School of Health Sciences - How do I get into medical physics?

1. Students do not currently require a graduate degree in medical physics to enter this field. However, entry into medical physics as a career path may only be achieved by receiving a graduate degree in a science, engineering or a related discipline.
    
   
2. Non-medical physics postgraduates at the Ph.D. level wishing to enter the profession from other disciplines do so by finding an accredited clinical residency program or other clinical training position which will give them the skills that are needed to function as a clinical medical physicist.
    
   
3. Laws in some States require that medical physicists be licensed by the State. Indiana is one such State. Licensure requires that the individual has undergone some training in the field and may also require American Board of Radiology accreditation, or its equivalent, to independently perform annual calibration and testing of radiation machines.
    
   
4. In 5 or 10 years, it is likely that State law and training requirements for the medical physics discipline will change such that an individual may not practice as a medical physicist without having completed an accredited graduate degree program and/or clinical residency program.
    
   
5. There are about 14 accredited graduate medical physics training programs in the USA and as many or more unaccredited. (Visit http://www.aapm.org/ for program current listings). The School's medical physics graduate program is not currently accredited but we intend to apply within two years.
    
   
6. We currently have 15 graduate students on the medical physics program and 11 are Ph.D. students. We do not currently have a student who has entered graduate study on the 4(honors)+1 medical physics option but that should change by Fall 2005.
    
   
7. Students are best prepared for graduate study in medical physics if they at minimum have mathematics through differential equations, physics through modern physics and have completed a course in a computer programming language such as Fortran or C. Students on our honors track Radiological Health (RH) undergraduate program will be well prepared for graduate study. (N.B. they should take programming as an elective at the undergraduate level or have this on their graduate plan of study without credit.)
    
   
8. Students on our RH undergraduate tracks in health physics and pre-medicine my also apply for graduate study in medical physics but they will not be as well prepared as the honors track students. This may affect their competitiveness for entry but it does NOT prevent them from entry to the medical physics graduate program.
    
   
9. Entry to graduate School in any discipline is globally competitive and students are accepted on an individual basis.
    
   
10. Students may apply to enter Purdue's Graduate School if they meet the 3.0 GPA requirements, do the GRE examinations and fulfill the other documentation requirements plus pay the appropriate fees. Applications must be submitted online at http://www.gradschool.purdue.edu/admissions/.
     
    
11. Once the student's Graduate School application is complete it is circulated to our Faculty for approval for entry on to the graduate medical physics program. There are no guarantees of acceptance even if students have completed our undergraduate RH honors program and achieved a 3.0 GPA.
     
    
12. Numbers of students on the graduate medical physics program are limited by the number of clinical internship sites available, School financial support constraints and teaching faculty number to mentor students.
     
    
13. Our RH undergraduate students interested in medical physics graduate study are encouraged to apply to as many graduate medical physics programs as possible and not limit themselves to Purdue's School of Health Sciences program alone.
     
    
14. Students on the Ph.D. program are given priority for financial support from the University, School and faculty research grants. Currently all Ph.D. students have financial support. Students wishing to pursue the medical physics M.S. program have lower priority and may not receive funding. They therefore should consider applying for external funding or be self-supporting.