Residency application: ERAS makes substantial changes for the 2026-2027 Match season

Residency applicants using MyERAS in the 2026-2027 Match season encountered several changes to the familiar application, including a redesigned section for research and scholarship, a new portal for letters of recommendation and new standardized evaluation formats in several specialties.

For most applicants, the basic structure of the residency application remains recognizable. Students still entered their experiences, education, examinations, personal information and program preferences before submitting applications.

Several changes, however, were introduced for the 2027 Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) season and are intended to give applicants more ways to explain the context behind parts of their application, particularly their scholarly work.

While many of this year’s fourth-years have already submitted their applications, it is helpful to understand why changes were made, and as many of the changes may still be in place next year, medical students who are planning to apply to residency in the coming years will benefit from learning about these changes.

I interviewed Michele Oesterheld, director of ERAS Outreach and Engagement at the the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), which runs ERAS, for this article. We discussed the rationale behind the changes and what the organization hopes applicants and residency programs understand about them.

From ‘Publications’ to ‘Scholarly Work’

Among the most visible changes is the replacement of the former “Publications” section with a redesigned “Scholarly Work” section.

“The redesign reflects a more focused and inclusive view of scholarly contributions and provides improved structure to help applicants present their work more clearly,” Oesterheld said.

According to Oesterheld, the changes were shaped by feedback received over the years from applicants, advisors and residency programs on how scholarly work was organized, reviewed and understood during the application process.

A different way to present scholarship

On the application, applicants may continue to report the scholarly products traditionally included in ERAS (e.g., peer-reviewed publications, abstracts, book chapters, posters and oral presentations). The new format, however, introduces several tools that allow applicants to provide more structure around those entries.

One of these features will soon allow applicants to designate up to three scholarly works that they have authored that are the “most meaningful” to them.

“Allowing applicants to identify up to three scholarly works gives them an opportunity to highlight the work that has been particularly significant to their development and interests,” Oesterheld said. “This additional context can help programs better understand an applicant’s scholarly experiences beyond what may be apparent from a list of citations or products alone.”

Residency programs remain free to decide how much weight they give the designation. Oesterheld emphasized that programs will continue to evaluate scholarly information according to their individual missions and selection processes.

ERAS has also added a feature allowing applicants to group related scholarly products into collections. A single research project, for example, might generate a poster presentation, a conference abstract and a subsequent journal article. Under the previous structure, those items could appear as separate entries, and their relationship would not be immediately apparent to a reviewer.

“Scholarly activities do not always occur as isolated experiences,” Oesterheld said. “For example, single research efforts may result in multiple related scholarly products.”

Oesterheld said grouping related work can help programs see the broader context and depth of an applicant’s scholarship rather than evaluating each product independently.

For applicants with substantial research experience, the change may also encourage a different approach to preparing this section. Rather than thinking exclusively in terms of how many publications, posters or presentations they have accumulated, students can consider whether several products represent a sustained research question or a developing scholarly interest.

Moving away from publication counts

The redesign comes at a time when medical students have become increasingly aware of the role research may play in residency selection, particularly in competitive specialties. That environment can create pressure to build lengthy publication lists before applying.

I asked Oesterheld about concerns of increasing pressure on medical students for publications. She made clear that the redesign is intended to change how scholarship can be presented, rather than simply encouraging applicants to accumulate more of it.

“The changes are not intended to establish a new expectation for the amount or type of scholarly work applicants should complete, nor do they prescribe how programs should weigh scholarly work in their selection processes,” Oesterheld said.

The redesign is intended to shift from an emphasis on the number of publications to giving applicants additional ways to showcase their most meaningful work, she further noted.

While the new format changes how scholarship can be presented, it does not establish a universal standard for how much scholarship an applicant should have. Expectations will continue to vary by specialty and by individual residency program.

A new system for letters of recommendation

Applicants submitting ERAS applications to programs for the 2027 season will notice major changes to letters of recommendation. The former ERAS Letter of Recommendation Portal (LoRP) has been replaced by the new AAMC Letter Writer Portal.

Applicants will continue to generate letter requests through MyERAS and assign letters to the programs of their choosing. The major change occurs on the letter-writer side, where recommenders will use the new AAMC system to submit their evaluations.

The AAMC is also working with several specialties to introduce standardized letters of evaluation. For residency applicants, the participating specialties include dermatology, integrated plastic surgery and urology. Pain medicine is participating for fellowship applications.

Standardized letters are designed to provide specialties with a more consistent framework for evaluating applicants. Students applying in participating specialties should therefore review the requirements carefully before sending letter requests, because the type of letter requested may depend on the specialty selected within ERAS.

For applicants in other specialties, traditional narrative letters of recommendation remain part of the application process.

Specialty-specific changes will not affect everyone

Some of the 2027 ERAS changes apply only to applicants in selected specialties.

Anesthesiology, neurological surgery and integrated plastic surgery are continuing specialty-specific questions within MyERAS. These prompts ask applicants to provide additional information about areas such as adversity, teamwork, feedback, difficult decisions and career goals.

Several specialties are also participating in a program signal explanation initiative. Applicants in anesthesiology, integrated plastic surgery, physical medicine and rehabilitation and radiation oncology may provide a brief explanation when assigning signals to programs.

Emergency medicine and OB-GYN have transitioned from ERAS to ResidencyCAS, a separate residency application service.

Reviewing the requirements for each specialty before application submission is particularly important for students applying to more than one field.

What some osteopathic applicants should know about transcripts

Another logistical change this year may affect medical students in DO programs who have taken both COMLEX-USA and the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE).

For medical students in DO programs who have taken only COMLEX-USA, the change will have little practical effect. Students who intend to submit both examinations, however, should recognize that their COMLEX-USA and USMLE transcripts are handled through separate organizations and plan accordingly before application deadlines.

COMLEX-USA transcripts continue to be processed through the National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners (NBOME).

Beginning with the 2027 season, USMLE transcript requests for ERAS are processed through the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB). Applicants who wish to transmit USMLE scores request and pay for those transcripts through the FSMB’s USMLE services.

Where to find residency insights

Students wishing to get insider insights on residency programs can check out the American Osteopathic Information Association’s Emerging DO Platform, which has a searchable residency database and shares information about the DO-friendliness of residency programs, including survey data from past residents.

The AAMC has also expanded Residency Explorer, its residency research tool, with an Interview Likelihood feature based on prior application and interview data. Separate models are available for osteopathic applicants reporting COMLEX-USA scores and applicants reporting USMLE scores. A medical student who reports both examinations may therefore see separate estimates.

Those estimates should be interpreted cautiously. They are based on historical patterns and do not account for every part of an application that residency programs may consider, including letters of recommendation, personal statements, clerkship performance, away rotations or the substance of an applicant’s scholarly work.

Preparing for the 2027 application

For most students, the new ERAS features do not require a fundamentally different approach to residency preparation. They do, however, make it useful to review certain parts of the application earlier and with greater attention to how information will appear to residency programs.

ERAS still asks applicants to condense years of medical school into scores, experiences, letters, scholarship and brief written descriptions. What has changed in several parts of the application is the amount of context applicants can provide around those pieces.

For medical students in DO programs entering the Match this year, understanding those changes may be more useful than simply knowing that they exist. The application still records what students have accomplished. The 2027 changes give them a few more opportunities to show how those accomplishments fit together.

Related reading:

5 DOs share how they matched into their top-choice programs

How 2 DOs couples matched in emergency medicine and OB-GYN