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<title>[Training Tuesday] - Weekly thread for questions about grad school, residency, and general career topics 07/13/2021</title>
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<h1>[Training Tuesday] - Weekly thread for questions about grad school, residency, and general career topics 07/13/2021</h1>
<p>This is the place to ask questions about graduate school, training programs, or general basic career topics. If you are just learning about the field and want to know if it is something you should explore, this thread is probably the correct place for those first few questions on your mind.</p>
<h2>Examples:</h2>
<ul>
<li>"I majored in Surf Science and Technology in undergrad, is Medical Physics right for me?"</li>
<li>"I can't decide between Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics..."</li>
<li>"Do Medical Physicists get free CT scans for life?"</li>
<li>"Masters vs. PhD"</li>
<li>"How do I prepare for Residency interviews?"</li>
</ul>
<h2>Comments:</h2>
<h3>Comment 1:</h3>
<p>Simple question, help is very appreciated.</p>
<h4>Response 1:</h4>
<p>Some programs have funded masters it offer scholarships though. It might be worth looking into University of Toledo, Purdue, and University of Wisconsin (I don't think funding is guaranteed, but it might be worth inquiring). It would be a lot to learn everything in a year.</p>
<h4>Response 2:</h4>
<p>I think the only 1 year CAMPEP masters program is the one in Galway, Ireland.</p>
<h3>Comment 2:</h3>
<p>Hi all, I'm currently an undergrad majoring in Biomedical Physics. I'm getting my master's degree in Medical Physics, and am applying to programs now. As such, I've been thinking about what's next. I've seen a couple of people say that residencies are extremely hard to get for Medical Physics. Since I am pursuing a master's degree and not a PhD (I am pursuing a master's degree as I am a senior in college and already suffering from some burnout... I am not sure I can do enough work for a PhD at this time)- how much will my ability to find a residency be hurt? Will I be able to find a residency? Or what should I do after graduation?</p>
<h4>Response 1:</h4>
<p>I see this discussed here a lot and personally, I don't understand the concern or at least why it comes up so often. I think there was even a survey post match and plenty of people with masters were matched.</p>
<p>Background: The user has a masters and is in contact with many of their previous classmates (all masters degrees) and those from several years after they graduated. So only 20 - 30 people total they'd estimate but enough for them to make this post.</p>
<p>None of them had issues getting interviews or getting matched to a residency right out of school. The user personally does not know anyone who did not match. They know that plenty of people do not match every year and they do feel awful for their situation and wish the number of graduate programs would decrease to reduce this issue. But that's another topic altogether...</p>
<p>The user's point is: if you work hard and are competitive, you should get interviews for residencies. Then it is up to you to really sell yourself and make a great impression for why you would be an asset to their department for two years.</p>
<p>If you're feeling burn out now, know that you are going to have to work harder than you have before for the next two years to be competitive. Then residency also involves a lot of learning while working 40+ hour weeks. There is a long path of examinations ahead. Just a friendly warning from someone who was feeling burn out by the end of undergrad and definitely had some rough patches from grad school through board certification.</p>
<h4>Response 2:</h4>
<p>Thanks for the initial advice! The user is nervous by nature, and it's very sad for them to see people without residencies.</p>
<p>For burnout, what can they do to combat it? They will be 20 when they enter grad school, and they are extremely afraid of falling behind because of their age. However, their parents will not let them stop school, and they agree that it's in their best interest to apply now as the GRE is waived for a couple of their top choice schools right now.</p>
<h5>Response 1:</h5>
<p>The user was in a similar situation. They graduated college at 19 and felt obligated to continue school, but, as someone else speculates, they were pretty burnt out!</p>
<p>Instead of continuing on to graduate school, they took a position as an MPA. They love it! It's crazy how much more they learn *on the job* than they did in school. MPA is not a well-defined profession, so duties vary a lot from clinic to clinic, and, at least in their experience, they can "work their way up" to basically any task legal for a non-QMP. They may need some supervision from a physicist, but some tasks are best tag-teamed, anyway.</p>
<p>Most MPAs are medphys graduate students with plans to become certified. But it's possible to go straight from MPA to working in industry, where certification isn't always required. Medphys professionals in industry write software, provide technical support, sell products, etc. Unlike in the clinic, in industry your skills matter at least as much as your credentials.</p>
<p>The user's advice is, "Don't make yourself miserable by continuing in school if you're not passionate about it. Try out an entry-level job in a field that interests you, and if you're good, you can work your way up."</p>
<h5>Response 2:</h5>
<p>The user thinks it's good to be a bit nervous. It can motivate some people to work harder and do research ahead of time. They wonder why the user would think they would be falling behind because of their age. They believe the user is ahead of almost anyone else they've seen enter a medical physics grad program.</p>
<p>If the user is 20 and entering grad school, the user assumes they have been going at 150% for a long time. The user can only speak from their personal experience but they felt that from the start of grad school to the end of part 3 (\~5 years if all goes well) was pretty non-stop. Its probably a good idea for the user to identify what study/work methods work well for them to help things feel a bit more enjoyable. Medical physics carried a lot more meaning for the user than their undergraduate physics classes and research but its still a lot of work. Is the waived GRE just the general? The user wouldn't be too concerned about that either way since if the user completed the prerequisites for medical physics they can probably do extremely well on the general with just a couple weeks of focused studying. If the user is referring to the physics GRE on the other hand... well that's just always going to be tough and the user only really remembers PhD programs looking for that.</p>
<p>Something the user also left out of their last comment was if the user wants to do clinical work, a masters is great. The user will pretty much 100% need a PhD if they desire to do research or work at most universities. The user would pick the degree based on what they'd like to work on in the future.</p>
<h3>Comment 3:</h3>
<p>How much do radiation therapy medical physicists work directly with patients? In other words, how often do they get to handle things like developing and overseeing treatment plans and other responsibilities that would have a direct impact on a patient’s outcome?</p>
<p>The user is just learning about this field for the first time (undergrad in electrical engineering), and it sounds like very interesting and meaningful work, but some people on forums describe their job as 95% machine testing and quality assurance – which just isn’t something they could see themselves doing for a career. Thanks in advance.</p>
<h4>Response 1:</h4>
<p>There are definitely different roles within medical physics which have more and less patient contact. Radiopharmaceuticals, TBI, brachytherapy, kV and electron treatments all have a substantial amount of patient contact. At UCSD they're trying to involve physicists in the patient consult process, maybe other places are too.</p>
<h5>Response 1:</h5>
<p>That is some fantastic insight. Thank you so much!</p>
<h5>Response 2:</h5>
<p>Honestly, contingent on the workload at your center (aka if you have the precious resource of time) I think it's up to you. If you are involved with brachy, hang around at sim/the machines, etc. and want patient interactions I think you can find ways to make it happen. Granted, this is very dependent on a given department's culture and how you're defining what it means to be a physicist. Hope that helps!</p>
<h5>Response 3:</h5>
<p>That does help, or at least provides some hope lol. The user has (so far) had a hard time finding much of their engineering coursework fulfilling, and pivoting to medicine after getting their B.S. feels like a worthwhile thing to do. They are just trying to find an avenue that doesn’t involve totally changing gears, redoing a bunch of their undergrad, and outright going to medical school – while still getting to feel like they’re doing something significant.</p>
<p>Thank you again!</p>
<h6>Response 1:</h6>
<p>The user has some patient contact in their practice and they enjoy it, but if the user's objective is patient contact, and they are now considering medicine, that is the way to go. A modern hospital is a complex machine with many different professionals, but at the end the patient is of the doctors.</p>
<p>If a hospital is a soccer team, a doctor is like the striker and the user's job will be more as midfield-defence.</p>
<h7>Response 1:</h7>
<p>Aside from direct patient contact, how much of your job involves participating in treatment? The user's main reservation has more to do with the idea of being pigeonholed into doing equipment maintenance, rather than providing care. To them, the former sounds closer to being a technician (which is perfectly respectable work), but it’s just not something that gets them excited.</p>
<h3>Comment 4:</h3>
<p>Is anybody here knows on what schools waived GRE exam? The user sees that they are not able to take this exam due to the COVID situation and financial constraints. They do hope schools considering waiving GRE now.</p>
<h4>Response 1:</h4>
<p>The user has heard University of Wisconsin and UChicago, but there probably are others too.</p>
<h4>Response 2:</h4>
<p>The user would email the programs they're interested in and ask.</p>
<h4>Response 3:</h4>
<p>The user would assume that schools would have that listed on their websites.</p>
<h3>Comment 5:</h3>
<p>Does anyone have any experience with USF? They’re on my list because they’re in my area but beyond their own website, the user can’t find any information on the program.</p>
<p>Original URL: <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/MedicalPhysics/comments/ojd7z6/training_tuesday_weekly_thread_for_questions/">https://www.reddit.com/r/MedicalPhysics/comments/ojd7z6/training_tuesday_weekly_thread_for_questions/</a></p>
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