submitting eras sept 1 or waiting to polish it up more?

[bulldog]

I think you can submit eras starting sept 1, but dean's letter doesn't go out until a month or two later, and letters of recommendations will come after that. So, what are the advantages of submitting sept 1 besides possibly getting more interviews?

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[Wednesday]

Many programs offer interviews before the Dean's letter is out and the spots fill up (esp transitional years). You should have all your LORs in well before Nov 1. In fact they can (and perhaps should) be in before Sept 1, but aiming for early October isn't unrealistic. The Dean's letter should be the only thing missing (can't go out until Nov 1).

 

[Nosa]

what would you guys say about waiting for AOA elections? they are supposed to be held in mid-late september.

 

[gutonc]

what would you guys say about waiting for AOA elections? they are supposed to be held in mid-late september.

You can always add it to your application later if you get it which is what I did.

Quite honestly though, if you're AOA, you probably have an application that will already get you in the door for most residencies unless you totally tanked Step 1 or have some other red flag on your app.

Unless you're applying for Plastics and only at Hopkins, MGH, UCSF and Stanford +/- AOA shouldn't make or break you.

BE (now PE)

 

[foodcoma]

i'm confused. after you submit ERAS app, can you go back and CHANGE/ADD/DELETE the crap that's on the CV portion? Can you go back and RE-ASSIGN LORs? Can u add more programs later?

 

[DreamLover]

i'm confused. after you submit ERAS app, can you go back and CHANGE/ADD/DELETE the crap that's on the CV portion? Can you go back and RE-ASSIGN LORs? Can u add more programs later?

You can't change any of your personal info...so no changes to the CV once it's submitted, but you can go in after you've submitted and designate new LORs to your programs minding that the program deadline hasn't passed...lots of deadlines are around Nov-Dec time...some earlier and a few later...so you'd have to check on that.

The way my school explained it to me is that sure you can add letters...but there isn't any guarantee when or if the programs will go back and download the new info...most likely I think they would but it might not be in a timely fashion, but who knows.

As for re-assigning LORs...once the school has downloaded the LORs it was originally designated...I would think there's no taking it away...but like I said...you can add them. I'm no expert...but my school made me sit theough an ERAS tutorial back when we got our tokens so I'm trying to remeber how they explained everything. Good Luck!

 

[footcramp]

is there any disadvantage to submitting it one or two weeks after sept 1?

 

[Winged Scapula]

is there any disadvantage to submitting it one or two weeks after sept 1?

No. Everyone gets all excited about September 1, but frankly a few weeks is not going to make a difference.

 

[medulla]

Sorry for my confusion...how do you add AOA status if you get it after your submission? Accordinig to the above posts, you can't change your CV, so can anyone clarify this? THANKS!!!

 

[BigBadBix]

Sorry for my confusion...how do you add AOA status if you get it after your submission? Accordinig to the above posts, you can't change your CV, so can anyone clarify this? THANKS!!!

The only thing that you cannot add to once you submit it is the "CAF," which is the ERAS name for your CV (this includes awards, research experience, work eperience, hobbies/interests, etc.).

If it's the same as last year, your AOA status is on a main profile-type page where you list your address and other such things. This is separate from the CAF. On this first page you can change info at any time (e.g., if your mailing address changes during the year when you're doing an away rotation) and programs will get a message that you have updated it. So you can list AOA as "not determined until 4th year" and then change it once it's been decided. I had some friends that did this last year and it worked out just fine.

Your program assignments are not part of your CAF either. So you can add programs at any time, and you can assign letters or personal statments to individual programs at any time (although once these have been downloaded by a program you can't take them back).

To answer the original question, you really don't need to get ERAS in by Sept 1. As long as it's in by Oct 1 you'll be fine. The vast majority of programs won't offer interviews until then, and the most competitive wait until November when your Dean's Letter is available. If you are ready to submit by Sept 1, that's great, but don't push for that if you aren't ready. Better to turn in a polished app a month later.

-BBB