FAQ: What are my chances?

[FestiveHippo]

School: Mid-Tier US MD in Midwest
Step 1: Pass
Step 2: 254
Pre-clinical: P/F
Clinical grades: (H/P/F) 4 H (IM, Surg, OB, Psych), 3 P
Class ranking: N/A
AOA: No
Awards: GHHS, 3x merit scholarships, NIH Grant

Research:
5 Radiology/3D printing related projects (all are posters at regional and national conferences)
5 Publications: 2 first author, 1 second author, 2 middle author in unrelated fields
11 Posters (mostly 1st or 2nd author)
2 Oral presentations (1 at a national conference)

EC's:
Exec leadership in Radiology group, Student government, 3D printing
Lots of volunteering pre-clinically, had multiple jobs pre-med school

LORs:
1 IM 1 Surg 1 Rad (all reportedly strong letters)

Goal: academic program hopefully in Mountain/Pacific region, Chicago area, or near Atlanta (have ties to all these regions)
Overall wondering my chances this year and which programs would be worth signaling.

Thanks!

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[SeisK]

School: Low-tier US MD
Step 1: Pass
Step 2: 245 (was pretty bummed about this)
Pre-clinical: P/F
Clinical grades: 3 H, 3 HP
Class ranking: 2nd quartile
AOA: No

Research:
2 Radiology white paper cases
4 Publications: 1 Radiology (not 1st author), the rest in other fields (2 first author)
6 Presentations (oral, posters)

EC's:
Leadership in Radiology group.
A few volunteers before and during med school (really not my strong suit)

LORs:
1 IM 1 Surg 1 Rad

I am just wondering what is my chance since Radiology is getting insanely competitive. I do not fancy academic places given my step scores.
Appreciate truthful feedback

Radiology is increasingly competitive but not insanely so, at least not as of last year. You’ve demonstrated solid longitudinal radiology interest and your step score is decent for it. I’d apply broadly ranging from community to mid tier academic programs. Your odds are quite good I think.

 

[SeisK]

School: Mid-Tier US MD in Midwest
Step 1: Pass
Step 2: 254
Pre-clinical: P/F
Clinical grades: (H/P/F) 4 H (IM, Surg, OB, Psych), 3 P
Class ranking: N/A
AOA: No
Awards: GHHS, 3x merit scholarships, NIH Grant

Research:
5 Radiology/3D printing related projects (all are posters at regional and national conferences)
5 Publications: 2 first author, 1 second author, 2 middle author in unrelated fields
11 Posters (mostly 1st or 2nd author)
2 Oral presentations (1 at a national conference)

EC's:
Exec leadership in Radiology group, Student government, 3D printing
Lots of volunteering pre-clinically, had multiple jobs pre-med school

LORs:
1 IM 1 Surg 1 Rad (all reportedly strong letters)

Goal: academic program hopefully in Mountain/Pacific region, Chicago area, or near Atlanta (have ties to all these regions)
Overall wondering my chances this year and which programs would be worth signaling.

Thanks!

Same response as above, but might also be worth throwing in some high tiers you may be interested in.

 

[Ole_Toe]

Same response as above, but might also be worth throwing in some high tiers you may be interested in.

How do you recommend applicants determine which programs are high tier vs mid tier? Is doximity a good approximation or is there a better program ranking system that is more specific to rads. Thank you!

 

[MadRadLad]

How do you recommend applicants determine which programs are high tier vs mid tier? Is doximity a good approximation or is there a better program ranking system that is more specific to rads. Thank you!

Doximity is helpful in some ways, for example most people would generally agree on the top 10-20 with slight exceptions (the rankings themselves are not as helpful). Generally you can consider the top academic medical center (sometimes two) in a given city/region to be top tier. In your case, that would be UW, Northwestern, and Emory. Some may argue the semantics of the big names like UCSF, Hopkins, MGH etc being top tier vs these 3 being a tier below - but if you have goals in a region that becomes irrelevant. Mid tiers are generally lesser academic or semi-academic programs that still generally have good volume and complexity, state universities and big community/hybrid health systems.

 

[buddhistpriest]

School: Top 40 US MD
Step 1: Pass
Step 2: 256
Pre-clinical: Pass
Clinical grades: HP in FM, IM, OBGYN, Peds; P in Surgery and Peds; no honors
Class ranking: 3rd quartile
AOA: No
Awards: 2x merit scholarships

Research:
- 4 Publications: 1 first author, all in unrelated fields
- One case accepted to Case in Point and one case accepted to SPR Unknown Cases
- 1 Poster in unrelated field (first author and presented at national conference)
- 1 Oral presentation in unrelated field (presented at national conference)

EC's:
Started a radiology class, strong leadership (president of several orgs)
Lots of volunteering through clubs and free clinics
Tutored lowerclassmen medical students

LORs:
1 inpatient IM, 1 outpatient IM, 1 Rad (all reportedly strong letters)

Goal: anywhere in California, I'm from there
What are my chances as a male URM, and advice if I don't match?

Thanks!

 

[Ole_Toe]

School: Top 40 US MD
Step 1: Pass
Step 2: 256
Pre-clinical: Pass
Clinical grades: HP in FM, IM, OBGYN, Peds; P in Surgery and Peds; no honors
Class ranking: 3rd quartile
AOA: No
Awards: 2x merit scholarships

Research:
- 4 Publications: 1 first author, all in unrelated fields
- One case accepted to Case in Point and one case accepted to SPR Unknown Cases
- 1 Poster in unrelated field (first author and presented at national conference)
- 1 Oral presentation in unrelated field (presented at national conference)

EC's:
Started a radiology class, strong leadership (president of several orgs)
Lots of volunteering through clubs and free clinics
Tutored lowerclassmen medical students

LORs:
1 inpatient IM, 1 outpatient IM, 1 Rad (all reportedly strong letters)

Goal: anywhere in California, I'm from there
What are my chances as a male URM, and advice if I don't match?

Thanks!

Are you applying for next year? If so, I would definitely recommend doing some away rotations just given your interest in staying in California, which as you know is very competitive.. Two weeks is probably fine if you can swing it. Think about programs like UCD, Irvine, maybe even do an away at a less highly rated program if you have good ties to that particular area. Also, apply broadly, and be really smart with your signals. The geographic regions are super important imo, so think about what you want your other two geo regions to be, and probably apply to almost every program in those other regions; you're unlikely to get interviews outside your geo preferences and signals. What are you doing for the next year until you apply?

 

[SweetBurger]

Are you applying for next year? If so, I would definitely recommend doing some away rotations just given your interest in staying in California, which as you know is very competitive.. Two weeks is probably fine if you can swing it. Think about programs like UCD, Irvine, maybe even do an away at a less highly rated program if you have good ties to that particular area. Also, apply broadly, and be really smart with your signals. The geographic regions are super important imo, so think about what you want your other two geo regions to be, and probably apply to almost every program in those other regions; you're unlikely to get interviews outside your geo preferences and signals. What are you doing for the next year until you apply?

n=1 experience, but I received 7 interviews outside of my geo preference last season, so yes they matter (as i received more inside my geo) but its not impossible

 

[Detective SnowBucket]

Unmatched after applying 50+ DR programs and 1 IR program this cycle. Will be reapplying in September. I haven't wanted to go into any other specialty since I came into med school and I almost would rather leave medicine than go into something aside from radiology.
I waffled about IR vs DR over the whole 4 yrs and decided last minute to go almost solely DR. Think it bit me in the ass as I had an app that leaned more IR than DR so I only got 5 DR interviews and 1 IR interview and only matched a TY.
Anyways:
School: Solid state MD school.
Step 1: Pass
Step 2: 252
Pre-clinical: All pass and 1 high pass
Clinical grades: H in Obgyn, PC in psych & IM, the rest pass
Class ranking: no ranking
AOA: No
Awards: Small scholarship from school.

Research:
- 2 textbook chapters in pharmacology (random but I was told it was high reward so I applied for the team)
- 1 review article I wrote (3rd author) in college that got published when I was an M2
- 4 DR poster presentations from 1 long project (where I was anywhere from 1st to 4th author)
- 2 posters for DR case studies
- 1 poster from IR research
- I included a podium presentation I gave in college in humanities research because it was a plenary. idk it was cool.

EC's:
- VP of IR club
- Lots of sports and some niche hobbies that all the interviewers loved to hear about


LORs:
This might be where I messed up. 2 LORs from peds and 1 from IM, purportedly strong letters.
This time when I reapply, I will get one from my med school's IR PD and one from my TY's DR dept and only send the IR letter to the IR programs when I reapply.

I believe my PS was strong. It was reviewed by my school's IR PD and DR APD and they said it was good.

Goal: matched
What are my odds for round 2.

 

[bobjonesbob]

Unmatched after applying 50+ DR programs and 1 IR program this cycle. Will be reapplying in September. I haven't wanted to go into any other specialty since I came into med school and I almost would rather leave medicine than go into something aside from radiology.
I waffled about IR vs DR over the whole 4 yrs and decided last minute to go almost solely DR. Think it bit me in the ass as I had an app that leaned more IR than DR so I only got 5 DR interviews and 1 IR interview and only matched a TY.
Anyways:
School: Solid state MD school.
Step 1: Pass
Step 2: 252
Pre-clinical: All pass and 1 high pass
Clinical grades: H in Obgyn, PC in psych & IM, the rest pass
Class ranking: no ranking
AOA: No
Awards: Small scholarship from school.

Research:
- 2 textbook chapters in pharmacology (random but I was told it was high reward so I applied for the team)
- 1 review article I wrote (3rd author) in college that got published when I was an M2
- 4 DR poster presentations from 1 long project (where I was anywhere from 1st to 4th author)
- 2 posters for DR case studies
- 1 poster from IR research
- I included a podium presentation I gave in college in humanities research because it was a plenary. idk it was cool.

EC's:
- VP of IR club
- Lots of sports and some niche hobbies that all the interviewers loved to hear about


LORs:
This might be where I messed up. 2 LORs from peds and 1 from IM, purportedly strong letters.
This time when I reapply, I will get one from my med school's IR PD and one from my TY's DR dept and only send the IR letter to the IR programs when I reapply.

I believe my PS was strong. It was reviewed by my school's IR PD and DR APD and they said it was good.

Goal: matched
What are my odds for round 2.

What advisor told you it was ok to apply to radiology without any radiology LOR? That's a big red flag.

 

[Detective SnowBucket]

What advisor told you it was ok to apply to radiology without any radiology LOR? That's a big red flag.

2 Pd/Apd's + at least 1 dean? What do you think of my application otherwise?

 

[SeisK]

I’m gonna disagree with the absence of a DR LOR being a red flag in and of itself. Very common.

Step score is average. Clinical grades slightly below average. Pretty good DR research, and one IR leadership position.

I don’t necessarily see any red flags. It does make me wonder a little why you didn’t grab a research LOR or two from the DR faculty you worked with. I also wonder why you didn’t apply more IR programs. I’d say overall you have a bread and butter middle of the road application. If you applied too too heavy / too few, and if you don’t interview well, each component by itself won’t do you in, but the combination of factors may make your application not stand out enough so that you fall through the cracks.

I’d say continue doing rads research. Grab a few IR LORs, reapply next year to many more IR and DR programs. Evaluate what may have gone wrong with the interviews, is possible. I think you stand a good shot reapplying with that strategy.

 

[bobjonesbob]

I'm not a pd, but I think you need at least one letter from a radiologist. No one applies to other specialties without a letter of rec in that field. If you had rads research and rotations on your app, I would wonder why you didn't ask any of those people to write you a letter. People get that they're not evaluating your skills at interpreting imaging. All medical students' ability to do that is minimal to non-existent. They're just endorsing you as an applicant to the specialty and someone you worked with should be willing to do that as long as you're a pretty normal person and had normal interactions with them on your rotations.

Otherwise, agree with @SeisK. App is average but that means you should match based on your stats. Keep an eye out for any pgy-2 rads spots that open up over the next year. There are usually a few from people dropping out or programs expanding.

 

[Detective SnowBucket]

Keep an eye out for any pgy-2 rads spots that open up over the next year.

How do you do that? Are they posted on NRMP or ERAS or do you have to look at individual program sites?
Also, why does it matter? Won't I just apply to them through ERAS again next cycle or do you mean that new spots that open could give agreements outside of the match?

 

[bobjonesbob]

How do you do that? Are they posted on NRMP or ERAS or do you have to look at individual program sites?
Also, why does it matter? Won't I just apply to them through ERAS again next cycle or do you mean that new spots that open could give agreements outside of the match?

Most spots in the match are advanced positions. If you match one of those spots next spring, you’d have a year gap after your TY year.

Some of the spots that come open fill outside the match.

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[Detective SnowBucket]

I’m gonna disagree with the absence of a DR LOR being a red flag in and of itself. Very common.

^I'm going to get a lor from my med school IR PD & 1 from my TY's DR faculty (no residency program so no PD to ask)

It does make me wonder a little why you didn’t grab a research LOR or two from the DR faculty you worked with.

Because I hardly worked with the DR faculty. It was almost exclusively through their residents. I did research under one DR PI for like 8 months and he didn't even know my name when I did my AI with him.

I also wonder why you didn’t apply more IR programs.

Honestly, I decided at the last minute that I'd rather go into DR than IR, but this time I'll apply as broadly in DR & IR as I can. I'd 100% rather be in IR than unmatched or SOAP again.

I think you stand a good shot reapplying with that strategy.

How much of a disadvantage are you at simply by being a reapplicant? The thing I see being questionable is if PD's think I'd rather match at a program that has a PGY2/R1 opening so I don't have a year off after my TY, so how do I convince them that I don't care (and doing a year as a wound care physician would go a long way towards paying off my loans) before I start as a PGY2.

 

[Yhwach]

School: US MD ( bottom 1/3)
Step 1: 226
Step 2: 235
Pre-clinical: Pass/fail, All passes
Clinical: 1H, rest high passes
Class rank: top half
Research: 4-5 abstracts/presentation (random, basic science, radiology), 2 papers in DR, working on a paper in IR
EC's: professional society membership.


Chances?
What programs should I shoot for?

How'd you do?