hi! please help, ERAS application question.....

[andwhat]

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Hi all, I am applying for Anesthesiology, and I also want to apply for Internal Medicine as well.... my question to you all regarding my ERAS application for my Preliminary Internal Medicine year position is... do I have to use my IM or slightly modified Anesthesiology personal statement (same PS basically for Anesthesiology, only adding that I want to apply for the preliminary Medicine position to fulfill my PGY-1 requirement), and also is it suggested, or wise of me to apply together for both the Categorical and Prelim IM positions to the same programs (regarding IM - for this I assume that I would definitely need my Internal Medicine PS if I applied for Cat as well - which would make it really confusing if I am applying for the two positions - Cat and Prelim seperately, with two PSs on the same application), is this suggested (applying for both positions on the same ERAS application - Cat and Preliminary Medicine)? I am assuming that it will not look too impressive applying for Categorical Internal Medicine in my opinion, if I applied for both Prelim and Categorical Internal Medicine on the same ERAS application, or should I apply seperately with different IM and Anesthesiology Personal Statements, for Categorical Internal Medicine, and Preliminary Medicine for my PGY - 1 year respectively? I am so sorry for this confusing question, but I truly hope that someone can spare me an explanation, It would be of tremendous benefit to me actually, this is so confusing, and I dont want to screw it up.
I am not sure what to do, ideally, I would like to apply for both Categorical Medicine and Preliminary Medicine with the IM personal statement to save confusion, and extra ERAS fees expenditures.

Thanks in advance!!!

 

[UTSouthwestern]

Suprisingly, this is the fifth time I have heard of this situation, although the others were applying for IM as a backup.

For those prelim spots that you will not be applying simulatneously for the categorical spots, the anesthesiology letter should suffice. The programs understand that you are a one year resident only for them and that you (hopefully) have a future plan in store.

If you plan to apply for both a prelim and categorical IM spot in the same program, understand that it will probably raise some questions and you would inevitably be asked why you are doing such. You would probably be best served providing a letter that is IM specific.

As always, I would highly recommend you NOT list one specialty as a backup to the other on your match list unless you would be completely happy matching into it if you don't match into your preferred specialty. I have seen that happen to too many people and almost all of those people have ended up absolutely miserable.

 

[andwhat]

Send your IM PS to all IM programs you apply to... both C-IM and P-IM... even if you apply to both at the same program. Do not let on that C-IM is your backup if you don't get Gas. On the interview extol the virtues of IM and tell them that that's what you want to do for your career. If they ask why you're applying to P-IM too, tell them that since you like IM so much and you know the strong programs are very competitive you would even be willing to take P-IM in case you didn't match C-IM.

thank you so so much Dr. Cuts and UTSouthwestern!!!
that advice helped me tremendously......