mdphd and matching in radiology

[mudderphudder]

I am an MD/PhD student just getting back into my 3rd year classes. I am trying to gauge my competitiveness so that I can plan an externship at a school that I have a good chance of matching at. My board score was marginal, 231 and my research is in biochemistry/molecular biology with a good number of publications and presentations. Should I try and get in on a small research project in radiology in order to increase my competitiveness? Any advice from those out there who have gone through the process would be greatly appreciated.

thanks

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[trouta]

Not MD/PhD but am applying rads. As far as your question, the most important things you can do are to make connections in the rads dept, do well on your clinical rotations and get great letters (dont neglect the last two). The purpose of doing research is to show you are capable and interested and based on your record it sounds like it will be abundantly clear to any program that you apply to that you are interested in research.

Picking up a clinical rads project would be icing on the cake (but icing is good...). The big reasons to do it would be to make connections and possibly go to a conference and meet people. If you can do it with a minimal amount of stress it wouldnt be a bad idea but as you can probably tell by my post I dont think it is neccesary in your situation.

BTW 231 is not a marginal score. You should be able to do pretty well in terms of interview with that score and a PhD.

Hope this helps.

 

[Max_Berry]

I would recommend clinical radiology experience above more research. You've already proven your research skills. Just get exposed to as much Rads as possible. Consider it preliminary investigation to find the area which holds the most research interests for you in the future.