ERAS regional preference versus home program

[TheRealBibFortuna]

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So I've just learned a little bit about how ERAS handles regional preferences. From what I can see, you get to choose two regions that you indicate preference for. My home program is listed as South Atlantic, but it would be the only institution I'd be interested in matching at in the entire region. Could I choose two different regions and then signal my home program? Or would failing to signal their region and program together hurt my chances?

 

[LunaOri]

Choose two regions and signal your home program. They already know you well, and shouldn’t care whether you rank any other programs in that region.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

It's three regions, unless something has changed:

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students-residents.aamc.org

 

[Dral]

Agree with others. When I see a signal, but not the region, I take it as they still want to train at my program regardless. There is nothing that says someone might want to really live in California or South Carolina, but they have relatives in Maryland, and while they may not really want to live in mid-Atlantic, they'd still be good with Hopkins since it is close to where their relatives live.

The only thing that might change, is I might ask them during their interview why they signaled the program but not the region. As long as they have a reasonable answer, it's all good. If they were a rotator and signaled us, but not the region, I probably wouldn't even bother to ask that.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

I will also support that for our program, signal >>> regional preference. Signal without a reg preference means you want to come to only our program (or perhaps a few others) in the region.