Occ Med Program Rankings

[WhatNow22]

Hello All

I am researching occupational medicine residencies, in hopes of applying, but I don't know where to find information on program rankings. I don't really care what school is #1, but I would like to know which are the top, sought after programs and which ones should be considered more carefully before attending. Is there anywhere out there that has this type of information or can anyone pass along what they've heard?

Thank you!

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[QofQuimica]

If it's in the Northeast or on the West coast, it will be more sought after because those are the places where many people, given their druthers, would like to live. That doesn't mean those programs are inherently better; it's just that geography preferences play a large role in many people's choice of programs.

Since there aren't all that many occ med programs out there, I suggest that you apply to all of them unless you know there is just no way that you'd be willing to move to a certain location. Then go on 8-12 interviews and rank 'em how you like 'em.

Also, just as an FYI, many programs do not come with an intern year built in; for those programs, you have to get one yourself. In addition, some programs prefer to take applicants who have first completed three years of training in a general specialty, often FM, IM, or EM. So if you're coming right out of med school, you may want to also apply to one of those three specialties. That way, if you don't match in occ med the first time, you can apply for it again after you're BE/BC in your clinical specialty. In that case, you'd be doing occ med more like a fellowship than a residency. The downside is that it would add two yrs to your training, but the upside is that you'd have a lot of flexibility in terms of what kind of practice you want to have.