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How to Make a Statement with Your ERAS Personal Statement

• by Med School Tutors
• Jun 29, 2023
• Reviewed by: Amy Rontal, MD

Dr. Leila Javidi, Taylor Purvis, and Dr. Brian Radvansky contributed to this article.

Starting your residency application can feel like an overwhelming task, especially when it comes to writing your ERAS personal statement. It’s not clear why essays of this nature are so intimidating—maybe it’s because not all medical students are well-versed in language arts, many of us dislike writing, or maybe just the thought of putting “who you are” onto paper brings to the surface some uncomfortable feelings of self-awareness (whoa—this just got intense!).

This is a joke or course, but to be honest, sometimes when we sit down to write our ERAS personal statement we immediately think things like, “I’m not that interesting,” or “I haven’t done anything cool in life, I’ve spent most of my time in school thus far.” And that is completely normal. The majority of us haven’t had those pivotal moments in life that shake the ground beneath us and form a new foundation for who we are, and that’s OK!

Your ERAS personal statement isn’t intended to be a best-selling memoir. It’s intended to add another dimension to the otherwise black-and-white application full of scores and grades. It is an opportunity to show program directors your personality, what motivates you, and what you’re looking for in a residency program.

While you’ve probably heard all of this before, we bet you have more specific questions about how to tackle the ERAS personal statement. All of us sure did! So, without further ado, h ere are answers to the 12 most important questions about medical residency personal statements.

12 Frequently-Asked Questions About the ERAS Personal Statement

1. How big of a deal is my ERAS personal statement to program directors?

According to the 2020 NRMP program director survey , 78% of program directors cite the ERAS personal statement as an important factor in deciding which candidates to interview,  making it the fourth-highest ranked factor behind USMLE Step 1, USMLE Step 2, and letters of recommendation. So, it’s pretty important in the grand scheme of your application!

Now, from experience in talking to different program directors and mentors, it’s clear that the most important thing is that your ERAS personal statement is well organized, well written, with proper grammar, no red flags, and that it’s only one page single-spaced. The standard ERAS personal statement length is typically 500-800 words (roughly four paragraphs).

A personal statement typically isn’t the “maker” of your residency application—however, it can be a deal “breaker” if it doesn’t have those attributes. That said, if you have a memorable, well-written personal statement, program directors will mention it, and it will make you stand out as an applicant. If they are on the fence about whether or not to interview you, a personal statement could potentially be the deciding factor. So, it’s pretty important!

2. What are things I should include in my ERAS personal statement?

A good ERAS personal statement should include the following: 

A catchy introduction to grab the reader

There are different ways to go about doing this, but if you’re stuck, an effective way to grab the reader’s attention is to open with a patient vignette. An interesting case is sure to pique the curiosity of your reader and keep them engaged as they read. Preventing boredom is something to strive for, as your application is one of perhaps hundreds that they are reading.

Ultimately, though, remember this is a personal statement. After you reveal the diagnosis or outcome of the patient vignette, you need to let the reader know what the case meant to you! The point of relating the vignette is to reveal something about yourself, not just present an interesting story about a patient. 

An overview of your desirable qualities

When letting the reader know what your positive qualities are, it’s important to remember a basic rule of good writing: SHOW, don’t tell. For example, instead of saying you are compassionate, describe a story from your life that demonstrates your compassion.

Highlights from your life experience 

This includes jobs, extracurricular activities, and hobbies that would help you to be an ideal candidate for whichever residency you are applying to. Pro tip: DON’T REGURGITATE YOUR CV. This is your opportunity to tell people things that aren’t on your CV. Do you play chess in the park every Saturday, or have you traveled to some amazing places? Tell us about it!

You shouldn’t rehash your CV in your personal statement, but it is a great place to elaborate on activities listed on your CV. It can be used to explain why those activities are so important to you, how they have helped you grow as a person, and other things that don’t often shine through on the CV itself.

Proof of why you should be accepted 

The most important part of your statement is providing proof of why you should be accepted. Describe your strengths, but do not talk about things too generally. You should be able to back up everything you say. Give details and examples. Which doctors have you shadowed? What kind of research have you been involved in, and where was it published? Don’t just mention that you have volunteered, say the names of places you were at and what you were doing.

Why you are interested in your specialty

This doesn’t have to be a profound story, but it should be the truth!

What you are looking for in a residency program

Is a strong procedural curriculum important to you? Is the culture of the program more important? Try to mention things you know your programs of choice embody.

Address any red flags on your application

Did you do poorly on Step 1? Did you take a leave of absence for a long time? Best to just come out and talk about it without being defensive. Show how you have grown from the experience, rather than apologizing for it!

A cohesive closing statement

Sometimes the first and the last sentence of the statement are the hardest to come up with, but it’s worth your time to make it tidy, even if it isn’t profound.

3. What are things I shouldn’t include in my ERAS personal statement?

Controversial topics.

Stay away from extreme religious or political statements. It doesn’t mean you can’t say you are an active member of church, but don’t use this as an opportunity to discuss whether or not you are pro-choice. You never know who is going to be reading this, and anything too polarizing can be off-putting for some readers. 

Feelings of bitterness or negativity

Leave out any traces of bitterness, defensiveness, or anger about anything that has happened in your life. Everything must have a positive spin.  

Too much self-praise or too much modesty

Avoid talking about yourself in a glorifying manner, but don’t go too far the other way and come off as too modest.

Too many qualifiers

You don’t want to go overboard with the qualifiers, which are words such as “really,” “quite,” “very,” etc. In fact, in many cases, it’s better not to use them at all. 

“Flowery” language you wouldn’t use in real life

It’s a personal statement, not a creative writing assignment. Keep the language in your statement simple. You’re not going to score any points by using unnecessarily fancy words. Your goal is clear communication.

Also, don’t try to sound like a doctor. This is just another way of trying to impress the reader. You want the reader to like you based on the way you write, not be turned off because you are trying to impress them.

“Try to avoid using a lot of jargon and abbreviations,” advises Mary Dundas, educator at Academized. 

Exaggerations

Avoid talking hyperbolically about how passionate you are. As noted earlier, it’s better to show than tell so give examples of things you have done. Above all, keep the writing in your statement professional.

If you avoid these common mistakes, you’ll be way ahead of most applicants! 

4. How can I make my ERAS personal statement unique?

As evidenced by The Voice and American Idol , it is everyone’s impulse to divulge their “sob story” to help them stand out and garner sympathy from the audience. While it’s important to include stories that helped shape you as a person, it is very transparent and cliché to talk about that person you know who was struck by a medical tragedy, and how ever since you vowed to “save people.”

The best way to make your statement unique is to allow your personality to shine through. Use your words, your humor, and your depth to tell your story. Find a way to show yourself to your reader, and if you do this, your essay will be unique!

5. Should I have more than one ERAS personal statement to upload?

In short, absolutely have multiple personal statements to upload. Especially if you are applying to more than one specialty, it’s essential that you have several versions of your personal statement.

That doesn’t mean you have to write a whole new one, you just have to tailor it to fit that specialty. If you’re applying for a preliminary year, tailor your personal statement to explain how important you feel a solid foundation in medicine is for dermatology (or whichever specialty you are applying to) and what you’re looking for in a preliminary year.

Furthermore, I found that for the programs I really wanted to interview with, I would upload a tailored personal statement for that program saying something like, “I am seeking a family medicine residency position with ABC University program because of their dedication to XYZ.” Simply name-dropping their institution and noting the strength of their program demonstrates your attention to detail and interest in their institution. Even if you are an amazing applicant, if a program doesn’t feel you are interested in their specific program, they won’t interview you. It’s best to make sure you give those out-of-state programs some extra attention so they know you are willing to relocate for them!

Lastly, you should know that you can upload as many versions of your personal statement as you like onto ERAS, but be especially careful when uploading and make sure you apply the correct personal statement to each program! Triple-check your work! Pro Tip: Use your file names to help you stay organized. Pick a format and stick with it, such as “PS-JohnsHopkins,” “USCF-PS,” etc.

6. When should I start writing my ERAS personal statement?

The sooner the better, people. Get cracking now! You can even begin to think of ideas during your third year as you develop your interests in specific specialties. As ideas come to you, jot them into your phone so you don’t forget!

One of the best ways to begin writing your personal statement is to go over some questions about yourself. Ask yourself, who are you and what drives you forward? Think about the kinds of things that interest you and why you developed those interests. Maybe consider some mistakes you have made, how you learned from them, and how they have changed you. Or ask yourself, how do your interests and personality contribute to the goals you have set? 

Think about those kinds of questions and write down the answers. Reflect on them, put them away, and come back to them. Then, use them to form an outline—this will help you figure out all your points and what you want to say before you start writing. 

If you still feel like you just don’t know how to get started, give the five-point essay format a shot and see if it works for you. In short, you begin with a paragraph that is about four or five sentences long. The goal of this first paragraph is to grab a reader’s attention. Use the next three or four body paragraphs to talk about yourself. Try and have one of them focus on your clinical understanding, while another talks about service. Then end with a solid conclusion paragraph that mirrors your introduction, summarizes who you are, and ends by looking toward the future. 

7. Should I ask for any help with my ERAS personal statement?

Yes. Yes. A thousand times, YES! Absolutely ask for feedback on your personal statement. After getting your draft finished, show it to whoever will look at it—however, please remember to take everyone’s advice with a grain of salt and to strongly consider the source. It is absolutely essential to have your personal statement reviewed by an objective third party to ensure that the message you are trying to communicate is loud and clear. This means that you shouldn’t give it to a friend or family member who is going to placate you with a useless, “Yeah, looks great!”

Find a mentor, advisor, chief resident or attending, someone who is accustomed to reading ERAS personal statements, and get feedback from them. You can be certain that going through this step will only make your personal statement better. If you take their advice and don’t like how things are panning out, you can always revert back to an older draft.

But in just about every case, another set of eyes to give you big-picture feedback on what you’ve written will improve your piece. Do this early in the process, when you have gotten a simple draft together, so that you don’t present someone with an idea that you are married to, only to find out that it doesn’t come through clearly.

Be sure to ask other people what they think of your draft, but be careful about asking other students for help. Sometimes they get weird, and try to give you advice about making your statement more like theirs because they want to feel justified in their own efforts.

Finally, it should be mentioned that there are services out there that will “write your personal statement” for you. Aside from the obvious reasons why not to do this, you have to be really careful. Those services don’t know you, don’t know your voice, and oftentimes have very generic ways of putting these statements together.  Using a service to help polish your statement, though, is A-OK. Some you may find useful in that regard are ViaWriting , Writing Populist , StateofWriting , and SimpleGrad .

Lastly, you may consider working with a residency counselor who can help set your application apart with insider advice and ensure you optimize all elements of the residency application process. Our residency consultants are residents and attendings who have successfully guided hundreds of students from residency applications through the Match!

Typical residency consulting work consists of:

Not sure if a residency consultant is the right fit for you? Take this quiz to see if you would benefit from some extra guidance during the residency application process!

8. Where can I find examples of ERAS personal statements to inspire me?

Every good writer learned how to write by reading the works of other people. This includes personal statements! Very often your career offices from your undergraduate studies will have examples of personal statements that can serve as inspiration for your own masterpiece. You can also ask older classmates and recent graduates if they would feel comfortable sharing their personal statements with you. 

Remember, too, that inspiration can come from nontraditional sources. Try reading poetry or a novel before sitting down to write your statement. You might be surprised by how it helps to get your creative juices flowing!

9. Is it better to cover all of my experiences, or focus on a few in particular?

It’s better to focus on several key experiences rather than provide a broad overview of your life up to the present time. Your resume will fill in any gaps for your reader. The point of the personal statement is to spend a few paragraphs reflecting on one or two themes that define who you are as a person. Stay focused, and go deep!

10. How much should I share about my career goals in my ERAS personal statement?

Remember, the majority of training programs you will be applying to are academic medical centers. For those programs in particular, make sure to emphasize why an academic environment is a good fit for you. This does not have to mean research! Perhaps you like the idea of becoming a clinician educator and want to be at XYZ program for the opportunity to teach medical students. 

Likewise, if you are applying to a program at a community hospital, make sure to reflect on how your career goals are suited for that environment. Maybe private practice is on your radar, or you want to practice in a hospital that is more close-knit than a large academic center.

Whatever the case, try to make your stated career goals align with the orientation of the program you’re applying to. In reality, you may have no idea what direction you want your career to go in. But for a personal statement, try to commit to one general theme if possible.

11. What about my personal statements for preliminary or transitional year programs?

For applicants who are also applying to preliminary or transitional year programs, it can seem daunting to tailor your personal statement to a position that isn’t part of your ultimate specialty. But don’t worry—preliminary and transitional year programs still want to know who you are as a person and why you’re interested in anesthesiology, dermatology, or whatever advanced specialty you’re aiming for. You don’t need to change your personal statement as much as you may think!

The goal of a personal statement for these one-year programs is not to convince the reader that you suddenly love internal medicine despite going into radiology. The reader knows this is a temporary stopping place for you. Instead, emphasize the traits that make you YOU and will enhance their hospital!

12. What if I’m interested in a non-traditional path after residency?

Some of you may be thinking of alternative career paths after residency such as consulting or pharmaceutical work. It’s probably best to leave those specific goals out of your ERAS personal statement and allow readers to assume that you want to continue in clinical medicine after graduating from residency. You might want to instead phrase it as something you want to be incorporated into your clinical career, but not something you would leave medicine for, even if that’s what you have in mind!

Remember, you are under no obligation to share your every thought and desire in a personal statement! These statements are being read by reviewers who dedicated their lives to education and clinical medicine, so keep that in mind.

Further Reading

Keep these tips in mind as you write your ERAS personal statement, and you’ll be way ahead of the other applicants. If you start to get stressed out, remember, you have an amazing story to tell, and we are here to help tease that story out from the confines of your brain! For more help, reach out to one of our residency advisors .

Looking for more help during the residency application process? We’ve got you covered with more (free!) content written by Blueprint tutors:

• How to Get Standout Letters of Recommendation for Your Residency Application
• How to Maximize Your Chances of Matching With Your Dream Residency
• What’s It Like Working With a Medical Residency Consultant?
• Residency Interview Tips & Tricks: The Ultimate Guide
• Dual Applying for Residency: Is It Right For Me?

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Documents for ERAS® Residency Applicants

New section.

Each program sets individual requirements for the documents that should be submitted with the MyERAS® application. Be sure to research each program individually to determine those requirements before making document assignments.

• Sign In to the MyERAS® Portal
• ERAS® Timelines for Residency Applicants
• ERAS Participating Specialties and Programs

Within your MyERAS account, you may create personal statement(s); identify the people who will write letters of recommendation (LoRs); authorize the release of your Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing Examination (COMLEX-USA) and/or United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) transcripts; and manage all other documents. Below is an overview of each of the main documents used in ERAS. For detailed information, please see the Documents section of the MyERAS User Guide.

Tracking Documents

The dashboard provides a snapshot of the progress of various documents and their statuses in the MyERAS portal.

• Uploaded but Unassigned LoRs  - Count of LoRs that have been uploaded but are not assigned to any programs, highlighting that assignments may need to be made.
• Unassigned Personal Statements  - Count of Personal Statements that have been saved but are not assigned to any programs, highlighting that assignments may need to be made.
• Latest USMLE Request Status  - Current status of the latest request made to NBME or ECFMG (for IMG Residency) after at least one program has been applied to with the USMLE transcriptassigned.
• Latest COMLEX-USA Request Status  - Current status of the latest request made to NBOME after at least one program has been applied to with the COMLEX-USA transcript assigned.
• Status of Additional Documents  - Status of all other applicable documents as either  Not Uploaded  or  Uploaded .

The  Photo  is most often used by programs to help identify applicants when reporting for an interview. Applicants must upload their own  Photo  in the MyERAS portal by selecting  Upload New Photo  in the  Actions  column. A photo file should not exceed these requirements:

• Dimensions: 2.5 in. x 3.5 in.
• Resolution: 150dpi
• File Size: 150kb

Personal Statement

The personal statement may be used to personalize the application to a specific program or to different specialties. There is not a limit to how many personal statements you may create; however, you may only assign one (1) for each program.

Note : There are a number of websites that provide examples of Personal Statements. Do not copy any information from these sites and use them in your Personal Statements without giving credit to the author. This is considered plagiarism. See the  ERAS Investigation Policy

Special Note About Formatting

• Personal Statements must be created in plain text formatting. HTML and other special text formatting, such as bold, italics, underline, text color, and alignment, are not allowed. Personal statements created outside of the MyERAS system should be done in a plain text word processing application such as Notepad (for Windows users) or Text Edit (for Mac Users) to ensure text stays as clean as possible.

LoRs must be uploaded through the ERAS Letter of Recommendation Portal (LoRP) by the  LoR Author . It is the applicant’s responsibility to follow up with  LoR Authors  regarding LoRs.

• Creating LoR Entries  - You must create a LoR entry for each LoR you intend to use during the application season.
• Confirming LoR Entries  - You must confirm a LoR entry before an associated  Letter ID  can be generated.
• Uploading LoRs  - The Letter ID contained in the LoR Request form must be used to upload the associated LoR through the Letter of Recommendation Portal (LoRP).
• Resending New Scores  - Applicants must take action in their MyERAS portal to resend USMLE scores to programs previously designated to receive them.

The USMLE transcript is required by many MD residency programs as part of an application to be considered for their positions.

• Authorizing the Release for the USMLE Transcript  - Applicants must authorize the release of their USMLE transcript in order to make assignments of the USMLE transcript to the programs they designate.
• Paying for the USMLE Transcript  - The NBME or ECFMG (for IMG Residency) charges a one time fee of $80 for transmitting USMLE transcripts to the programs designated by applicants.
• Viewing the USMLE Requests Status Report  - Applicants can view the USMLE Requests Status Report to track the status of their USMLE requests by program.

The COMLEX-USA transcript is required by many AOA-accredited and ACGME-accredited residency programs as part of a D.O. applicant’s application to be considered for their positions.

• Authorizing the Release for the  COMLEX-USA  Transcript  - Applicants must authorize the release of their COMLEX-USA transcript in order to make assignments of the   COMLEX-USA transcript to the programs they designate.
• Paying for the  COMLEX-USA  Transcript  - The NBOME charges a one time fee of $80 for transmitting COMLEX-USA transcripts to the programs designated by applicants.
• Viewing the  COMLEX-USA  Requests Status Report  - Applicants can view the COMLEX-USA Requests Status Report to track the status of their COMLEX-USA requests by program.

Uploading : An applicant’s Designated Dean's Office is responsible for uploading the Medical School Performance Evaluation (MSPE or “Dean’s Letter”) into the ERAS system for residency applicants. Find out more in the frequently asked questions section.

IMGs Only : IMG residency applicants must indicate in the MyERAS system if they themselves or their medical school will provide a MSPE to the ERAS Documents office at the ECFMG. Instructions for submission can be found here:  https://www.ecfmg.org/eras/applicants-documents-index.html .

Medical School (MS) Transcript

Uploading : An applicant’s Designated Dean's Office is responsible for uploading the  MS Transcript  into the ERAS system for residency applicants. Find out more in the frequently asked questions section.

IMGs Only :

• IMG residency applicants must indicate in the MyERAS system if they themselves or their medical school will provide a MS Transcript to the ERAS Documents office at ECFMG. Instructions for submission can be found here:  https://www.ecfmg.org/eras/applicants-documents-index.html .
• ECFMG Status Report:   The  ECFMG Status Report  confirms the ECFMG certification status for an IMG residency applicant. This report contains the month and year that examinations were passed for ECFMG Certification, but does not contain your USMLE transcript.
• Uploading:  The ECFMG is responsible for uploading the ECFMG Status Report into the ERAS system for IMG residency applicants.
• ERAS 2024 Webinars for Residency Applicants

Please contact the AAMC Support Center (ASC).

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Monday - Friday 8 a.m. - 6 p.m. ET 

Closed Wednesday, 3 - 5 p.m. ET

Please visit this page to stay up to date on ERAS news and announcements.

Use the free Residency Explorer™ tool to search and compare programs. Browse the AAMC's Careers in Medicine website to research specialties.

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*While most AAMC services  support certain browsers , the PDWS does not fully support Safari. We recommend Mac users use Firefox or Chrome.    

ERAS Changes to Personal Statement Format

AAMC’s ® ERAS ® system generally makes small changes to their systems to improve performance and generally make life easier for medical residency applicants. This year, they’ve made quite a few big changes to their timeline , but there was an unexpected change as well.

This year, ERAS announced they would be allowing several additional formatting options on the Personal Statement page such as:

• Strikethrough
• Align Right
• Increase Indent
• Decrease Indent
• Insert hyperlink

A Note from ERAS: “ Personal Statements created outside of MyERAS should be done in a plain text word processing application such as Notepad (for Windows users) or SimpleText (for Mac Users). Personal Statements created in word processing applications not using plain text may contain hidden and potentially invalid formatting. ”

But, what does this mean?

While it’s kind of ERAS to allow for more freedom in formatting for the Personal Statement– just because it’s available, doesn’t necessarily mean you should use these options.

The medical residency Personal Statement is a professional and formal document , and should be treated as such. You wouldn’t normally use bolding, italics, underline, or strikethrough in a formal document as these are looked at as unprofessional.

You should NEVER EVER use:

• Bullets – All content should be in paragraph form, bulleted lists are lazy!
• Numbering – For the same reasons as bulleting.
• Centering – Not considered proper formatting for a professional document.
• Align Right – For the same reasons as Centering.

You may consider using:

• Increase/Decrease indentation

Use these tools with caution. Aligning left should be ok, because this is common formatting for any written paper. However, indenting can eat up valuable space in your document. If you choose to indent, consider not putting spaces between your paragraphs (this is not advised as it makes the document harder to read).

If you have a professional website, possibly consider hyperlinking to that website to help Program Review Committees get to know you better beyond the Personal Statement . But, this will only work if the Program Director is reading the Personal Statement on a computer as opposed to a print out.

These new changes to the Personal Statement formatting options are exciting, but remember to use common sense when deciding to use any of them. If you are in doubt, it’s better to go without.

Related Posts

Addressing Gaps in Your Personal Statement

Personal Statement’s role in your Post-Match SOAP

• How NOT to Write a Medical Residency Personal Statement

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Taylor Swift fans drinking at The Black Dog in Vauxhall, south London, said they were there thanks to the track “The Black Dog,” in which the singer describes monitoring an unnamed ex’s visit “into some bar called The Black Dog,” through location share on her phone.

In this image taken from video, fans pose with a life-size image of Taylor Swift at a club that plays only Swift’s music in Gothenburg, Sweden, on Tuesday, April 30th, 2024. Swift is scheduled to kick off the 18-city Europe leg of her record-setting Eras Tour on Thursday, May 9, 2024. There will be three shows in Stockholm. (AP Photo/Chisato Tanaka)

• Copy Link copied

Taylor Swift fan Brodie MacArthur from east London poses with a friend’s dog next to a sign featuring Taylor Swift lyrics outside The Black Dog pub in Vauxhall, London, Saturday, May 4, 2024. As Taylor Swift prepares to launch the Europe leg of her blockbuster Eras tour, thousands of her fans from the U.S. and Canada are following her across the pond. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Drinks are prepared in the Black Dog pub, thought to be mentioned in a Taylor Swift song, in London, Saturday, May 4, 2024. As Taylor Swift prepares to launch the Europe leg of her blockbuster Eras tour, thousands of her fans from the U.S. and Canada are following her across the pond. Some Swifties decided to see Swift in one of the 18 cities on the pop star’s tour after noticing that tighter restrictions on ticket fees and scalping in Europe made seeing Miss Americana perform abroad less of a splurge. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

FILE - Taylor Swift performs at the Monumental stadium during her Eras Tour concert in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Nov. 9, 2023. Swift is scheduled to kick off the 18-city Europe leg of her record-setting Eras Tour on Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko, File)

In this image taken from video, Friends Arena in Stockholm, Sweden, is shown on Wednesday, April 24th, 2024. Taylor Swift is scheduled to kick off the 18-city Europe leg of her record-setting Eras Tour, with three shows in Stockholm, on Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Chisato Tanaka)

In this image taken from video, Taylor Swift fans sing and dance at a nightclub event called ‘Ready for It’ that only plays Swift’s music in Gothenburg, Sweden, on Tuesday, April 30th, 2024. Swift is scheduled to kick off the 18-city Europe leg of her record-setting Eras Tour on Thursday, May 9, 2024. There will be three shows in Stockholm. (AP Photo/Chisato Tanaka)

LONDON (AP) — Thousands of ride-or-die Taylor Swift fans who missed out on her U.S. concert tour last year or didn’t want to buy exorbitantly priced tickets to see her again found an out-of-the-way solution: Fly to Europe.

The pop star is scheduled to kick off the 18-city Europe leg of her record-setting Eras Tour in Paris on Thursday, and planeloads of Swifties plan to follow Miss Americana across the pond in the coming weeks. The arena where Swift is appearing said Americans bought 20% of the tickets for her four sold-out shows. Stockholm, the tour’s next stop, expects about 10,000 concertgoers from the U.S.

A concert might sound like an odd raison d’etre for visiting a foreign country, especially when fans can watch the Eras Tour from home via the documentary now streaming on Disney+. Yet online travel company Expedia says continent-hopping by Swift’s devotees is part of a larger trend it dubbed “tour tourism” while observing a pattern that emerged during Beyoncé's Renaissance world tour .

Some North American fans who plan to fly overseas for the Eras Tour said they justified the expense after noticing that tighter restrictions on ticket fees and resales in Europe made seeing Swift perform abroad no more costly — and potentially cheaper — than catching her closer to home .

“They said, ’Wait a minute, I can either spend $1,500 to go see my favorite artist in Miami, or I can take that $1,500 and buy a concert ticket, a round-trip plane ticket, and three nights in a hotel room,” Melanie Fish, an Expedia spokesperson and travel expert, said.

That was the experience of Jennifer Warren, 43, who lives in St. Catharines, a city in the Niagara region of Ontario. She and her 11-year-old son love Swift but had no luck scoring what she considered as decently priced tickets in the U.S. Undeterred, Warren and her husband decided to plan a European vacation around wherever she managed to get seats. It turned out to be Hamburg, Germany.

AP AUDIO: Fans are following Taylor Swift to Europe after finding Eras Tour tickets less costly there

AP correspondent Jennifer King reports Taylor Swift is heading to Europe, and her U.S. fans are following.

“You get out, you get to see the world, and you get to see your favorite artist or performer at the same time, so there are a lot of wins to it,” said Warren, who works as the director of research and innovation for a mutual insurance company.

The three VIP tickets she secured close to the stage — “I would call it brute-force dumb luck” — cost 600 euros ($646) each. Swift subsequently announced six November tour dates in Toronto, within driving distance of Warren’s home. “Absolute nose-bleed seats” already are going for 3,000 Canadian dollars ($2,194) on secondary resale sites like Viagogo, Warren said.

TOUR TOURISM: IS IT REALLY A THING?

Hard-core fans trailing their favorite singer or band on tour is not a new phenomenon. “Groupie” emerged in the late 1960s as a somewhat derogatory word for the ardent followers of rock bands. Deadheads took to the road in the 1970s to pursue the Grateful Dead from city to city.

More recently, music festivals like California’s Coachella and England’s Glastonbury, and concert residencies in Las Vegas by the likes of Elton John, Lady Gaga and Adele, have attracted travelers to places they wouldn’t otherwise visit, Fish noted.

Travel and entertainment analysts have also spoken of a pent-up consumer demand for “experiences” over material objects since the coronavirus pandemic. Some think the willingness of music lovers to broaden their fandom horizons is part of the same mass cultural correction.

“It does seem like it’s more than a structural shift, maybe a personality transformation we all went through,” said Natalia Lechmanova, the chief Europe economist for the Mastercard Economics Institute.

As Swift hopscotches across Europe, Lechmanova expects restaurants and hotels to see the same boost that Mastercard observed within a 2.5-mile (4-kilometer) radius of concert venues in the U.S. cities she visited in 2023. The U.S. dollar’s strong value against the euro may also increase retail spending on apparel, memorabilia, beauty products and supplies for the friendship bracelets fans exchange as part of the Eras Tour experience, the economist said.

Former college roommates Lizzy Hale, 34, who lives in Los Angeles, and Mitch Goulding, 33, who lives in Austin, Texas, already had tickets to see the Eras Tour in L.A. last summer when they decided to try to get ones for Paris, London or Edinburgh, Scotland, too. They saw a Europe concert trip as a makeup for travel plans they had in May 2020 to celebrate Goulding’s birthday but had to cancel due to the pandemic.

Goulding managed to secure VIP tickets for one of Swift’s three Stockholm shows. He, Hale and two other friends scheduled a 10-day trip that also includes time in Amsterdam and Copenhagen.

“As people who enjoy traveling and enjoy music, if you can find an opportunity to combine the two, it’s really special,” said Hale, who is pregnant with her first child.

FOR STOCKHOLM, 120,000 SWIFTIES CAN’T BE WRONG

The local economic impact of what the zeitgeist has termed “Swiftonomics” and the “Swift lift” can be considerable . It’s no wonder the exclusive arrangement Singapore’s government made with Swift to make the city-state her only tour stop in Southeast Asia earlier this year aroused regional jealousy .

No European governments have complained of their countries not being among the dozen selected for the Europe leg of the Eras Tour, although some fans have expressed surprise that Gelsenkirchen, a city with a population of about 264,000 is one of the three cities in Germany that made the cut.

Airbnb reported Tuesday that searches on its platform for the U.K. cities where Swift is performing in June and August — Edinburgh, Liverpool, Cardiff and London — increased an average of 337% when tickets went on sale last summer.

Not to be outdone when it comes to trend-spotting, the property rentals company cited the demand as an example of “passion tourism,” or travel “driven by concerts, sports and other cultural events.”

In Stockholm , 120,000 out-of-towners from 130 countries -- among them 10,000 from the U.S. — are expected to swarm Sweden’s capital this month, Stockholm Chamber of Commerce Chief Economist Carl Bergqvist said. Stockholm is the only Scandinavian city on Swift’s tour, and airlines added extra flights from nearby Denmark, Finland and Norway to bring people to the May 17-19 shows, he said.

The city’s 40,000 hotel rooms are sold out even though prices skyrocketed for the tour dates, Bergqvist said. Concert visitors are expected to pump around 500 million Swedish kroner, or over $46 million, into the local economy over the course of their stays, an estimate that does not include what they paid for Swift tickets or to get to Sweden, he said.

“So this is going to be huge for the tourism sector in Sweden and Stockholm in particular,” Bergqvist said.

Nightclubs, restaurants and bars are seizing the opportunity to cater to fans with Taylor Swift-themed events, such as karaoke, quizzes and after-concert dance parties.

Houston resident Caroline Matlock, 29, saw Swift more than a year ago when the Eras Tour came to the Texas city. Now she’s making more friendship bracelets and trying to learn a few words of Swedish as she prepares to see the 3 1/2-hour show in Stockholm. The idea of seeing Swift in Europe was her friend’s, and Matlock needed some persuading at first.

“I was like, ‘I only want to go if it’s a country I haven’t been to. I’ve seen Taylor Swift,’” she said.

Visiting the Scandinavian cities of Oslo and Gothenburg is on their itinerary. The concert is the last night of the trip and Matlock looks forward to interacting with Swifties from other countries: “Americans tend to have a very obsessive culture, especially Taylor Swift-related, so I’m curious if the crowd will be more toned-down.”

WILL TOUR TOURISM ENDURE AFTER ERAS?

It remains to be seen if the music tourism trend has legs as long and strong as Swift’s and Beyoncé's, and if it will carry over to Billie Eilish, Usher and other artists with world tours scheduled next year. Expedia’s Fish thinks other big-name artists in Europe this summer will prove that booking a foreign trip around a concert is catching on.

Kat Morga, a travel consultant based in Nashville, isn’t so sure. Morga saw Swift perform in Nashville last year and helped two clients with school-aged children book European family vacations this summer that include seeing Swift in concert. But she thinks the difficulty of navigating ticket purchases through language barriers, currency conversions, international banking regulations and the risk of cancellations will limit the appeal of regular gig getaways.

“I think this is an anomaly,” Morga said. “People aren’t typically going to build their $20,000 huge family vacation only because Taylor Swift is there. She’s the one-off. She’s special.”

Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel, whose company operates Booking.com, priceline.com, agoda.com, Kayak and OpenTable, is even less enthusiastic about concert tours as a tourism instigator. The Swift Effect causes a “little blip” when the superstar goes to smaller destinations, but for the worldwide travel industry, “one star touring around does not make a difference,” he said.

“It may just shift it a little bit. A person was going to go to the Caribbean for a week vacation. Instead that person (says), ‘Let’s travel to the Taylor Swift thing,’” Fogel said. “It doesn’t increase it. It just moves it from here to there.”

AP journalists Colleen Barry in Milan, Chisato Tanaka in Stockholm, Anne D’Innocenzio in New York, David Koenig in Dallas, Thomas Adamson in Paris and Brian Melley in London contributed reporting.

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Ny concertgoer bird piché partially paralyzed after trophy eyes singer’s stage dive into crowd.

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A punk rock-loving concertgoer is partially paralyzed and can only move her arms after a singer launched himself into the crowd and landed on her head during a show in New York last month.

Bird Piché, 24, suffered a “catastrophic spinal cord injury” at the Trophy Eyes concert at the Mohawk Place in Buffalo, NY, on April 30th, according to  WGRZ .

Footage posted to the Australian post-punk rock band’s  Reddit page  shows the moment frontman John Floreani jumps from the stage and is perched up in the air by the rowdy crowd.

Piché’s pink hair can be seen bobbing to the music near the front of the stage with others in the packed-out 230-person venue moments before the singer’s jump.

Floreani flies off the stage in the blink of an eye and lands directly on her head while others lift the lead singer, seemingly unaware she’s seriously injured. 

The 24-year-old never reappears in the 13-second clip. 

“The video is wild because unless you knew that someone was hurt in the video, you’d never expect that,” Piché’s friend Leo Wolter Tejera told the outlet. “Like it’s just an average stage dive.”

Wolter Tejera said Reddit users who claimed to be in the crowd thought Piché “fainted” and went to get her a cold rag. 

Buffalo, NY Trophy Eyes show by u/wmsiegner5 in TrophyEyes

However, the show was abruptly stopped when other concertgoers saw her still on the ground.

“She wasn’t getting up, and John, the singer, was like right there with her,” Wolter Tejera said. 

Floreani rode in the ambulance with his devoted fan to Erie County Medical Center (ECMC), where she was rushed into “emergency trauma surgery.”

Piché suffered injuries to her spinal cord and her stay in the hospital is indefinite, according to a GoFundMe page set up to help her with medical expenses.

She will need extensive rehab immediately after she’s cleared, Wolter Tejeras said. 

“To my understanding and the conversation we’ve heard so far from doctors is with catastrophic spinal injuries, you just can’t tell and they take a lot of time and patience to see what the outcome is really gonna be,” Wolter Tejeras told the outlet. 

Trophy Eyes said the incident has “shaken us all to our core.”

“Out of respect for the family, we have refrained from speaking about this publicly so far, but with the blessing of their family we are now able to say how truly heartbroken we are to be here now,”  the band wrote . “Our friend, Bird, is now in recovery but still has a long road ahead for them.” 

“The situation has shaken us all to our core, and we ask for patience while we look to help Bird navigate this difficult time.” 

The band says they remain in “close contact” with Piché’s family and “look to help Bird navigate this difficult time.”

Trophy Eyes made a $5,000 donation to her crowdfunding page. 

A bartender at Mohawk Place says the venue has had a strict “no crowd surfing policy” since 2011, according to  WKBW . 

“There are signs posted everywhere in the venue and notice was included in the emails for this show with the show’s promoter and the band themselves,” Mohawk Place’s general manager Mike Thor wrote in a statement to the outlet.

Wolter Tejeras, a musician, expressed the dangers fans face at shows that attract a high level of physical energy and antics can be for concertgoers such as mosh pitting.

“The thing about mosh pits is that there needs to be consent. The number one rule of the pit is if someone falls, you pick them up and that you don’t pull anyone into the pit that didn’t want to be there,” Wolter Tejeras told WKBW. 

“The problem with what happened at this moment was there was no implied consent. There was just a body falling down from the sky onto a person who didn’t know that was going to be happening.”

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