how to decide aways?

[anotherhopeful]

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hi all,

i'm interested in rads, and i'll admit, i'm not very competitive at my home program (229, all P's so far in med, psych, neuro, family med, from a top 20 school (does that even matter?)), but i'd still really like to do rads. i know you guys hate the "what are my chances" threads, but how about this variant: where should i do aways. from what i've heard, i'll prob be going for county and community programs, but it's so hard to figure out which ones i should shoot for. is there even a list of the least competitive programs? maybe i should not even look towards rads as i prob won't match?

thanks in advance all!

-Y

 

[joe6102]

hi all,

i'm interested in rads, and i'll admit, i'm not very competitive at my home program (229, all P's so far in med, psych, neuro, family med, from a top 20 school (does that even matter?)), but i'd still really like to do rads. i know you guys hate the "what are my chances" threads, but how about this variant: where should i do aways. from what i've heard, i'll prob be going for county and community programs, but it's so hard to figure out which ones i should shoot for. is there even a list of the least competitive programs? maybe i should not even look towards rads as i prob won't match?

thanks in advance all!

-Y

I'm no expert, but you haven't had a response in 3 days so here it goes:
You definitely have a great chance of matching into rads if you apply broadly and are willing to go anywhere in the country. I don't think away rotations at community programs will help you that much, unless there's one or two that you are in love with. Try rotating at a top school, or doing research there and get to know someone who can give you a good letter of recommendation.
There's not much you can do know about your step 1/grades, except maybe taking step 2 early and killing it, if you think you can do that. But what you can do is help the rest of your app by getting research experience and good letters of rec.

 

[OHMAN0125]

hi all,

i'm interested in rads, and i'll admit, i'm not very competitive at my home program (229, all P's so far in med, psych, neuro, family med, from a top 20 school (does that even matter?)), but i'd still really like to do rads. i know you guys hate the "what are my chances" threads, but how about this variant: where should i do aways. from what i've heard, i'll prob be going for county and community programs, but it's so hard to figure out which ones i should shoot for. is there even a list of the least competitive programs? maybe i should not even look towards rads as i prob won't match?

thanks in advance all!

-Y

If you look at the NRMP data u'll see that having a 229 is by no means a limiting factor in getting a radiology spot. In fact it seems like a great majority with that score are successful (as long as you get an interview). Of course they probably had some other things like research as well.

 

[Gravi69]

How many aways do applicants typically do?

 

[anotherhopeful]

thanks for the response guys....btw, how do community program graduates fare in terms of fellowships? can they still land good spots? i feel like i kinda screwed up some stuff during my time in med school, and i think in residency i'll be much more motivated because it's going to directly affect my career. so, i hear that some ridiculously high number of residents do fellowships...so would going to a community program screw me? will i be forever relegated to some dinky community practice reading chest xrays?

 

[OHMAN0125]

thanks for the response guys....btw, how do community program graduates fare in terms of fellowships? can they still land good spots? i feel like i kinda screwed up some stuff during my time in med school, and i think in residency i'll be much more motivated because it's going to directly affect my career. so, i hear that some ridiculously high number of residents do fellowships...so would going to a community program screw me? will i be forever relegated to some dinky community practice reading chest xrays?

From what I know, the answer is that fellowships are wide open for the most part