US Residency ERAS Application Common Questions

Some of these questions, I can’t stop thinking that they played a part in affecting my chances of getting interview invitations and hence, probability of matching.

1.      Home Address

When you apply for ERAS, you are asked to provide your permanent mailing address. What if you don’t live in the States, do you put a foreign address?

I am biased to think that there must be a reason why the address is asked in ERAS application. If you are a program director of North Dakota, and you have 1000 applicants with incredible credentials, but only 10 positions to be filled in. It is a no brainer that you will tend to select those who live in the same state of your hospital, because the interview candidate from NY might not choose you as first because home is just.. too far. I put Maryland address because I was staying with a friend there for a bit, and I did get questions “where do you live” from the hospital in Maryland where I attended interview. My friend has never received mail from ERAS, so if you are worried that putting an address down and not actually living there might hurt your chances, it probably won’t. I will be staying in CT, so.. if you need my address, DM me and I will check my mailbox during match season for you.

2.      Step 3

Out of 13 interviews I attended, only 1 asked if I have Step 3 score and that hospital does not even sponsor H1b ( you need step 3 to qualify for H1b). There are people in the camp that support Step 3 = You need to function as a resident so Passing Step 3 = You already proved your capability and hence, the PD will give you better consideration as their candidate. This is unproven though, because if it is proven, it is very unfair for those who didn’t take Step 3 because they listened to what the hospital says “take it in the end of your PGY-1.” But if you are trying really hard to maximize your chance of matching, you can always try Step 3. Don’t worry about the score. Pass is all you need. No sane PD will look at a 225 or 270 you get 3 years ago when you have more recent ones like ABIM.

3.      J1 only OR J1 and H1b

I ticked J1 & H1b. Some says if you tick both, the “sponsor J1 only” programs will not rank you high because they know that you will rank other hospital that sponsor H1b over them. I wished that I can do a comparative studies between 2 candidates with same credentials but one choose J1 and the other choose both j1 & H1b, and look at their interview invitations number, % of matching into 1^st choice, etc. But these can’t be done. So if you want to be risk free, do consider to tick J1 only; you are not getting extra interviews because you pick H1b anyways.

If you have additional queries with no black and white answers, feel free to discuss, in the end of the day, it is not so much of what the PDs will think, but figuring out what you actually need – Matching.