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I am at the end of the third year and have made a late decision to possibly go into Rad Onc. I think I have the stats to have a good shot of matching somewhere, but family and friends are very important to me and I want to be as close to Chicago as possible (prestige of program means very little, although I would like to go to a place with a strong peds exposure). Therefore, I was wondering if someone could give me an idea of whether I have a chance of competing with the crazy smart MD/phD's and studs from the Harvards and Hopkins of the world.
I go to an average medical school. I honored 2/3 of my basic science courses. 245 Step 1. Taking step 2 in July. Honored all third year core clerkships so far with >90th % an all shelves except one. Did cardiology research since first year. Primary author on manuscript of retrospective study that will be published in small peer-reviewed journal soon. Currently working on another cardio prospective study. I will probably be AOA by the time I graduate. I will find out next week if I am junior AOA. No other degrees (eg, MS, MPH, PHD) like may other of the studs who apply.
I set up my schedule to prepare for a career in peds cardio/nicu/hem-onc and set up away rotations for peds electives in Chicago. I recently started reading up on rad onc and realized that I may really enjoy it. I will be taking a 2 week elective in rad onc in July. If I like it and decide to go into it I will have to compeletly reorganize my schedule accordingly. I can try to set up away electives in Chicago, but I imagine it will be too late. I would consider applying to both rad onc and peds and just ranking chicago rad onc places at the top and then peds programs below it, but I would be applying to the same schools for both peds and rad onc (eg, northwestern, u chicago, loyola, rush) and would hate to have that backfire on me and just hurt my chances of matching into either of them if each specialty thought they were my back up plan. So I am really confused and do not know how to go about this. Are my chances good enough to warrant all the hassle? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I go to an average medical school. I honored 2/3 of my basic science courses. 245 Step 1. Taking step 2 in July. Honored all third year core clerkships so far with >90th % an all shelves except one. Did cardiology research since first year. Primary author on manuscript of retrospective study that will be published in small peer-reviewed journal soon. Currently working on another cardio prospective study. I will probably be AOA by the time I graduate. I will find out next week if I am junior AOA. No other degrees (eg, MS, MPH, PHD) like may other of the studs who apply.
I set up my schedule to prepare for a career in peds cardio/nicu/hem-onc and set up away rotations for peds electives in Chicago. I recently started reading up on rad onc and realized that I may really enjoy it. I will be taking a 2 week elective in rad onc in July. If I like it and decide to go into it I will have to compeletly reorganize my schedule accordingly. I can try to set up away electives in Chicago, but I imagine it will be too late. I would consider applying to both rad onc and peds and just ranking chicago rad onc places at the top and then peds programs below it, but I would be applying to the same schools for both peds and rad onc (eg, northwestern, u chicago, loyola, rush) and would hate to have that backfire on me and just hurt my chances of matching into either of them if each specialty thought they were my back up plan. So I am really confused and do not know how to go about this. Are my chances good enough to warrant all the hassle? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.