more rad onc questions

[14022]

I am at the end of my third year. I was planning on going into peds, and still may, but I have done quite well during medical school and want to look into other fields to which I have no gotten adequately exposed over the last 3 years. The most interesting is Rad Onc. I am from Chicago, and going back home is very very important to me. So important that I would consider just ranking those 4 programs and maybe 2-3 more in close cities (ie, milwaukee, ann arbor). If I did this, I would obviously need a back-up plan, which would most likely be Peds. Do most people apply to rad onc with a back up plan?

Also, can I apply to both peds and rad onc? Apply peds pgy1 and for a pgy2 rad onc spot. If I got both, would my peds intern year count for my intro year for rad onc? If I only get peds then my fate is decided and I go into peds. Is it possible to even match into both? I am sort of confused how the PGY2 specialty match works.

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[Gfunk6]

1. I don't know if most people apply to RadOnc with a backup plan, but many do. In the last match 2/3 students in my school who applied to RadOnc matched at their backup -- both in IM.

2. You can apply to both Peds (categorical) and RadOnc. However, few places will allow you to do just one year of Peds. In your case, it sounds like you have worked something out with your department which is nice.

3. RadOnc (in general) is pretty flexible in what counts as an intern year.

4. If you are applying for Peds (categorical) and RadOnc it is impossible to match into both. Either you get one or the other. The only exception, as I mentioned above, is if you convince your PD to take you for only an intern year of Peds. Then you can do a year of Peds + 4 years of RadOnc.

Good luck, we're all going to need it!