Can One Get A Phd In Radiology Also How Difficult Is The Job Usually And W?
September 13th, 2009
Can one get a PhD in Radiology and how difficult is it to achieve. Also how difficult is the job usually and what is the salary outlook?
It’s not a PhD, it’s an MD — medical degree — that you need. In order to apply to medical school, at the undergrad level you should take calculus, biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, and physics. If you already took these classes, great! Otherwise you will have to go back and take them again. If you have, you need to take the MCAT (Medical College Admission Test). I suggest taking a Kaplan class to prepare. After you have taken these classes along with an MCAT and completed an undergraduate degree, you can apply for medical school.
The first two years are general science classes that all medical students have to take regardless of specialty. The last two years are clinical rotations and electives designed to help you choose a specialty. After you graduate, you go for a residency, which is on-the-job training designed to help you gain experience in the specialty. The first year is a general residency just in case you haven’t figured out what specialty you want to go into. Then if you choose to go into radiology (or another specialty), you will generally have an additional 3 years of training. If you want to further specialize within the field you want to go into, for example, pediatric radiology or nuclear radiology, you will need additional years of residency.
So as you can see, you don’t need to decide right now what kind of doctor you wish to be. Right now you just need to make sure you have the pre-requisites and take the MCATs to get into medical school.
As for the job of radiology, the average salary is about $355,000. The job isn’t as difficult as other medical professions because you have very limited patient contact and are not involved in treatment. Your job consists of just working with X-rays, CAT scans, MRIs, and other medical technologies to make diagnoses — although you don’t directly talk to the patient about the diagnosis in most cases. However, the road to becoming a radiologist — as with any other medical specialization — is long, difficult, and expensive. All physicians say it’s well worth it, which is an encouraging thought.
It usually requires a Medical Degree and 4 years additional study, 13 years total.
Starting Salary is $125,000+
There are post-graduate degrees available in Radiological Sciences, a health sciences field.
Radiology is a specialist area for a Medical Doctor, after completing medical school.
What is it you want to do?