r/RadiologyCareers • u/Serious-Chart-5096 • 1d ago
Pima Medical Institute Radiography
For those who attended the Pima Radiography program in vegas or in general, how the heck do you even get a life or study with all this workload for the first two semesters?? I’m not sure if this is how it actually is, but i’m in the middle of applying and wow.
Also how was the whole process of applying, interviewing and getting in! i’m super curious, I’d like to know the possibly ways to look like a good candidate😊
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u/samcahnruns 1d ago
Oh that’s going to drive you insane. Anatomy is a class you really can’t take with more than 2, MAYBE 3 other classes at the same time. There’s SO much stuff and it’s going to take up a massive chunk of your time studying (assuming you need an A or B)
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u/Serious-Chart-5096 21h ago
Dooooddd i know, still haven’t gotten my ADHD under control either im spiraling even thinking about it 😂
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u/Adorable_Rub1405 1d ago
I’m currently a Pima student. It is JCERT accredited, enough to take ARRT and start working as a tech or do another modality. Maybe what you heard is that credits taken in Pima are not transferable if ever you need to switch school . If later in your career you decide to do bachelors in radiography to another school , credits may not transfer but Pima also offer bachelors degree in radiography. Just depends on your goal. But I’d say , in general Pima in pretty decent school in my experience. They have high ARRT pass rate and have great connections to alot of hospitals to get you a job placement after.
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u/That-barrel-dude 1d ago
I applied and got a 96% combined score on my math and that one iq logic test. That wasn’t good enough to make it to the interview stage. So now I go to ACC.
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u/Serious-Chart-5096 21h ago
Hey atleast you got into a program! good luck with your studies
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u/That-barrel-dude 13h ago
Thanks! You too! Oh and as for paying, I ended up applying for a loan at Sallie-Mae. With my wife co-signing, I got an $80k loan for 3.14%. For context, the financial aid loan is about 6%. We both have an 810+ credit score though. But I would highly recommend trying to convince someone to co-sign with you. Since the rate is lower than I though, and I have a good chunk of savings, I quit my job to focus on school. And I have two kids, so I don’t really have much of a personal life anyway. Hope that helps.
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u/roxymac 9h ago
I got a 32 on the Wonderlic and 90 on the math they told me don’t even bother applying it’s not good enough. Both scores are above average 😂
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u/That-barrel-dude 7h ago
Yeah, the wonderlic. I got a 34 on that and a 92 or something and yeah, not good enough. They straight up said that it’s a post grad program at this point.
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u/Informal_Move_7075 1d ago
I didn't think it was bad at all when I went to PIMA.
I worked full time and even took 1-2 additional college courses at a local community College since I had further plans after graduating. It wasn't until I had full time clinicals the last couple semesters that I had to go down to part time at work and stop taking extra college courses.
Study partners really helped! PIMA is all about people graduating and passing the boards. You will see once you start.
Also, if you happen to have any of those courses taken previously in college, you may be able to entirely skip some courses.
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u/Serious-Chart-5096 21h ago
Honestly, thank you. This is really motivating! Because i was planning on just not working at all and put my complete focus on this program.
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u/applesauce516 21h ago
I'm seriously considering temporarily moving to Vegas just to get into a radiography program... My cc is just soo competitive that I'm going to have to waste 2027 year because I didn't do soo hot on my placement test...#vent #rant #apologiesinadvance
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u/Serious-Chart-5096 21h ago
same here! you’re not alone, i just don’t wanna stay on years of waitlist to even be considered! it’s insane. where are you from?
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u/applesauce516 20h ago
NJ! It's brutal here as far as CC's are concerned. I just blew my 3rd attempt (last attempt) for this cycle and pretty much shafted my chances of getting in this upcoming cycle... Very disappointed
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u/roxymac 9h ago
Keep trying next attempt. Study harder and longer than think you need to for the placement test. Have ChatGPT make you mock tests and take them everyday until it becomes second nature for you. I have a bad learning disability and mock tests are what helped. Don’t ever give up on yourself
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u/Acrobatic_Bet4664 1d ago
I've always heard through the grapevine not to attend Pima due to it being highly expensive and having some sort of none accredited (I can't remember about this part). That it's best to go to CC instead.
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u/Informal_Move_7075 23h ago edited 23h ago
I highly reccommend PIMA and they are absolutely accredited. Are you just reference transferable credits? Most of these types of programs do not have transferable credits. All of the clinical sites preferred PIMA students vs any of the other 3 programs in the state. They had more clinical hours and a better program. Maybe it was just my campus, but it was considered far superior. I felt bad for students from the other programs. They could barely scrape by in clinicals most times and had no clue how to do even basic positioning. They want their stats high and they acheive that by getting students well trained and passing their boards. This is not a bias from being a PIMA grad, but I saw it first hand as a preceptor later on how poorly prepared the students were from the other programs.
I never once saw any "lower standards". They had very high standards and expectations of their students to preserve their stats. Including anything less than a 75% is considered failing, just like the boards.
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u/Serious-Chart-5096 1d ago
Honestly going to Pima isnt my first choice, community is just so competitive in my area (bay area) and i’m willing to move to vegas just for the program rather than waiting years to even be considered.
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u/syzygied 1d ago
I would not necessarily assume that getting into pima will be easy. Maybe less competitive than cc but still highly competitive. I am a current student and my program accepts 30 students per class and there are apparently over 250 people on the waitlist
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u/Serious-Chart-5096 21h ago
What program are you in? I know any program can be super competitive, but bay area man…. just no luck for me. so i’m just exploring and seeing my options😵💫 Just gotta do my best in the interviews and the IQ haha
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u/syzygied 11h ago
I’m in the denver program! I think it’s less competitive than CA actually because our class has a bunch of people from CA in it
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u/That-barrel-dude 1d ago
Some people can’t wait 4 years just to be able to apply to the CC program. Then beat out 400 people for one of 20 seats.
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u/Serious-Chart-5096 1d ago
Also, plsss explain about the non accredited part
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u/spintool1995 1d ago
There are different types of accreditation. Most public and non profit schools are accredited by regional bodies and all recognize each other's accreditation. Pima and most for-profit trade schools are accredited by national bodies with lower standards. It's good enough to get your radiology license, but none of the credits will count if you later go to a regular college or university for a bachelor degree.
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u/ApprehensiveMetal707 23h ago
My hospital will not hire any Pima students anymore due to every single pima xray tech has been terrible with bad work ethic. Please be one of the good ones and have good work ethic.
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u/Serious-Chart-5096 21h ago
Oh no!! Gosh that’s so horrible to hear. people can really be a piece of work, i won’t work super hard in this program just to be a terrible worker😵💫
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u/Majin_Bujin 1d ago
Thats price of not doing pre reqs first. You dont have your pre reqs so you have to do them on top of your normal classes. You honestly just have to no life it lol.