Is this bad?

[radsgirl]

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I had some formal exposure to radiology during internal medicine because we do weekly radiology lectures during 3rd year IM. However, I am not taking IR until Sept-Oct (after apps go in) and a formal general radiology course until later in the semester. Do you think that would look bad? My scheduled has turned out so that it is almost impossible for me to work around it 🙁.

 

[Pontifex Maximus]

Well, its not good. A few rads lectures over a month or 3 doesn't really constitute exposure. Will you have LORs? Something to actually talk about on interviews?

Rads tends to be a little more lax about these things, but you need to get your priorities straight here. IMO, I'd move heaven and earth to get an elective in my chosen field done before/early applying. IR is not a replacement for a dx rads elective - very different world and a small potato compared to the rest of the field. Don't let a Sub-I or some other random 4th year requirement come between it, talk to higher ups if you have to.

Anything else and you risk looking insincere on the trail, and hell, if you don't have real reading room exposure - you still aren't 100% sure. Do you at least have shadowing time down there or something?

I don't mean to sound defeatist, but demonstrating committment to the field, and interest level and reason for it is paramount in these things. Good luck!

 

[RisingSun]

Good advice from PM. I agree that having minimal exposure to the field prior to application might make programs nervous about interviewing you - that being said, by the time that you will actually go to an interview you will have had several months of exposure and will be able to talk about these experiences.

I recommend doing what you can do to get early exposure to diagnostic rads. I think that a rotation in IR is good, however, because you actually get to know the radiologist, and hopefully they will be able to write something personal on your behalf.

 

[fun8stuff]

I had some formal exposure to radiology during internal medicine because we do weekly radiology lectures during 3rd year IM. However, I am not taking IR until Sept-Oct (after apps go in) and a formal general radiology course until later in the semester. Do you think that would look bad? My scheduled has turned out so that it is almost impossible for me to work around it 🙁.

I don't think it matters. You had to have visited the radiology reading room a few times during 3rd year, talked with a radiologist, etc. This combined with the lectures should be more than enough to spark an interest in the field. I know people who matched without every doing a rad elective... not to mention all the people who switched from other careers like surgery. If you have the grades and test scores and can demonstrate and talk about why you want to do radiology and what you can contribute to the field, then you'll be fine.

You usually don't do much during a diagnostic rad rotation, other than shadow... and rad residencies know this. For this reason it is better to have outstanding LORs from IM, surgery attendings than rads unless you did research with a rad attending... otherwise, they really can't comment on your work ethic in that LOR other than "radsgirl was really nice and did a real good job of shadowing during her DR rotation".

 

[UCLAstudent]

It would be better to take something earlier. During a few interviews, I was specifically asked whether I'd done any rotations in a radiology reading room (as opposed to just sitting through radiology lectures).