bigfootisreal said:
So I have a conundrum and would appreciate all of your fine advice:

I did two sub-I's this year. One in the specialty I am applying to (gas) and one in ICU. got an Honors in ICU but a h/p in my other one. My dean seems to think that I should take the second sub-I (in the field I am applying to) as a pass/fail rotation in order to avoid having anything less than honors in that rotation. What do you all think of this? does having a h/p truly hurt me that much or should I take this just pass fail and then go in with my honored sub-I and everything else pass?

I am not sure if this is overly neurotic or not but I would love to hear what you all think.
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I would take the high pass personally. High pass and honors looks pretty good. At my school we only have the option of pass/fail and it sucks because you have to assume the PD will take the time to realize it was graded P/F. Especially in your case when they'll see you honored another sub-I. I think it'll look worse.
 
bigfootisreal said:
Thanks! Fortunately it says how each rotation is graded. So it won’t just show up as a P but it will say it was graded pass fail.
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That's assuming that PDs (or whoever is reading your app) have time to read every little details on your transcript. I'd get the HP. And why would 2 audition rotations show two different grading patterns? That would probably look suspicious.
 
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DrStephenStrange said:
That's assuming that PDs (or whoever is reading you app) have time to read every little details on your transcript. I'd get the HP. And why would 2 audition rotations show two different grading patterns? That would probably look suspicious.
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Exactly. That would just look like you were trying to hide something if they even bothered to read it.
 
hmmm. How horrible it is to not have step 2 by application time. With a not-so-great(below average) step1?
 
The personal statement should be 1 page ERAS one page or microsoft word 1 page? Because one page on word does notttt fit on one page of ERAS 🙁
 
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Chelsea FC said:
hmmm. How horrible it is to not have step 2 by application time. With a not-so-great(below average) step1?
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If you take Step 2 by the first week of September, you should have your score back with plenty of time left. With that said, I'm assuming that the impact of not having it back by ~October 1st is specialty dependent.

Based on my experience and some people in my class that I've talked to, just take it (unless you are bombing practices). IMO, the resources have not yet caught up to the material and if you can narrow questions down to 2 choices, you'll do ok. And if you've passed all of your shelves, that should give you extra confidence.
 
MedScat said:
The personal statement should be 1 page ERAS one page or microsoft word 1 page? Because one page on word does notttt fit on one page of ERAS 🙁
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I was told to keep it at about 750 words max. Also, I have heard that copying and pasting straight from a Word document can mess up with your formatting on ERAS, and that you have to paste it on Notepad first before transferring to ERAS.
 
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DrStephenStrange said:
That's assuming that PDs (or whoever is reading you app) have time to read every little details on your transcript. I'd get the HP. And why would 2 audition rotations show two different grading patterns? That would probably look suspicious.
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Really? Why would it look suspicious?

One of the places I’m going had a checkbox for my school to sign that my school is okay that this site uses their own eval forms and gives their recommendation on what your grade should be. So I would absolutely think they evaluate people completely differently than people using my school’s form.

In fact, part of my onboarding had me look through their grading scales and stuff… and their criteria for honors is so lax that I would have honored 10/10 rotations based on how I did if I had done my entire third year at their site. With my school’s grading scale, I honored 2/10 rotations. So it’s pretty clear that different sites‘ grading patterns have a gulf so wide you could just about put an entire planet through it. I would think that PDs know that… right?
 
Matthew9Thirtyfive said:
Given how many apps they have to look through, I seriously doubt they go out of their way to see what the grading criteria are.
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I thought there was some sort of comparison in the MSPE, so they wouldn’t necessarily have to look at grading scales to figure out how the student did. If out of a class of 100, 5 failed, 85 passed, and 10 got honors, they’d know the grading‘s a little different from somewhere that out of 100, 5 failed, 45 passed, 25 high passed, and 25 got honors.

Or am I wrong about the MSPE having this kind of information?
 
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