Applying to Residency in Internal Medicine
2026-2027 ERAS Applicant Worksheet
*Intro to ERAS for Internal Medicine June 2026-2027 Information Session recording available here
Slides: 2026 PDF posted version of ERAS workship with Craig and Sonia
Applying in IM 2026-2027? Here’s what you should be doing over the summer!
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Meet with your Medicine FSA.
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Review your personal statement and attend one of the Student Affairs workshops – dates to be determined.
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Start working on a program list—resources to use include FREIDA-AMA, Residency Explorer (AAMC), Texas STAR-Dashboard 2026 and your FSA and school Deans.
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Please reach out if you have not already to set up a initial meeting with Dr. Ananthakrishnan regarding your Medicine Departmental letter.
- You will also need to meet with Departmental leadership as part of your Departmental letter. Please contact Caitlin Hogan Caitlin.Hogan@bmc.org to schedule an individual meeting with Dr. Gopal Yadavalli.
- ERAS application draft
- Personal statement draft
- CV (updated to reflect all your activities as of August 2026)
- Medical school transcript (updated with all rotations up to August 2026, including Block 12)
- Instructions on how to request your unofficial transcript here
- Program signal list
- Geographic signal list
Applicant Checklist
GENERAL INFORMATION
Important Dates
- General ERAS opens June 3, 2026
- ERAS deadline on September 22, 2026 (opens to programs on Sept. 23rd)
- Expect interviews Nov 2026 – Jan 2027, (a few maybe in October); Virtual recommended
- September 2026 – The BMC Internal Medicine Residency program will run their annual session for students applying in Internal Medicine on tips for approaching this interview season.
- Jan/Feb meet FSA to discuss rank list
- Feb 1st, 2027 – ranking opens
- March 3rd 2027 – programs and students submit (certify) rank list
- March 15th – SOAP begins
- FRI MARCH 19th, 2027 – MATCH DAY!
More info here
Letters of Recommendation
- You will submit 3-4 letters.
- 1 Structured Evaluative Letter (SEL) written by leadership in the Department of Internal Medicine. This is formerly known as the departmental letter. AAIM Guidelines for IM SEL
- 2-3 Letters of recommendation written by faculty (not residents), at least two of which should be from faculty in Internal Medicine or subspecialty medicine (e.g. cardiology, gastroenterology, etc.) is recommended. Some programs will allow you to upload 2 letters, other programs will allow you to upload 3.
Application Advice for Students
From the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine (AAIM)
- Students should not apply to a program that they would not rank.
- Students should not interview with more than one program in a day.
- Students should feel comfortable cancelling interviews as the season progresses if the scheduled interview is no longer at a program likely to end in the student’s top 10. In this virtual season, such cancellations are recommended at least seven days in advance to allow programs time to offer the interview slot to another interested student. Students should cancel via an email with a professional tone and with gratitude for the opportunity.
- The number of places you apply to depends on your competitiveness.
- Discuss your competitiveness with your Field Specific Advisor, Dr. Ananthakrishnan, and your letter writers. On average most people should apply to 15-20 programs.
- If you are a student who has experienced academic challenged (course failures, USMLE failure(s), etc.) you need to apply to more Medicine programs— at least 50 programs, including many community programs.
- Match data in the era of signalling shows that students who have 6-8 interviews will have a 95-98% likelihood of successfully matching in IM.
- Please relinquish interviews once you have 12-15 interviews to allow your peer applicants a chance to interview and match.
- Contact your advisor or Dr. Ananthakrishnan if you do not have 6-10 interviews by the first week of November.