Additional Information
If you decide this field is what you want, get ready for plenty of university.
The standard is 13 to 15 years of education and training. You'll need to start
with a bachelor's degree.
Once you have an undergraduate degree, you'll move on to a four-year medical
school program to earn an MD. Then a transitional year -- formerly referred
to as an internship -- may be required.
The next step is a five-year residency, which is a period of on-the-job
training. For radiology, the residency is completed at a teaching hospital
in either diagnostic radiology or radiation oncology. While residents are
paid, these years are considered part of the doctor's training.
"A strong residency program is critical in a radiologist's career," says
radiologist Dr. Larry Muroff.
Most radiologists also complete one or two years of fellowship training.
This is where radiologists really specialize. Through clinical training and
research with an established radiologist, they focus on an area such as neuroradiology,
abdominal imaging or nuclear medicine.
There are about 125 universities in the U.S. with schools of medicine.
You can attend any one of them to get your MD. Then, you must find a school
that specializes in radiology.