This is the place to ask questions about graduate school, training programs, or general basic career topics. If you are just learning about the field and want to know if it is something you should explore, this thread is probably the correct place for those first few questions on your mind.
Starting a medical physics residency out of state (Illinois). Must or should the user change their address for driver's license? After the 2-year program, the user has no specific plans to stay so they don't know if this counts as a "permanent" move. They didn't change driver's licenses for their out-of-state graduate program though that situation does seem different.
What the user got from browsing some of the medical residency subs is that it’s an even 50/50 split between those who change their license or not. Personally, they won’t be changing theirs because it’s a hassle and they have no plans of staying in the state their residency will be.
The two alternatives the user has seen people have coming into a graduate program is Nuclear Engineering and Computer Science. Of course, as long as the user has the equivalent of a minor in physics and a strong case for why they are choosing Medical Physics in their personal statement, it should not matter what their major is as long as it's a hard science major.
The user would say astrophysics is pretty good, and other good ones are Nuclear and Mechanical Engineering. They would also advise the user to try to take an anatomy class and stay on top of the physics requirements for the programs they are planning to apply.
The user graduated in astrophysics and it helped a lot, especially because of the radiation detectors class they took, which gave an overview of pretty much all methods of radiation detection for medical physics (just not ultrasound). In their opinion, they would advise the user to stay in Astrophysics if it's something they enjoy, and play their strengths on grad school applications.
The user recommends the user to take traditional physics classes and anatomy/chemistry. They also suggest looking for potential physics internships, but they acknowledge that anything for medical physics seems limited.
The user assures the user that the classes they have taken should be good. They also recommend taking a radiation detectors class and figuring out if they want to do therapy or imaging before grad school. They suggest broadening the search for anything related to imaging or therapy, as any experience will help a lot.
The user just finished undergrad with a degree in Biomedical Engineering and would prefer to work for a bit before starting grad school. They are wondering what job options would help them beef up their application. They already did a minor in physics and took all the recommended classes for the MSMP at Georgia Tech, but they'd really like to work 40 hours a week for a while and sort out some personal things for the next year or so.
One suggestion is to teach high school physics and calculus, as the people that interviewed the user in their PhD applications really liked that. For a Master's, it might be less beneficial, but it could help them land a teaching assistantship for funding. The user does not suggest an engineering job as it will be hard to get out of on their own time. If they're planning on taking more than a couple of years, they might be able to find a relevant engineering job that would help their application, but it's not recommended as the salary might be hard to leave. If they're planning on doing research, getting a research assistant job would be a good option. Otherwise, any sort of technical job they can find would be fine. Another user suggests working as a physics assistant or for a company that is highly involved in radiology or radiation oncology, but mentions that it might be hard to find such a specific job with just a bachelor's degree.
The user asks if medical physicists can get MRIs or CT scans for themselves whenever they'd like, clarifying that they are not saying it's a good or bad idea.
No, they need a physician's prescription to receive a diagnostic scan (e.g. MRI, CT, etc.).
Original URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/MedicalPhysics/comments/v1nmme/training_tuesday_weekly_thread_for_questions/