Success Story

[DocJanItor]

TLDR: An old guy with a garbage GPA matches Interventional Radiology at a great program.

5 years and 1 month ago, I posted a thread asking for advice on how to proceed after getting back my MCAT. My GPA was low even after a perfect DIY postbacc and I needed guidance on what was next to do IR. As always, Goro, Crayola, and others gave me the straight truth and advised me not to pick a specialty before med school. I have to say that I disobeyed them on that last part. As an engineer, nothing has interested me quite as much as radiology both in terms of imaging and procedures.

I talked to my wife and even though I had an "in" for going to a DO school, we both knew I'd never be satisfied with primary care alone and that my chances for competitive specialties would be more restricted. I'm happy to see that DOs are getting more and more parity with MD matches even if progress is slow. So my wife discovered that one of the best SMPs in the country was in our backyard. I contacted the school, discussed my situation with their program coordinator, and was accepted just a month later.

The SMP was hard; you have information being thrown at you faster than you've ever had it in college even if you took 7 classes at once. But it's a fantastic (and expensive) way to find out that medical school really requires you to step up and totally change the way and the speed at which you study. Although I stumbled slightly right out of the gates, I was able to adjust quickly and finish with a 3.53. This was enough to score an interview and eventually get accepted to the same medical school.

And then med school ups the speed again with more class and actual clinical learning. Thankfully, my med school is pre-clinical P/F without class rank so I was never trying to kill myself with studying and grades. By the end of 2nd year I had a crazy Step 1 story that ended up with a respectable score in the 240s. Good, but not great for what I was going for. Thankfully, I had good clinical grades and met some amazing attendings to help guide me and eventually wrote me some wonderful LORs. I had a 3rd year IR rotation which was mostly just observing since there were like 6 AIs who always jumped into cases, but it solidified my decision that radiology was the direction I wanted to go. I still tossed around anesthesia but I don't like the hurry up and wait aspect of it. But Anesthesiologists definitely hold a place in my heart as the chillest group around - probably because they constantly have a MAC of 0.1.

At the end of my 3rd year is when COVID hit. I was literally on the 2nd day of my last 2w rotation when they sent out word that we had our first COVID patient and all 3rd and 4th years were sent home until what turned out to be July. No away rotations, no in person interviews. I had 2 IR rotations at my home program and it was awesome. The fellows and attendings let me do lines, ports, venoplasty, biopsies, G-tubes. I was in love. I took a DR rotation after that and learned so much (probably one of the easiest rotations to do virtually).

I had a great interview season. I got a lot of early love from mid-tier programs in the northeast and mid-south, and then I got some great programs a little later on in the same areas. As a non-trad with a family, you have to consider what's best for them as well; although I had some fantastic program on my list, I ranked them lower as they were not as geographically desirable for us. I would've happily attended, but I'm not sure how happy the wife would've been.

So there you have it. I am very glad I had the guidance of the wonderful advisors on this forum even if I didn't always listen to them. They're not always right but they're very rarely wrong!

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[Dral]

Congratulations! I wish you the best in residency and beyond.

Whenever you are having a bad day in residency or as an attending just take a little time and sit back and remember your path and all you had to overcome and go through to get to where you are. It puts things in perspective and makes that day way better.

 

[aceegreene]

@DocJanItor Congratulations and thank you for this post, it is quite inspiring I must say! I have also read some of your previous posts and they have been quite helpful in me trying to chart my own path with this process. Wishing you the best of luck for everything ahead!

I just had some follow-up questions, in your experience so far is it extremely tough for DOs to match in radiology? Do they primarily match in FM? And if one was to pursue a DO and want to become a radiologist, what could be done to maximize chances of success?

 

[DocJanItor]

@DocJanItor Congratulations and thank you for this post, it is quite inspiring I must say! I have also read some of your previous posts and they have been quite helpful in me trying to chart my own path with this process. Wishing you the best of luck for everything ahead!

I just had some follow-up questions, in your experience so far is it extremely tough for DOs to match in radiology? Do they primarily match in FM? And if one was to pursue a DO and want to become a radiologist, what could be done to maximize chances of success?

I don't think it's tough for DOs to match into DR. I've seen quite a few DRs who are DOs and even more residents, so I think it's a pretty decent shot given a competitive application (scores, grades, letters, etc.)

To match into integrated IR it's different. While stats have gotten better for DOs entering some competitive specialties, I think there is still a bias against them in some areas. I also think some DO schools have trouble exposing students to these fields because they don't have home programs. This makes it difficult to get mentorship, get rotations, do research, and get LoRs. Although there's a DO in my program, it's rarer than in other fields like anesthesiology.

But if you failed to get IR and still got DR, you could still do ESIR starting in your PGY-3/4 year. That gives you basically the same timetable to become an IR attending as an integrated position. Alternatively, there's also the independent pathway where you finish your DR residency and get an IR residency (what used to be called a fellowship) but it takes an additional year.

 

[aceegreene]

I don't think it's tough for DOs to match into DR. I've seen quite a few DRs who are DOs and even more residents, so I think it's a pretty decent shot given a competitive application (scores, grades, letters, etc.)

To match into integrated IR it's different. While stats have gotten better for DOs entering some competitive specialties, I think there is still a bias against them in some areas. I also think some DO schools have trouble exposing students to these fields because they don't have home programs. This makes it difficult to get mentorship, get rotations, do research, and get LoRs. Although there's a DO in my program, it's rarer than in other fields like anesthesiology.

But if you failed to get IR and still got DR, you could still do ESIR starting in your PGY-3/4 year. That gives you basically the same timetable to become an IR attending as an integrated position. Alternatively, there's also the independent pathway where you finish your DR residency and get an IR residency (what used to be called a fellowship) but it takes an additional year.

Perfect, got it. Thanks!

 

[jhmmd]

Thank you for this inspiring story!

 

[RespectTheChemistry]

Congratulations! Thank you for sharing!