Physics GRE Discussion Forums

Hello, I am doing my third REU this summer. They are all related to astrophysics. But I want to get a PhD in medical physics. My plan is to get into UWisc Madison or University of Chicago. Can anyone suggest me the right thing ? Since I have done researches only on subjects unrelated to medical physics, I am wondering if i can get into a good medical physics program. I really anticipate good advices from you people. If you are one of the graduate students of medical physics, please share some words of wisdom.

Thanks

Have you taken all the biology and chemistry that's assumed for medical physics programs? Anatomy and physiology, organic chemistry, etc? I think it's sort of tough for most people to do undergraduate research that's directly related to medical physics, since not too many schools have medical physics programs and researchers. So as long as you prepare yourself academically and score well on the standardized tests you're probably in pretty good shape.

No I have not taken any biology class in college. I have completed chemistry requirement for physics majors that included two semesters of general chemistry. I have a minor in math, but i don't think its gonna help on my application. Are biology and organic chemistry must-take classes in college to get into medical physics program?

http://www.medphysics.wisc.edu/medphys_ ... c148237818

Check out the "undergraduate preparation" section.

Thanks

Is it a good idea to contact a faculty (a professor whose research I would like to get involved with) regarding my current status and my plan? I don't know if it affects my application.

Contacting faculty is a good idea, as long as you do it professionally. Sending an email with grammatical errors, misspelled words, rambling sentences, weird requests, etc will hurt your chances. So you might have a friend or professor look over the email before you send it.

Does your school have any classes related to medical physics? When I was looking into this field (at the time) my physics department didn't have any relevant courses. We had a bioengineering department that had classes that were relevant, though, like Medical Imaging. I'm not sure what your department is like, obviously, but this could be something to look into as well.
Research = *thumbs up*

Doing research in medical physics is not necessary. There are few opportunities for undergraduates to do productive research in this field. Schools will not care what field you did research in, only that you did research.