Radiology Residency Application Guide
August 2012
I. Before Applying
A. Courses
If you’re considering radiology, you’ll want to do the sequence of Rad 301A, which is the
lecture-based course on basics of imaging principles, followed by a “reading room”
elective month in a sub-specialty area (body, thoracic/chest, IR, Neuro, MSK, MRI, U/S,
etc…). You can talk with Dr. Federle about what your interests are and when to do the
Rad 301A month. For the elective course, you have the option of doing a full month in one
sub-specialty or two two-week blocks in different sub-specialties. We recommend you
speak with Grayling Thompson (grayling@stanford.edu) as soon as possible to schedule
the reading room month, as these rotations fill up quickly with visiting medical students.
The most common times for students to do the reading room month are during Periods
11-3 (i.e. late spring or summer). Keep in mind, you may want a letter of
recommendation from the faculty with whom you worked closely during the month, so
the last month that you can do it is period 3. Here is the link to the course catalogue for
radiology clerkships: http://medcatalog.stanford.edu/php/clerklist.php?DNo=837.
B. Radiology research
Start a small research project(s) with an advisor in radiology, ideally before the end of
your first clinical year. The purpose should be to establish contact with radiology faculty
at an academic institution. The scope and content is variable, but should aim to result in a
paper/poster/presentation. A list of Stanford Radiology faculty research interests is
updated annually and posted online at the RIGS website http://rigs.stanford.edu/ under
“Resources”  “Radiology Faculty Research Interests”. Even if you decide on radiology
later during medical school, you can still complete a small research project.
C. Sub-internships
Consider doing a sub-internship or 3rd year core medicine/surgery clerkship at either the
Santa Clara Valley or Kaiser Santa Clara since both are popular preliminary/transitional
year programs for Stanford students. Applicants report positive feedback during
interviews due to their strong clinical work during their core or sub-I at the site.
D. Away rotations
Establish contact with an administrator at the program(s) where you are thinking of
doing an away rotation. This should be sometime between January and April of the year
you are applying. Please note that many schools are now using the Visiting Student
Application Service (VSAS) on the AAMC website
http://www.aamc.org/programs/vsas/start.htm. Think about what the focus of the
month should be; options include clinical (i.e. reading room) or research (basic science
through clinical) or a combination. Keep in mind that most programs will charge you a
processing fee of $100-$150 and some programs/hospitals will charge you if you want to
get credit. At Harvard, if you wish to get credits, will charge you approx $1200 for the one
month clerkship. If you want to be a “visiting scholar” there is the ability Brigham and
Women’s hospital to observe for the month without any fees. Websites have a ton of info;
also don’t hesitate to call the administrators to inquire about opportunities. Keep in
mind, away rotations are not a requirement and you may choose not to do any.
If you are seriously considering UCSF for your residency, however, doing an away rotation
there is advantageous as it has been rumored to markedly improve your chances of being
offered an interview and even matching. This piece of advice also applies to other
competitive programs, especially in New York City and Chicago. At the same time, many
Stanford applicants in the past have received interviews from UCSF and other competitive
programs without doing an away rotation there.
II. Application Process
A. Curriculum vitae
Your CV should be in a semifinal form by the end of June to submit to your letter writers
when you request their recommendation letter. An example can be found on the Stanford
advising website at http://med.stanford.edu/md/advising/resources/residency/cv.html.
Your academic advisor can give you feedback on your CV.
B. Personal statement
Your personal statement should be in a semifinal form by the end of June to submit to
your letter writers when you request their recommendation letter. You should solicit
feedback on your personal statement (e.g. from your academic advisor, a radiology faculty
member, and others). Some advisors say that your personal statement should be 1 page,
while others say 1.5 pages. An example can be found on the advising website at
http://med.stanford.edu/md/advising/resources/residency/ps.html. Your personal
statement need not be changed significantly for your preliminary year application—some
students don’t change it at all, others change just the first and last paragraphs, others
write an entirely different statement.
C. Letters of Recommendation
Request your letters of recommendation before the end of June. The cover sheet for your
letters can be downloaded from the advising website at
http://med.stanford.edu/md/advising/resources/residency/lor/. Some of your
recommenders may give you significant feedback about your personal statement. The
minimum is 3 letters for programs, the maximum is 4 letters. Some programs mandate no
more than 3 while other programs may have restrictions on how many letters can come
from radiologists—the only way to know the specific requirements is to look up each
program’s website. Definitely have a letter from your sub-internship (medicine, surgery,
pediatrics, etc…) if you do it early enough—otherwise, try to get a good letter from your
medicine or surgery core rotation. One should be from your month on radiology and/or
from your radiology research. You may want to discuss if the letter writer is willing to
write a separate letter for internship versus radiology. Some faculty do, others don’t—it
didn’t seem to matter for any programs.
D. Filling out the ERAS application
Complete ERAS ideally by the end of August if you want to submit your application in
September. Keep in mind that you need two three-sentence blurbs for each of your
“activities” which should be as polished as your essay. For your letters to be uploaded,
you need to certify the letter writers names, positions, departments, and to which
program(s) (i.e. preliminary vs. radiology) they should be sent. You need to certify and
submit those names before Stanford can upload the letters to ERAS for you.
E. Submitting the ERAS application
Submit ERAS before or during the first week of September!! All programs have a
limited number of interview spots / dates, and they will fill up if you submit your
application late. Submit even if you haven’t finalized your list of schools to apply to; you
can always add more later.
F. Where to apply
The majority of Stanford students apply to academic programs, which are associated with
medical schools and tend to have a strong focus on research. However, many students
also apply to community programs, especially Santa Clara Valley, which is a highly
regarded training program. Community programs tend to be smaller (3-6 residents per
year, compared to 8-12 at academic programs), have a larger case load, more procedures
with IR, more call responsibilities, and fewer residents going into fellowships (maybe
50% at community programs compared to nearly 100% at academic programs).
Some programs, like the University of Pennsylvania, have multiple pathways to which you
can apply—IR, research, and regular. There is spotty information on their website about
the different programs, but if you are interested, it would behoove you to contact the
programs about the different pathways.
G. Program ranking
You may be wondering how the radiology residency programs compare to each other.
There is no official US News & World Report ranking. However, one can ask a radiology
faculty member for his/her opinion on the top 10 or 20 programs. Additionally, the
auntminnie.com forums for medical students have user-posted rankings. One particularly
well-known and controversial ranking was posted by the user “p53.”
H. Number of programs to apply to
Dr. Mindelzun recommends that you apply to 30 radiology programs; however, most
students applied more judiciously (15-25). Apply a similar principle to internship
programs.
I. After submitting the ERAS application
Monitor for submission and upload of your letters of recommendation; those should be in
by the end of September so that your application is complete with the exception of your
Dean’s Letter, which is submitted in October. If letters aren’t submitted in a timely
fashion, send a thank you/reminder email to your letter writer. You may also want to
contact the person at Stanford who is responsible for uploads, as he gets overloaded
sometimes and may not upload your letter of recommendation promptly. You can also
add or substitute letters after you’ve submitted your application.
J. Step 2 CS and CK
The USMLE Step 2 exam consists of two parts—CS and CK. CS is a 12-patient
standardized patient exam which you can take in LA, Houston, Chicago, Atlanta, or
Philadelphia. It is pass-fail, and the vast majority of students pass. The only preparation
you need is to briefly review First Aid for Step 2 CS on the flight to your exam. CK is a
multiple choice computer exam similar to Step 1 but focused more on clinical diagnosis
and treatment rather than topics such as biochemistry or embryology. The curve on Step
2 is higher and most students find that they score better on Step 2 with very minimal
studying (ie. 2 weeks of preparation). The best strategy is to try to get through USMLE
World for Step 2; if you can do that, you won’t even need to open a book! Both the CS and
CK cover internal medicine, surgery, pediatrics, ob-gyn, neurology and psychiatry so you
may want to try to schedule these rotations earlier in your third year.
Many students struggle over when to take Step 2 CK. If you did well on your Step 1 exam,
you may want to take Step 2 CK after interview season is over so that a low score on Step
2 CK does not negate your Step 1 score. On the other hand, if you did not do well on Step
1, a high Step 2 CK score may help you get more interviews so you would have to take
Step 2 CK before August to give enough time for the score to be reported. The best thing
to do is to talk with your advisor about when to take Step 2 CK.
In the 2009-2010 application cycle, UCSF made a new requirement that all students
would need to pass both Step 2 CS and CK in order to be ranked. Since UCSF typically
ranks students in early-mid February, applicants will have to take Step 2 CK before the
end of December and Step 2 CS before November. If you are interested in UCSF, you
should plan on taking both Step 2 CK and CS early enough to ensure your score will be
available to meet the deadline.
Since there are only five centers where CS can be taken, the slots fill up quickly. When
you apply for the CS permit (and pay $1000), you are allowed to identify a 1 year time
zone during which you will take the CS (as opposed to the 3 month time zone for Step 1
and Step 2 CK). For this reason, you should sign up to take CS by March of your third year.
A good time to take Step 2 CS is in July because by then you would have taken the CPX
exam which is a 8-station standardized patient exam administered by Stanford. The last
possible date to take CS and still have your score returned on time is usually at the end of
October (check the CS website for the chart on test date and corresponding score report
date). Again, the CS slots fill up very quickly so make sure you sign up and schedule your
date as soon as possible.
III. Interviews
A. Advanced planning of interview dates
If you want to find out the interview dates ahead of time, some are listed on the residency
program websites. Otherwise, you can call the program administrator and inquire what
days they interview so you can plan your schedule. You can also find dates from previous
years on auntminnie.com.
B. Midwest and New York City interviews
In the past, few students got interviews at University of Chicago, Northwestern, Michigan,
Mayo Clinic, NYU, and Columbia without calling and/or emailing the individual program
director and specifically indicating their interest in the program. We recommend it be a
genuine interest in the program and not just to garner more interviews. However, if you
are seriously considering the Midwest or NYC, you may want to be pro-active about
expressing your interest (or even consider doing an away rotation), because the programs
think that very few Californians will go to the Midwest or New York.
C. Scheduling interviews
Most students did their preliminary interviews, particularly those in California, early in
November and December while in a clerkship. That allows for your radiology interviews
to be at the end of December and January when you’re not in a clerkship and after you’ve
had numerous interviews under your belt. Fridays in December and January are very
popular interview dates for many programs to which Stanford students apply. Programs
are much more flexible than the ERAS formal system makes it seem. If you have conflicts
or difficulty scheduling your interviews, call and ask about what options they have for rescheduling. If you know you’re not going to take an interview, decline it promptly for the
sake of other applicants. If you know you don’t want to go to a scheduled interview,
please try to cancel at least two to three weeks in advance. Really you should cancel as
soon as you know you don’t want to interview.
D. If you don’t get an interview after they are offered
If you have heard from friends or on the Aunt Minnie forum that one of your top programs
has started offering interviews but you haven’t heard from them, you may consider
contacting the residency program director about your interest in the program. Your
radiology mentor at Stanford may be able to contact the program director on your behalf
as well. Keep in mind, you should only really do this for programs you are serious about
(i.e. one of your top 3 choices). Once you are rejected, its fine to send a note to the
program and once again declare your interest (and reasons why). Often times they will
put your name on a waitlist. Also, secretaries can sometimes make mistakes—if you are
rejected from a program that you were 100% sure would interview you (ie. Stanford
prelim or a place you did an away rotation at), don’t be afraid to contact someone to ask
why you were rejected. Mistakes on behalf of the secretary have occurred in the past.
E. Pre-interview homework
You may or may not care to explore faculty profiles at the programs where you interview
in order to have an idea of the research/work they do. Some students found this useful,
others didn’t think it mattered. Everyone agrees that usually the interviewer may suggest
the name of a faculty member in the area(s) you’re interested in for you to contact for
more information on their research.
F. Scheduling USMLE Step 2 Clinical Skills during interviews
If you think ahead, you can schedule the USMLE Step 2 CS exam when you interview at a
program in Philadelphia, LA, Houston, Chicago, and Atlanta. It saves you a flight and time
later in the year if you get it done. Keep in mind however that the Step 2 CS exam can take
several months to report your score—if you take the exam during interviews, you likely
will not be able to submit your score report to schools (which only matters for UCSF).
IV. Post-interview
A. Communication with programs
Some programs will declare their interest in you very directly (i.e. we’re ranking you to
match) through phone calls, letters or emails. Other programs may not send any postinterview communication to applicants. After your interviews are done, you may send
“love letters” to your top program(s). Some advisors recommend sending a letter only to
your number one program while others recommend sending letters to your top three
programs. Regardless, you should probably send one letter to the program you are
ranking number one to inform them and to tell them why you are interested. If you have
other contacts at the hospital/program you may want to express your interest in the
program to them as well.
It is rumored that many programs finalize their rank list shortly after their last interview
date, which can be well before the mid-February deadline. Waiting until the last week to
send your “#1” letter may actually hurt you if the program’s list has already been
finalized. It is acceptable to send love letters by mid January.
B. Rank lists
After interviews some students found it useful to take notes about their experiences and
what things they liked and disliked about programs. Other students kept it all in their
heads. Most students used these factors in making their rank lists: prestige of program,
location, research opportunities, and obviously gut feeling about the program. Remember
not to be unduly influenced by one or two people’s opinion(s) of a given program – the
most important aspect of the Match is finding out how to best fit your needs, and one
person’s top ranked program may be at the bottom of your list.
In creating your ranks lists, especially for the preliminary/transitional programs, you may
want to consider some details like call schedules and months of electives, and obviously
location, and whether you want to move or not (consider partners, significant others).
You’ll definitely want to meet with your advisor (both your general academic advisor and
your advisor in radiology here at Stanford) to talk about your thoughts on the programs
and to get their input. Remember it is all your choice in the end! You submit your rank
list on NRMP at the end of February. Match day is usually in Mid-March.
V. Resources
Radiology Interest Group at Stanford
http://rigs.stanford.edu/
Stanford’s Advising Website
http://med.stanford.edu/md/advising/resources/residency/
Visiting Student Application Service
http://www.aamc.org/programs/vsas/students/start.htm
Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS)
http://www.aamc.org/students/eras/
National Residency Match Program (NRMP)
http://www.nrmp.org/res_match/index.html
VI. Program Guide
Partial list of radiology programs interviewed at in the past:
West Coast
Middle Coast
University of Washington University of Michigan
UCSF
UT Southwestern
Stanford
University of Utah
Santa Clara Valley
Mallinckrodt-WashU
UCLA
Northwestern
UC Irvine
Univ of Chicago
UCSD
USC
OHSU
East Coast
MGH
Brigham and Women’s
Beth Israel Deaconess
Cornell- NY Presbyterian
NYU
Yale
UPENN
Johns Hopkins
Duke
Univ of Miami
Emory
Preliminary Medicine (PM), Surgery (PS) and Transitional Year (TY) programs interviewed at:
(Highly recommended programs in bold)
Kaiser-San Francisco (SF, CA; PM)
Kaiser-Oakland (Oakland, CA; PM)
Kaiser-Santa Clara (Santa Clara, CA; PM)
Stanford (Stanford, CA; PM, PS)
Santa Clara Valley (San Jose, CA; TY, PM)
St. Mary’s Medical Center (SF, CA; PM)
California Pacific Medical Center (SF, CA; PM)
Alameda County (Alameda, CA; PM)
UCLA-Harbor (LA, CA; TY)
Huntington Hospital (Pasadena, CA; TY)
Scripps-Mercy (San Diego, CA; TY)
Beth Israel Deaconess-Harvard (Boston, MA; PM)
Lemuel Shattuck (Boston, MA; TY, not recommended)
St. Elizabeth Caritas (Boston, MA; PM)
Mount Auburn (Cambridge, MA; PM)
Cambridge Hospital (Cambridge, MA; TY)
Caritas-Carney (Dorchester, MA; TY)
Brown (Providence, RI; PM)
Memorial Sloan-Kettering (NY, NY; TY)
Saint Vincent’s Hospital (NY, NY; TY)
Yale New Haven St. Raphael’s (New Haven, CT; TY)
Reading Hospital (West Reading, PA; TY)
Crozer-Chester (Upland, PA; TY)
Albert Einstein (Philadelphia, PA; TY)
Christiana Care (Newark, DE; TY, PM)
Harbor Hospital (Baltimore, MD; TY, PM)
Washington Hospital Center (Washington, DC; PM)
Georgetown (Washington, DC; PM)
George Washington (Washington, DC; PM)
Georgetown- INOVA (Fairfax, VA; TY)
Carilion Clinic (Roanoke, VA; TY)
Riverside Regional Medical Center (Newport News, VA; TY)
MacNeal (Chicago, IL; TY)
Resurrection (Chicago, IL; TY)
North Shore (Chicago, IL; TY, PM)
Methodist Hospital (Houston, TX; TY)
University of Hawaii (TY, PM)VII. Take home messages
1) Submit your ERAS EARLY!
2) During the interviews, strong research, strong letters of recommendation, and
extracurricular (or unique characteristics) came up and were discussed—so make sure
you have as many of the above as possible.
3) Tell your number one program for radiology and internship that they are your number
one.
4) Relax!
Authors
Created by John Downey ’09 and Nancy Benedetti ’09
With contributions from Robin Price ’09, David Tran ‘09
Updated by Swati Deshmukh ’10, Raag Airan ‘10
Updated by Keith Chan ’11, Rebecca Rakow-Penner ‘11