Information on Medical Physics

  • This has become our largest and most active forum because the physics GRE is just one aspect of getting accepted into a graduate physics program.
  • There are applications, personal statements, letters of recommendation, visiting schools, anxiety of waiting for acceptances, deciding between schools, finding out where others are going, etc.

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MaxWhale
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Joined: Wed Nov 05, 2008 7:33 pm

Information on Medical Physics

Post by MaxWhale » Sun May 31, 2009 4:55 am

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

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noojens
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Re: Information on Medical Physics

Post by noojens » Sun May 31, 2009 5:04 am

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.

MaxWhale
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Joined: Wed Nov 05, 2008 7:33 pm

Re: Information on Medical Physics

Post by MaxWhale » Sun May 31, 2009 5:09 am

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?

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noojens
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Re: Information on Medical Physics

Post by noojens » Sun May 31, 2009 3:13 pm

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

Check out the "undergraduate preparation" section.

MaxWhale
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Joined: Wed Nov 05, 2008 7:33 pm

Re: Information on Medical Physics

Post by MaxWhale » Sun May 31, 2009 3:22 pm

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.

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noojens
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Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 2:59 pm

Re: Information on Medical Physics

Post by noojens » Sun May 31, 2009 3:28 pm

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. :)

shetanak13
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Joined: Wed Feb 18, 2009 11:24 pm

Re: Information on Medical Physics

Post by shetanak13 » Sun May 31, 2009 8:59 pm

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*

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twistor
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Re: Information on Medical Physics

Post by twistor » Mon Jun 01, 2009 8:47 am

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.



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