Publications

[echod]

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I have several questions...

1. What percentage of applicants have "accepted" first author publications in the field of Rad Onc or oncology at the time of application submission/interviews? How about 1st author non-onc research?

2. Can PhD (non onc), 4 pubs (2 first author; 1 in rad onc), and >250 step I compensate for average clinical grades? By average, I mean 50th percentile.

3. Is 4 pub (2 first author) enough for a MD/PhD applying to Rad Onc?

Thanks a lot!

 

[napoleondynamite]

Nope. I think 5 is the cutoff if you are MD/PhD. Sorry to tell you that you will not match 🙁

 

[napoleondynamite]

The 250 will also relegate you to lower-tier unfortunately..265 is kind of the standard these days...

 

[RSAOaky]

Anecdotally, a classmate of mine has a 250s step 1, non-onc phd in which he was fairly productive, and was junior AOA. He applied to maybe 40 places and got 20 interviews, went on somewhere in the mid teens, all at middle to top tier places. He did one away and all his letters were from his home institution. Top 50 med school. Myself, 250s step 1, no phd, no AOA (2nd quartile), no submitted publications but a couple projects in the works (nothing even submitted by the end of application season), a couple abstracts, and an oral presentation at ASTRO. Did one away, had a couple letters from big names, applied everywhere, got 13 interviews and went on 11. Both of us matched, I think you fall somewhere in between so I'd say you'll be fine.

 

[RadOncDoc21]

No I agree with Napolean on this one, >265 and 5 publications is the minimal now a days... You don't have a shot at all!

 

[Neuronix]

I had a similar app. If you have time, it may be worth pursuing a radiation oncology clinical project. Ask around your home department. They can often be completed in short periods of time.

If you had a 220 step 1 this would be more difficult. Your grades don't need to be perfect for a lot of the less competitive academic programs, many of which are fairly big name.

 

[Sheldor]

I have several questions...

1. What percentage of applicants have "accepted" first author publications in the field of Rad Onc or oncology at the time of application submission/interviews? How about 1st author non-onc research?

2. Can PhD (non onc), 4 pubs (2 first author; 1 in rad onc), and >250 step I compensate for average clinical grades? By average, I mean 50th percentile.

3. Is 4 pub (2 first author) enough for a MD/PhD applying to Rad Onc?

Thanks a lot!

So you are in luck in that you will get to see the Charting Outcomes for 2013 once its released, which should give you an updated idea of what is going on in the field. I can't speak to what is expected of a PhD applicant, but I've heard one publication per year you've been working on your PhD, for what thats worth.

My experience on the trail this year was so mixed, I truly have no idea what is important. I had a lot of oral presentations, posters, awards, etc, but had only two submitted manuscripts, one that was accepted during the interview trail. I think if I were to do it over again I would have been more of a hard ***** with my research mentors about getting at least 2 first author publications in Rad Onc by the time apps went out. But, C'est la vie. I found out on Monday I matched, and so I'm just thankful to join this great field 🙂

 

[medstud200]

I think you are an above-average applicant, given most MD-PhD's seem to have lower Step I scores than 250 as far as our PD has mentioned.

In terms of publications, I would say it depends where they were published. In some basic science journals take a heck of a lot of work to just publish one paper. If these papers were in a first or second tier science journals, I predict that most (not all) of your interviewers will appreciate that. Having said that, I would encourage you to try and have one or more Rad onc papers in the pipeline before applying.

Finally, as others have said, you have a lot of control over where to do your aways, letters etc... these factors are very important to you app and can shift your application in either directions.

 

[hot sauce]

I had a similar app. If you have time, it may be worth pursuing a radiation oncology clinical project. Ask around your home department. They can often be completed in short periods of time.

If you had a 220 step 1 this would be more difficult. Your grades don't need to be perfect for a lot of the less competitive academic programs, many of which are fairly big name.

As another recent MD/PhD applicant I agree 100%. You want to have at least one rad onc project. It improves your application a lot and gives you something to talk about the interviewer is interested in. Talking about non rad onc basic science can result in loosing the interest of the interviewer. You can still talk about it but it is nice to have something the interviewer is going to relate to talk about as well.