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.
I’m about to start applying to therapy residencies for 2024 - what are the things I should be looking for when I apply to them (I have only done my masters).
If it helps, here is how the user ranked programs. The user did it based on how they scored in their priority list, which was, in descending order:
- Resident support from staff/overall fit
- Education structure
- Location
- Reputation
- Modalities
- Senior residents (whether or not the user would be happy to work with them)
- ABR Preparedness
- Overall work/life balance
Of course, the user's list may be different from others, and it was noted that the user is an international student as well. When the user was given the opportunity to ask questions, they always made sure to ask at least one related to each of their priorities in an interview.
The user also recommended attending the residency fair at AAPM if the user will be there, and/or the virtual residency fair offered in early fall. Both are great ways to help programs know the user's name and face before applications even start, and will help the user grow familiarity with programs and residency in general. Programs will write down the names of people who attend their sessions, so it’s a good foot in the door!
Hello, the user has a couple of questions.
1) To do clinical work yes, the user cannot get ABR certification without residency. Work experience would help the user get a residency though.
2) The program itself, no. But if the user does work, research while attending it then those counts, of course.
3) Somewhat same as MDs do, but there are some off-match residencies, which are more like job positions. For the match, the user applies to all places they want and then does interviews with the ones that are interested in them. After that, the user does a ranking process, where they rank programs on how much they want to go there. If the user is geographically bound to SD it diminishes their chances by a lot, as there's probably just a couple of residencies positions there. If the user wants a residency, which are competitive, they might want to consider moving for a couple of years.
Hello, the user has a couple of questions.
1) Requirements for taking the ABR board certification exam can be found at https://www.theabr.org/medical-physics/initial-certification/part-1-exam/requirements-application
2) For most programs, you go through the Medical Physics matching program, similar to how MDs get matched to residency programs. In a nutshell:
- select several residency programs you'd like to attend
- apply
- interview
- rank the programs
The programs you interview with will also rank the applicants they interviewed. All of that goes into the match algorithm and theoretically each is paired with their top (or nearly top) ranked applicant/program.
There are also a few residency programs that don't participate in the match program. For those, you apply to them individually as you would with a normal job.
I don't know of any residency programs in SD, but you can find the list of CAMPEP residencies at https://campep.org/campeplstres.asp
What do the user need to be qualified as a medical physics assistant MPA? Do they need a BS in physics or do they need to get clinical experience?
BS in Physics is all it takes where the user works.
BS is sufficient at the user's place, but all of their current MPAs have MS.
The user is enrolled in a medphys MS and the hospital they are at required an MS to be an MPA.
Would public posts (e.g. on Blogspot, Gettr, LinkedIn, Mastodon, newspaper letters to the editor, Reddit, Substack, TruthSocial, Twitter) using the user's real name about political or controversial topics hurt their hiring ability (for university or private practice position), for example if they disagree with LGBT philosophy, or if they promote ownership of firearms, or more generally if they disagree with any aspect of the Democratic Party platform?
Hurt hiring ability...Probably. In many states in the US, the user can be legally fired for pretty much any reason outside race, religion, or sexuality. Same goes for hiring although it's probably really hard to prove that someone was not hired for one of the three reasons above.
So pretty much if the user is vocal about something, and the hiring party doesn't agree, they don't have to hire the user no matter how good they are at doing electron hand calcs. Is it fair? Who knows.
On the flip side, if the user finds that their views agree with hiring physicists they might favor that more. But if they are in the minority it would be harder to find.
As to the user's last point, and I'm sure they may know what I'm talking about, I recall a particular meme on the meme page that may be the most downvoted MedPhysMeme of all time. It has since been deleted by the OP (albeit recently) but it was basically opposing boycotting the AAPM in Texas by saying no physicists cared. Based off the number of upvotes (or lack thereof) it seemed like many physicists cared (at least in the Meme Page). Now Reddit is not an accurate representation of the political spectrum of America so do not base all your decisions off of that.
Also, the user doesn't have to post this question in the career thread. I'm sure more physicists will read it on the main sub.
Would public posts (e.g. on Blogspot, Gettr, LinkedIn, Mastodon, newspaper letters to the editor, Reddit, Substack, TruthSocial, Twitter) using the user's real name about political or controversial topics hurt their hiring ability (for university or private practice position), for example if they disagree with LGBT philosophy, or if they promote ownership of firearms, or more generally if they disagree with any aspect of the Democratic Party platform?
Hurt hiring ability...Probably. In many states in the US, the user can be legally fired for pretty much any reason outside race, religion, or sexuality. Same goes for hiring although it's probably really hard to prove that someone was not hired for one of the three reasons above.
So pretty much if the user is vocal about something, and the hiring party doesn't agree, they don't have to hire the user no matter how good they are at doing electron hand calcs. Is it fair? Who knows.
On the flip side, if the user finds that their views agree with hiring physicists they might favor that more. But if they are in the minority it would be harder to find.
As to the user's last point, and I'm sure they may know what I'm talking about, I recall a particular meme on the meme page that may be the most downvoted MedPhysMeme of all time. It has since been deleted by the OP (albeit recently) but it was basically opposing boycotting the AAPM in Texas by saying no physicists cared. Based off the number of upvotes (or lack thereof) it seemed like many physicists cared (at least in the Meme Page). Now Reddit is not an accurate representation of the political spectrum of America so do not base all your decisions off of that.
Also, the user doesn't have to post this question in the career thread. I'm sure more physicists will read it on the main sub.
To people that have entered clinical jobs, how much of the theory you did on your masters was useful? The user is doing some modules that they can say ‘I see where that will be useful’ but then there are others that look like they were put in for the sake of it or to make up credits.
The user's Masters degree provided a general foundation upon which everything was built -- it was all important in that sense.
Hi everyone, apologies if this is not the type of questions/too much for what you want on these threads!
The user is based in Melbourne and nearly finished with a PhD in particle physics and is having a bit of a ~~crisis~~ think about what they want to do post PhD. As much as they love particle physics, they feel like they want to end up doing something more immediately helpful to other people, whether that is moving into renewable energy, medical physics, etc. The user's subfield is in detectors/instrumentation which from what they understand has some significant overlaps with some parts of the medical physics field (radiation detection etc).
So the user is seeing if anyone has any experience in this type of career shift. If it helps too, the user also has an electrical engineering degree from before their PhD.
I went from Nuclear Physics (which was heavy in particle physics) to Medical Physics. I was doing research for a project at Fermilab as a grad student and I realized that it wasn't for me. I spent 2 years in grad school for physics before making the jump though so I wasn't close to my PhD.
I'm in the US, but if I were to go anywhere international, Australia would be it for Medical Physicists. In the US, the user can get their PhD in another field and take a 1-year certificate course in Medical Physics (from a certified University) and be eligible to take their board exams. This is a route that many people do. Some PhDs are better than others, and in my opinion, Particle Physics is about as close as you can possibly get.
I would recommend following a medical physicist nearby around for a few days and learn about their job before applying. Make sure it is something the user wants to do. It was the right call for me personally but a few of my colleagues from the Nuclear days just weren't interested in Medical Physics as much as I was.
What PhD and MS programs/departments are best for pursuing diagnostic imaging? The user knows it is less common than therapy so they want to know what programs to look into.
MD Anderson, Wisconsin, Duke are kind of the general top programs for MP but they are strong in imaging as well. Not quite sure about MS level programs that are well known for imaging.
I'll second this. As a therapy physicist, these are the top that come to mind for Imaging.
Go to campep.org for a list of accredited programs and look at them all. They are not that many.
Canadian programs are more rigorous in terms of pure physics, but Canadians are coming to the USA due to lack of positions in Canada (at least for therapy; dunno if true for diagnostic).
The decision might come down to where the user wants to live (research the city and its politics and quality of life).
Does anyone have campep grad school acceptance stats? As in how many applied for the grad program, how many were accepted, how many attended, how many of those got a residency, et cetera?
I think I saw something a while ago showing just that but I can’t seem to find it now
https://www.campep.org/PublicDisclosure.asp I wish CAMPEP would update this. Individual programs are required to publish their stats on their websites as well, so I'd look there for more recent data.
Shame it’s not updated, but this is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!
https://www.ucd.ie/cphm/mscinmedicalphysics/campepaccreditation/
This information is specific to the course the user is doing in Dublin. It’s a little bit vague but might give them an idea.
https://www.sdampp.org/resources.php
SDAMPP publishes reports that cover most of those stats although for specific institutions the user will need to refer to that graduate program's admissions page.
Original URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/MedicalPhysics/comments/13j1y5n/training_tuesday_weekly_thread_for_questions/