At the ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting, I had an opportunity to attend a session about the new PhORCAS application system. This session was co-sponsored by ASHP Accreditation Services and PhORCAS.
A few interesting facts:
-100% of ASHP-accredited residencies are using PhORCAS for the 2012-2013 cycle
-As of November 18th, there are >4000 applicants in PhORCAS. This is expected to grow to over 6000 applicants.
-As of November 18th, there 3285 registered residency positions in the Match.
Here are some practical tips for you to consider as you submit your application materials:
1. Label documentation carefully! My letter of intent for Intermountain Medical Center should be easily distinguishable from Utah Valley Medical Center. Examples: SebranekLOI_IntermountainMedCtr versus Sebranek LOI_UtahValley. Be sure you are uploading the correct documents to each program.
2. The acceptable file formats in PhORCAS are .doc, .pdf, and .txt. NOTE: .docx (newer version of Word) documents WILL NOT be accepted and you cannot upload them to PhORCAS. You can convert a .docx file to .doc in Word by "Save As" and selecting the correct file name.
3. A candidate CAN NOT e-submit his/her application until the separate registration and fee for the National Matching Service (NMS) has been submitted. You can register for NMS through PhORCAS.
4. Once e-submission to a particular program has occurred, the only updates the candidate can make are to his/her contact information.
5. Apply early! For instance, if a program has a deadline of January 5th, do not wait until January 3rd to start application paperwork. There are more than 1500 programs in PhORCAS so you don't want to run the risk of not completing an application because you ran out of time or there were web site difficulties because of the high traffic.
This is the first year of PhORCAS so there will be inevitable bugs in the system to work out. Good luck submitting your applications!
Think about writing free comments in Word before copying content into PhORCAS to reduce the potential for typos. You can also get your free comments proofread by a friend if they are written in Word first.
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