Transition to Residency and Match

• Applicants will complete this application process online.
• See information below about non-ERAS letters of recommendation.
• The Office of Student Affairs will upload your MSPE, and transcript to SF Match on October 1, for distribution to your programs.
• Programs not participating in ERAS or SF Match: Although a specialty may participate in ERAS, some programs within that specialty may not participate (this is RARE). To check if a program is participating in ERAS, view the list of participating programs here.
• You should also visit the program’s Web site to verify its application procedure and requirements. For programs not participating in ERAS or SF Match, you will need to provide the Office of Student Affairs with a list of any programs you may be applying to that are not participating in ERAS or SF Match. The Office of Student Affairs will mail your application out for you, once you have provided all the documents. The MSPE and transcript will be sent directly to these programs on October 1.
• We offer photos to the students for free by a photographer. Student should contact Tan Stephenson to coordinate. 
• The Headshot Photo Booth is another resource for UM students to get their professional headshot taken.
  
   

National Resident Matching Program (NRMP)

The NRMP has developed a highly reputable collection of reports and publications that inform and advance the matching process for both applicants and GME program directors. The NRMP’s data and research efforts also:

1. Assist Match applicants in making informed decisions about their competiveness as candidates in their preferred specialties
2. Educate Match participants about issues that most affect resident selection decisions
3. Describe important trends in Match rates by state, specialty and program type
4. Inform the medical education community and the media about the NRMP and the strong performance of its matching services 

 

For each program that you are applying to, you should inquire about:

1. Application deadline
2. The type of individual who should write your letters of recommendation (eg, does the program require an LOR from the chair of the corresponding department on our campus?)
3. Any other unique application requirements

Residency Explorer

Residency Explorer is a tool that facilitates residency applicant research on programs and shares how applicants historically compare to previously matched applicants. It currently proving comparison data from 2017-2021. Please note that the Residency Explorer tool does not advise you where to apply or predict whether you will match to a residency program. It is intended to help you develop a list of programs you are interested in applying to. We encourage you to consult with your Transition to Residency Advisor and specialty mentor(s) as you research programs.

FREIDA

The American Medical Association’s Fellowship and Residency Electronic Interactive Database, or FREIDA is a free online resource containing information on more than 8,000 graduate medical education programs accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and more than 200 combined specialty programs. By defining various selection criteria, you can select a range of programs, or find specific program information.

The Alignment Check Index is a feature of FREIDA that allows ob-gyn residency applicants to compare their experiences and characteristics to the domains that residency programs consider in their own assessment of their program’s values and interests. Students must be AMA members to access the ACI.

Individual Residency Program Websites

The majority of program Web sites list work and call schedules, an overview of residency training, and additional educational environment information. You will also likely find application requirements and deadlines specific to that program.

Texas STAR Program

For an additional resource to review transparency in application to residency, visit Texas STAR Program.

 

Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE) is a summary letter of evaluation intended to provide residency program directors an honest and objective summary of a student’s salient experiences, attributes, and academic performance. The MSPE template consists of six sections:

• Identifying information. This section contains your legal name, year in school, and the name and location of your medical school.
• Noteworthy characteristics. This section is a bulleted list of three or four salient characteristics, preferably either new information or a synthesis of information included in other parts of the application rather than straight repetition of details found elsewhere. Each characteristic should be described in two sentences or less. Information about any significant challenges or hardships encountered by the student during medical school may be included in this section.
• Academic history. This section provides your dates of matriculation and expected graduation, participation in joint degree programs, as well as extensions, gaps, or any remediation or adverse actions that may have occurred during your educational program.
• Academic progress. This section is typically the most lengthy and robust portion of the document and includes information about your academic performance and your professional attributes throughout medical school. In fact, the MSPE asks each medical school to describe how it defines professionalism and what it assesses in students.     
   There are narrative portions about overall performance in the preclinical curriculum and in each of the core clinical clerkships and elective rotations completed to date, as well as the grading system and graphic representations of students’ comparative performance in each of the clerkships for additional context.  
• Summary. This section includes a summative assessment, graphically presented when possible, that compares your performance to that of your medical school peers. This comparison should be based on your school’s evaluation system and include information about any school-specific categories used to differentiate among students.
• Medical school information. This section provides the specific characteristics of your medical school, which helps program directors understand the information about you within the context of how your school functions. It is the key to understanding the institution’s mission, educational goals, and approach and how those elements may be integrated into the evaluation system(s).
  
   While the exact weight given to the MSPE varies across specialties and programs, it remains useful as a summary document while programs interview and begin ranking applicants.

Your Miller School transcript will be transmitted by the Office of Student Affairs to all of your programs through ERAS, or uploaded to other application services for programs not using ERAS.

It is extremely important that you review your transcript and your clerkship evaluations. Summaries of your performance on your evaluations will be included in the MSPE, and you need to be aware of everything that has been written about you in your evaluations.

Writing a personal statement can pose a challenge to many medical students. Those who feel they “don’t like to write” often find themselves frustrated. However, this statement is a useful tool in your application for residency, because it can tell selection committee members about your background, your goals, and your character.

A good personal statement can certainly set you up for a great interview, and may help ensure that you match into a program that values the type of person that you are.

While a good statement may not get you in, a bad one can certainly lead to your demise as a candidate. Your statement should NOT simply reiterate why you came to medical school, or restate everything on your CV.

Your personal statement SHOULD include the following key elements:

• WHY you want to go into your chosen SPECIALTY (not the general practice of medicine).
• Explanation of your commitment to that specialty and the profession (eg., clinical activities, research, or special projects that solidified your interest in the field).
• WHAT are YOUR personal characteristics that make you well suited for that specialty (include your strengths that you can offer a program and the specialty).
• WHAT you are looking for in a program, clinically and academically.
• Your future goals and plans within that specialty.

Some writing TIPS

• Start early!
• Read sample personal statements
  • Directly state something if you really want to emphasize your point.
  • Indirectly state it if the direct account sounds too pompous.
• Determine which skills/traits you possess that selection committees are seeking.
• Identify your marketable attributes.
• Identify attributes to emphasize in your personal statement.
• Outline your statement paragraph by paragraph (5 or 6), one page.
• Write a topic sentence for each paragraph.
• Write the first draft:
  • Use forceful, active, varied, and understandable sentences.
• Get Feedback! Starting with Ms. Garcia
• Attempt to keep this to ONE page with proper grammar.
• Proofread and proofread again for grammar, spelling, and typos.
• Stand out from the crowd!!
• Include information not found anywhere else on your application.
• Elaborate on personal issues: life-changing experiences, goals, expectations.
• Communicate your uniqueness to the reader.

Some Pitfalls to Avoid

• Don’t write about why you want to be a DOCTOR.
• Don’t tell the specialist why s/he should become that type of doctor – remember this is about YOU, not the SPECIALTY.
• Don’t describe why you did NOT choose OTHER professions.
• Avoid cliches.
• Avoid exaggerated words and phrases (always, for as long as I can remember).
• Don’t make your statement a prose version of your CV.
• Be wary of sounding too idealistic, lest it be mistaken for you seeming too naive.
• Don’t sound too rigid in listing extremely specific career plans.
• Do not criticize other professions or physicians.

Suggested links

• Careers in Medicine Writing a Personal Statement
• CO2023 - Personal Statement Workshop - passcode: 9!7j1#ei
• CO2023 –Personal Statement Workshop 2022

Letter of Recommendation/Evaluation Considerations

Before you request a letter of recommendation from a faculty member, try to plan ahead and identify potential recommenders early. This will give you enough time to build a rapport with them and demonstrate your skills and achievements. While this is not always possible, it may be helpful. 

To ask for a letter of recommendation, you should send a formal and respectful email to the faculty member, attaching your CV, explaining why you chose them as a potential recommender, and offering to meet with them to provide more information.

Most programs ask for three or four letters of recommendation (LORs).

ERAS can transmit a maximum of four letters. As a rule of thumb, LORs should be written by faculty members with whom you have worked in clinical or research settings. The most important factor in obtaining great letters is in the way you ask faculty to write them.

Consider asking whether the faculty member knows you well enough to write you a STRONG letter of recommendation for a residency position in your field. If they do not, you have given them the option to decline.

Many programs require an LOR from the department chair of the specialty to which you are applying. Realistically, not many chairs know all students; however, they expect to write such letters. They may also have a departmental “designee” write this letter.

In some departments, the chair signs all of the letters, while others have your core clerkship site director write and sign the letter on behalf of the chair.

Please click HERE to find a letter writing guideline developed by our medical school. We recommend students to send this to each of their letter writers in case it is helpful. 

Early Requests, Timing, and Completion of Letters of Recommendation

If you are planning to request that a faculty member write a letter of recommendation on your behalf PRIOR to the start of Phase 3 (i.e. during your Phase 2 clerkships, or while you are on a leave of absence), please read this carefully: 

ERAS now allows you to utilize their system to request and store LORs through a limited access token. However, those tokens do not become available until a specific time. These tokens to access the limited Letter of Recommendation Portal (LoRP) are issued by your Registrar and will be sent to the entire class at the appropriate time. 

These letters cannot be uploaded directly to the LoRP until you are actively registered with ERAS. You can certainly discuss your request for a letter of recommendation with faculty you may have recently completed a rotation with, and it’s ok if they do not upload the letter at that time.

Your performance is fresh in their minds, and that may be a great time to ask. 

STORING letters written prior to Phase 3: 

If you choose to request such a letter prior to Phase 3 you can discuss two options with the letter writer depending on when they choose to write this letter (remember it won’t be due until the following year!):

 

1. Ask if the faculty member would feel comfortable storing the letter on their computer until you return at a later date (early during Phase 3), to provide them with specific instructions about uploading the letter OR
2. If they won’t write the letter until closer to the end of Phase 2, you will then be able to use your ERAS limited token (which will become available in June, near the end of Phase 2), register with ERAS, and review the Letter of Recommendation Portal online, and send the writer the information about how to upload. 

It’s NOT complicated… it is just dependent on timing of when you ask and when the faculty wants to write their letter. This is personal preference on their part. 

Once you've received an ERAS Early Access Token and have successfully registered and logged into MyERAS, you will ONLY have LIMITED access to the following restricted functions necessary for you to begin gathering your Letters of Recommendation (LoRs):

• Updating the Personal Information page 
• Adding and confirming LoR information
• Printing Letter Request Form(s)
• Viewing the status of LoRs  

Your Letter itself

• Must be addressed to “Dear Program Director,” (not to anyone in Student Affairs).
• Include that the student has waived his/her right to see the letter.
• The AAMC number needs to be in the subject line or body of the letter. You can find your AAMC number here if you forgot it.
• Has to be on the writer’s letterhead and signed.

To submit letters of recommendation, please reference the ERAS LoR Portal.

Detailed instructions can be found in the ERAS LoRP User Guide.

The Office of Student Affairs cannot review letters and pick the best ones for you to send. The letters cannot be released to you at any time in any format. They are the property of the letter writer and not our office.

Waive your right: You should waive your right to see a letter of recommendation. The ERAS Cover Letter includes a waiver and instructs the writer to include a sentence in their letter regarding your decision. Many program directors see a student’s decision not to waive their right to see a letter as a red flag.

Non-ERAS programs: If you are applying to non-ERAS programs, please reference your application service (e.g. CAS/MODS) for instructions about letters of recommendation. Some letters can now be uploaded online directly by your letter writer. If you still need to have any letters submitted directly to Marta Bergez, these may be sent via e-mail or you may deliver the letter in a sealed envelope with signature across the flap. Email is preferred. Please make sure your letters are written on letterhead and signed by your letter writer.

For the 2023-2024 application year, the following specialties have established processes to provide our medical students with a chief/chair/standardized evaluation letter: 

• Plastic Surgery
• Pediatrics
• Urology
• Internal Medicine
• Emergency Medicine
• Neuro Surgery
• OBGYN
• Ortho Surgery
• Med-Peds
• General Surgery 
• ENT

For specific information about the process for obtaining this letter, please communicate directly with the Phase 3 Lead/Specialty Advisors. They will be the faculty assisting you with this process. 

Big Interview

UMMSM medical students have the opportunity to register for a free account with Big Interview, an online system that combines training AND practice to help improve interview technique and build confidence. Big Interview Medical offers a variety of tools including:

• Challenging, virtual mock interviews for all experience levels
• A database of thousands of interview questions with tips on how to answer them
• The ability to rate and share your interview answers for feedback from your advisors
• A comprehensive video training curriculum covering all aspects of landing a residency
• A step-by-step interview Answer Builder for crafting answers to behavioral questions

Other resources 

• AAMC Careers in Medicine 
• Boston University Interview Prep Video
• AAMC Virtual Interviewing Tips
• AAMC Residency Evaluation Guide
• Specialty Specific Questions
    –e.g. Internal Medicine Questions from ACP
    –YOUR SEARCHES…..by specialty
    –Be cautious about what you read online
• AAMC Preparing for your interviews

Transition to Residency  

• CO2024 - Personal Statement Workshop 2023
• CO2024 - Personal Statement Workshop 2023 PPT
• CO2024 - Intro to the Match, Part 1 - Video
• CO2024 - Intro to the Match - PPT
• CO2023 - Personal Statement Workshop - passcode: 9!7j1#ei
• CO2023 – Personal Statement Workshop 2022
• CO2023 – Rank Order List Prep and Graduation Requirements
  
• CO2023 – Senior Scheduling and Guide to the MATCH - Part 1 – Video – Passcode: j2xbqr%d
• CO2023 – Guide to the MATCH - Part 1 – PDF
• CO2022 – Transition to Residency - Part 1 – Video
• CO2022 – Transition to Residency - Part 1 – Video
• CO2022 – Transition to Residency - Part 1 – PowerPoint
• CO2022 - Guide to the MATCH and Transition to Residency - PowerPoint - 5.14.21
• CO2022 - Guide to the MATCH - PowerPoint - 12.14.20
• CO2021 – Creating Your Rank Order & Graduation Requirements –Video
• CO2021 – Creating Your Rank Order & Graduation Requirements – PowerPoint
• CO2021 – Guide to the Match and Transition to Residency – 4.29.20 – Zoom Meeting – Access Password: 4d.@M5$!
• CO2021 – Guide to the Match and Transition to Residency – 4.29.20 – PDF
• CO2021 – Introduction to the Match, 12.11.19 – PowerPoint
• CO2021 – Introduction to Senior Scheduling, 12.11.19 – PowerPoint
• CO2021 – Introduction to the Match and Senior Scheduling, 12.11.19 - Video
• CO2020 – Preparing your Rank Order List (ROL) and Graduation Requirements Presentation – PowerPoint
  
• CO2020 – Preparing your Rank Order List (ROL) and Graduation Requirements Presentation – Video
  

Preparing for Interviews  

• CO2023 - Preparing for Virtual Residency Interviews - Passcode wp2n%A7w
• CO2023 - Preparing for Virtual Residency Interviews - PowerPoint
• CO2021 – Preparing for Virtual Residency Interviews –Video
• CO2021 – Preparing for Virtual Residency Interviews – PowerPoint
• CO2020 – Making the Most of your Interview Day, 10.2.2019 – Video
  
• CO2020 – Making the Most of your Interview Day, 10.2.2019 – Zoom Meeting
  
• CO2020 – Making the Most of your Interview Day, 10.2.2019 – PowerPoint
  
• Preparing for Residency – Making the Most of Your Residency Interview –Video
• Preparing for Residency – Making the Most of Your Residency Interview – FAQs
• Preparing for Residency – Making the Most of Your Residency Interview – PDF
  
• Preparing for Residency – Making the Most of Your Residency Interview – Learning Module

Residency Program Director Meetings 

• 2023 – Residency Program Directors Meeting - Neurosurgery – Video
• 2023 – Residency Program Directors Meeting - Pathology – Video
• 2023 – Residency Program Directors Meeting - Urology – Video
• 2023 – Residency Program Directors Meeting - Family Medicine – Video
• 2023 - Residency Program Directors Meeting - Emergency Medicine - Video
• 2023 – Residency Program Directors Meeting - Interventional Radiology – Video
• 2023 – Residency Program Directors Meeting - Neurology – Video
• 2023 – Residency Program Directors Meeting - Otolaryngology – Video
• 2023 - Residency Program Directors Meeting - Ophthalmology - Video
• 2023 – Residency Program Directors Meeting - Orthopaedic Surgery – Video
• 2023 – Residency Program Directors Meeting - Obstetrics and Gynecology – Video
• 2023 – Residency Program Directors Meeting - Radiation Oncology – Video
• 2023 – Residency Program Directors Meeting - General Surgery – Video
• 2023 – Residency Program Directors Meeting - Physical Medicine & Rehab – Video
• 2023 – Residency Program Directors Meeting - Psychiatry – Video
• 2023 - Residency Program Directors Meeting - Cardiothoracic Surgery - Video
• 2023 – Residency Program Directors Meeting - Plastic Surgery – Video
• 2023 – Residency Program Directors Meeting - Anesthesiology – Video
• 2023 – Residency Program Directors Meeting - Diagnostic Radiology – Video
• 2023 – Residency Program Directors Meeting - Dermatology – Video
• 2023 – Residency Program Directors Meeting - Medicine Pediatrics – Video
• 2023 – Residency Program Directors Meeting - Internal Medicine – Video
• 2023 – Residency Program Directors Meeting - Pediatrics – Video