What gold and silver signals actually mean
A program signal tells one residency program that you are specifically interested in training there. Signals are sent at the institution level: one signal goes to one program, and a program sees only that you signaled it, plus the tier where tiers exist. Within a tier there is no ordering. A program cannot tell whether it was your first gold signal or your last, and it cannot see the other programs you signaled. Gold signals are a smaller set of premium signals meant for your strongest interest. Silver signals are the larger standard pool. Many specialties do not tier at all and send a single flat allotment.
Two-tier specialties for the 2027 MyERAS season
Seven specialties split their allotment into gold and silver for the 2027 MyERAS season. Where you have a gold tier, treat those signals as the scarcest thing you control.
| Specialty | Gold | Silver | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anesthesiology | 5 | 10 | 15 |
| Child Neurology | 3 | 6 | 9 |
| Dermatology | 3 | 25 | 28 |
| Diagnostic Radiology | 6 | 9 | 15 |
| Internal Medicine | 3 | 12 | 15 |
| Obstetrics and Gynecology | 3 | 15 | 18 |
| Vascular Surgery - Integrated | 3 | 12 | 15 |
Obstetrics and Gynecology is on this list but does not apply through ERAS. It runs its signaling through ResidencyCAS, covered at the bottom of this page.
Single-tier specialties and their allotments
The rest of the ERAS specialties send a single flat allotment with no gold or silver distinction. The number still varies widely, from 2 up to 30 for the 2027 MyERAS season.
| Specialty | Signals (2027 MyERAS) |
|---|---|
| Family Medicine | 5 |
| General Surgery | 15 |
| Internal Medicine/Medical Genetics | 3 |
| Internal Medicine/Pediatrics | 5 |
| Internal Medicine/Psychiatry | 2 |
| Interventional Radiology - Integrated | 8 |
| Neurodevelopmental Disabilities | 2 |
| Neurological Surgery | 25 |
| Neurology | 8 |
| Orthopedic Surgery | 30 |
| Otolaryngology | 25 |
| Pathology | 5 |
| Pediatric Medical Genetics | 3 |
| Pediatrics | 5 |
| Pediatrics/Psychiatry/Child and Adolescent Psychiatry | 3 |
| Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation | 20 |
| Plastic Surgery - Integrated | 20 |
| Psychiatry | 10 |
| Public Health and General Preventive Medicine | 3 |
| Radiation Oncology | 4 |
| Thoracic Surgery - Integrated | 4 |
| Transitional Year | 12 |
| Urology | 30 |
Urology is in this table because it transmits applications and signals through ERAS, but it matches through the AUA/SAU Urology Match, not the NRMP. Nuclear Medicine participates in ERAS but is absent from the 2027 signaling table, so it has no signal allotment this season.
Home program signaling
Whether to signal your home program is one of the few signal questions with a genuine specialty split, and it comes down to whether the signal tells the program anything it does not already know. Emergency Medicine's CORD advises against it: your home program already has direct exposure to you, so a signal there is usually wasted. Confirm your own specialty's guidance before spending one on a program that already knows you.
Away rotation signaling
The same logic applies to programs where you did an away rotation, and here the specialties genuinely disagree. Emergency Medicine's CORD extends its guidance to away sites for the same reason: they already know you. Ophthalmology takes the opposite position. Its AUPO guidance tells applicants to signal home and away-rotation programs when their interest is real. There is no universal rule; the right answer is your specialty society's answer.
Gold on a reach versus gold on a target
When you have a gold tier, the core decision is whether to spend gold on reaches or on targets. AAMC's program-signaling analysis found that sending a signal was associated with a higher probability of an interview invitation in every participating specialty[1], though programs weigh signals differently and a signal never guarantees an invite. A gold signal on a reach is where an expression of specific interest can matter most, because that is where you are otherwise easiest to screen out. A gold signal on a program you are already competitive for converts interest into an interview but changes less. Most applicants spread gold across a few genuine reaches and a few strong targets rather than betting the whole tier on one end.
Signal privacy and what programs can and cannot see
A program you signal sees that you signaled it and, where tiers exist, whether the signal was gold or silver. It does not see a numeric ranking, and it does not see the other programs you signaled. Programs you did not signal are not told that you signaled someone else. Signaling is not anonymous to the program you send it to, but it is private with respect to the rest of your list.
Reassignment and submission mechanics
In ERAS you allocate signals inside MyERAS, and they are set when you submit. You cannot move a signal to a different program afterward, and you cannot get one back. Applications submitted from September 2 through September 22, 2026 all appear to programs as received on September 23, so there is no first-day advantage to rushing an incomplete application. Non-ERAS systems have their own rules: in the SF Match, unused signals can be sent in later application distributions, but a sent signal cannot be retracted.
Specialties outside ERAS signaling
Not every specialty signals through MyERAS. Emergency Medicine and Obstetrics and Gynecology moved to ResidencyCAS, which runs its own signaling on its own September 17, 2026 application deadline. Ophthalmology applies and signals through the SF Match, on an earlier calendar than the rest of medicine. Urology is the one to watch: it transmits applications and signals through ERAS, so it looks like a standard ERAS specialty, but it registers, ranks, and matches through the AUA/SAU Urology Match, not the NRMP. If you are applying in any of these, the signaling rules and the deadlines are not the MyERAS defaults.