How the ERAS CV Works
In the MyERAS portal, your CV is not a traditional uploaded document. Instead, the system automatically generates a standardized CV from the information you enter across multiple sections. Every program receives the same formatted document — you cannot customize the layout or design.
This is why starting early matters so much. Most applicants wait until August to fill in ERAS, then rush through it under deadline pressure and miss important entries. Starting now gives you time to reflect on your experiences, write thoughtful descriptions, and identify the stories that belong in your personal statement and that your letter writers should highlight.
A complete, well-organized ERAS CV helps in three ways simultaneously. It feeds your personal statement by surfacing experiences and stories you might have forgotten. It gives your letter writers a full picture of your accomplishments so their letters are specific and strong rather than generic. And it makes the actual ERAS submission in September much faster with far less stress.
1. Experiences Section
Experiences Section — Up to 10 Entries
You can list a maximum of 10 experiences. Choose quality over quantity. Focus on medical school and recent activities that best show who you are as a physician and future colleague. Older experiences from before medical school carry less weight unless they are genuinely exceptional or directly relevant.
For each experience, write your description in plain text using strong action verbs. Start with what you did, not where you were. "Led a team of four residents in a quality improvement project" is stronger than "Participated in QI project at X hospital."
Strong action verbs to use: Led, Coordinated, Developed, Designed, Implemented, Managed, Mentored, Presented, Published, Trained.
Most Meaningful Experiences
Select up to 3 of your 10 experiences as Most Meaningful. You receive an extra 300 characters for each to explain why it was meaningful and how it shaped you as a physician. Use these wisely. The Most Meaningful section is where personality and reflection come through — not just what you did, but what it meant and what changed in you because of it.
Your 10 entries should tell a cohesive story about your journey into your specialty. A program director reading your experiences should be able to see a clear thread — clinical curiosity, research commitment, community focus, or whatever is genuinely true about you. Random unrelated entries signal an unfocused application.
2. Scholarly Work Section
Scholarly Work — New Name for 2026 to 2027
For the 2026 to 2027 cycle, the former Publications section is now called Scholarly Work. The content is similar but the structure is more flexible.
Focus on quality, not quantity. Three strong peer-reviewed publications are more impressive than eight abstracts and posters. If you have limited scholarly work, be strategic about what you include and how you describe your contribution.
Scholarly Collections
A new feature for this cycle allows you to group related outputs into a single Scholarly Collection. For example, if one research project produced a poster presentation, a conference abstract, and a journal manuscript, you can group all three into one collection rather than listing them separately. This shows the full arc of your research project and demonstrates depth and maturity to program directors rather than padding your list with individual entries.
Consolidating related items is almost always better than listing them separately. A program director who sees one strong Scholarly Collection with a poster, abstract, and manuscript understands you completed a project from start to finish. Separate listings of the same items look like padding and experienced reviewers notice immediately.
3. Core CV Components Organized by MyERAS
Core Sections Generated Automatically
These sections are organized and formatted automatically by MyERAS based on information you enter in the portal.
- Education: Medical school, graduate, and undergraduate degrees in reverse chronological order. Include your graduation date and any honors.
- Postgraduate Training: Especially important for IMGs. Include any prior residency training, research fellowships, or non-ACGME training programs. This section explains your timeline and demonstrates US experience.
- Honors and Awards: Medical school awards, scholarships, honor society memberships such as Alpha Omega Alpha or Gold Humanism. Include the year and a brief description if the award is not self-explanatory.
- Hobbies and Interests: Keep this authentic and specific. "Playing guitar in a local band" is more memorable than "music." This section often serves as an icebreaker during interviews. Program directors remember specific hobbies when they are reviewing their rank list.
- Language Proficiency: A simplified yes/no format for fluency levels. If you are proficient in a language relevant to the patient population you want to serve, make sure it is listed here and mentioned in your personal statement.
4. Optional Impactful Experiences
Significant Hardships and Impactful Experiences
You have a 750-character space to describe any significant hardships — financial, family, educational, or personal — that shaped your path to medicine. This section is optional and should only be used if you have a genuine story of resilience that helps explain your journey.
Do not use this section to explain away a low score or a gap without a real story behind it. Program directors read thousands of these. Authentic hardship narratives that explain a non-linear path are respected. Manufactured adversity to explain mediocre performance is transparent and counterproductive.
If you have a real story here — financial hardship, a family crisis, a health challenge — this is the right place for it. Keep it factual, focused, and forward-looking. End with what you did, not with what happened to you.
Pro Tips for a Strong ERAS CV
Plain Text Only
ERAS does not support bold, italics, bullet points, or any special formatting. Draft all your descriptions in Notepad or TextEdit first to strip out any formatting before pasting into MyERAS. What looks organized in Word may paste as a jumbled mess.
No "Curriculum Vitae" Header
The system already labels your document as a CV. Adding a header yourself creates a redundant and unprofessional-looking document. Start directly with your content.
Professional Photo
Optional but recommended. Dimensions: 2.5 by 3.5 inches, under 100 KB file size. Use a clean headshot with a neutral background, professional attire, and a natural expression. A photo makes your application more memorable when program directors are reviewing names and faces before ranking.
Start Now
Even if you are not submitting until September, filling out the Experiences and Scholarly Work sections now will help you reflect on your story. The process of writing 750-character descriptions forces you to think about what each experience meant — and that thinking directly feeds your personal statement.
Share With Letter Writers
When you request letters of recommendation, share your completed ERAS CV with your writers. A letter writer who can see your full accomplishments — including the experiences you are highlighting and why — will write a far more specific and compelling letter than one working from memory.
Connect to Your PS
Your ERAS CV and personal statement should reinforce each other, not repeat each other. The PS should tell the story behind your most significant experiences. The CV lists the facts. A program director who reads both should feel they understand you more completely, not that they read the same information twice.
750 characters is approximately 100 to 120 words. That is tight. Write your description, count the characters, then cut ruthlessly. Every word should earn its place. Filler phrases like "I had the opportunity to" or "This experience allowed me to" waste characters that could be used for specific details that actually distinguish you.
Official ERAS Worksheet
The best way to prepare for MyERAS is to see the real form before you log in. The AAMC publishes an official ERAS Residency Applicant Worksheet that shows you exactly what you will need to fill out. Going through it now means no surprises in September.
Official 2026 ERAS Residency Applicant Worksheet
Download the complete 26-page worksheet from the AAMC. This is the exact form you will fill out in MyERAS. Use it now to organize your experiences, scholarly activities, and other information before the portal opens.
Download ERAS Worksheet PDF (AAMC)Ready to turn your experiences into a standout Personal Statement?
Your ERAS CV tells the committee what you did. Your personal statement tells them who you are. Get scored against the criteria program directors actually use. Free during beta.
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