Your Best Match: Insider Tips from a Former Residency Selection Committee Member

July 2017!

What an exciting time in a physician’s timeline. Congratulations on putting in all of the hard work as a medical student. You will finally start learning in depth about the things in your specialty of choice.

Just imagine one year from now, you will be working in a hospital somewhere in the country as a resident physician.

Where will you be?

Everyone remembers their 4th year of medical school.

Why?

Uncertainty.

No other year of a person’s medical career is there so much ambiguity that you can’t control.

The reason is the ERAS Match.

The ERAS Match was designed to help medical students and residency program directors come up with the best “Match.”

One problem: there are so many programs! Where do you start?

There is not a trusted resource that you can gather as much information about each program to find the best “Match” for your specialty of interest.

Until now.

As a former member of residency selection committees, I have firsthand experience on what programs look for in an applicant. There were times when I reviewed ERAS applications and I often wondered:

“Why is this person applying to our program?”

“Is this genuine interest?”

“Are we 1 of 50+ random programs on the list?”

“High USMLE scores BUT…”

The truth is, many applications never make it to the program director’s desk because members of the residency selection committee like myself did not “endorse” an applicant after we reviewed their applications. Physicians are very busy people and they trust members of the residency committee. One person looks over an application, and if one person says “no” to an applicant, that person will get a rejection letter.

So what things can help you as an applicant?

Outstanding USMLE scores, Letters of Recommendations, and Medical Student Performance Evaluation (i.e. comprehensive evaluation of your performance during medical school) during your medical student career.

Other things that will help you are included in the updated Doximity Residency Navigator. In my next post, I discuss updated features such as residency program data, program map, favorites list, and people like you.

I will also give you an insider’s perspective on what the programs look for in an applicant to maximize your chances for an ideal Match on March 2018.