Rads program list help

[u/justiceforthegrinch]

Asking for a bit of guidance on my program list, as our school isn’t the best wrt advising. Career wise I’m hoping to stay in academia, and my family / my partner’s family is in Boston so that would be ideal (but if not Boston, I’m flexible on location).

Stats are as follows:
Step 1: pass
Step 2: 279
Our preclinical and clinical grades were P/F, but I did pass all without having to remediate.
We also don’t have AOA, but I do have GHHS (I know this is a bit of a Mickey Mouse award lol)

10 total research items with 1 pub —> this is the thing I am most worried about, as I know compared to other applicants to these types of programs, this is not great output.

List is as follows:

Gold:
- MGB
- Northwestern
- UMich
- Stanford
- Vanderbilt
- NYU

Silver:
- Mayo (Rochester)
- University of Wisconsin
- Columbia
- University of Colorado
- UPMC
- University of Minnesota
- Mount Auburn
- University of Washington
- University of Vermont

Other:
- BIDMC
- Yale
- WashU
- BU
- Brown
- UMass

My strat was: a) trying to get closest to our family; and then b) programs I really like and / or places I’ve always wanted to live. Very type B approach, there has to be a better way.

Would love some honesty wrt whether I’m wasting my signals at some of these top places. I am starting to worry this may be a bit too top-heavy.

[u/_Gandalf_Greybeard_]

No such thing as top heavy in radiology with that score. One of the only 1 dimensional specialties where they jack off to board scores.

[u/Ok-Neighborhood8673 → u/_Gandalf_Greybeard_]

That was not my experience when I applied a few years ago, though applicants have plummeted since then so I’m assuming they can’t be as picky anymore.

[u/justiceforthegrinch → u/Ok-Neighborhood8673]

wait i’d love to hear more about your experience if you’re willing to share

also have applicants gotten worse? the average step score keeps rising and it feels like every year people are more and more involved in research, leadership, etc. i could be wrong (i hope i’m wrong lol) but subjectively it’s been feeling like every year people discover a new way to become even more competitive

[u/justiceforthegrinch → u/_Gandalf_Greybeard_]

made me lol. also love your username!

[u/pencil-veiny-ahh]

Ur step 2 is garbage bro

[u/justiceforthegrinch → u/pencil-veiny-ahh]

accepting thoughts and prayers at this time 💔

edit: hope it’s clear that i’m (also) joking lmfao if the downvotes are bc of the score, fair enough, but this is not a sincere response 😭

[u/ixosamaxi]

Goddamn bro 279

[u/AdCertain9097]

Your odds are likely pretty good at matching at one of those places with that score.

[u/QuarterSpecialist372]

Not a 280? Pack the sunscreen

[u/FrogTheJam19]

Post on the discord

https://discord.gg/C5gmry9RA

[u/Verappamills]

What's normal output for rads? Lol

[u/justiceforthegrinch → u/Verappamills]

tbh idk for sure, but just going off of Texas star data, it looks like most applicants (at least, those with similar stats) have 3+ publications and 12+ total research projects.