ERAS Support Services for Applicants

Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE)

The Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE) evaluates a medical student’s performance during his or her academic career relative to his or her peers. The MSPE should not act as a “predictor” of your future performance but provide information about your academic performance. See A Guide to the Preparation of the Medical Student Performance Evaluation to learn more about this document. The MSPE must be written on medical school letterhead with the medical school seal affixed, and signed by the designated medical school official. The MSPE must include your full name.

To obtain an MSPE, you should contact your medical school. ERAS Support Services does not provide MSPEs. Once you secure the MSPE, you can submit the document to ECFMG electronically via ECFMG’s OASIS. Documents uploaded through OASIS will take one to two weeks to process. See Electronic Document Submission for more information.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Some international medical schools participate in the ECFMG Medical School Web Portal (EMSWP) ERAS program to submit supporting documents electronically, including MSPEs, on behalf of their students/graduates who participate in ERAS. ERAS Support Services attaches and uploads these documents to the ERAS PostOffice typically within one to two business days of their receipt at ECFMG. A DSF is not required for documents submitted electronically to ECFMG. Receipt of documents submitted by schools via EMSWP can be tracked in the ERAS Support Services Document Tracking System, which you can access via ECFMG’s OASIS. Please note: If your medical school participates in EMSWP ERAS, you will not be able to submit an MSPE using OASIS. Please contact your medical school to have the MSPE uploaded on your behalf.

MSPEs also can be submitted to ERAS Support Services via mail or courier service for scanning. Documents submitted via mail or courier should be accompanied by a completed DSF and sent to the appropriate address, as indicated on the DSF. Make a copy for your personal records; Documents submitted to ECFMG will not be returned. Paper documents submitted for scanning will take four to six weeks to process.

When ECFMG receives your MSPE, it will be transmitted to the ERAS PostOffice regardless of whether you have applied to a program. All MSPEs are held at the ERAS PostOffice until October 1, at which time they are released to programs to which you have applied. ERAS Support Services strongly recommends that MSPEs arrive at ECFMG no later than August 15 if mailed or couriered for scanning and no later than September 15 if submitted electronically via OASIS.

MSPE has replaced the term “Dean’s letter,” to better describe the purpose of this document, which is to evaluate the performance of the medical student. It is not a letter of recommendation. While ERAS Support Services will accept a “Dean’s letter,” from your medical school, we strongly encourage medical schools to provide an MSPE that follows the MSPE guidelines detailed in the AAMC’s A Guide to the Preparation of the Medical Student Performance Evaluation.

If you are unable to secure the MSPE from your medical school, you must indicate this on page 12 of the MyERAS application. A neutral placeholder letter will be provided in place of the MSPE. The placeholder letter will be provided to all of the programs to which you apply, and will state, “This document is provided in lieu of the applicant’s MSPE. Please contact the applicant with any questions you may have.” This will ensure that your application will appear as complete for those programs that require an MSPE before considering your application.

If the MSPE is not in English, it must be accompanied by an official English translation; that is, an English translation prepared by and certified to be correct by a medical school official (for example, a Dean or Registrar), a government official (for example, a Consular Officer), or a professional translation service. The translation must appear on official stationery and must bear the original signature and title of the medical school official, government official, or representative of the translation service. If the translation service is a private company, the letterhead stationery must identify the company as a translation service.

The MSPE is not a letter of recommendation and does not need to be listed and assigned to your programs. This is done automatically when the MSPE is submitted.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you participated in the ERAS 2012 season and submitted an MSPE, you are not required to resubmit your MSPE for the ERAS 2013 season. ERAS Support Services will reuse the MSPE from the ERAS 2012 season. If the content of your MSPE has been modified, you may submit the new MSPE, and ERAS Support Services will use it to replace the MSPE currently stored in the ERAS 2012 database.

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