DIP Episode 144 - The ERAS Guide

Okay, welcome. My name is Divine. I am a resident and this is the 144th episode of the Divine Intervention Podcast. It will be a very short podcast, but I just wanted to say some very quick high-eal things relating to the era's application. This is something I've wanted to make for a while, but I've just literally not had the time to do this. So let's go ahead and talk through things then. So just think of this podcast as like an era's tips podcast, but it's a very relevant podcast, especially for what we're doing right now. I'll probably make a podcast on like interview season and like rank list and all that down the line, but for now, let me focus on ear ascents. That's the more immediate problem, especially for most med students that have to turn the applications by like sometime next week if I'm not mistaken. Now the first thing is you want to consider the kind of program you want to attend, right? So especially in building like the list of programs you're applying for, you really want to think about what kind of program do I want to attend? What do I want out of a program, right? Like is there something like program specific that you know what I really like this thing about this program as against another? Those are all things you should strongly consider and keep at the back of your mind when you're choosing when you're choosing a place.

I mean obviously if you have like low US Emily scores or you're an international medical graduate, you really don't have that many options. You're probably under those circumstances want to apply as broadly as possible. And one of the things I think is very important is submitting before September 15th. So yes, but you may say, oh, but I can submit on the 15th of September is not a problem. Yeah, you're absolutely right. It's not a problem. But the thing is, again, remember on September 15th, that is where every human being wants to turn in the US applications as well, right? You may overwhelm the US system. It may cause like delays in the certification of the application and all that stuff. So just to avoid all those problems, it just makes more sense to just go ahead and submit on time. So that is what I will strongly strongly strongly recommend that most people do. Most of the people that I do like application advising with, I tell them try to submit your US applications as early as possible, right? I mean, obviously make sure that it's complete. Make sure that you've done like all the things you need to do. But you do absolutely want to turn in that application before September 15th. Most people I work with, I tell them again, by September 15th, make sure your application is it. Now another third thing, again, these things are kind of obvious, but these are things people don't necessarily think about. Try to avoid grammatical errors, right?

Try to avoid grammatical errors in every section of the application, right? Like your your experiences section, your publication section, your personal statement, right? Those things just rub certain people the wrong way when they see those kinds of things, right? It just shows a certain level of irresponsibility in putting together an application, right? So it's your application, it's your big shot, right? Matching into something that you've planned to match into for, I mean, for the longest time possible. So you might as well do a great job, right? So I'll encourage you to proofread those applications. Make sure, try to make sure there's no grammatical errors. Profritted yourself. Have other people that have experience with like errors applications, proofread things, you know, make corrections. Again, just try to really minimize or eliminate completely grammatical errors. And then in the experiences section, right? I see people write like again, huge long paragraphs, right? Not prudent by any stretch. In the experiences section, you want to again show them, you know, like, okay, this experience, you know, matter to you, you want to describe what you did and you occasionally want to talk about how that experience may help you in the future as this kind of medical professional, right? So the thing is, but you need to be succinct. I see people writing like long paragraphs that is not smart, okay? That is not smart.

Most times, for the people I work with, I try to keep things from like two to three sentences, but they are two to three high impact, very good summative sentences that, that essentially highlight again, like the things that I said, you should pay attention to putting those sections together. And then, with regards to publications, right? The thing is, if you have something that has not been published or you've like submitted or something, you want to go ahead and include that, right? Because again, you want to maximize your number of publications. I mean, I'm not saying to lie, do not lie in this section of the application, right? So if it's something you've not submitted for publication, not prudent, right? Not prudent at all. You want to go ahead and, if it's something you've not submitted, not prudent to say, oh, put it in your publication section, but if it's something you know that, okay, you've submitted, even if you've not heard back or anything like that, you know, put it like in the process of submission, or you can put that all like a publication is in writing, things like that, okay? Again, you just want to put your best foot forward with these eras applications. And then, with regards to letters of recommendation, right? You want to get letters of recommendation from people that know you really well, right? I mean, you see some people, they say, oh, I want to get the most high-powered letter from the chair of this department, blah, blah, blah.

But if the chair of that department, if you've not worked with them, if they don't know you very well, they may just write you like a generic one-page letter, right? That doesn't really help your application much, right? The thing is, it's actually much smarter to get letters from people that know you really well and can write letters of substance, right? What do I mean by letter of substance? I mean, a letter that, I mean, again, I've been on an admissions committee of the top two meds who for a year, right? And again, I've worked with tons and tons and tons of people going through the residency application process. And I have seen letters of substance and I have seen letters without substance, right? Letters without substance where like you can tell just very well in the letter, this person really doesn't, did not know this person, they wrote this letter for the, like you just see like, you know, like generic one-page letters, oh, I highly recommend this person for this program. And then the person just, you know, kind of summarizes, you know, how could you, like, what do you, what kind of research you've done and blah, blah, blah, and then the stangianimo, neat and turn it in. Those letters just really do not make much substance. And ultimately, yes, I mean, it will count as a rec letter and it probably won't matter watching the end, but you want letters of substance.

The recommendation letters I've read where, I'm like, okay, wow, this recommendation letter would really put, tip this person over the edge in like scoring them an interview, right? So pay attention to the rec letters, you're getting. And another thing is, if only if a specialty needs like three or four letters, get like an extra one or two letters above and beyond what you already have, because when you have those extra letters, if a letter writer, you know, disappoints you, right, doesn't turn in a letter on time or whatever, you give yourself options, right? You essentially want to give yourself options with regards to rec letters, because in ER As you can assign, you can assign a rec letter to one person, you can decide to not assign this, basically like you can assign a rec letter by program. Okay, so give yourself, like if you, for example, a specialty needs like four rec letters, try to have like six, right? Try to have like six. That's the thing that will ultimately again help you in the future. You just want to give yourself options so that you don't have any unpleasant surprises. And then with regards to personal statements, right? So the thing is you want your personal statements to be simple, right? In fact, like we probably make a whole podcast just on personal statements. This is a nearer that I just kind of boggles my mind sometimes, how people really don't pay much attention to this, right?

But the thing is, you want your personal statement to be simple, right? You want it to be something that can be easily understood, you want it to be uncomplicated, right? You want it to be very effective, right? I see people, they write personal statements and you're as a reader, you're like working really hard to try to understand like the point of what they're like going after. Again, not very prudent, not very prudent, okay? You want your personal statement to, you don't want it to, you know, be cliche like I'm going into medicine because I want to help people blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? You don't need to be too cliche, but you don't need to be too catchy either. I see some people like they try like really hard with your personal statements, they make it like super catchy, put all these like statements by this notable personality. Again, I'm not seeing those things are wrong, but for, I just noticed that people use those things in the wrong way many times, okay? So again, you want your like I have seen letters that again, they're simple, I mean like, I mean personal statements that are, they're simple, very effective, but like you read them and you're like, oh, these are like, you know, like basic personal statements, but they have like a very powerful theme, a very powerful message, okay? So, and the thing is with regards to length, you know, try to keep them below like, you know, like 800 words are there about, right?

You don't want to write like a huge tone for your personal statement. Really, for the most part, I tell people that I work with, you want to keep it below like, one to like one on a quarter pages single spaced, 12 point font, max, okay? And again, before you're turning your personal statement, have them reviewed by someone that knows personal statements very well, right? You don't just want to like write a personal statement, say, oh, you know, this looks good, put it in, no, you want another set of eyes to take a look at that personal statement, just have someone that, you know, is very experienced, read through your ears, I mean, read through your personal statement, and to be honest with you actually read through your ears application, again, just to kind of like second set of eyes, chore grammatical errors, remove like any, because the thing is there are certain like glaring issues that your application have or your personal statement may have that may not come to the surface for you, especially again, it's literally like your first go around with this kind of application, I mean, I mean, say for your, antis application, so have someone that has a lot of experience with that process, look through your application, and make sure that things that kind of wealth put together, especially someone that again has, in fact, probably even more preferable, a person that has experience with that specialty, you're applying for, have them again review your review application.

And the thing is with regards to personal statements, you, you want to have, make sure a personal statement has like a consistent fee, okay, if you kind of flow nicely from one paragraph to the next, you don't kind of want like personal statements that talk about like five different themes, the thing is you can talk about like five different like thoughts, when you want them to kind of all relate to the same theme in a sense, when you're making your personal statement, because those things just kind of flow a lot nicer than if you're trying to like go in so many different directions, you want to keep the person that's reading your letter on task. And then with regards to personal statements, again, you want things, you don't want things being disjointed, again, I'm kind of saying the same thing, I'm just saying in different ways, you don't want your personal statements to be disjointed, you want the person reading your personal statement to know that this was not something just sat down in an afternoon and kind of like just banged out, right? You want them to think that, okay, this person actually, you know, sat down reflected about this choice of career and actually put a lot of thought into this personal statement that that they have, okay, again, very important.

And the thing is when you're writing a personal statement, you want to, you know, kind of broadcast your achievements, when you don't want to be too egotistical, this is a mistake I feel that's made by a decent number of people. They put all their achievements, when you really, you're like, this people must be super proud, like this people don't have an ounce of humility in them. You want to talk about your, their ways to talk about your achievements and talk about them in prudent fashion, if you know what I mean. Again, these are things, obviously, I'm not going to, I don't really, I want to make this podcast as short as possible, so I'm not necessarily going to give like a copy of examples, but you want to talk about your achievements, where you want to kind of keep your ego in check, when you're talking about those, those achievements, because if you're super good, you can actually rob some letter, some residency selection committee members the wrong way. And then this context that I want to talk about is a little abstract, but it's really important. When you're writing your personal statement, make sure that it has substance, right? The thing is, so what do I mean by that? You see some people, they write recommendation letters and they say, oh, this, you know, speciality X is my passion. The day is pass by, whenever I'm doing this specialty and I like it, like the hours in the day pass by and I don't even realize that time has passed by.

I love my experiences on this rotation blah, blah, blah. Those are good things to put in a personal statement, but like, okay, so what's the point of seeing something is your passion? The hours passed by without me realizing. Okay, yes, those are good statements, fine, but what's the point? Ask yourself that question. What's the point, right? Those kinds of letters, and I don't know for whatever reason, this is a problem that a lot of international medical graduates run into. And also like a decent number of American medical students also fall into. They write these personal statements where you read them, it's thoughtful of statements, but none of those statements really makes like, you just say, okay, okay, like you're kind of like caught asking yourself like, okay, like what's the point, right? You don't want a person reading your personal statement to have those kinds of questions. So make sure you're, again, this is one reason why you should have people review your personal statement, right? Make sure your personal statement has substance. I wish it would provide even better examples, but it's just one of those things that I've kind of like accumulated with experience. You want a substantial personal statement. You don't just want a personal statement filled with catchy phrases filled with just like, you know, like generic words, you want to make it something that actually counts in the long run. So for example, right, so think about it.

Let's say you have a person that wants to go into internal medicine, right? If you're seeing something in your personal statement along the lines of, I am fascinated by taking a knowledge of science and applying it in creative ways to hearing patient stories, responding to those stories and clinical presentations from a standpoint of understanding while engaging in interventions that improves their, improves outcomes in like a cost effective safe manner. I mean, I'm just kind of making up words like literally like right now in my head, but like those kinds of things have most substance than just saying that I love this specialty. I love seeing the way this people work with your hands. I love, I, time passes without me knowing while I'm doing this. Just generic statements having no substance. Like those things just really rob again, I'm seeing this again from the perspective of having read tons of applications and having worked with tons of people through the process that have ultimately ended up being successful. You don't want statements that you want to essentially like minimize those statements that have no substance in your era's application. Again, it's not something people think about, but you may say, hmm, what happened? Why am I not getting interviews? And this place I really expected to get an interview for. What happened there?

Again, people, again, there are people on these committees that you know spend time like really going throughout people's applications, there are people that, okay, maybe they just you know glance through things real quick, find no issue. But again, you want to put your best foot forward with these applications. And then the thing I tell people is like you almost want to like base your personal statement on principle. You want to like illustrate principles in your personal statements. Like principles that kind of like relates to the specialty that you are trying to go into, but give examples, right? So give examples, either like something you've done or like a personal characteristic you have that meets those principles and then show how it relates to that specialty you're trying to get into. And another thing is you also want to mention how you contribute to the program, right? Because it just kind of demonstrates a higher, somewhat higher level of thinking with applications, right? You want to like not just say, oh, like you want to talk about like essentially like in the context of what do you plan to do in the future? You want to talk about how you may bring that to bear in that program. You want to talk about how you positively contribute to that program. And then one other thing you also want to do is you want to make sure you don't trash your other rotations in Met Scone, right?

So you don't want to say things like, oh, like for this specialty time passed and I absolutely love this like I didn't mind going in early blah, blah, blah, blah, again, those are all statements that lack substance. But you also don't want to say that, oh, you could not wait to get dismissed from every other like rotation blah, blah, blah, you did because you had this other specialty like at the centerpiece of your interest. You don't want to do that. Again, those are some of the things that maybe like, oh, it's just you know, like a few words I typed, but those few words you typed end up like affecting your application and negatively. Again, you want to, you don't want to make a program thing that, oh, this person, you know, doesn't really work hard. If it's something that you're interested in, they'll work hard. But if it's something that's mundane and they are not interested in, they will not work hard. You absolutely do not want to give programs that impression, okay? Because whether you like it or not, it's not every part of residency that will be all gravy and roses. No, there'll be parts, there'll be certain decisions, they're like, you know, when I don't like this thing as much, you know, not necessarily my cup of tea, but you still want to like work hard in those things, right? So you don't want to throw down those kinds of unusual statements that will begin to cause programs to like think twice about your application.

And I mean, obviously, I want to talk about why you want to go into like set specialty. Again, don't be cliché, but again, don't be too complicated, right? Like really, unfortunately, like the personal statement section is one thing I feel that really like hoses a lot of international medical graduates. So I'll say if you're an international medical graduate, you really don't want to have someone review your personal statement. Someone that has again a lot of experience in the process, a review of personal statement. And again, your personal statement matters big part of your application. Again, I know I probably spent more time that I should have talking about that, but again, it's a really big part of your application. I've seen people that have low scores, but very well-written personal statements, give themselves an edge in the application process. And then with regards to the number of programs you applied to, it just really depends on your specific situation. The only generalization I can make is if you have low USMLE scores or you have an international medical graduate, you do want to apply to as many programs as possible. But really, it kind of just really depends on the persons and specific specific situations. And then some other quick things, if your school offers the opportunity for you to review the Dean's letter, you want to go ahead and review it, to make sure you go for those things.

Again, you want to see the kinds of statements that are going into your Dean's letter, review your transcript, most schools give you access to an unofficial transcript, review that stuff before, again, they go on your email application, make sure that your grades were kidding right, you don't want to have an F grade somewhere where you actually got an A in a course, right? Again, that can really hamper your application, right? So just reveal all these things before September 15th, so that you don't have any unpleasant surprises. And then if you have any notable awards, any notable scholarships, again, kind of put that in through that into your US application, if it's like a 500 scholarship, maybe, you know, maybe doesn't make sense to throw that in there. But if you have like, you know, like a decent scholarship or like an important like award you got, especially something that is named like the divine something, something, something award or something, you go ahead and throw that into your application. I will very likely make a podcast on like interview season, rank list, matching, and all that down the line. But again, I just wanted to sort of throw this in there and hopefully you find this to be helpful and sort of like give you some guidance as you go through the application process. And then as I do at the end of every podcast, I do offer tutoring for all the USML exams.

So step one, two CK, two CES, step three, the pre-clinical med school exams, the 30th shelf exams, offer tutoring for all those. I also do like this then I call on student tutoring with like med students where I don't work with you from the beginning of med school to like your step one dedicated period or from like the beginning of 30 year to your era, I mean to your dedicated period for step two CK where I essentially work with, so for the pre-clinical student I work with you through all your coursework as you're going through your pre-clinical sciences. But the thing is, I prepare you really well for your class exams but also in few step one knowledge along the way. Most of essentially everyone I've done this with when they go to the dedicated periods, they were like super ready for the exams. Most of these people I also still tutor them during their dedicated periods but essentially like uniformly these people have ended up doing extremely well. Same thing with the 30 year med students I work with, I work with you through all your shelf exams, I prepare you really well for your shelf exams and then again when step two CK rows along you feel very well prepared, I teach you testing, strategy and all those things.

And then for if you're a medicine resident, if you need tutoring for the training exam or the ABI M board exam, I do offer tutoring for those things and then if you're a college student and you have you need tutoring in like physics, general chemistry or gynecchemistry, biochemistry, histology, physiology, alpha tutoring for those things, I tutor to the MCAT. And then if if you're a person, if you're a college student applying for like a med school, so like an Amgaz application or a med student applying for residency, so like an ERAS application, I do offer like 101 Advising, slash I guess consulted for these things, again I've worked with tons of people on these processes and essentially all of them have been wildly successful. Like personal statement review, ERAS application review, all those things, I do offer those on a 101 basis. So if you need any of those things, mock interviews, stuff like that, just let me know, reach out to me, either send me an email through the website or like divine intervention podcasts with an SIVN that gmail.com. So I hope you get something from this podcast, I'll see you in the next podcast, God bless you and have a great rest of your day. Thank you.

As early as possible, definitely before September 15th, to avoid overwhelming the US system and potential delays.

Substance—specific anecdotes and detailed knowledge of your work, rather than generic praise or high institutional titles.

Use 2-3 succinct, high-impact sentences per experience, focusing on what was done and how it relates to future medical practice.

Keep them simple, uncomplicated, and focused on a single, consistent theme or principle; avoid clichés and vague feelings of passion.

Six letters. Having extra options provides flexibility if one letter writer fails to deliver or disappoints.

Include it in the application, noting its status (e.g., "in process of submission") to maximize the perceived number of publications without lying.

To prevent overwhelming the US system and avoiding potential delays in application certification.

Letters of substance, which contain specific details about your work and skills, regardless of the recommender's seniority.

Keep it concise, ideally below 1 to 1.25 single-spaced pages (and under 800 words).

Grammatical errors and spelling mistakes.

Maintaining a consistent theme or "flow" so that the reader does not feel the content is disjointed or jumping between unrelated ideas.

Apply to as many programs as possible (broadly).

To prevent overwhelming the US system and avoiding potential delays in application certification.

Letters of substance, which contain specific details about your work and skills, regardless of the recommender's seniority.

Keep it concise, ideally below 1 to 1.25 single-spaced pages (and under 800 words).

Grammatical errors and spelling mistakes.

Maintaining a consistent theme or "flow" so that the reader does not feel the content is disjointed or jumping between unrelated ideas.

Apply to as many programs as possible (broadly).