ERAS/NRMP Question

[Med 4 Life]

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Hey guys, for those of you who have completed both the ERAS and the NRMP applications, were you asked to list prior non-medical or non-clinical employment you held in high school or college( i.e working at a re-tail store, etc)?

 

[PSurg530]

There is one section for all activities in ERAS. Most people usually include only medical school activities, and activities from before medical school only if really applicable (medical or clinical). So you definitely don't (shouldn't) include things from high school, and probably not from college either.

 

[eastcoaster1979]

There is one section for all activities in ERAS. Most people usually include only medical school activities, and activities from before medical school only if really applicable (medical or clinical). So you definitely don't (shouldn't) include things from high school, and probably not from college either.

This is actually an area up for debate, though SDN has been arguing it's a faux pas for a while. My school suggested we list everything we had on our apps for med school in addition to what we've done during med school. To provide an anecdote, I listed most stuff from the beginning of college till now and I've gotten interviews at most places I applied, including some big names. I didn't do anything astounding at any point, but at maybe 1/2 of these visits my interviewer would ask about one of these pre-med activities. And, I'll be honest - you probably haven't done anything that cool in med school (I know I sure as heck haven't). Point being, the activities are routinely used for starting conversations at these interviews, and if all you've got to talk about is giving rats drugs... This being anecdotal, I'm sure another poster could provide a horror story, but this has been my experience. The activities are listed in reverse chronological order - if they have a problem with college activities they're probably just ignoring the bottom half of the page.

 

[pixella]

Agree with eastcoaster, listing experiences from undergrad is fine. I actually had several conversations about said experiences, which were all very positive. I would not list anything from before college unless it was EXTREMELY significant (i.e. you single-handedly saved the lives of 1 million starving children in sub-Saharan Africa).

 

[bcat85]

This is actually an area up for debate, though SDN has been arguing it's a faux pas for a while. My school suggested we list everything we had on our apps for med school in addition to what we've done during med school. To provide an anecdote, I listed most stuff from the beginning of college till now and I've gotten interviews at most places I applied, including some big names. I didn't do anything astounding at any point, but at maybe 1/2 of these visits my interviewer would ask about one of these pre-med activities. And, I'll be honest - you probably haven't done anything that cool in med school (I know I sure as heck haven't). Point being, the activities are routinely used for starting conversations at these interviews, and if all you've got to talk about is giving rats drugs... This being anecdotal, I'm sure another poster could provide a horror story, but this has been my experience. The activities are listed in reverse chronological order - if they have a problem with college activities they're probably just ignoring the bottom half of the page.

Yeah, i'll echo this with some degree of caution. I did a lot of research as an undergrad and so I decided to include this on my application. I thought it was helpful and made for good conversation. However. I did not include some of my lamer pre-med activities, like clubs I was a member of, unrelated volunteer work, minor honors, etc. If you did something physician-worthy, include it. I sort of approached it by asking my future self if I would care if I saw this on someone's residency application.

 

[gutonc]

Hey guys, for those of you who have completed both the ERAS and the NRMP applications, were you asked to list prior non-medical or non-clinical employment you held in high school or college( i.e working at a re-tail store, etc)?

How many different ways are you going to ask the same damn question?

You got fired from a retail job while you were in college. Nobody cares. Nobody.

Well, maybe your mom...but nobody else.

FWIW (which is probably not much since you haven't listened to either my in-thread or solicited PM advice yet, why would you start now), I listed my research job experience during college but not my parallel retail experience (I held 3 different PT jobs at the same time while in college)...simply because (sing along, you know the words) nobody cares.

 

[eastcoaster1979]

Yeah, i'll echo this with some degree of caution. I did a lot of research as an undergrad and so I decided to include this on my application. I thought it was helpful and made for good conversation. However. I did not include some of my lamer pre-med activities, like clubs I was a member of, unrelated volunteer work, minor honors, etc. If you did something physician-worthy, include it. I sort of approached it by asking my future self if I would care if I saw this on someone's residency application.

Yeah, I'd agree this is the best way to go about this. And if you put some minor stuff on the app I don't think it will really matter...it's just that no one cares when they look at it.