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.
Generally, do you recommend medical physics as a good career path? Are there residencies, jobs? I'm in the metro Detroit area.
Where can I get good sources or books about interaction of radiation with matter and Radiation Dosimetry?
Reposting here, should have posted here before
Hi physicists! Do you think MPA is more advantageous when it comes to application for residency? (I work in Asia)
I recently got an offer for the post of oncology technician. It is a new post in their department, so I believe the duties are like that of MPA.
I am currently working as a FSE. If I’m switching to the technician post, I would be taking a salary cut (like a 10% drop). It is really puzzling and I cannot make a decision.
Thank you in advance all irradiators!
When evaluating for residency and seeing that the candidate has worked as an MPA, it is typically assumed that they have a good idea of what it's like to be a medical physicist and will continue to try their best to finish residency and become board certified (in the US). It still requires other good things on their residency application, but it eliminates most doubts that they will not have their heart set on medical physics.
I don't know how things are in Asia, but to my knowledge, having MPA experience helps with residency generally. I can't comment on the relative weight of each experience since I've never been an FSE.
You will likely be presenting in some fashion your whole career as a medical physicist.
It really is up to the professor how they prefer to evaluate. A few I experienced in my program: two exams per semester + participation, no exams + several project-sized practical homeworks + final project, standard 4 exams + regular homeworks + group presentation.
Ultimately, presentations are an extremely useful thing to be good at. You learn to express complex ideas in digestible pieces to a broad audience. Also, currently in my residency, while I am not graded on presentations, they do form a significant portion of my program. I have a 45-minute long presentation in front of my co-residents and program directors roughly every 4 weeks on relevant topics, plus an hour-long presentation for the whole physics department of recent scientific literature that they might be interested in. It can be a lot, but it certainly develops key skills we need to excel as physicists in a clinic.
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Have you tried shadowing any medical physicists at an academic institution nearby? They may have some insight.
That should be fine. Undergrad research that's strictly medical physics might be kind of uncommon, to be honest. I certainly didn't have any labs at my undergrad that I could have joined.
Hello, I am new to this sub. 24 years old, just finished 6 years in the Navy as a nuclear reactor operator, starting BS in physics in January 23.
I am considering MS in medical physics (I know, it's pretty early), but have concerns about residency programs that I'm having difficulty finding results on Google.
Is there still a mass shortage of residency programs compared to recent graduates?
As someone with scientific operations experience, does that put me in a better spot when applying for residency programs?
If you are considering an MS only and not a PhD, try applying to grad schools known for their clinical medical physics programs. I started Medical Physics MS program at 27 and ended up matching to my first choice (although I may not have been my program's first choice).
As an evaluator of residency candidates, I do put Navy Nucs in high regard for an initial interview, which is 75% of the battle. If you get a bunch of interviews, then you'll likely get a residency. The numbers for the Match are low (like 60%), but the number of applicants that have no business applying is IMO 20%.
Last word of advice, shadow medical physicists before applying to grad school. Make sure you actually enjoy the field. Plus, they'll give you insights into which schools are good and may write you a letter of recommendation.
The MedPhys Match publishes statistics regarding match rates every year:
https://natmatch.com/medphys/statistics.html
The match rate has seemed to plateau around 60% over the last few years. Depending on who you ask, the percentage of 'acceptable applicants' who match is a more realistic expectation of matching rates for a typical graduate from a CAMPEP program, which improves that percentage considerably.
Whether those rates will improve in the future is, unfortunately, hard to predict. I'm also not sure there's a consensus on whether there needs to be more accredited residencies or fewer matriculating graduate students. Given that, anecdotally, I've heard the job market seems to be an applicants market at the moment (at least on the therapy side), I would put my money on the former.
I will say this as an individual with a similar background to you. With a BS in physics (not a BSNET), your relevant work experience from the nuke field, and if you graduate from a clinically oriented masters program with decent matching rates, I think you would be a very competitive candidate. If you publish or have research experience in your application, I would be surprised if you didn't match, assuming at least average LoR's, CV, interviews, etc.
Thanks for the reply! Very helpful. Also, glad to hear you didn't go for the BSNET. Too many nukes take that route because they give you so many credits right away, but end up very limited career-wise.
It's certainly a lot better than 2015. I think that the experience will help with your application somewhat, but I think what you do during grad school will be more impactful by a lot.
Original URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/MedicalPhysics/comments/z7s38k/training_tuesday_weekly_thread_for_questions/