LAUSR

The pipeline of new clinical medical physicists in the United States includes graduate education followed by residency training. A major bottleneck occurs as students on the verge of completing their advanced degree programs seek positions in residency training programs; for example, in 2022 between a quarter and a half of applicants did not enter residency training.[1] The origin of the bottleneck was the introduction in 2014 of the American Board of Radiology’s eligibility requirement for professional board certification that mandated the completion of an accredited residency program.1 The bottleneck acutely impacts graduate students. Impacts of concern include anxiety and depression, which are prevalent in graduate students across a spectrum of disciplines in the United States.2 Other potential impacts include shortages of qualified medical physicists, which could in turn impact the quality, safety, and availability of patient care.3–7 Although there is literature on navigating the medical physics education and training pathways,8–10 there is little guidance for graduate students in balancing their limited time to be spent on the competing tasks of interviewing for a residency position and simultaneously completing their degree. In principle, this should be quite simple: Each student interviews with enough