What are my chances of matching in rads? Please help?

[Swimmer122]

Hi,

I am a 4th year medical student at an ivy league university (ivy league undergrad, ivy league med school) with a step 1-229, step 2-248, and my grades in radiology electives were not great: Satisfactory in my core Radiology elective, and Satisfactory in my advanced radiology elective. (My school has high honors/honors/pass/fail grading). I still want to pursue radiology but I know I am not the most competitive applicant. I have been told to apply to 30-40 places... Where should I apply? Wondering if I have a chance at matching?

Would greatly appreciate any advice on this matter!

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[Rzarecta]

Hi,

I am a 4th year medical student at an ivy league university (ivy league undergrad, ivy league med school) with a step 1-229, step 2-248, and my grades in radiology electives were not great: Satisfactory in my core Radiology elective, and Satisfactory in my advanced radiology elective. (My school has high honors/honors/pass/fail grading). I still want to pursue radiology but I know I am not the most competitive applicant. I have been told to apply to 30-40 places... Where should I apply? Wondering if I have a chance at matching?

Would greatly appreciate any advice on this matter!

Okay so your clinical grades are alright (looked at your previous post). When you say Ivy League med school, do you mean one of the "top 10s?" I think your chances would be pretty good at getting into a program, but if you haven't applied by now you need to get on that ASAP. At this point I am pretty sure that your application will be considered somewhat late at many places. Do you have all of your LORs, transcripts, etc uploaded onto ERAS?

 

[Swimmer122]

Thanks for your reply. My med school is definitely a top-10 ivy-league school. All my eras stuff is uploaded except I am waiting for the LOR's to be uploaded (they are completed though, just not yet uploaded by the student affairs' office). Tonight I applied to over 40programs... wondering if I need to apply to more?

Unfortunately, there is not good advising at my school, so I am not really sure what programs might be good fit? I applied to many community hospital programs to be on safe side? My family is on east coast, so I would prefer to stay there but I am willing to go anywhere if that is what it takes. Do you have any suggestions?

I didn't know my application would be late? I was under the impression that middle september - early october was ok?

Thank you so much for your help!

 

[Taurus]

You have good chance to match. Maybe not to the top tier programs but good program nevertheless.

I would apply to as many programs as you can afford. 40? 80? 100? Point is, don't be cheap. You don't want to be cheap now and have to reapply next year. Or worse, you'll have to do IM or something.

 

[Swimmer122]

Thanks for your help. I applied to 60 radiology programs. Are there programs in particular you would recommend? I would greatly appreciate any specific advice/suggestions!

 

[Rzarecta]

Thanks for your help. I applied to 60 radiology programs. Are there programs in particular you would recommend? I would greatly appreciate any specific advice/suggestions!

60 sounds like plenty, just as long as your list is filled with a variety of programs (1/3 rule- 1/3 reaches, 1/3 competitive, 1/3 "safeties"). I think your school name will get you some love in this process. Any notable ECs?

 

[Swimmer122]

Thanks for the advice/encouragement. Does EC stand for extra-curriculars? I do have a significant interest in the arts (I did a graduate degree in the arts before coming to med school), and have won a few awards for this during my time in medical school. I included that in my application.