MEDICAL STUDENT COUNCIL CHAIR’S MESSAGE
Emergency Medicine Preference Signaling Mary Unanyan, OMSIII
E
mergency Medicine (EM) will be participating in Preference/Program Signaling (PS) via the ERAS Supplemental Application in the upcoming 2022-2023 residency application cycle. However, EM will participate only in the Program Signaling portion of the supplemental application; applicants will not need to fill out the Past Experiences or Geographical Preferences and these sections will not be visible to EM programs. More detailed information regarding the mechanics of PS can be found in the ERAS Supplemental Application Guide.1 Additionally, there is a PS Applicant/Advisor Supplement Guide posted on the Council of Residency Directors (CORD) in EM website.2 This guide was constructed and reviewed by multiple national EM organizations, program directors, and residency applicants.
may be given to applicants who signaled that program over a similar applicant who did not. There is no mechanism for programs to tell which applicants are not participating versus those who are but did not send them a signal. This was intentionally done to prevent programs from holding a bias against applicants who did not signal them. It is important to note that how a program interprets a “lack of signal” is subject to the discretion of each individual program.
What is Preference/Program Signaling (PS)? PS will allow EM applicants to send up to five “signals” to residency programs that they are most interested in. Signals can be sent beginning on August 1st and can be edited up until you officially submit your selections, with a deadline of September 16th. PS aims to help applicants increase their chances at their most interested programs as well as help programs focus their holistic review on applicants who are genuinely interested in their program.
Do I have to participate in PS? PS is optional for both programs and applicants; however, applicants who opt out may be at a theoretical disadvantage as interviews
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Which programs should I signal? PS is new to the residency application process and, thus, there is not yet robust data on how to best assign signals. Applicants should spend time researching programs and reflecting on their priorities during their initial application. While there will be time to reflect more deeply during the interview and ranking stages, there will not be a post-interview round of PS. Ultimately, the strategy for PS will vary from applicant to applicant. It is strongly recommended that applicants work with their medical school and EM advisors on how to best allocate their
signals. The PS guide on CORD lists a few examples as well as resources an applicant can use to determine how to best use their signals.
How do I start thinking about PS? One suggested strategy is to begin with creating a list of your top residency programs. Remove your home program or program(s) where you rotated. Use online resources (e.g. EMRA Match, Texas Star, AAMC Residency Explorer Tool) and program websites to determine your competitiveness. Consider removing programs where you do not match their demographics of current residents. If you still have more than five programs on your list, consider how competitive each program is versus each other. Signals will likely hold more value at less competitive programs as the more competitive program may receive a significant amount of signals thus decreasing their value. An applicant can choose to signal more competitive programs, but consider not using all five signals on competitive programs to maximize the value of your tokens. More detailed information and frequently asked questions can be found in the ERAS supplemental application instructions as well as in the PS Applicant/Advisor Supplement Guide posted on the CORD website.
References 1. https://students-residents.aamc.org/ media/12326/download?attachment 2. https://www.cordem.org/globalassets/files/emps-applicant_advisor-guide.pdf