My Entire Residency (ERAS) Application | Tips & Tricks

Hey guys, I'm Shawn Anderson and I am a first year resident. I'm currently doing my intern year at a TY program here in Las Vegas, Nevada and next year I will be moving to San Diego to train in anesthesiology at UCSD. I'm actually just finishing my first month of residency. I'm currently on surgery and I'm actually on call right now. So, hopefully I don't get called during this video. If you guys have never seen my Channel before, I make vlogs about my experience in medical school and now residency. For those of you guys who have

seen my channel before, you might remember a few years ago when I first got into medical school, I posted a video of my entire medical school AMCAS application. It looked like that video helped a lot of people get insight to the medical school application process and get ideas for their own applications. So, I figure why not do The same thing with my residency application. I'm going to try to make this as comprehensive as possible and I'll try not to yap too much through the video because I'm really not sure how long this is going to

be. But, whether you're a first, second, or third year medical student or a fourth year medical student who's applying to residency this year, I'm hoping that this video can at least give you some insight into what the residency application looks like and Also give you some ideas for what you can do on your own application. All right, I've got my laptop right here with my application, so let's dive into it. Okay, so I have my application in front of me. As you guys can see, this is actually a PDF, so I applied to residency this

past cycle. I no longer actually have access to ERAS, but when you fill out your application, you do get a PDF of it rendered. So, that's what we're going to go through. It's the Exact same thing as what you would fill in online, but not as fancy looking. I also looked at a couple of notes for myself to make sure I hit points that I really want to talk about. And the first thing is, before we really get into this, I really want to make it clear that this is just my application. I have only

applied to residency one time. I've only matched one time. This is an application that is unique to Me. This worked for me, but it might not have worked the previous cycle. It might not work this cycle. So, the point I'm trying to make is that you shouldn't look at this as an example of what yours should look like. I just want you to look at this to get an idea of what the application looks like, the kind of things you can put on that application, maybe get some inspiration for your application. There might be things

on this that you say, "Hey, that's a really Good idea. Like, I think I might do something similar." Or, you might see things on here and be like, "I would not have done that. I don't know why you put that on your application. I'm definitely not going to do that." Which is totally fine. In fact, that's the point of the video. I just want you guys to see an example, decide for yourself what you think is and isn't a good idea, and that's the whole point. My application definitely could have been better, but It also

could have been a lot worse. There are tens of thousands of applicants every year whose applications look totally different from mine and they matched just fine. So again, do what's best for you, okay? Don't just look at this as what yours should look like. So, just like the medical school application, the first page is going to be all demographic data, general information. So, you see I have my name filled out, where I went to medical School. I have, you know, some things whited out. I know I said full transparency, but I still have to keep

like some details hidden, right? Here I have a note that says custom email for ERAS, which is something I would definitely do. Make a new email for your residency application, something like your name.eras or your name.medicine, whatever it is. Just have this separate email for ERAS and then you can actually Set up your notifications on your phone to have like a different tone whenever you get an email to that email address, so then you know it's something related to residency, whether it's an interview or a program update, you know it's an important email. So yeah,

I kind of just fill this out as you would. It's going to be very specific for you. You go down, it asks about misdemeanors, felony convictions. And then if we keep going, you'll see there are geographic and Setting preferences. So, I did put a map right here. I just copied and pasted this from the AMCAS ERAS guide, which we'll talk about later, but you're just going to put three preferences for geographic um areas in the United States. So, for me, I put West South Central, Mountain, and Pacific. And the states that those cover are up

here, so it's pretty obvious I wanted to try to stay, uh you know, more West Coast if I could. And so, you can Put a justification or comment for each of these to kind of explain why you're putting that geographic preference. So, for West South Central, I talked about having family in Texas. For Mountain, I talked about how I grew up in Las Vegas and this is my hometown, so that's like pretty much the only reason you would need to stay in this region, right? Like, I grew up here. And then for Pacific, I talked

about how I have a Brother in Southern California and how my girlfriend at that time, her family lived in Northern California, so just showing you guys an example of how you can also, you know, talk about if you have a spouse and their family lives in a certain area that you can use that as one of your reasons. And so, setting is things like rural, urban, suburban, and you can actually select no preference, which is what I did because I didn't want programs to think I had a Preference because a lot of programs you may

have to like go to a hospital that's in a rural area even if the main hospital is in the suburban area, for example. So, I just didn't want to look like I had a preference and I kind of just put a honestly pretty vague reason. I kind of just came up with it on the spot about how, "Oh, I've traveled a lot and I've seen many different places and I think I'll thrive at the right institution for me regardless of the Setting." That was my reasoning. You can put whatever you want there. The next section

is medical licensure, so things like ACLS, BLS, if you have other state medical licenses, which I didn't have any. Um you know, you can put those there if you did some sort of advanced training before medical school. If you scroll down, you'll get to medical education, So that'll just be the medical school you went to. So, I went to Kirk Kerkorian at UNLV. And the dates that I attended. And so, this next section is going to be medical school awards, so any awards you received in medical school. I put my discretionary award, which was my

scholarship I got for each year in medical school, and then I put some presentation awards I received because I didn't get any other scholarships for medical school. So, Really the only other awards I got that had anything to do with like any, I don't know, cash prize or something, I just kind of put here. And then the next section is membership in honorary or professional societies, so that's exactly what it sounds like. If you were a member of a professional society or you were AOA or Gold Humanism, which I was not either of those things,

totally fine. Um if you are, you can put those here as Well. So, I just put my memberships in professional societies that I thought were maybe more recognizable, like ACP, AMSA. Um I applied to anesthesiology, right? So, I put my membership with ASA. Um Phi Delta Epsilon is like a international fraternity, medical fraternity, and I was president, which we'll talk about later for my chapter. Um and so, I put that there. And then you Scroll down and you'll add your education. So, I went to undergrad in Las Vegas. So, that's pretty much it for like

the background information. The next section is going to be experiences, but before we do that, um I just kind of want to talk about some other aspects of the application that aren't necessarily on the rendered out PDF. So, things like letters of recommendation, grades, signaling, all that kind of stuff. So, for letters of rec, again, I applied Anesthesiology, so I did two anesthesia letters, one internal medicine letter, and one research letter. Anesthesiology for obvious reasons, right? Like, if you're applying to a specialty, you should have letters for that field. But then, I also chose to

have an internal medicine letter because I knew that I would probably either be doing a medicine-based intern year or attending a prelim or transitional year program, which I am Attending now, a transitional year program. So, those tend to be medicine-heavy, so I thought it'd be a good idea to get a medicine letter. Um and then I chose to have one of my research mentors write me a letter because I did a lot of work with him, um not just on projects, but just peripherally as well. Like, I feel like he really got to know me

and could really speak about my work ethic and everything. So, for me, I felt like Getting a research letter was just a good idea. But, this is overall really dependent on the specialty that you apply to. Um different specialties might have different recommendations for who you should get letters from, so I would look into that. This is just what I did for anesthesiology. So, the grades, a lot of you guys have been asking me like what I got on Step 2 and my clerkship grades and all that kind of stuff. So, let's Finally get into

it. I passed Step 1. I was actually the first cohort that took Step 1 as a pass/fail exam, which I was pretty okay with. I think that the weight just got pushed to Step 2, but for me, where I was at during my first year and a half of medical school, I was pretty okay with doing a pass/fail Step 1. So, I got the pass first try, thank goodness. If you don't pass first try, that first fail will appear on your ERAS though, so it doesn't get erased by Retaking Step 1 and passing it. And

then for Step 2, I got a 245, which in my opinion, is a pretty good score. I was really happy with it. I actually had some difficulties during my third year of medical school where my father had passed away and I had to reschedule rotations. I had to push off my shelf exams. I pushed off Step 2. I'll talk more about it later in the application because it really is relevant to my Application, but I guess I just wanted to show you guys that for me, a 245 was really good because I was really nervous

about how I was going to do on Step 2 given what was going on in my life and none of my practice exams broke over 240, so I was really surprised when I got the Step 2 score I did. For anesthesiology, the average for my application cycle was a 248. So, I was actually three points under the average for anesthesia, which Was I a little bit nervous about? Yeah, of course. If you're under the average for your specialty, you're probably going to be nervous. I did, however, feel comfortable still applying to anesthesiology because for there

to be an average, there have to be people who score above and below the average, right? So, there are definitely enough people that are getting less than a 248 for the average to still be a 248. So, again, that's why I was pretty comfortable still applying with a below-average for my specialty score, which I don't know. In my head, I'm just holding down the average for you guys, all right? Trying to not let it get too inflated. So, this is really dependent on your specialty, guys. Like, depending on what you're applying into is what's going

to determine what Step 2 score you should be aiming for. Obviously, the higher the better. Like, if I had gotten A higher Step 2 score, I might have received more interviews and maybe had other options. However, I matched at my top-choice programs for both my TY and anesthesiology. I can't think of another place I'd rather go for anesthesiology than San Diego. I was really stoked to get my number one. So, it overall doesn't matter. But, I guess if you're just like looking at it logistically, it's like maybe the application cycle would have Gone different if

my score was any different, right? This is definitely one of the important metrics that they look at, so we can't really ignore that. I know a lot of people say, you know, Step 2's just a grade, work on the rest of your application, which I agree with to an extent, but unfortunately, it's still used as a metric, right? To weed out applicants, and you just have to keep that in mind. So, Do well on Step 2 as best as you can, and then whatever you get, rock with it, focus on the rest of your application

after, but still prioritize doing well on Step 2. For my clerkships, I honored three and I high-passed three. Pretty sure I honored family medicine, surgery, and internal medicine. And then I think I high-passed pediatrics, OB/GYN, and psychiatry. I'm pretty sure. Another thing you get on your application is an MSPE, which is Kind of like a summary of your clerkship grades, Step 1, Step 2, feedback from your rotations, all that kind of stuff. Your school puts that together and uploads it on your behalf, so I don't have a copy of that, but that's kind of what's

included in there. And then just a real quick note about signaling and away rotations. So, that is stuff you do like when you submit your application. Like, you choose what programs you're Going to signal. They're changing that like every year. So, for anesthesiology, we had 15 signals. It was two-tiered. We had five gold and 10 silver, which the way I feel is if you are applying in a specialty that has that many signals, then most programs are going to fill their interview spots with applicants that signaled them, right? Like, that makes sense. And so, I

basically applied to like 65 programs. I signaled 15 of them, and I received five transitional Year interviews and seven anesthesiology interviews, and they were all within my signals. So, do with that what you will. Basically, what I'm saying is that if you're applying to a bunch of programs outside of your signals and you're in a specialty with a high number of signals, then you might not get interviews for the ones you did not signal. But, if you're in a specialty that maybe only has like five signals max, then chances are Programs won't fill up their

interviews with signals, like signal applicants or signaling applicants. And so, chances are you'll also receive interviews for programs outside of your signals. I hope that makes sense. They're changing every year, so I don't want to say anything like definitive about the signaling process. Um I know it can be confusing, but basically, it's just super liking Programs to show them that you're really interested in them. But, what it really is is a way for programs to filter out applicants by their signal status, which I think kind of sucks for the applicants, if anything, but maybe it'll

end up decreasing how many programs people apply to and saving people money in the long term. Not really too sure how it'll play out. And then away rotations is something I get asked about all the time. Personally, I actually did no away rotations. Part of the reason was I was pretty burnt out after third year, and my family and I were planning things to celebrate my dad's life since he passed away during third year, but it was kind of hard to do something for him during that time. So, that was kind of my priority during

that summer after I took Step 2, and I just didn't want to go on away rotations. For me, I thought I wanted to stay home for residency. Um my Home program was actually my number one choice for most of my application cycle, and so to me, it didn't make sense to do away rotations at other places that I wasn't for sure I wanted to go to. I'm actually really fortunate that I matched at UC San Diego without doing an away rotation there. Um I do think that was a little bit lucky, but my advice in

general for away rotations is if you don't have a home Program, you should probably do away somewhere. If you really want to go to a program, you should do an away there. If you have a home program, you should do a sub-I there. I did a sub-I at my home program, and you should do that first, and then go on your away rotations because if you're doing an away rotation, you really want to impress them. So, having a previous sub-I under your belt, I think is really important. The amount you do is totally up to

you. If you're in a really competitive specialty like opto, ortho, derm, you should probably do a lot. I think that it just happened to work out for me. It might not have worked out for me a different year. I might have regretted not doing away rotations if I didn't match at my number one choice, right? Like, we can't know that for sure, but I it worked out for me, so take that for what you will. Okay, I think that's everything about that. So, Let's move into the experiences now. A couple of notes on the experiences.

So, anything here is fair game for your interviews. Anything you write, anything you list can be asked. So, don't put things on here that you're not sure about, don't know a lot about, or just think is going to look good on your application, but you can't answer questions about because I promise you, I got asked about every single thing on my experiences section At some point during my interview trail. Some things I got asked about at every single interview, so don't put things here that you don't know about, right? That you or that you didn't

do. Like, that's just a crazy thing to do. So, just don't do it. Secondly, make sure that you don't undersell yourself. So, this is like the selling point of your application. Like, the grades are cool. Everything else is used to filter you Out, but you still want to come off as impressive, right? You don't want to be like showboaty. Like, don't be bragging throughout the application, but don't be so humble that you don't seem interesting or you don't seem accomplished. Like, this is the place to put it all out on the table. Number three, don't

listen to what other people are saying about what you should and shouldn't put on your application in this section. I know you're watching This video. I've already said, don't take anything I'm saying as what you need to do, right? Like, everyone's application is different. The things that they prioritize putting in the experiences section of their application is different. Things I put on here were things that were important to me in the way that I wanted to be viewed and the characteristics that I wanted to show on my application. What I put on here might have

been Different if I applied this year or the year prior, right? Like, it could have changed, and I'll tell you guys while we go through this, things that I would have done differently now that I'm rereading it, but do what you think is best for you. Put the things on here that you want to put on here, things that you're proud of. Again, there's tens of thousands of applicants every single year who successfully matched into residency with completely different Experiences. So, nothing is, you know, gold standard for this section. It's a lot of talking. It's

already a pretty long video. I I need a refill on the caffeine. All right. Let's get into it. So, before we talk about my actual experiences, let's talk about the different sections that you have to fill out per experience. So, the first thing is going to be your role, Um which will kind of show right here. So, this is anything. It's a free text box. So, for this first experience, I put creator and co-owner um because that's what I was for this experience. And then you'll put the organization. Again, it's a free text box. You'll

put the location. And then the setting again is urban, suburban, rural, or you have the option to leave it blank. It's not a hard stop. So, for this first experience, it was like an online course That I made, so there wasn't like a setting, right, for it. So, I just left it blank. And then the dates and participation frequency is pretty self-explanatory. But, for primary focus, experience type, and key characteristic, these are things that you actually select from a list. So, if we kind of scroll past really quick and we look right here, I put

the list of various experience types, primary focus areas, and key characteristics that you Have to choose from on your application. So, experience type, for example, you can call it work, research, volunteer work, hobbies, teaching, mentoring. For primary focus areas, things like basic science, translational science, community involvement, medical education, public health, technology. Key characteristics are characteristics that you displayed within that activity. So, things like communication, critical Thinking, cultural humility, empathy, reliability, self-reflection, that kind of stuff. The hard thing about this is that you can only choose one per experience, and a lot of times, like, your

experience will cover more of these characteristics. So, I found that kind of annoying. Kind of wish they would change that or just let you pick multiple. And there are a couple trains of thought about how you should go about selecting these things. So, there are Some people who say that you should try to get as many of these kind of checked off as possible on your application, which I can see that thought process for sure. Like it would show that you're you know, versatile and that you have a broad range of experiences. There's also a

train of thought that if you really value a type of work or you really value certain key characteristics that you feel really define you, that you would kind of more lean into those on your Application. I don't think there's a right answer. I think both trains of thought are totally fine and again people successfully matched just fine with both kind of methods. For my application I did like a hybrid of those thought processes. So, do what you will with that information. So, going back up, you can see I filled in each section for this first

experience, which is the Med School Insiders Ultimate Research Course that I co-created. This was Something I worked on throughout medical school. It was inspired by a peer mentorship program I started at my school for research that worked really well and we were able to help a lot of underclassmen medical students get involved in research and be successful in research and then we kind of just had the idea to take it basically globally and create an online curriculum in partnership with Med School Insiders because they obviously had the platform To be able to host a course

like this. And so, for me this was a really big experience. I worked really hard on it. I was really proud of it and um I wanted it on my application. So, I selected the primary focus as medical education. The experience type I actually ended up deciding to put work. I might have put something different, maybe maybe education or training or teaching or mentoring. I think I could have put those there as Well, but I guess I selected work when I did my application. And then for key characteristic I put ingenuity and innovation because um

I think it was innovative to create an online research curriculum for students who don't have a lot of guidance on conducting research. And so, that's just what I chose for that key characteristic. And then just like your medical school application, you'll have a free text box to talk about that experience and then you can Mark three experiences as most meaningful. So, this is one of the ones that I marked. And so, the way that I went about filling out the description was I had one paragraph that kind of explained the background of that experience and

then I talked about my own personal experience and like my roles in that experience in the next paragraph. And then I just would have a third bullet point that was like extra information, maybe some sort of Accomplishments within that experience. And then for most meaningful you just put why it was your most meaningful. Another way that I've seen people do this is do a what why how approach where the first paragraph they talk about what it is, which is pretty much what I did. And then the second paragraph is why you engaged in it or

why you know, it was such a good experience for you. And then the third one is like how you showed that key characteristic that you chose With this experience. Whatever approach you want to take, totally fine. This is just kind of how I did it and looking back I might have done the what why how instead. It probably would have had me a little bit more organized. So, for this example I say that I'm the creator of this research course on this very large platform that helps pre-med and medical students. And then the second paragraph

I talk about how you know, we basically created the whole course, the outlines, Scripted, filmed, edited, how we created all these resources, basically my role in that course. And then some additional kind of information. I talk about how I manage the Discord group and hold weekly office hours. And for most meaningful, I kind of talk about what I already told you guys where we started this program at my school and I was really proud of it and I wanted to kind of take it to a global level and help students across the country. So, that's

why I put it as My most meaningful. And I'm just going to do like a shameless plug here because this course is fully launched now since I did my application. We have 12 sections, like 90 modules with like 20 different resources including like CVs, um abstracts, example letters to the editor. We have schedules, we have project planners, like a lot of resources. Myself, DePaul and Kevin worked really hard on this for the last 2 years and we think it's really Comprehensive. We're really proud of the product. It has a really awesome community in the Discord

so you can work with other people who are getting involved in research. And if you have no background in research or you have some background, it's still helpful for you because we go through so many different aspects of research including playing the game that pre-med and medical students kind of have to play because unfortunately research is emphasized by Programs and until that changes, we all kind of got to learn how to play the research game and you know, get research on our applications. The link for the course is in the description below. Again, shameless plug.

This is a product I created. I'm proud of it. I think you guys will like it. So, go check it out. There's a discount code in the description. Anyway, that's it for my self advertising. The next experience is Exactly what you guys are watching right now, my YouTube channel. YouTube is one of the greatest things I ever started. I am really proud of what we've done with this YouTube channel and it kind of defines me a lot. Like my experience as a medical student was totally different because of this YouTube channel, right? So, I really

wanted it on my application. It was really important to me. So, I just called the organization my name. That's the name of the YouTube Channel. You know, the dates that I started. You know, I participate in YouTube every day. I'm doing something YouTube related. For the primary focus I chose technology. I think I think maybe I would have done something like promoting wellness instead or community involvement, maybe outreach. I I don't know. I I don't know that I Would have done technology again. I don't actually really know why I put that. I mean again, it's

kind of technology cuz it's the internet, but I don't know that that was the best uh primary focus. For experience type, teaching mentoring definitely makes sense and key characteristic, self-reflection improvement. The YouTube channel did start as my means of self-reflection and it still does. You know, it's basically A video diary for me. So, that's what it is. And so, I just talked about you know, what it is, how I started it and then kind of what I do with the YouTube channel. So, you know, vlogging my medical school journey and all that stuff. Now, it's

residency journey. Um and then something I did here was I put the link to the channel at the bottom of the text box, which high-key I think was a fire move because I don't think people typically put links And I had several interviewers tell me that they thought it was really cool that I put the link to my YouTube channel in the application because a few of them actually watched my videos before the interview. So, if you have some sort of online thing that you can actually link your interviewers to, I think you totally should.

I I think this was a good idea. People watched my videos before they interviewed me and a lot of my Interviewers really liked the YouTube channel. So, that's I don't know. That's something I did and I guess it worked. So, do with that what you will. And then again, most meaningful I put why it's my most meaningful. The next activity I chose was also not really school related. It was martial arts tricking and acrobatics. A lot of you guys who follow me on Instagram know that I come from an acrobatics background. I did it Professionally

early on in college. I used to be in shows performing tumbling and I still train every single week, you know, even now. So, it's just a really big part of my life. I don't think I would actually really be in medicine if I hadn't done these sports growing up and so, I wanted it reflected on my application and it's even in my personal statement, which we'll do my personal statement in a little bit, but it was just really important and I think your Hobbies are the things that are going to set you aside from other

applicants. So, I would put something interesting there. Like, you know, if you guys do something that is unique to you or that really defines you or you feel like really explains why you're here today, you should do it. So, I just talked about my background, how I started when I was 13, how in college I, you know, performed professionally and then kind of why it's such an important aspect of my life. Actually during medical school I helped host the first ever Circus Meets Medicine Conference here in Las Vegas. One of my emergency medicine buddies who

also does acrobatics, uh he put it on and um it was a cool way to tie acrobatics with medicine. So, that was a cool thing I was able to milk on my application a little bit. And then I ended up choosing this as most meaningful. I don't think I regret that. I think That was the right thing to do, especially because I talk about it in my um personal statement as well. So, there is some redundancy that you'll see with the personal statement. Some people advise you not to put anything on your personal statement that

is here on the extracurriculars. I thought for me it was so self-defining and important that I was willing to basically double down on it. That's just how I felt. So, do what you Want to do. Do the things you want to do on your application. Don't let people tell you what you should or shouldn't do. Maybe some people saw it and thought it was redundant. I don't know. No one told me it was, but anyway, that's just what I did. For my next experience is this East Las Vegas Community Integration Initiative we did. So, we

did this in medical school, basically Going into various communities um in my city and looking at the different health care resources, um non-health care resources like food and all that kind of stuff. The setting I marked as urban because here in Las Vegas it was an urban environment and you know, this was community involvement, outreach, volunteer work. You should probably have some sort of volunteer work on your application. Um most applicants will. And so, the key Characteristic I chose was cultural humility because we were going into various areas of the city that maybe have different

cultures from the surrounding areas. So, I thought that was a good characteristic to choose. And again, I just defined what we did, what we accomplished, you know, we integrated a tutoring service in the community center. And then we actually filmed a documentary of our time there. And we did a presentation to our school and Faculty with it because we could have either done a PowerPoint, but obviously I have a video editing background, so it was kind of easier to make a video. But this was like another example where I just put the link right here.

And if my interviewers saw it, they wanted to watch it, they could, right? Like that My videos would tell more than they can get from this application, in my opinion. So, that was just another Place that I did that. The next thing is the peer mentorship research collective. So, this one I was talking about earlier that my friend De Paul and I started during our second year of medical school. And it was this really cool collective for medical education. Basically, our idea was that we had such little guidance during our first year of medical school

that we wanted to provide guidance to new incoming first-year students. And we also had a lot of Project ideas that we had come up with that we just didn't have the time to do ourselves as well. So, it was kind of a win-win where we could get multiple projects running at once, but we could also, you know, give first-year medical students the opportunities to get first and second author positions on projects, especially when they had no like no background in research, which is really daunting for a lot of students, right? So, it was this It

was really awesome. It was a really awesome collective. Um it's actually still running today. I've since graduated, but there are still students at my medical school that are running the collective. Same thing every year, they bring new first-year medical students in. And now there's first-year, second-year, third-year, fourth-year medical students involved. And it's so cool to have started something that is now self-sufficient and is being passed Down to other years. Like I'm still seeing messages in some of the Slack channels of what they're doing. And it just makes me very happy that we were able to

start something that is still going. So, again, this was a really important thing for me to put on my application. We were actually invited to the International Association of Medical Science Educators annual conference to give a 90-minute talk about our peer mentorship model and how we started it And then the way that the model works. And so, this was a really big thing for me, right? Uh I wanted this on my application. I think it showed leadership. The experience type was research, you know, otherwise you could put like a research lab position if you wanted

to somewhere here. Um for me, I felt like this was a bigger deal. This was kind of a research lab position, but Kind of also a self-created thing as well. The only other thing that maybe going back that I would do differently is I think I could have potentially combined the Med School Insiders research course experience with this experience into like one peer mentorship thing where I talked about the peer mentorship collective that we made and then how we converted it into an online curriculum, you know, So that we could share it not just within

our school, but everywhere. I think I could have done that and then maybe saved an experience slot for something else because it is kind of redundant, right? Those are kind of two experiences that are that are similar, but on different scales. So, in hindsight, I might have done that, but I got asked a lot about this and the course on my application um or On my interviews. So, it all ultimately doesn't matter, but if I had another experience I wanted to put on here, then maybe that would have been a way I could have done

it. My next experience was as a health policy advocate. This was like the best title I could come up with. I was basically working with a physician and another student on different policy ideas for the state of Nevada. So, one of our ideas was creating a decentralized transplant center. So, Basically like a transplant team that would travel to different cities in Nevada to do transplants. And then the other one was we wanted to create a medical Spanish app that would be free to all health care students in the state of Nevada, you know, funded by

the state of Nevada. So, these were really cool. I got to learn a lot about, you know, how proposals are created. Like we had to help make the proposals for these. Um and we had meetings with senators, you Know, and doing presentations to talk about why these things are necessary and why we think that they're good ideas. Basically, telling them, "Hey, I think you guys should give, you know, give money to fund these ideas, right?" And so, this came up during my interviews a lot. Um but one of the questions I got that I didn't

really anticipate was like, "Where are those projects now?" So, my role as a student was basically to help With the ideas, help write the proposals, and then be like a student representative advocate, you know, at meetings with senators, right, to present it like I already said. So, once it kind of got past those phases and it was more about like the money, my role was kind of done, right? So, I didn't necessarily know how to answer those questions very well on my interviews. So, that kind of goes back to what I was saying earlier where

you Should be careful about what you put on here and kind of try to anticipate some of the questions you'll get asked. I just wasn't really ready for those questions. I answered them just fine. I answered them exactly how I just told you guys, but um again, good example of have answers in your back pocket for some of this stuff. My next experience was when I was the president of my school's chapter of Phi Delta Epsilon. So, when you're in medical school and Probably when you were pre-med as well, you are going to be in

various leadership roles for many different clubs. Um you're going to be the president of some, vice president of some, director of whatever for other ones. You're going to take a bunch of leadership roles. So, you can put those on your application as well. So, for me, um I was the president of Phi Delta Epsilon. It's a big international medical fraternity, so I thought it was Important to put on here because, you know, what if one of my interviewers was a member of Phi Delta Epsilon, right? Like that would have been a really good thing to

connect with on my interview trail. So, this was a good thing to put on here. And obviously, I put teamwork and leadership, professional organization. Um I did community involvement and outreach just because we did like some community service stuff, but I might have been able to pick a Better primary focus. Probably, but anyway, yeah, I just kind of talked about what it is, what Phi Delta Epsilon is. Uh I talked about my role as the president and then why it was so important to me. My next one was when I was the vice president of

the medical student ambassadors. So, I kind of mixed a couple things into this one. I talked about my role as a medical student ambassador at my program. So, I'd help With things like the interviews for the incoming cohorts and I'd go to PR events. Like we had the president in town for um a talk, so they wanted medical students in white coats there, right? Like it looks good on the press. So, I would attend stuff like that. But also through my school and my YouTube channel, I did a lot of public speaking throughout my four

years of medical school. And I like public speaking. I actually don't mind it. I just love to Share my experiences as evident from this video, right? I'm very transparent about things. So, I did a lot of talks. And for me, I was able to kind of just like put that in here as well. So, like I kind of double-dipped this experience because I wanted, you know, programs to see that I'm someone who would be willing to, you know, speak on the program's behalf or show up to meetings and, you know, talk about things. Like I'm

not shy about that stuff. So, I Thought that was an important characteristic to show on my application. So, my next experience was when I was the director of outreach and recruitment for my school's chapter of AMSA. I put pretty much the same things here like professional organizations, social justice, advocacy. I'm not too sure why I put that. I guess AMSA does a lot of advocacy, so I I guess that was fine. And then my key characteristic was communication because my role was the Director of outreach and recruitment, which is a lot of communication. Um and

then, you know, just the description here. In hindsight though, now that I'm like reading through this, that was like three professional organizations in a row on my application. I think I just put AMSA because AMSA is like a recognizable association. Like it looks good, but I don't think I necessarily need like president, vice President, and director of outreach and recruitment to take up like three slots. I think I probably was fine with the first two that I put on here. I probably didn't need this one. I could have like cleared this experience slot up for

something Honestly, more interesting. Like everyone who's applying to medical school or residency has like leadership in some things. So, I I might not have put this on here uh Looking back. But it's fine. What I have seen some people do is if you had a lot of leadership, you can have like one experience slot for just like organizations in general and then in the description like list out your, you know, positions in the various organizations. I obviously need to do that, but I think I've had uh conversations with other people who did. And moving on,

we have interests and Hobbies. So, this is the last experience I have on here. So, there I think used to be a hobby section on ERAS. It's no longer a thing. Or maybe when you guys are watching this, it'll be brought back. But basically, there's no like hobby section. So, I think that it was a really good idea to set aside a experience for just hobbies. So, things that are interesting about you because at the end of the day, like everyone's going to do research, everyone's going To do volunteer work, everyone's going to do community

service, everyone is going to do like advocacy work. Like all of that's pretty much the same for every applicant. But I think what sets you apart is the hobbies and interests that you have. So, people define you by that, right? Like that's like unique stuff about you that no one else can really replicate, right? So, I think it's important have a section. And I kind of like listed a few other things. Like I Had the acrobatics earlier, so I didn't put that here. Um so, I guess technically I had two like hobby sections. Which some

people might think that two out of 10 is too much for hobbies, but again, I wanted this to reflect me and who I am. And I think my hobbies are a big part of who I am. So, it was important to me. So, you can label this as hobbies, you know, music, athletics, art. Key characteristic, I think Self-reflection and improvement is appropriate for a hobby section cuz that's kind of what we do hobbies for, right? Like self-reflection and improvement. And so, I just listed four things that I feel like I participate in like a decent

amount. And here's the thing with the hobbies. You can either have really interesting and unique hobbies that no one else has. Or if you have really common hobbies like I'm sorry, But like running, hiking, cooking, stuff like that, like a lot of people are going to have. If you're going to do that, you need to talk about like things you've accomplished within those hobbies or things you are planning on accomplishing. So, I'll I'll show you some examples. So, for hiking and running, like a lot of people are going to have that. So, I just talked

about how my dogs and I go a lot and how I Have a couple favorite hikes. But then I mentioned I will complete a 15-km Tough Mudder in August 2023, right? So, that's like an interesting thing about it. Like that's my next goal in running. So, then on my interviews, someone actually did ask about the Tough Mudder, right? Like cuz it was after that was done. So, put something interesting that you're planning on accomplishing or have accomplished within that. For video games, I put that I play competitive Pokémon. I did get asked about that. And

then I put that I'm a diamond-ranked Overwatch player, which I had two separate interviewers at two different programs that played Overwatch and we talked about Overwatch. In fact, one of my interviewers at UCSD where I matched, my number one pick, he plays Overwatch and we talked about Overwatch for like 5 minutes. It was awesome. And I was so stoked and I felt So good about that interview. So, like don't underestimate this stuff. Like this stuff's important. Like put that on here. Then I kind of threw on some snowboarding. I put soccer in here cuz I

was the soccer captain for two of the indoor teams during medical school. And that's it. That is my experiences section. Again, I wanted my experiences to reflect my personality and I think it did. Obviously, there are a couple things I would have done maybe Differently now looking back at the application, but I was overall pretty proud of this application. I think it really reflected me and who I am as a person. And then you guys who watch my videos maybe agree with that, maybe don't agree with it. I don't know. But it worked. The one

time I applied to residency, the one time I matched, it worked. Now, there is a section on ERAS called impactful experience. And this is A space for you to talk about anything that you feel um was particularly difficult about your journey, whether it's to medicine or with good medical school. Um completely up to you. You don't even have to fill this out. This is not a hard stop. Uh for me, I chose to disclose, you know, what happened with my dad passing away during my third year because it was you know, halfway towards the end

of my Third year, you know, I had to push off shelf exams, I had to put off Step 2. Um I feel like it explained why maybe I was like under the average for Step 2, right? Like I didn't study for Step 2 for months. Um so, it was kind of important. And then it's also in my personal statement, so I kind of more so talked about it here. Um basically, if you guys had something that you think is important that you really want the programs to know about Or experiences that really define you, put

it here. Like you shouldn't think maybe I shouldn't like if you have any idea that you feel like you should, I I would just do it. Don't let someone else tell you that your impactful experience isn't full enough, right? But you also don't have to put anything here. This is completely optional. All right, let's get into the research. So, I have a couple sticky notes here that we're going to go through and then we'll look At the research. So, number one, the research on my application is overkill. You don't need as much as what you

guys are going to see. A lot of the reason I was able to get a lot of research done with because, you know, I gamified the process. A lot of what we talked about in our research course is how to play the game of research. And I, you know, got a lot of projects off of various uh data collections that we did. And then I also created a peer mentorship group That was pretty prolific and, you know, we were able to pump out a lot of research. So, this is definitely not necessary. It's not. You

only need a couple publications, some posters, some oral presentations. It also depends on your specialty. You know, some specialties are more research-focused than others. Anesthesiology is ironically not very research-oriented. I don't even think my research helped me that much with my application. Um but other specialties like ortho, derm, um maybe ophtho, like those are more research-heavy, right? So, determine your research goals based off of what you're applying into. And also, if you even like doing research or not. I actually don't really like doing research. It's kind of ironic. Um a lot of the reasons I

made a course and created a peer mentorship group was because I didn't like research and wanted students to just have a better Experience um doing research even though they don't necessarily want to. So, my interviews, for the most part, I was mostly just asked to describe what kind of research I did. I wasn't really asked that many specific questions about any particular research project. I think that if you only have like a handful of research items on your application, you like might be asked more specific questions about like this one item. But for me, I

think there was enough on my Application that they just didn't feel like looking at it and they just wanted a summary. So, they'd be like, "Oh, tell me about your research." And I would just say something like, "Well, I was really involved in medical education research and it stemmed from um being one of the cohorts affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. So, I wanted to look at how my class was affected by it compared to other cohorts that were not affected by the pandemic. And that kind Of snowballed into wanting to look at what other things

impact medical student education and experience like mental health, where they went to college, socioeconomic status, what resources they used. And I dabbled a little bit in neurology and emergency medicine research as well." And that's pretty much what I would say and that'd be like the end of it. I'll show you guys in a second, but I basically had a balance of quantity and quality because Again, like yeah, we should try to produce good quality research. Like there are some projects I'm really proud of and uh were passion projects of mine. But there were also projects

I did that were really for the quantity and because they were easy and we could just get them published really quick. Like it's it's a game, right? Like until programs stop prioritizing research as much as they do, which I don't think it should be such a priority, We kind of got to play their game, right? So, you'll see a balance here. Oh, and one more note, because I had a decent amount of research on my application, I opted to not talk a lot about my research positions in my experiences section. But if you were part

of a lab that maybe wasn't so prolific and you don't have a lot of um you know, publications, posters, oral presentations, then you might want to talk more about your research experience In the experiences section so that you can still show programs that you still gained valuable knowledge as a researcher and still got a good experience out of it even if you weren't so prolific. Again, for mine, I felt like the publications section like really spoke for itself. So, I kind of opted to talk about other things in my experiences section. So, when you fill

this out, you're going to basically select the type of research it is. So, Is it a peer-reviewed journal abstract? Is it a book chapter, poster presentation, oral presentation? Most of us are pretty much just going to be doing peer-reviewed journal abstracts, poster presentations, and oral presentations. So, as you guys can see, I have a few of them. I only have like three first authors. In fact, this one of these is actually just an abstract. So, right? Again, like quality versus quantity. I have like three of these are Just straight-up abstracts that I didn't even know

were going to be abstracts. They just published the abstracts from the conferences that I went to. Um I have some ones that I'm really excited about like this one that we published that looked at how uh COVID impacted medical student education. It's been cited like 40 times and I'm really proud of this one. But then there's like other ones that like for example, we did like a YouTube study, like just a survey Study that was like pretty low impact. It was really kind of like work. It was really fun to do. It's actually one of

my favorite projects. But it's overall kind of like a lower quality project. So, we published it in Cureus, which is like a low quality journal, right? Like we just wanted to get it published before we applied to ERAS. So, again, you kind of got to weigh things out. You'll see I wasn't first author on everything, but that's again because I Worked on a lot of various teams of students doing various projects and we got a lot done. Because I worked on various teams, I was able to get a lot more out of it. But again,

the quality and quantity varies, you know. Whatever is important to you, that's what you should do. Uh for me, I just wanted to get items on the CV. So, when you put your peer-reviewed journal articles and abstracts in here, you can also put them As other than published. So, this is a big thing. If you have any ongoing research projects before you apply to residency, finish them and get them submitted to a journal. They don't need to be published by the time you submit your ERAS, but as long as you have submitted them, you can

put them on your application and you can mark them as accepted or in press. You can mark them as a preprint, um basically saying, "Oh, yeah, it's Been accepted for publication. It's just not published yet." Or it's been submitted for publication or consideration in a journal. But there's not a section that is for manuscripts you're working on that you're still drafting and haven't submitted anywhere, right? So, finish all your projects as you get closer to ERAS. And then there's poster presentations. Again, I have a lot. We really try to take our projects to as many

conferences as we could and We had various data sources and various kind of scopes we were able to present on. So, I did a lot of presentations. For the most part, I tried to have things submitted at, you know, local conferences, regional conferences, state conferences, national conferences, and international conferences for pretty much every project that I could. And I was involved in a lot of projects at once, so we would have multiple projects go to the same conference. There was Like some conferences where I had like five things being presented. And so there are some

people that say that you shouldn't put anything on your application if you didn't like present it yourself. In my opinion, you can only have one presenter at a conference no matter what. But it's like if it's your project and you worked on the research, just because someone else in your research team was presenting it doesn't mean it's not also your Accomplishment that that project was accepted for that conference. I think that it should still go on there. So I put all of them on here, right? Like even if I didn't present them. Like if I

did present them, you'll see my name first. Um that's just how I did it. Like I just think it's really lame to say that oh you shouldn't present it so many times or put all those on your application. Like no, like this is why we do research, right? To tell people about it. Like it's such a waste to write a paper, present that project at like two conferences maybe, and then publish it just to get like 200 reads. Like no one's going to hear about your research, honestly. And the people that are reading it are

likely just reading it because they're trying to get references for their own research. It's not like the general public. So I think You should present research as much as you can and wherever you can. And even if another member of your team presented it, I think it still deserves to be on your application because that's your guys's accomplishment. But whatever train of thought you guys choose, I don't care. Like this is just how I felt. So yeah, we had a lot of projects go to conferences. Some of these didn't even get like published um just

cuz we were dragging our feet, but Lot of stuff going and then oral presentations, same thing. We had a lot of things going to various conferences. And that's pretty much it for research. Oh, one thing I really wanted to know about research was that I did not do any anesthesiology research, right? Even though I matched into anesthesiology, you probably do want to get some research done in the specialty that you are going to go into. I didn't choose Anesthesia until my fourth year medical school, like a couple months before I applied to residency. So I

didn't really have time to do any anesthesia research, but if you're applying like ortho, derm, ophtho, um for example, you should try to do research on, you know, those specialties. I think I was a little bit lucky that I didn't have any anesthesia research, but I think anesthesiology in general is not a research-heavy specialty, so I think that was just Overall okay for my position. But I do encourage you guys to uh do research more specific in um your desired field. But I think medical education was still a really good one for me anyway because

as a resident and an attending, you're going to be going into education kind of no matter what, right? Cuz you're going to be teaching medical students. If you're an attending, you're going to be teaching residents. So I think medical education Is just a really good field and I think it makes you a better educator. Then there's a section on language fluency talking about like what you're fluent in. I'm only fluent in English, so that's all I put. And then your hometowns, I just put where I was born and then Las Vegas where I've been, you

know, living most of my life. And then there was like other awards and accomplishments. I didn't really understand how this differed from the Other section on awards, so I just put some previous scholarships I got like during undergrad and even my Millennium Scholarship. I don't know. I probably maybe didn't need to put definitely the Millennium Scholarship, maybe not the undergrad funding, but I don't know. I I just put it on there. And then the application basically just ends off with certification that uh everything on here is true to the best of your knowledge, right? So

that's Pretty much it. I have some FAQs from questions you guys asked, but let's actually look at the personal statement first and then we'll come back to this and go through some of these frequently asked questions. Okay, so I've got my personal statement open here. Another disclaimer, guys. This is just my personal statement, right? Just like my application is just my application and what I chose to put on there is unique to me and based off what I felt like was Important at the time. This personal statement is unique to me. You guys might read

it and say this is a bad personal statement. You guys might read it and say this is a really good personal statement. Doesn't matter. The whole point is so that you guys have an example of a personal statement that someone has used for residency. You can decide for yourself if you like it or not. I don't really care. I just want you guys to Have a reference. If I had written it this year, I might have done it differently, right? Like I might have had a different approach. It doesn't really matter. Also, chances are if

you went to medical school, you're not a writer. I'm not a writer. I found it very difficult to write my personal statement. Um get people to read it, use ChatGPT for inspiration, not to write it, just for inspiration. Um do whatever you got to do. It's just that you need to push through the personal statement. It sucks. No one likes to do it. No one likes to write about themselves. And I'm no different. I hated this part. I hated sitting down and even thinking about writing it. In fact, I like pushed it off for so

long because I just hate writing. Um just do it. Just get it over with. Start it. Just start brainstorming. Whatever you want to do. So I broke my personal Statement down into four sections. So the introduction, the background, so kind of how I kind of first found anesthesia, and then why anesthesia, like how I knew it was a specialty for me. And then I decided that my last paragraph should be a like why me or like what do I bring to this residency program paragraph because, you know, obviously you want to get into their program,

but I think it's also important to show them like what are you going to Bring? Like what traits are you going to bring to their program? Like why would they want to have you there? So that's just the way that I went about it. Again, there's no perfect way. Do it the way that you want to. So I decided that I wanted to kind of make a comparison between acrobatics and anesthesiology for my personal statement. Again, I think acrobatics is just something that's important to me and I think that it's one of the more Interesting

things about me. Maybe you guys don't think it's that interesting. Um I just think that it was a way that I think I could have stood out while writing my personal statement, right? Like they might remember me as like oh that's the guy oh who like does flips and stuff, right? Like I just For me that was the way that I thought about standing out. I know my friend Andy uh from NDMD, he compared anesthesia to photography and Videography. And I read his personal statement and we actually kind of had like a similar kind of

uh framework and I thought his was really good. Like it it was really really really good. So anyway, I said, "As an acrobatic performer, my life has been full of crazy stunts, gravity-defying flips, and all other performances that have constantly pushed the boundaries of my physical capabilities. Amidst the excitement and Pressure to deliver a memorable show, I have discovered a profound appreciation for being in the moment." Honestly, it's kind of cheesy in hindsight. And you do kind of got to be a little artsy with your personal statement cuz you don't want it to be like

boring to read. Um this is a little cringey for me. I'm not going to lie. This is it's a little bit not me, but whatever. "In the spotlight, there's no room for Hesitation or distraction. The instant my feet leave the ground, every motion requires absolute focus and presence. My background as an acrobat has instilled in me lessons that I've carried beyond the stage and into all aspects of my life." Cheesy, I know. But you'll see kind of later how I tie it back into anesthesiology. So again, for that first paragraph, do something that's going to

like stand out, that's unique to you, something that's going to make people Want to read the rest of your personal statement. So the next one is my background. So "During my core clerkship rotations, choosing a medical specialty proved to be a daunting challenge for me. Those of you guys who watched my YouTube videos knew that I was so undecided through all of third year. While my peers seemed to have a sense of direction, I found myself grappling with uncertainty. Then just months before I completed my clerkship rotations, my Father passed away. It was the most

difficult challenge I have faced in my entire life. I was simultaneously preparing for my shelf exams and step two while also trying to identify my career path." Um so again, kind of just justifying a little bit of my path in medical school. Like I maybe didn't have to hammer it home in both the personal statement and the impactful experience, but this was a big deal, right? Like this was a really Like big part of my experience. And probably one of the worst times of my entire life. Probably the worst time of my entire life, right?

So I don't know. I I thought it was important to talk about. Some people like to keep this stuff more private. Up to you. That's just what I decided to do on my personal statement. "Over the prior years, medicine had held the top spot in my priorities, but during that heart-wrenching time, medicine no longer Mattered as much. Grief and loss consumed me. I rescheduled several rotations and postponed exams, which only deepened my sense of confusion about my medical future. Fortunately, with the support of my friends, family, and faculty, I found a way to move forward.

Thankfully, a turning point emerged during my fourth year as I began my first rotation in anesthesia." So again, that's the background. Now we talk about why anesthesia. "When I Entered the hospital for the first time in months, I was warmly welcomed into the anesthesiology department. With undivided attention, I focused on each patient, crafting their anesthetic plan, addressing any comorbidities, and ensuring a smooth transition to the PACU. As I observed the work of my attendings, I noted the calmness and poise in their skills, showcasing the results of their extensive training. In the OR, all that mattered

was the Well-being of that individual. This experience ignited my passion for anesthesiology, revealing its ability to bring profound focus and purpose to my medical journey." Which this was true. I was really like unmotivated for medicine after my dad passed. It was just like really hard like getting through like shelves and step two and then finally having a chance to breathe. Like I was not that passionate about medicine, but like my first anesthesia rotation, which Was my sub-I at my home program, um was probably like the first time that I like felt excited again about medicine

and could like see myself in a certain specialty. Okay, so "Throughout my rotation, I noted similarities between anesthesiology and acrobatics." So we're tying it back to the beginning, right? Full circle moment right now. "The discipline and dedication required to excel in the world of acrobatics required a strong work ethic and the Ability to handle high-pressure situations with composure. With the same meticulousness I applied to rehearsing complex stunts, I recognized the the of attention to detail, precision, and purposefulness required in delivering anesthesia care to patients. My experience of collaborating with fellow performers will aid me in

effectively interacting with patients and other members of the medical team. Perhaps by luck, my journey as an acrobat seems to Have provided me with a unique toolkit that aligns perfectly with the demands and challenges of a rewarding career as an anesthesiologist. Again, kind of cheesy a little bit, artsy and wordy, but that was what I was going for as far as making that comparison between acrobatics and anesthesia, right? Not just saying I really like anesthesia, you know, it's so fun. I like doing procedures and stuff, right? Like everyone who's going Into anesthesia likes doing procedures

and thinks anesthesia is cool. But I found a way to tie it back to what was for me a previous career and still a lifelong hobby of mine. So, my conclusion paragraph. As I envision my residency training, I am eager to embrace not only the journey of becoming an anesthesiologist, but also an educator. Throughout my time in medical school, I have actively cultivated my passion for education through various Avenues. I initiated and continue to manage a thriving social media platform, established a peer mentorship student research collective, and collaboratively designed an online course in partnership with

the world's largest pre-med medical student prep company. Moreover, every year I attend the International Association of Medical Science Educators Annual Conference, an event that enriches my understanding of innovative teaching methodologies. With Each experience, my dedication to education has grown and become an integral part of my medical training. I'm confident that by immersing myself in this program's academic environment, I can further hone my skills as an educator and make valuable contributions to its success by fostering a culture of continuous learning. So, again, very wordy, but the whole point that I'm trying to make here is I'm

trying to show them why I would be valuable as a Resident. And the kind of angle that I took was that as a resident and eventually an attending, like you're going to be an educator. So, I wanted to show them that I think I can really contribute to the um culture of learning and, you know, inclusion at their program, whatever program was reading this, right? To show them that that's something that I value rather than just going there to train to become, you know, an Anesthesiologist. So, I thought that was a good approach. You guys

might not agree. Uh now that I'm reading it, I think I was I'm happy with the fact that I took that approach. Um I mean, it worked, right? I I matched. Uh so, uh yeah, I'm pretty happy with it. So, yeah, that's my personal statement. Another thing I'll comment on is keep your personal statement one page. And when you Paste it into ERAS, look at the like render of it and make sure that fits on one page because a lot of programs um don't want to read long personal statements. And if they have to like

click to another page to read the rest of it, sometimes they just won't. And so, I would just wouldn't turn off a program by having such a lengthy wordy personal statement. Like when I copied and pasted This into ERAS, it fit in the one page section uh of ERAS. So, yeah, definitely try to keep it short and concise. Okay, so that was the personal statement. Real quick though, before we do these questions, I wanted to show you guys the um AAMC's uh MyERAS application updates and program signaling guide for programs. So, this is like a

really good resource to look at. You can just see it on the AAMC's website. And it basically like Tells programs how to like look at and evaluate students. So, this is like where you can like see the actions or, you know, how they're supposed to treat like geographic preferences and program signals and like like most meaningful experiences, like I don't know, I just think this is a good document to look at so you can kind of have an idea of what the programs are being told to Um you know, view your application as, you know

what I mean? Anyway, let's go look at some of these uh frequently asked questions. So, uh number one, how did you start your preparation for residency applications? And I have a couple of bullet points here, so we'll just go through them. Uh you know, keep a detailed all-inclusive CV. So, my CV is like 14 pages long. And it has like everything on it. It has all my Research, all my work, all my leadership positions, all my awards, scholarships, um you know, lab positions I've held, all that stuff. It has literally everything to the point where

it has stuff on it that you might not think needs to be on it. But for me, when it came down to ERAS time, I wanted to be able to just pull up my CV, look at it, and determine what to put on my application rather than Not having like everything on it and then having to like try to remember things or like pull other I don't know, hobbies or leadership positions like, you know, off the dome. Just keep an updated CV. Like every time you present your research somewhere, every time you do anything, every

time you accomplish anything, if there's an article written about you, just keep it in your CV. And then early letters of rec and following up with them, this is The same as med school. Ask for your letters early. Ask for them at the end of third year, beginning of fourth year. Follow up with them weekly, biweekly, monthly, um whatever works. Just make sure you get your letters well before ERAS is due. Like waiting for a letter of rec to submit your application which would suck, and you don't want to be in that position. Uh finish

all research projects and don't start new ones. That's something I Talked about earlier, right? Like as you get close to ERAS, finish anything that you already have cooking. Um you know, put a bow on your projects and get them submitted to journals. That way you can put them on your application. And then this video is a way that you can start preparing early, right? Like now you guys maybe have some ideas, you guys have seen my application, you've seen things you like, maybe things you don't like. You can start thinking about the Qualities you want

displayed on your application. So, I think if you're watching this video and you're not currently applying, like maybe you're a couple years out, like you're already preparing, right? Another question I got was, through your experience, what are the most important criteria that enhanced your acceptance to residency and helped to strengthen your CV? So, for me, I don't think it was my test scores, Right? Like I was below average. I think for me what really made a difference was my CV experiences. I think I had a broad range of experiences um that I thought I think

were interesting. Maybe you guys again don't think they are, but I think that they were. And um all my interviewers seemed to really like them. Like I was asked about everything on my application. But I think my test scores obviously didn't get me like excluded from the programs I Interviewed at. However, I don't know that I wasn't filtered out by programs that, for example, wanted to only interview people that had Step 2 scores that were above the average for anesthesia, right? Like maybe a program set their cutoff for 248, and I didn't get an interview

there because I got a 245. Um I won't know that. Personally, I think that once my application was on their desk, right? Like I Got filtered in for an interview. I think that um my experiences and my interview I think went really well. And that's a good thing too, like if you get a lot of interviews for residency, and med school as well, um and then you don't match or you don't get accepted, but again you had a lot of interviews, then chances are the issue was with your interview. But if you didn't get a

lot of Interviews, then chances are it's an issue with something on your application, like your scores or your experiences. How did you make your list of programs you decide to apply to? So, on ERAS, you can see all the programs that are, you know, taking applications, which is like pretty much all of them almost. You literally just click the boxes and apply to them. So, I just applied broadly because I'm nervous and wanted to. Um but I ended up signaling 15, and I pretty much signaled all 15 programs on the west side of the country

because I wanted to stay west coast. So, I didn't really have a good signaling method besides I gold signaled some of my more top choices, like where I ended up matching and my home program. And then I silver signaled kind of whatever just cuz I had more silver signals, so um I I didn't really have like a good method for how I made my list. I didn't like research every school. I kind of just again applied very broadly. I did look at their um uh interview offer rates and match rates. I think that was important,

and you can see that on the Residency Explorer once you're in the ERAS. And that kind of gave me an idea maybe that like, I don't know, I don't give a Gold signal to a program that only interviews like 6% of their applicants, right? That's something you can also take into consideration. Number four, how did you ultimately decide on what activities and experiences you wanted to join, and did you tailor them towards your specialty of interest at the time? Um not really. Like if you guys look at my experiences, none of them had to do

with anesthesia. Part of that was because I Decided very late on anesthesia. Like I did emergency medicine stuff. I was like the president of the plastic surgery interest group, which was not on my application because it had nothing to do with anything, right? I think I ultimately just decided to do things that were fun for me and that I enjoyed, and that I didn't necessarily think, oh, I should do this just because it would look good on my application. It was things I was already going to do No matter what. Like YouTube I was already

doing. I didn't do YouTube because I thought it would look good on my application. Uh same with like the research course I made, same with um you know, my hobbies, right? Maybe for my leadership roles I did, like I knew that being the president of a medical fraternity would look good on my application. I definitely like thought about that. Um but I would encourage you if you're going to like a specialty, say like OB/GYN, then be leadership in the OB/GYN interest group at your school, right? Um or join a lab for the specialty that you're

interested in. Definitely, I would say try to tailor your application more than mine did. Um that's probably a big regret I have. I think it just wasn't anesthesia focused. I think I got really lucky. Maybe I would have gotten more interviews if it was more anesthesia focused. Um we'll never know. I'm very happy with where I am, so I don't really care. But, I I I would probably encourage every applicant to try to have some stuff on their application that is specialty centric. Number five, do they verify all your publications? They don't verify them necessarily.

Like, you go in and you put the Information in, like the day, the journal, the name. You have to put the DOI or the PubMed ID if it's published, and you have to put like the link, right? So, it'd be hard to do that if you didn't have like a publication there, right? But, like your actual interviewers aren't going to sit there and go through all your research items. They might. They might go through your research items. Mine definitely did not Go through meticulously. That being said, you should still be honest about all your research.

Don't I don't know. Don't put something on there that you didn't publish or anything, right? Be honest. It's It's a hard process, but you will feel better if you get through your residency application process with integrity, right? So, be honest. Don't lie about anything. Hobbies? Yeah, I Talked about hobbies. I think they're important. I think your hobbies are going to be the main thing that set you aside from every other applicant once everything else is considered like test scores, letters, and all that stuff. I think your hobbies are what set you apart and you shouldn't

give up your hobbies to do this at all. So, don't. Then number seven, reapplying. Um I don't have experience with reapplying. Like I said, luckily I matched the first time. I've only done this process one time. But, I I know a lot of people that reapplied and you know, or soaked, and it's a tough process. People do it. People make it through. Um but when you reapply again, you you want to take a look at what do you think went wrong. And if you had a lot of interviews, chances are it was the Interview. If

you didn't have a lot of interviews, chances are it was the application. So, um that's a good place to start when you're thinking about kind of how to approach reapplying. I think I'm done. I think I think that was more than enough talking. I I don't know how long this video is going to be. It's probably going to be like an hour. But, I did want to make it as comprehensive as possible and really Talk you guys through my thought processes while I was filling out this application. I don't think I necessarily missed anything, but

did I will try to think about it. Oh, actually, there's one thing I missed. On your personal statement, you can have multiple personal statements, and when you apply to your programs, you can choose which one Like which personal statement you want to send to that program. So, I do know some people who would personalize the personal statement for a specific program. If it was like really like a high choice for you. I personally didn't. I just wrote one for all my programs. But, that is something you can do. That's it. That's the only thing I

can think of that I forgot to mention. Otherwise, if I did, I'll just Put it in the comments. You guys should ask questions. If you guys have questions or if you guys have tips for it, things you would have done differently, put it in the comments. I would love to know. Not that it matters, right? Like I already matched. Um but, it might be helpful for other people who are matching. And Yeah. I hope this helped. I hope this was helpful. Like I You guys really liked my med school application video. That's honestly one of

the reasons my channel even took off a little bit was because of that video. So, I I really hope that a lot of you guys who came from that video are now at the point where you need this video, right? So, yeah, let me know if this was helpful. Anyway, if you did find this helpful, make sure to leave a like and subscribe To the channel. And yeah, I'll see you guys next time.