Residency Application Examples
Students often ask Career Advising for residency application examples from prior years. Career Advising invites graduating students to share redacted copies of their residency applications to benefit future UWSOM applicants.
The intention is to provide solid residency application examples to give you ideas on how other students have approached applications. In time, Career Advising will add additional examples. Note: these documents are the original works of the author and are not intended for replication or copying in any way.
Example Applications
ERAS
ResidencyCAS
General Application Reminders
- The residency application is a job application – think about how you want to present yourself to a Program Director (your future boss)
- Aim to complete your application 1 week before the published deadline for your respective Application System
If you plan to use AI as you prepare your residency application, we recommend:
- Be Transparent & Authentic – Use AI to support your writing, not to create content. Your application should reflect your voice and experiences
- Follow Policies & Match Rules – Adhere to UWSOM AI Guidelines and NRMP/ERAS/ResidencyCAS/SF Match/MODS rules. Don’t use AI to misrepresent your work.
- Adhere to Your Specialty National Guidelines – Instructions may vary from the general UW and NRMP/ERAS/ResidencyCAS/SF Match/MODS rules
- Protect Your Privacy – Never input sensitive personal or health information into AI tools
- Check for Errors & Bias – AI tools can make mistakes or introduce bias. Always review and fact-check your final drafts.
- Be Ready to Explain – If asked, be able to describe how and why you used AI in your application process.
Consider the key themes of your experiences. Do they provide a holistic view of the values, interests, and strengths you want programs to know about you?
Prioritize the experiences that best reflect your growth, qualities, skills, and interests you will bring to a residency program. Most students include a few meaningful pre-medical school experiences.
From your CV, select experiences that are:
- Substantive, impactful, and longitudinal
- Demonstrate leadership, service, advocacy, research, or other strengths
- Reflect where you invested significant time and energy
- Highlight what you are passionate about
- Contribute to the narrative of your overall application
- Represent experiences you want to discuss in interviews (and align with specialty values)
In general, quality matters more than quantity.
If you’re unsure what to include, your Career Advisor is here to help you think it through.
When thinking about what to highlight in your application:
- Select activities/interests that are appropriate for a job interview
- Focus on 3-4 personal interests and/or hobbies
- What things will you be excited to talk about with interviewers that help them get to know you better as a person?
- Be prepared to talk about your personal interests and hobbies in every interview
If you plan to dual apply within the same residency application system:
- Programs in both specialties will see the same content for your experiences/activities, scholarly works/publications, geographic setting preferences, hometowns, and, if you opt to respond to the impactful experiences essay
- Unique to each specialty: personal statements, letters of recommendation, program signals, signaling statements (if applicable), and specialty-specific questions (if applicable)
- Note for ResidencyCAS applicants: if you are applying to two specialties (i.e., EM and IM/EM), you can assign 1 personal statement for each specialty (these will be different statements)
Match 2027 Career Advising Residency Application Review Service
Using this Microsoft Form, students may upload one PDF of their completed residency application for review. If you are dual applying using two application systems, we will review only one application (e.g. ERAS or ResidencyCAS).
- Your submission must be uploaded in PDF format.
- If you prefer to meet with your career advisor to review your residency application, you may schedule a 30-minute Residency Application Review appointment instead of submitting via the form. We ask that you do not meet with us for a review and submit via the form. Appointment slots mid-August–September fill quickly due to the career advisors’ very busy schedules during application season.
- Applying via SF Match or the Military? You are welcome to submit via the review form according to the deadlines outlined below. If your summer schedule allows, we suggest scheduling an appointment instead of submitting to the review process due to the earlier application submission dates for these specialties.
ERAS and ResidencyCAS: Applications may be submitted from August 18 – September 7, 2026 at 11:59 pm PT via this form.
- Career Advising feedback will be returned before September 15th
SF Match and Military: Applications may be submitted from August 18 – August 25, 2026 at 11:59 pm PT via this form.
- Career Advising feedback will be returned before August 28th
Things to Know:
- In ERAS, click “View/Print Application” to download a PDF.
- In ResidencyCAS, click on the Applicant Menu, then click Applicant PDFs.
- In SF Match, use the “print PDF” button on the portal. From here, “print” to PDF and save the file.
- For Military Applications, save both your completed official DoD GME application form and your Curriculum Vitae as a PDF document.