107 Rad Onc spots this year?????

[AJG]

Congrats to all that matched! Did you see on the NRMP website (check the My Reports section for regional match statistics) that there were 107 PGY2 rad onc spots this year. I thought there was going to only be 85 or so. What gives? Anyone know why more spots were offerred this year and if this trend will continue in the near future?

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[clueless1]

Does that mean there will be fewer spots next year?

 

[AJG]

c'mon folks, 137 views but only 1 response. Let's make this an active forum again!

 

[AnnK73]

I was surprised to see that there were that many more spots this year. It did seem like the programs I interviewed with were taking more people on average this year. My guess is that it relates to the fact that rad onc became suddenly more popular about 4-5 years ago so programs grabbed a few extra that year, and now they are graduating. Whatever the reason, a lot of programs seem to be lopsided with different numbers of residents in each class. I didn't hear much talk about programs having recently increased their size so my guess is that it will return to a more typical number of spots next year. Altho, I think alot of residencies might like to increase their size and with the good job market and the great applicants, maybe they will succeed in getting approved for more spots. Any other thoughts?

 

[AJG]

Maybe the reason that the number of match spots increased this year is that now more programs are going through the match. I know many rad onc programs used to routinely offer spots outside the match (e.g. Medical College of Wisconsin) which presumably would not show up in the match statistics. With the field so competitive now, I think most programs are now going through the match which makes the number of spots look greater, even though the number of spots has not increased. This is just a theory and I would like to hear what everyone else has to think. I wonder if the 107 spots offerred this year is just a consequence of more institutions going through the match. What does everyone think?

 

[AJG]

I just went to the Association of Residents in Radiation Oncology (ARRO) website, www.arro.org, and added up all the positions in all the radiation oncology programs in the United States and divided by 4 to get the approximate number of PGY2 positions. The number comes out to 130 positions. So, maybe 107 positions offerred through the match this year does not indicate an increase in the total number of positions offerred, but is rather an artifact of more programs going through the match.

 

[Spyder]

I don't know about the match spots vs. pre-ordained spots
issue, but there are certainly more spots this year than last.
At the end, there were 83 spots last year. If there were a
100+ this year, that's significant. I was told by a PD that
sat on the residency committee last year that they were
trying to expand programs and increase spots since there
was an impending shortage of rad/onc docs caused by the
closure of programs and spots in the last decade. Along with
increasing retirement, which should accelerate I'm told.
Apparently some prognosticator said that rad/onc was dead,
that any day now cancer would be cured, again. So, there
was a reduction in spots that subsequently turned out to
be based on BS. Last year, there were a number of programs
in the southeast at least, that didn't offer any spots even
though they had programs. UNC, and all the VA schools
for instance. It could have been outside the match stuff, but
I suspect they just got greedy with the pool of stellar applicants
in the last couple of years and didn't know how long it would
last, filled up their openings and closed their doors. Now that
the rush seems to be prolonged, they have spots open again
and maybe new ones based on the residency committee's
recs. Well tomorrow is match day. I hope that all of you that
are trying to match this year find yourselves happy at days
end. Look forward to seeing you at future rad/onc conferences.
Personally I can't wait till this damn internship year is over
and I get to do what I truly want. For those that get a spot,
I do pity you for the next year of crap that you will endure.
Why do we have to do the prelim year?