ERAS questions, your input appreciated :)

[dermhopefully]

Hello everyone, I am filling out my ERAS and I have run across a few questions, any input would be greatly appreciated:

-Poster vs abstract:
I had a poster or two that were also abstracts, e.g. a poster at a national meeting that had an abstract published in the meeting guide. What should I submit these as in ERAS, -an abstract or a poster? Is one better than the other?

-Different personal statement for prelim year?
I have my personal statement hopefully almost ready, it is dermatology-centered, should I just use this as my personal statement when applying to preliminary years? My goal is a transitional year somewhere, and I know they are competitive; any other advice about applying for a T year?

-Picture
I was going to take my own picture and save some money. I was thinking a simple picture of myself in a tie and white coat against a plain background, is this a good idea? Should I spend more money and go professional?

-Dates
I am trying to submit by Sept 1 to keep myself competitive for the Transitional year programs, which apparently start looking at apps much earlier than derm programs? This kinda stinks because I have several "submitted" articles that will hopefully be published by the time interviews roll around, but I guess I will just have to contact derm programs individually and let them know if I end up being able to get them published before interview season.

-Submitted vs published
I have several posters and a few submitted articles right now and not really any pubs (e.g. an accepted paper in JAAD or something), is this going to hurt me?

-Other landmines in ERAS

Just trying to think ahead, can you think of any other landmines that might await me in my ERAS journey? Mistakes you or others have made that I could learn from? I know I need to take my picture and get it into my home school soon, but I can't think of any others.

Finally thanks for any help you can give me, best of luck to all of us!

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[sore eye asses]

-Poster vs abstract:
I might have done both, but I think just the poster is better, unless the abstract is searchable thru pubmed.


-Different personal statement for prelim year?

I used one derm-centered personal statement, applied to 10 “very competitive” TYs, and got 8 interviews. Matched at my #1.

-Picture

Your school doesn’t have professional photos of you? Kinda weird. You can definitely take your own photo, but ditch the white coat and wear a nice suit and tie.

-Dates

This exact same thing happened to me. I submitted sept 1st, and let derm progs know later on when I had an addition to my cv. It worked very well, and was not too time consuming.

-Submitted vs published

Hard to say whether this will hurt you. Sounds like you’ve done some good stuff and have stayed busy. This will give you plenty of good stuff to discuss on interviews. I think you’ll be fine if the rest of your app is up to snuff. Timing is a bitch with ERAS, but programs understand this (esp derm progs), so be sure to send updates when you have them. There will be a contact person for every program on eras. They are generally very nice and helpful.

I got a few extra interviews because I added things to my cv later. It’s definitely worth doing.

-Other landmines in ERAS

Proofread it!! Not just on the computer. Print it out and proofread it. Then have someone else proofread it. Preferably several people.



Good luck!

 

[dermathalon]

Poster vs Abstract:

I never really understood the point of breaking this up because an abstract should imply that you presented but I guess some people just submit the abstract and never actually present their poster. I would put it down as an abstract but state that you presented a poster (this is stylistic).

Personal Statement:

I only used a derm centered personal statement and tweaked the very end of it for the transitionals....literally I changed perhaps the last two sentences. I don't know if this was really necessary but I more than enough interviews and matched at my #1 for the transitional.

Picture:

The only differences are that I did take my own pic of myself and I agree that you should ditch the white coat.

Dates:

I did not submit on Sept 1 and did not submit until the second week of Sept. I don't think it hurt me in any way but it depends on what university you are targeting. Some of the derm interviews come out early and you definitely don't want to lag if one of your target schools has historically given out early interviews (instead of waiting for your Dean's letter). That said, I find early interviews interesting as they typically haven't even seen your letters of recs in some cases....

I would only delay submitting if you are waiting on a publication result or for a submission to be completed.


Submitted vs. Published:

In the end, I've come to the conclusion that a lot of these application screens are pretty much counting your pubs and don't really go through it with a fine-tooth comb except for a few programs and a few individuals. So if you don't have it ready by the time of the application, just put as submitted....it's not as good as accepted...but it's still show that you've been productive. The honest answer is that if you are compared to someone that does have published items (as opposed to just submitted items) they will get bonus points over you but no point in mulling that over and it's only one part of the whole package.


Other landmines:

1. Make sure your personal statement prints to just one page in length. It's just tightens the application up if you can keep the personal statement to one page.

2. I only sent out derm letters to the derm programs (no internal medicine letters) and I had no problem with interviews. I will say that my derm letters just happened to be the strongest letters in my app. If you happen to believe that one of the non-derm letters is particularly strong, I would say that you should submit that.

3. Proofread by reading out loud...you can miss a lot if you just read the words in your mind. It would be a pity if you had a screw up at this stage of the application.


Good luck!