Tips for Preference Signals and the Supplemental

Written by Kaitlyn Thomas, DO

As we begin to navigate major changes to the ERAS application, here are some tips for the supplemental application. Last year, I filled it out in its inaugural year and it can certainly be overwhelming along with the regular application. 

Make sure you check which specialties are participating!

If your specialty is not participating either in the supplemental application itself, you get to ignore the whole thing!

Past Experiences - Meaningful Experiences

Think about things that were formative to you that didn’t necessarily fit into your regular ERAS application. Anything you put here should have importance and purpose for inclusion. For example, a nutrition education program that showed you how much you wanted to incorporate nutrition into your future practice. Maybe a rotation that showed you something specific and important. If you had a breakthrough moment of growth on a particular rotation, but it isn’t covered in your application elsewhere.

You only get 300 characters! Make sure that you are not using extraneous words. Be concise and think of it like writing headlines. You’re highlighting the most important things in this application, but you can talk more about them in an interview. 

Past Experiences – Other Impactful Experiences

Here you get 750 characters and more places to explain your story. 

If you have not been disadvantaged in life, you should not fill out this section. I, for example, as a white, middle-class, cis female, did not complete this section.  

The AAMC writes that some examples might be: family background, financial background, community setting, educational experiences, or other general life experiences.

Geographic Preferences

Think about whether you have a preference or not. If you don’t care where you end up, then put no preference.

If it’s important to you for family or a particular life circumstance that you end up in a particular region of the country, be honest about that. If programs know you want to be there, it may help them take a closer look at your application. 

Importantly, if you select a particular region (the AAMC calls this a “division”), only programs in those regions will know about it. For example, say that you want to end up in Texas and you click that division, programs in Pennsylvania and the Northeast will not know you have that preference. 

Preference Signals

This is the part that everyone seems to stress about the most. First and foremost, this is about potentially capturing more interviews, not about the rank list. Consider places that you are not sure would interview you, but you are highly interested in.

I would be a little judicious about this. If your interest is not in research/academia, I do not recommend signaling a program “with a name” that is extremely research-heavy just for the name, because you’re wasting a signal (conversely if this is your jam – what programs have research/resources that aligns most with your interests? Those are the programs to think about signaling). This is your journey and about what you want. Signals are also good if your main geographic preferences exclude a particular program that you’re interested in. 

Do you signal your home program if you want to go there? Check the AAMC supplemental application guide (https://students-residents.aamc.org/media/12326/download?attachment) for each specialties guidance. For example, adult neurology applicants should signal your home program, but internal medicine applicants should not. So, if you’re talking to your friends from different specialties about how to fill out the application, remember that each specialty is different!

Do you signal the program that you did an away rotation at? Just like with your home program, check the guidelines for your specialties’ guidance. 

Here is an attending physician's perspective on preference signaling from last year (remember the specialties mentioned will be different): https://thesheriffofsodium.com/2021/06/28/mailbag-eras-secondary-applications-and-preference-signaling/

Caveats

There are a lot of new specialties participating in the supplemental application this year. Usage by programs will probably vary widely. Remember that when you talk to friends and mentors, they may not know the exact details of your specialty’s participation, so refer to the guide frequently!