As some of you know, I went to the Temple University School of Podiatric Medicine in Philly. Several of my classmates ended up going to residency programs in California, Texas, Chicago. Many of those classmates who went to residency programs outside of Northeast area are people either from those areas or are tired of the Northeast. However, majority of my classmates stayed in the Northeast because they are either from this area or have a situation that does not allow them to relocate at that time (eg. Family). Another major factor why many students stay in areas near the school for residency training is that many of the attendings either teach part time at the school or know of faculty members at the school whom then recommend students to them. Students from the school also sometimes do rotations at some of the areas residency programs. In my residency program, all of the current residents are graduate of Temple. Students from other podiatry school often ask me if my program is partial to Temple. My program is open to students from all podiatry school but since we take only 1 resident a year and majority of our applicants are from Temple (90% of the applicants), the chances are very good in that we will probably end up with a Temple student based on statistics alone. I think that when it is time for you to select a residency program, you need to first decide what you are looking for in a residency program. Are you looking for a 2 year forefoot surgical training program or 3 or more years forefoot and rearfoot surgical training program? Where are you willing to go to do your residency training? (This is very important if you have a spouse or family.) What kind of residency program environment are you looking (high surgical volume, academics, research, etc..)? You also have to be honest with yourself about your grades. If you are in the bottom 1/4 of your class, the chances of you getting top residency programs (such as Northlake (Tucker), West Penn, Seattle, Northern Virginia, etc...) are highly unlikely. As you begin to visit various residency programs, you will begin to develop a feel as to what you are looking for in a residency program. We have some students as early as their second year beginning to visit my residency program. Their rationale is that they want to determine where they would like to do their externships.
As for residency grad staying near the area where they did the residency training, I am not able to comment much on since I am still a resident. I can tell you that many of my former classmates ahead of me usually stay in the area where they did residency training because they have develop connections with many of the practictioners in the surrounding areas. Hence, they are usually able to find out about some of the good job opportunities in the area. In addition, many of residency grad stay in the area because they are not in the position to relocate at the time (eg. family). However, you do have to realize there are people who do move to other places away from the residency training areas to work. I recommend you talk to you several of the recent residency grads and practicing Podiatrists about this subject matter.
If you have any questions, feel free to email me. Good luck.
octor ratio, the problem definitely isn't overcrowding.
