Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science Rochester Program

Program Identity & Fit

Mayo Clinic's Radiation Oncology Residency is a quaternary academic powerhouse built around one-on-one, disease-site-specific training in a fully integrated proton and photon department, with residents doing significant contouring and dosimetry work themselves rather than sharing coverage. The defining structural feature is the six-month Senior Resident Associate rotation, in which PGY-5 residents run their own patient panel semi-independently before graduation, explicitly designed to make the transition to attending practice seamless. Research is deeply embedded (6-11 months dedicated, publishable work expected, access to cooperative group data and biostatistics/editorial support), yet graduates go on to both elite academic appointments (Mayo, Yale, Duke, Wilmot) and desirable community/private practice jobs, reflecting a program that trains for excellence in any setting rather than pushing a single career path. The program values residents who can absorb high clinical autonomy quickly, engage across a large multidisciplinary faculty, and produce independent scholarly work alongside heavy clinical volume.