[Training Tuesday] - Weekly thread for questions about grad school, residency, and general career topics 07/19/2022

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.

Examples:

Comments:

  1. Hello there! New to Reddit but wanted to get some perspective on applying to therapy residences with a CAMPEP-accredited BME PhD. Even though my doctoral work has been clinical, involving fluorescence guided surgery and MRI-guided surgery, with 7+ publications, I haven't touched RadOnc research! And I am worried about demonstrating my passion to be a therapy MP. Most successful residency candidates appear to be MSc students with highly focused RT involvement or PhD students who have RT-related research projects. Now I am spending a ton of time shadowing, but I know it's not equivalent to RadOnc research or experience.

    Any advice or similar stories of successfully transitioning to a therapy residency program?

    Thanks!

  2. Hi everyone! I'm somewhat new to this field, I'm currently an astrophysics major in my undergrad but the more I learn about medical physics the more I think I'll pursue it in my graduate.

    My question - what's the difference between the campep route and getting a medical physics certificate?

    1. CAMPEP route is shorter, as you don't need to waste time doing the certificate and so you can get a residency faster. Also, I would think that employers prefer CAMPEP graduates...might bring some more prestige and the security that they learner what they needed to do the job.
    2. I see. I believe to chase a certificate you already need a PhD in a related discipline, correct? Whereas campep works more so like a basic graduate program?
      1. That's kinda how it goes. to get a certificate you need a PhD in related discipline (Biomedical Eng, Physics, and even non-CAMPEP medical physics PhDs) as you said. CAMPEP has accredited masters and PhD programs in medical physics that puts you in route for a residency without the need to waste a year getting the certificate. So if you know you want to do MedPhys, just go CAMPEP route, if you are unsure, you can do a PhD in related field and decide to do a certificate down the line as well.
      2. I see, although I’ve read that a getting a job and residency through campep is significantly easier than getting a certificate.
        1. Oh yeah, CAMPEP graduates should get residencies easier, as program directors knows what you have been taught, as CAMPEP makes it "even"

  3. I’m an international student (Indian) graduating with a PhD next month in ECE. I’m planning to join a postdoc position for about 2 years get the CAMPEP certification and then apply for therapeutic residency. Does anyone know if most of the residency programs provide H1B sponsorship? Based on my plan I’ll need some other sort of sponsorship in the 2nd year of residency. Thank you!

    Also, is there a ranking for therapeutic residencies?

    1. I am an Indian F1 student myself. Based on what I’ve heard only 2-3 will be willing to do the paperwork for your H1B. You need to understand something about matching, there’s no guarantee that you’ll be matched to that program specifically, so no OPT? I would say 99% you’re out of luck.
    2. Oh, yes OPT! MP RAP shows the schools that accepts international students, shoot them an email to see if they support H1B (mostly don't because it's expensive for them), the rest should be ok with OPT (you pay the 400$ and have 3 years to work, more than enough for residency).
    3. Out of all the residencies, about 60-70% I would say accept international students, and out of all the ones I got interviews with (12) only 1 would do H1B, most of them would do an OPT work authorization (for those students who graduated in the US). Also, no clear ranking, there's schools that are more clinical, others that are research heavy, but they are all CAMPEP so all are good, depends on how you think you'd fit.

  4. I know Medical Physics programs are mainly graduate programs, but has anyone taken an undergraduate program in Medical Physics.

    I'm heading into my senior year of high school and was looking around for programs and undergrad-med-phys is something I'm considering.

    1. Med Phys is essentially a graduate level program with CAMPEP requirements as others have discussed. Some schools might have a sub-matriculation program where you can combine the masters program with undergrad in 5 years instead of the usual 4+2. UPenn used to have one, but not certain after the program was restructured recently. Even without sub matriculation you may be able to take courses that count towards the degree and transfer credits to the graduate degree.
    2. I did my MS at LSU and there were a couple of undergrads in some of my classes through their Med Phys program: https://www.lsu.edu/physics/undergraduate-programs/medical-health-physics.php . But like someone else said, it's not essential to have medical physics as an undergrad.
    3. In the US all you need is CAMPEP which is for graduate programs. As far as know no MP undergrad majors exist (even if they did they wouldn't really matter, since CAMPEP is just grad), so your major could be in anything as long as it meets CAMPEP requirements.
      1. What are the undergrad requirements? When I Google “campep requirements” it’s just a list of things you actually need to do during grad school
        1. http://campep.org/GraduateStandards.pdf
  5. [deleted]

  6. My advice would be to enjoy your summer; catch up on some hobbies, hang out with people you want to. They'll teach you what you need to know during your program.

    (Programming is always a welcome skill so if you **like** programming, do some of that)

  7. Many people would say Khan’s the Physics of Radiation therapy

    How could I prepare myself for a better profile in order to gain residency?

    More about me:

    I am doing my 2nd year master in part time. In my country, people just need a master degree in related field (eg. physics, engineering) before they apply for residency. I have seen quite a lot of residents who have experiences in fixing linac/CT MRI. However, my job is not related to radiation and I feel that I do not have any edges.

  8. Starting my MS next month. Have ML Experience in Image Segmentation but interested in Therapy. What research projects are highly coveted that I can take now? Which will help down the line securing a Residency?

    Any research on linac, brachytherapy, dosimeters...really anything on the field works. Work experience on the job of the medical physicist, so maybe shadowing one or working as a junior one in a cancer center are very important as well (my friend got a residency with no research, just working as junior physicist).

Original URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/MedicalPhysics/comments/w2pxu4/training_tuesday_weekly_thread_for_questions/