The Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS®) Support Services at ECFMG no longer requires that letters of recommendation (LoRs) and Medical Student Performance Evaluations (MSPEs) submitted as part of an ERAS residency application be original documents. This change took effect for the ERAS 2013 season, which opened in June 2012.
Prior to this change, ERAS Support Services at ECFMG required that all LoRs and MSPEs submitted as part of an ERAS application be original documents. In accordance with this policy, ERAS Support Services at ECFMG made a visual inspection of every LoR and MSPE submitted via mail. If a document was determined to be a copy, and not an original, ERAS Support Services at ECFMG stamped the document as follows:
COPY–Originals Required For This Document Type
ERAS Support Services
Since implementation of the original document policy in 2006, ERAS Support Services has developed web-based methods for receiving supporting documents electronically rather than receiving paper documents by mail. As a result, most supporting documents can be submitted electronically to ECFMG, including LoRs and MSPEs. Web-based submission of supporting documents is available to ERAS applicants, representatives of their medical schools, and individuals writing LoRs on their behalf. The elimination of the original document policy reflects the growing number of supporting documents received electronically.
It is important for program directors to note that applicants who participated in ERAS 2012 and who participate in ERAS for 2013 may reuse supporting documents from the ERAS 2012 application season. This means that, for ERAS 2013, program directors may still receive supporting documents stamped with the above annotation. Program directors should disregard this annotation and not disfavor the associated application.
