To submit a Standardized Letter of Evaluation for an Emergency Medicine residency application, complete a four-week audition rotation at a hospital with an EM residency, ask the clerkship director or SLOE coordinator to write your letter early in that rotation, then create a Letter of Recommendation entry in MyERAS, waive your FERPA right to view the letter, and give the generated Letter Request Form to your evaluator so they can upload the finished SLOE through the ERAS Letter of Recommendation Portal. For the 2027 ERAS season, programs begin reviewing applications on September 23, 2026, so every SLOE should be uploaded by that date.1Association of American Medical Colleges. 2027 ERAS Residency Timeline
How Many SLOEs You Need and What Kind
Two SLOEs from two different Emergency Medicine residency programs is the standard expectation. Program director surveys consistently show that most programs consider two SLOEs sufficient for both application review and rank-list decisions. A third rarely changes outcomes for U.S. medical graduates, though international medical graduates may benefit from additional evaluations to demonstrate broader clinical exposure.
Not all SLOEs carry equal weight. A departmental SLOE, which reflects the consensus of multiple faculty within an EM residency program, is the strongest type because it aggregates observations from several attendings and residents in the environment those programs use to train their own interns. Individual SLOEs written by a single attending, non-residency-based SLOEs from sites without an EM program, and subspecialty SLOEs from rotations in areas like ultrasound or toxicology can supplement a departmental letter but are rarely treated as a primary letter. An off-service SLOE, completed by non-EM faculty using EM-specific criteria, exists mainly for students who have not yet done an EM rotation.2BerbeeWalsh Department of Emergency Medicine. Standardized Letters of Evaluation
Scheduling Rotations So SLOEs Arrive on Time
Before you can request a SLOE, you need an audition rotation at a hospital with an EM residency. These are four-week sub-internships where you work near the level of an intern.
Applying Through VSLO
Most away rotations are coordinated through the AAMC’s Visiting Student Learning Opportunities (VSLO) platform. Your medical school must be a participating institution for you to access the system.3Association of American Medical Colleges. Visiting Student Learning Opportunities Programs typically begin accepting VSLO applications in February, with openings continuing to post through spring. Each host sets its own eligibility requirements, application materials, and deadlines, so check the specific listing in the portal rather than assuming a universal timeline.
Timing the Rotations
Aim to schedule your rotations so at least one, ideally both, finish by mid-September. This gives your evaluators time to write and upload the SLOE before programs begin reviewing applications on September 23. A rotation that ends in October can still produce a valuable SLOE, but your application will sit incomplete during the first wave of reviews, and programs sort hundreds of files in that window.
Asking for the SLOE During Your Rotation
Identify your letter writer early, ideally during the first week. At most programs, the clerkship director or a designated SLOE coordinator handles the evaluation rather than whichever attending you happen to work with most. Ask the program coordinator who writes SLOEs for rotating students. It is a routine question.
Confirm the institution’s internal SLOE deadline. Some departments have a cutoff several weeks after your rotation ends, while others batch all SLOEs and release them on a set date. You have limited control over upload timing once the request is made, which is why scheduling rotations early in the season matters so much.
Give the evaluator an updated CV, your personal statement, and your Step 2 CK score. Since USMLE Step 1 transitioned to pass/fail scoring in 2022, Step 2 CK is the primary scored board exam programs reference. Hand this material over early in the rotation, not on the last day, so the evaluator can place your clinical performance in a broader academic context.
One practical note about how the form works: the evaluator is formally asked to draw on feedback from residents, nursing, and interprofessional staff, not just attendings.4Council of Residency Directors in Emergency Medicine. Official CORD Standardized Letter of Evaluation (SLOE) How you treat the night team matters as much as how you present to the attending.
Submitting Through ERAS
The technical submission runs through the Electronic Residency Application Service and its Letter of Recommendation Portal. You do not upload the SLOE yourself. Your evaluator does. Your job is to generate the paperwork that gives them access.
Generate the Letter Request in MyERAS
In MyERAS, create a Letter of Recommendation entry for each evaluator. Once you confirm the entry, the system generates a Letter Request ID and a printable Letter Request Form with upload instructions for the faculty member.5Association of American Medical Colleges. Letters of Recommendation Send this form to your evaluator along with clear instructions. Many faculty write SLOEs for dozens of students and appreciate not having to hunt down portal links.
Evaluators with accounts on the CORD eSLOE system can generate standard, subspecialty, and other SLOE types directly through that platform and export them as PDFs for upload to ERAS. The eSLOE is the electronic tool your writer uses; it is not a separate letter type you request.
Waive Your FERPA Right
During this process, ERAS asks whether you waive your right to view the letter under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. Waive it. In a multicenter survey of EM program directors, 89.5% reported that a letter the applicant waived access to is more valuable than one the applicant retained the right to read. When applicants did not waive, 84.8% of program directors considered the letter less valuable or of no value at all.6National Library of Medicine. A Multicenter Study of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and the Standardized Letter of Recommendation: Impact on Emergency Medicine Residency Applicant and Faculty Behaviors Evaluators write more candidly when they know the student will not read the letter, and programs trust candid letters more.
Fees
There is no separate fee for uploading or transmitting a SLOE. ERAS charges apply to program applications and transcripts, not to letters.
Key Dates for the 2027 ERAS Season
- June 4, 2026: The 2027 ERAS season opens and you can begin building your MyERAS application.
- September 2, 2026: You can begin submitting applications to residency programs.
- September 23, 2026: Programs can begin reviewing your application, including SLOEs and MSPEs.
- May 31, 2027: The 2027 ERAS season closes.
Upload status is visible on the MyERAS dashboard. Check it. If a letter is still pending a week before September 23, send a polite follow-up to the evaluator’s coordinator rather than the evaluator directly; coordinators track the upload queue and can usually resolve delays faster.