Guidance for 2020-2021 Residency Application Season

AAIM Offers Guidance for 2020-2021 Residency Application Season


AAIM represents the entire continuum of medical education, from medical student to practicing physician; as key stakeholders in learner transition, the Alliance has provided guidance for the 2020-2021 residency application cycle and interview season. The recommendations also include template documents for personalization and use.

Key Recommendations

  • AAIM strongly recommends that no in-person away and extramural rotations be allowed or encouraged unless there are unique residency program level considerations or student curricular requirements or experiences that cannot be met at a learner’s host institution.
  • AAIM strongly recommends residency programs eliminate in-person interviews and adopt virtual platforms to conduct all interviews and site visits, including those for learners at their own institution.
  • AAIM proposes adopting a standardized template for a DOM Summary Letter of Evaluation (MS Word).
  • AAIM recommends that categorical internal medicine applicants provide two required letters: a clinical LOR from an internal medicine faculty member and a DOM Summary Letter of Evaluation (template provided as MS Word); one optional LOR could be provided from clinical faculty or a scholarly project mentor.
  • AAIM recommends that preliminary internal medicine applicants provide two required letters: a clinical LOR from an internal medicine faculty member and a clinical LOR from any specialty.
  • AAIM recommends that programs waive any requirements for Step 2 CK or an subinternship to be completed by the time of initial application review.
  • AAIM recommends that programs waive any requirements to complete Step CS.
  • AAIM encourages ERAS and other stakeholders to create optional geographic or "special circumstances" preference fields visible to all programs.
  • AAIM strongly recommends that ERAS consider a tiered application system, in which applicants could designate a subset of their applications and high priority.

View Guidelines Letter of Evaluation Template  DOM Summary Letter Mock-Up