2015 applicants

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The rumor is certainly that the number of US MD applicants is down.
 
studerman said:
hey overheard a fellow talking today that radiology didn't have enough applicants for all the spots this year, is there any validity to this?
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According to "Charting Outcomes of the Match" (p. 8, or indexed p. 3) there were 1,227 total applicants for 1,176 positions, so his statement was factually incorrect. However, according to the "Main Residency Match" data (p. 31, or indexed p. 23) there were 950 total applicants for 1,008 PGY2 positions. Of note, though is that only 695 of the applicants were US MD graduates, which is down from 724 ('13), 741 ('12), 773 ('11), and 799('10) so the number of "high quality" applicants with respect to the total number of spots certainly seems to be declining.
 
Fine by me. Buy low. For anyone who actually is passionate about radiology, this is music to their ears.
 
TrueAntagonist said:
Fine by me. Buy low. For anyone who actually is passionate about radiology, this is music to their ears.
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Buy low? What does that have anything to do with a highly regulated industry like radiology where the trend over the years is declining reimbursements? All of a sudden it's going to jump up relative to inflation? You think number of studies will go down, pay per study goes up, and the number of nights/weekends one has to work goes down as well? Doubtful. Radiology will get busier and busier with salaries that will come down as well and more weekends to work like the rest of physicians. Work hours and pay will be more even across the board and radiology isn't going "up" to the way it was if you think you are "buying low" or that things are really cyclical. The golden day/cush life of rads is over in the US at least.

My advice is to go into a field you're passionate about regardless of the job market. If you're passionate about what you do and it shows in the quality of your work, you won't have any problems landing a job. Going into a field based on the current or future market is a mistake imo.
 
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Those are great statistics from the NRMP, but I think the OP is referring to 2015 (this year's cycle) which of corse we won't have true numbers until around April.

I do think the point is a valid one. This could be the first cycle where the total number of all types of applicants (including IMG and re applicants) is less than the total spots. Just look at what happened in the DO match yesterday. 28% of the spots failed to fill in the match.
 
49ers said:
Buy low? What does that have anything to do with a highly regulated industry like radiology where the trend over the years is declining reimbursements? All of a sudden it's going to jump up relative to inflation? You think number of studies will go down, pay per study goes up, and the number of nights/weekends one has to work goes down as well? Doubtful. Radiology will get busier and busier with salaries that will come down as well and more weekends to work like the rest of physicians. Work hours and pay will be more even across the board and radiology isn't going "up" to the way it was if you think you are "buying low" or that things are really cyclical. The golden day/cush life of rads is over in the US at least.

My advice is to go into a field you're passionate about regardless of the job market. If you're passionate about what you do and it shows in the quality of your work, you won't have any problems landing a job. Going into a field based on the current or future market is a mistake imo.
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The point I think a lot of rads applicants are making when they say "buy low" is that if they love the field, now is the time to possibly land more competitive spots and get as good of training and experience/connections in the field as possible. In one way it is sad that you pretty much are guaranteed a spot as competitiveness decreases, but at the same time there still should be a place for a well-trained US MD radiologist, and I think very few are expecting things to be easy now and in the future.
 
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FranzLO said:
The point I think a lot of rads applicants are making when they say "buy low" is that if they love the field, now is the time to possibly land more competitive spots and get as good of training and experience/connections in the field as possible. In one way it is sad that you pretty much are guaranteed a spot as competitiveness decreases, but at the same time there still should be a place for a well-trained US MD radiologist, and I think very few are expecting things to be easy now and in the future.
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If that's what was meant, I apologize and I can see that viewpoint. The very top programs are still very competitive, but I'd agree with anyone that says the midupper-tier programs are less competitive than they were just a decade ago and they still provide excellent training. The only thing I would say is that level of competition shouldn't dissuade someone from applying. I still threw my name in the hat when I applied to MGH and didn't get an interview invite, but at least I tried...no harm in that.

Even if I had a "bad numbers" application in highly competitive field, I'd still apply to it if I was passionate about it and all the odds were stacked against me. I'd apply multiple cycles if need be (of course doing something else in the meantime like IM wouldn't hurt). I have friends that had poor step scores, applied multiple cycles to incredibly competitive fields (i.e. derm), and are now finishing those residencies with $500k/yr job offers in small to mid-size cities.
 
49ers said:
If that's what was meant, I apologize and I can see that viewpoint. The very top programs are still very competitive, but I'd agree with anyone that says the midupper-tier programs are less competitive than they were just a decade ago and they still provide excellent training. The only thing I would say is that level of competition shouldn't dissuade someone from applying. I still threw my name in the hat when I applied to MGH and didn't get an interview invite, but at least I tried...no harm in that.

Even if I had a "bad numbers" application in highly competitive field, I'd still apply to it if I was passionate about it and all the odds were stacked against me. I'd apply multiple cycles if need be (of course doing something else in the meantime like IM wouldn't hurt). I have friends that had poor step scores, applied multiple cycles to incredibly competitive fields (i.e. derm), and are now finishing those residencies with $500k/yr job offers in small to mid-size cities.
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That's exactly what I meant
 
studerman said:
hey overheard a fellow talking today that radiology didn't have enough applicants for all the spots this year, is there any validity to this?
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I think this may be true for this year.. My class of 200 or so has like literally 3 ppl going into rads this year... Meanwhile 30 are going into anesthesiology
 
One of the program coordinators told me that the numbers are down this year and due to the stats of about 98-99% match rate, they've been flooded with unqualified applicants that have no business applying rads. However, that's just one program. As for people going into rads depending on class size, I think it really depends on the school/class. I'm in a class of 80 and we have 7 matching rads and only 2 gas. However, we also have like 8 matching psych, so we're all in all a weird class, even for our school. 😉
 
eablackwell said:
One of the program coordinators told me that the numbers are down this year and due to the stats of about 98-99% match rate, they've been flooded with unqualified applicants that have no business applying rads. However, that's just one program. As for people going into rads depending on class size, I think it really depends on the school/class. I'm in a class of 80 and we have 7 matching rads and only 2 gas. However, we also have like 8 matching psych, so we're all in all a weird class, even for our school. 😉
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Hahjaa that coordinator... He or she should probably get used to it
 
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