RadOnc – Premed Curriculum?

[TehFrr]

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I just discovered this forum (Radiation Oncology) the other day, and upon reading the FAQs I did not see an answer to my question, so my apologies if it’s somewhat of a repeat.

Anyways, the whole reason I am interested in going to medical school is to eventually work in the field of radiation oncology. I have been fascinated with radioactivity since I was a child; I have a genuine interest in the field. That combined with the fact that a huge source of inspiration in my life was from an oncologist, I feel it is a perfect fit.

After reading more about the discipline, I am bummed to learn that it is such a competitive area to get into, especially considering I haven’t even gotten into medical school yet! Since I am passionate about radioactivity and nuclear energy, I have been working towards learning as much as possible about it during my premed years. The track I’m on is as follows:

B.S. Nuclear Engineering
M.S. Radiation Health Physics
M.D. / Med School

That being said, will 6-7 years of education concentrating on all things radioactive give me a significant advantage when the time comes? Or for the most part is it all about med school performance and numbers? Regardless that’s my plan and I’m sticking to it since it is what I really love (and I’m already 4 years into it).

Thanks!

 

[stephew]

those things will certainly help. Good luck.

 

[f_w]

Why add the M.S. if you want to go to medschool ? Many radoncs seem to have engineering or physics undergrad degrees, so nuclear engineering sounds like a good plan. Just make sure you have the required courses for premed in your curriculum and try to ace the MCAT. Unless you really want to do the MS for your own entertainment, you might want to give medschool a shot earlier. (consider looking for a job with one of the equipment manufacturers once you have your BS. You might be able to make a couple of useful contacts.)

 

[ronmexico]

Why add the M.S. if you want to go to medschool ? Many radoncs seem to have engineering or physics undergrad degrees, so nuclear engineering sounds like a good plan. Just make sure you have the required courses for premed in your curriculum and try to ace the MCAT. Unless you really want to do the MS for your own entertainment, you might want to give medschool a shot earlier. (consider looking for a job with one of the equipment manufacturers once you have your BS. You might be able to make a couple of useful contacts.)

yea i totally agree on the go ahead and get in med school approach. if you are sold on getting another degree, go for an md/phd at a place with a radonc program and do your phd work accordingly. this would just tack a couple of years onto med school, instead of before med school.

 

[f_w]

One more thing: The competitiveness of specialties such as radonc, rads and anesthesia can change over time. 6-8 years ago, you could walk into residencies in all these specialties, who knows how radonc will look like 6-8 years from now..

 

[DrBowtie]

It does seem like a waste to do the M.S. You might as well just do an MD/PhD in a related field or just do Rad Onc research to help your app.

 

[TehFrr]

Thanks for all the replies, I appreciate it.

The advice on just going on to med school after the BS makes a lot of sense; however, it is not feasible for me, I will still have med school prerequisites to finish up. (major math deficiencies when I first started put me a little behind, MCAT will be taken right before I graduate). I was more looking at the MS as something productive to do while I finish up the last of my prerequisites.

 

[DrBowtie]

You might want to check the requirements for the MS. They might include the prereqs anyway. Secondly, do you think you would have time to finish up for pre-reqs while taking a full MS load?

Just some things to think about.

 

[TehFrr]

Yeah, that’s why I’m thinking the RHP would be a wise choice; it does in fact include the few remaining prerequisites anyways, along with other useful things such as A&P and statistics 😀