ERAS Experiences section Q's

[Rowdy]

Hi everyone, I've come across a couple questions while working on my ERAS application, and was hoping for some informed input.

For starters, I'm entering a research assistant position that I held during my masters program. It was paid, but was also research...so where does it go? 'work' or 'research' or both?

Is it generally recommended to complete the non-required fields? I have no idea how many hours per week I worked on some of these things - either it was really variable or too long ago to recall a realistic number.

I've heard not to bother including undergraduate research and work experiences unless they were really substantial - is this the general consensus?

Should the description sections be in prose or bullet points or what?

Am I right in entering student group involvement in medschool as 'volunteer' experiences?

Thanks, and sorry, I'm sure most of this has been covered at some point.

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[NotAProgDirector]

Hi everyone, I've come across a couple questions while working on my ERAS application, and was hoping for some informed input.

For starters, I'm entering a research assistant position that I held during my masters program. It was paid, but was also research...so where does it go? 'work' or 'research' or both?

It's work, unless you had a key role in designing studies and got credit for such as an author.

Is it generally recommended to complete the non-required fields? I have no idea how many hours per week I worked on some of these things - either it was really variable or too long ago to recall a realistic number.

Hard to say. I don't think it's critical, but it is nice to know if you spent 4 hours once, or 80 hours a week, doing something.

I've heard not to bother including undergraduate research and work experiences unless they were really substantial - is this the general consensus?

...or if they make your application more interesting.

Should the description sections be in prose or bullet points or what?

Either is fine.

Am I right in entering student group involvement in medschool as 'volunteer' experiences?

yes

 

[DrVanNostran]

I spent one week during my winter break during my MS3 year shadowing a neurosurgeon at MD Anderson. I go to a podunk school so going there was pretty cool. Is this worthy of a eras CV spot or should I just mention it in my CV?

 

[2012mdc]

I spent one week during my winter break during my MS3 year shadowing a neurosurgeon at MD Anderson. I go to a podunk school so going there was pretty cool. Is this worthy of a eras CV spot or should I just mention it in my CV?

Similar question.

I spent a summer shadowing an orthopedic surgeon but I'm going into a different field. Is this worthwhile enough to put in the ERAS experiences section?

 

[DrVanNostran]

Similar question.

I spent a summer shadowing an orthopedic surgeon but I'm going into a different field. Is this worthwhile enough to put in the ERAS experiences section?

Bump.

I think your summer is worthy. I've come to the conclusion that my one week is pretty pointless lol.

 

[turkeyjerky]

One threshold I'm using for my experiences is whether I wouldn't mind talking about it in the interview or not. If you took a lot out of it and you want to talk about how important that week was to your future, then go for it. But, in my personal opinion, shadowing in med school is kinda bullsh*t. Nobody's going to be impressed that you spent a day/week/season shadowing somebody. It's not like med school where showing that you know what the inside of a hospital looks like is important--we've all had significant clinical experience via our clinical rotations.

If it's the field you're going into, then sure mention it and tie it into your interest in ortho or whatever. But if you're just mentioning it to show that you did something between 1st and 2nd year, or as an extra experience to list in ERAS, then why bother?

 

[2012mdc]

One threshold I'm using for my experiences is whether I wouldn't mind talking about it in the interview or not. If you took a lot out of it and you want to talk about how important that week was to your future, then go for it. But, in my personal opinion, shadowing in med school is kinda bullsh*t. Nobody's going to be impressed that you spent a day/week/season shadowing somebody. It's not like med school where showing that you know what the inside of a hospital looks like is important--we've all had significant clinical experience via our clinical rotations.

If it's the field you're going into, then sure mention it and tie it into your interest in ortho or whatever. But if you're just mentioning it to show that you did something between 1st and 2nd year, or as an extra experience to list in ERAS, then why bother?

I wouldn't mind talking about it. I did it because I was legitimately interested in Ortho at the time.

But you're right. I was just gonna add it to show I did something that first summer. I really didn't even think about including it until I saw some threads on here. Figured I'd see what the consensus was

 

[turkeyjerky]

I wouldn't mind talking about it. I did it because I was legitimately interested in Ortho at the time.

But you're right. I was just gonna add it to show I did something that first summer. I really didn't even think about including it until I saw some threads on here. Figured I'd see what the consensus was

Yeah, but would you rather talk about it than one of your other experiences. Interviews are limited in time, and it's a zero-sum game in some respects. I'm not trying to argue one way or the other, just giving the opposite perspective. Odds are, that if you put it in eras, it'll make no difference whatsoever and the interviewer likely isn't going to mention it at all.

 

[DrBowtie]

I agree that listing shadowing being LOL after you completed a whole year in a much more involved capacity on clerkships, but defer to aPD for his opinion.