How far back for ERAS fellowship application?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

ghostbaby

Full Member
2+ Year Member
Joined
Oct 26, 2021
Messages
31
Reaction score
3
Hi all, current resident applying for fellowship and I was wondering how far back is too far for ERAS experiences? They're all work experiences that did genuinely help lead me towards my path to becoming a doctor, but I'm unsure of their relevance now.
The ones I'm questioning include:

-certified nursing assistant (2010-2011)
-ED scribe (2013)
-summer science camp instructor (2015)

I otherwise have 2 volunteer experiences, 5 research experiences, and 2 work experiences (excluding the above). Thanks in advance.

Members don't see this ad.
 
Last edited:
I generally would keep all work experiences and all research experiences. Most volunteering pre-residency has fallen off my CV except for extremely meaningful ones, and only you can decide what is extremely meaningful.

My advice would be to consider whether you really want to talk about that volunteering experience in an interview. It may be a nice experience, but out of everything else you have done would you be ok if some interviewer randomly decides to hone in on that volunteer experience, or would you prefer instead to talk about something else that may be more impressive? If you would rather not spend time in an interview talking about it, then it’s probably a waste of space on your ERAS
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
I agree with GoSpursGo... work experience is always valuable (especially if you were doing full time once you were out of school--fills in gaps there), as is research experience. I still have my time as a phlebotomist before med school on my CV.

I also have a handful of volunteer experiences from medical school still on my CV (and I'm about a year out of peds fellowship), but will probably delete most of those soon as they aren't especially pertinent to my career now.
 
As a general rule of thumb...

From before college:

Generally nothing. If you have some major work experience - like a stint in the military or a prior career - can include that.

From college:

Publications. That's about it - though if you had a seriously impressive extracurricular (like, you were a D1 athlete), you could consider including it.

From medical school:

Everything other than minor club participation is reasonable.

From residency:
Everything.

It's 2022, so a year of CNA experience in 2010-2011 is probably in that "from before college" group though I suppose it could be from college if you took a gap year or got another degree in there. I wouldn't include it except maybe if it was relevant to an anecdote in my personal statement. The ED scribe job similarly, though if it was during a gap year between college and med school, I would probably throw it in there just so there isn't a hole in my timeline. The camp thing I might include since it's relatively recent.
 
Top