I am trying to see what my chances are in matching in rad Onc. I am a current 4th year student with Step 1 240. Med school GPA 4.0., Honors in all clinical rotations to date and very solid extracurricular activities. However, I don't have any Rad Onc research pubs. In fact, I havent done research since undergrad but was never published. I am in a small medical school with no home residency program so I know that does not help. I was wondering what you guys thought my chances would be in the upcoming 2010 match.
No Rad Onc research
- Thread starter doub
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IMO, It's crucial to show an interest in this field in order to successfully match. This is best demonstrated by pursuing clinical electives in radiation oncology (and getting LOR's from those rotations) along with performing rad onc research.
Numbers do mean something in this field at the initial stage, but unlike many other highly competitive fields, research counts for quite a bit. If you are seriously interested, I would go ahead and do a couple of rad onc electives, and try to get a research project going at a nearby institution (if you have one nearby). Your numbers are solid, but it's going to take more than numbers to match IMO.
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I agree with medgator. Having numbers is nice but if you don't have ANY research it will be a big problem. Coming from a school w/ no residency compounds this problem. It's still not to late to work on a project.
agreed.
