Frequently Asked Questions for ERAS® Fellowship Applicants

The ERAS application can include the following supporting documents:

• Personal Statement
• Letter(s) of Recommendation (LoRs)
• USMLE Transcript (optional)
• COMLEX-USA Transcript (optional)
• Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE or “Dean’s Letter”)
• Medical School Transcript
• Photo (optional)
• ECFMG Status Report (International Medical Graduates only)
• ABSITE (Surgery applicants only)

ERAS administrators will not collect or process any applicant documents. Supporting documents are received and processed by your Designated Dean’s Office, the EFDO. All LoRs must be uploaded by the LoR author or their designee via the ERAS Letter of Recommendation Portal (LoRP). Information for ERAS Letter of Recommendation Authors can be found on the website. 

Yes, applicants must assign any newly uploaded documents after a bulk assignment. Applicants must designate the assignment of documents to each program. We encourage applicants to use the Assignments Checklist report to ensure all documents are properly assigned to programs and avoid missing documents. 

Yes, Personal Statements can be edited at any point during the application season – even when assigned to programs that have been applied to.

You may have an unlimited number of LoRs uploaded; however, only a maximum of four (4) LoRs can be assigned to a given program. Four (4) being the maximum the system will allow, not what is required. Applicants should research individual program requirements to determine what is required when applying to a program.

In addition to being able to track the status of you LoRs on the Letter of Recommendation page in the MyERAS portal, you will receive a notification in the MyERAS Message Center for each LoR that is uploaded by your LoR authors. A copy of this notification is also sent to the email address listed for your MyERAS account.

Some programs may request a standardized form/letter in addition to or instead of a narrative letter. These are still considered LoRs and should be handled in the same fashion as stand-alone narrative LoRs. You will still need to enter and confirm the LoR information in the MyERAS system and provide the LoR author with a Letter Request Form. 
 
If the standardized form/letter is requested in addition to the narrative letter, both documents should be uploaded as one single PDF file. Otherwise, the standardized form/letter should be uploaded alone. These instructions are included in the Letter Request Form for the LoR Author. 

No, the Dean’s Letter/MSPE is not considered a LoR and will not deduct from the four (4) LoRs that can be assigned to a program. 

Yes, the NBME charges a fee of $80 for transmitting USMLE transcripts to the programs designated by the applicant. This is a flat fee assessed once per application season regardless of the number of programs the USMLE transcript is requested for. 

Yes, the NBOME charges a fee of $80 for transmitting COMLEX-USA transcripts to the programs designated by the applicant. This is a flat fee assessed once per application season regardless of the number of programs the COMLEX-USA transcript is requested for. 

Once you have released your USMLE and/or COMLEX-USA transcript, assigned it to program(s) and paid the transcript fee, the ERAS system will send your transcript requests for those programs to the NBME or NBOME. 

Exam transcript requests are usually processed on the same day. However, in special circumstances, it can take up to five business days from the date of your request for exam score transcripts to be processed and made available to programs. When new transcript scores are uploaded, the most recent upload date will display in the MyERAS portal. 

Document assignments will be locked upon applying to a program or when assigning a document to a program you previously applied to. Once a document assignment is locked you will not be able to change it. You may only change document assignments prior to applying to a program. This applies to all document types except Personal Statements. Personal Statement  assignments can be changed at any time throughout the season, even after applying to programs.