what are my chances

[unregistered]

I am a third year med student at us med school. I am waiting for board scores to come back, ordinary student first two years. But I have a fair amount of research in oncology (NCI for roughly a year), neuroscience (NINDS for a summer), various biotech companies), and currently working in neurooncology lab on and off (I consider the head of the lab to be a mentor). I think I will get a couple of publications (not first author)/ couple of posters/ and hopefully get to present at a national meeting-- due to my work in the neuroncology lab. I was wondering if I get a score of above 220, would I have a realistic chance at matching in rad onc, I have a specific interest in CNS and head neck tumors/ targeted delivery. Just curious.....

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[radonc]

first, you should read posts from about 6-12 months ago for more information.

getting a residency of your choice is a game. whoever plays it best will get a spot. whether its PMR or derm. (depending on how competitive the residency is, you may not have a choice of location though!)

research, scores, contacts/letters, i believe, are the 3 most important components to your application. research helps, publishing is better, and presenting is icing on the cake. with respect to scores, you need to get as high a score is possible, but getting above the mean is ok. finally, its who you know. you need to have people make calls, write great letters, and make a pitch for you. you are gonna have to do away rotations, etc. finally, you have to be on top of everything...your research, your applications,etc

hope this helps

 

[stephew]

Be careful of the "Who you know" issue; its actually really not so much that; Ive seen the kids of prominant rad onc docs fail to match because they we're strong enough. I would say that you have to impress-and get to know people that way. DO a great rotation or two, including an outside rotation and get some great letters from prominant people. Those will go a long way.