Radiology NEET PG guide – How to select THE best college for post-graduation in Radiology (includes personal insights)!

The post-graduate medical entrance exam in India for MD / Diploma / DNB (also known as the NEET-PG exam) is very competitive.

To make matters worse, it is even more difficult to choose the perfect branch and ideal college considering the options available (and the probability of you getting through them). As if the questions in the NEET-PG entrance weren’t enough, students are faced with even more complicated questions.

The entrance exam questions do have a single right answer (at least some of them have one!) but the questions pertaining to selecting a particular branch are varied from person to person and so do their answers.

The motive of RadioGyan is to help students with these common yet complicated problems. This is another attempt for the same.

Step #1 – Find out if you can get into radiology

The first question (unfortunately) is: Will you be able to get radiology with your rank?.

This depends on a lot of factors so it is difficult to predict. You can make a guestimate from the past year’s seat distribution. The list also offers insights into the top medical colleges for radiology, although the college that toppers are opting may not be THE best!

Here is the cutoff list for radiology in various Indian colleges for MD Radiodiagnosis for last year i.e. 2019. You can use the sort button at the top to sort the list according to College, State, and cut-off rank.

Cut-off list for radiology PG in Indian Medical colleges (2019)

Use this only as a guide as things change every year and you may be lucky to get into one of the top colleges.

Step #2 - Should you take up Radiology?

The f̶i̶r̶s̶t̶ second question you need to answer is do you want to take up Radiology for your post-graduation?

We have written the pros and the (few😉) cons in that regard. Here is our post if you need help with answering that question: 

Step #3 - How to select a particular college for Radiodiagnosis?

Now you, if you have answered the two questions, here, is the next important question. Which college? Here is what constitutes and IDEAL medical college (most of it applies to all specialties).

Let us break these down one by one.

Basic Imaging modalities:

You are going to spend (at least) 3 years in the department so it is good to work at a place that has all the basic modalities.

A good department has Digital Radiography (DR), good ultrasound machines, at-least 16 slice MDCT (Multidetector CT), and a 1.5T MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging).

Also, it is important that these are in "Working condition". I am stressing on this point as radiology machines are expensive. At times machines in government, hospitals are down for months!

It would be nice to have other modalities like Intervention Radiology (IR), Mammography, Bone Densitometry, and Nuclear Medicine but these are optional. We are compiling a separate post on IR. If you want to be notified do join our radiology telegram channel.

Good case volume:

As in any other branch of medicine, you learn the most from patients. So you HAVE to be in a hospital with a good caseload. Government Hospitals usually have a decent workload and private colleges usually have a lesser number of patients. But this may not be always true so do confirm this.

Department should be well-staffed and not outsourced:

You need to have well-qualified consultants/lectures/professors who will correct your reports. You need good mentors not only for being a good radiologist but also for being a good person in general. You will learn a lot during residency if you under the right mentor.

The other important thing is that they should be present in the department (not outsourced to another diagnostic center or a teleradiology company) and be present in person (and not reporting from a remote site)

Teaching Hospital and teaching

Why is teaching the last criteria? What is the difference between the last two points? Let me explain.

It is a myth that government hospitals/teaching hospitals have the best of teachers. They have a large number of patients to learn from. There are lots of medical colleges that do not even have consultants to report routine cases, leave aside teaching. Most of the reporting is done by senior residents or final year radiology residents.

The reason that it is the last criteria is that although a good teacher can make a HUGE difference. unfortunately, not all colleges have good teachers (some of them have them ON PAPER, while some of them do not have them at all). And as I said you will learn most of the stuff from patients and books so do not keep teaching/teachers as the only criteria. Also, there are tons of free and paid radiology resources online which you can learn from.

And if you do not believe me, here are some stats. Dr. Ahuja et al. conducted a survey of radiology residents and here is what they found:

So chose a teaching hospital but make sure that there is at least some teaching.

Things that should NOT matter while selecting a PG seat!

• Stipend.
• Hostel facilities.
• Whether the place is close to home.
• High workload (in fact more the merrier).

These may sound trivial but I have seen people leave medical colleges for the above reasons.

Click below to check out this list of radiology residents whom you can contact with your questions about individual colleges. To prevent spam, you need to register on the website to access the contact details of radiology residents across India (currently +80 residents).

And last but not the least, if possible do visit the college once and try to spend a day or two in the department.

Remember there is no single best PG college. You have to select the one that suits YOU the best!

Do you have any questions? Feel free to ask them in the comment sections or contact us.

If you are a resident or radiologist and would like to help here is the link to the form: Radiology PG guide for NEET. You can also write your suggestions in the comments sections below or ask in the RadioGyan telegram group!

I would like to thank all the volunteers for stepping up to help the confused souls! Also thanks to Dr. Girish Raheja and Dr. Kumar for their help with collecting the data.

Also once you are done selecting your college, check out these guides to help you during residency:

DNB Radiology OSCE – Tips and Tricks

MD vs DNB Radiology: Which Path is Right for Your Career?

Radiology Mentors for Medical Students (Post NEET-PG)

What It Means To Be A Radiologist: A Guide For Medical Students!

Interventional Radiology – All Your Questions Answered!

Disclaimer: Selecting a branch and a college are important decisions. The above post lists things which you may find useful. Comments about a particular college are the individual opinion of the residents and can be skewed for various reasons. They are to be used only as a guide for your decision. So do your due diligence before acting upon any of these suggestions.