Sometimes ERAS and NRMP can be confusing to understand about how both of those things work. I will try to explain them in easy language!

1) ERAS

Electronic Residency Application Service is a program of AAMC. So it is different from Intealth/ECFMG.

It’s just a postman who takes the application from us (the applicant) and delivers it to the residency programs. That’s it; there is no more role of ERAS in the match process. It has plenty of sections, including Personal Information, Biographic Section, Publications, Hobbies, Awards and Honors, Experience, and Specialty Questions.

The only consuming part is ERAS receiving the documents, like the transcript and MSPE (dean’s letter), from the designated dean’s office. For international medical students, usually the designated dean’s office is ECFMG. Yes, ECFMG is a mediator for IMGs and serves as a centralized dean’s office for all international medical schools. So to transmit your MSPE and medical school transcript, you have to either upload it from myInterhealth or your medical school has to upload it, which depends on whether your medical school is taking part in EMSWP or not. If medical school is part of EMWSP, you can’t upload your document for ERAS through Intatlh; your medical school has to upload it.

You prepare your application in my ERAS portal; your ERAS CV, along with all your documents, can be assigned to the program you are planning to apply to.

AS ERAS is a program of AAMC, you can not use your money available in the financial account of Intealth.

2) NRMP

The National Residency Matching Program is a separate entity whose role is only for the matching process. They do not have any concern regarding your application or any documents. To be eligible to submit ROL, your pathway must be approved before ROL (it’s okay even if you are not ECFMG certified).

Their role is to collect rank order lists from both the applicant and the program and run them through software. They are the main organization that declares match results and facilitates the SOAP process.

For this cycle —> Match Day is 16th March, 2025.

Thank you for reading this. If you have any questions or need free guidance, please contact me through the one-on-one sessions page.