Physics What Steps Should I Take to Pursue a Career in Medical Physics in the US?

[Jarvisvision]

I am from India. I have completed my masters in physics (cgpa 7) from IIT Bombay and Bachelors in Physics(75%) from University of Delhi. toefl=93, gre=304
I am planning to pursue career in medical physics (radiation therapy) in US.
For that what should i do either masters or PhD in medical physics in US.
please mention about the status of residency position available in US after each degree program. Also please mention about the job opportunities status with and without residency training .
Also mention about the campep accredited institutes where I can get admission with the above mentioned credentials. Please help me by providing your precious advise.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Radiation oncologists are medical doctors, not physicists.

As for hunting down the specifics of every program, isn't that something you should be doing? Why do you think our time is less valuable than yours?

 

[Jarvisvision]

sorry i mean in medical physics radiation therapy

 

[Choppy]

Probably the first thing to be aware of is that all CAMPEP accredited graduate programs are competitive to get into. Each program is required to post statistics about admissions and graduates as well, so to get an idea of what "competitive" means - you'll have to check out the statistics and do the conversion from your own program's grades. The list of accredited programs is here:
http://www.campep.org/campeplstgrad.asp.

As for whether to pursue an MSc or PhD (or DMP), there are advantages and disadvantages for each route. With the MSc, you finish faster, but you may not be as competitive for the residency positions and probably not competitive for the more academically oriented medical physics positions. You do have the option of moving on and doing a PhD afterward though - depending on how well you do in the program. The PhD is longer, which gives you more experience in the field and orients you more towards an academic career if that's what you want. You're also well-qualified for a clinical career, but some purely clinical positions will prefer to hire MScs. The DMP is basically an MSc + a residency that you pay for but are guaranteed to get.

As for residency positions, that's the bottleneck. But you can see the data on where graduates are ending up here.