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.
Comment 1: I'm currently applying for a NIH F31. Does anyone have any experience/tips/advice with this? Do residencies ever significantly factor in your history of research funding when evaluating applicants?
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Response 1: Any pre-graduate research experience is good experience. All of my undergrad experience was in a psychiatry lab and it worked out fine for me.
Comment 2: I have a bachelors in physics that i finished last year in a french system university (in a francophone country)with good academic standing, is there a chance i can make it into a phd program in a us university? I come from a poor family so getting into a phd instead of a masters is my only chance at continuing my education, and i'm really interested in medical physics as a field, especially that it is an applied physics field which interests me more than theoretical stuff. Any insights/advice is appreciated.
Response 1: Your Reddit history indicates you are likely from Lebanon. There are some good physics faculty at Lebanese universities. They should be able to point you to something and be of some help, even if not specifically for medical physics. Some of them earned PhDs at top schools in Europe or elsewhere, so it is possible. That also means they know faculty in European, US, etc., universities quite well. If you know what exactly you want to do, that will help. Identifying people you want to work with will help. The PhD is a research degree, and research experience will help with your application. So doing some research locally or abroad would help. The closer to the subfield you are interested in, the better. But any research experience that is meaningful is useful for a PhD application. Whatever research or clinical work you can do would help. I know the situation in Lebanon is not good right now and might make the gaining of research and clinical experience very difficult.
Response 2: Thank you! That clears some things up.
Comment 3: I just went through the process over the last few years, and while the admission numbers for getting into a Ph.D. program can be intimidating, it is not impossible to get in from a bachelor's. The two main factors that make or break an application are previous experience in Medical Physics and how well you can speak about your experiences. If you have no experience in the field of Medical Physics/Nuclear Physics/Biomedical Engineering, it may be an uphill battle to prove to admissions committees that you are committed to the field. There are ways to gain experience, I would definitely reach out to a local hospital for shadowing opportunities if possible. Medical Physics Assistant roles are available here in the US, but I am not sure if that is the case in France. You also need to make sure you know what end goal you have in mind as a Medical Physicist. Do you want to work clinically in the US? Then you must go to a CAMPEP-accredited program. If you would rather work in academia, your options are much more broad. I would definitely try to reach out to a physicist locally to see if you can shadow or even ask questions, because (at least in the US) if you want to work clinically you must do a 2-year residency after you graduate from a graduate program.
Response 1: Thanks a lot! I prefer going into the clinical part of the field, that's why i was thinking about US programs, because a campep accredited program would open up a whole lot of opportunities.
Comment 4: I know ABR gives a topic list for ABR 2 (5 main areas), my question is...do all topics carry equal weight in the exam or can you expect one topic heavier than the others?
Original URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/MedicalPhysics/comments/14e80d2/training_tuesday_weekly_thread_for_questions/