Hi OTnv46! It's great that you're asking this question. I'm sure there are many other prospective OT students who are weighing school ranking alongside other factors as they decide which program to attend. Like you, I just applied this past cycle and am only just embarking on my OT journey so please bear that in mind.
I can't speak to finding a job or compensation since I'm not there yet, but I can share based on my own personal research and reflections as a pre-OT. Here we go!
When you refer to school rankings, you might be thinking about the ones published by U.S. News. For health graduate schools, here is their
methodology, according to their website:
"ALL THE HEALTH RANKINGS are
based solely on the results of peer assessment surveys sent to deans, other administrators and/or faculty at accredited degree programs or schools in each discipline. All schools surveyed in a discipline were sent the same number of surveys.
Respondents rated the academic quality of programs on a scale of 1 (marginal) to 5 (outstanding). They were instructed to select "don't know" if they did not have enough knowledge to rate a program. Only fully accredited programs in good standing during the survey period are ranked. Those schools with the highest average scores appear in the rankings sorted in descending order based on their average peer assessment score" (emphasis mine)
These peer assessment surveys
differ from the U.S. News rankings of six types of professional programs which also are ranked by incorporating statistical indicators. Those programs are business, education, engineering, law, medicine and nursing.
I understand this to mean that U.S. News asked the representatives at 198 OT schools (representing 44% of ACOTE accredited OT programs) to rank schools according to academic quality. However, it's quite possible that lower ranking schools simply aren't as well-known by the people who completed the surveys. For example, it's hard to say how familiar a representative from a California school is with the academic quality of an Ohio school. Therefore, top ranking schools are likely just those that are the most well-known (possibly in terms of research output and faculty prominence), but this doesn't necessarily tell us anything about fieldwork placements/career outcomes for students. A lower ranking school might do a fantastic job at training up an entry-level OT clinician, even though they don't have famous faculty. This is where you should check out
NBCOT pass rates, as those are the best indicator of student outcomes.
Okay, so now stepping back from these rankings to my personal thoughts. I think it's quite possible that larger, more established programs who have had more time to gain a reputation and therefore appear higher in the rankings have more resources dedicated towards research and more faculty/faculty with more varied expertise . More established schools may have a broader network of fieldwork contracts (this is purely my observation based on attending info sessions of programs that recently received accreditation and comparing them to more established programs). This is where you should reach out to the different programs and ask about their fieldwork contracts. (Do they have out-of-state placements? How far do they expect students to commute for FW? Which settings are available?)
I've done quite a bit of reading about school prestige and career outcomes on Reddit and in the Occupational Therapy New Grads and Students Facebook group (check it out and you can also pose your question there). The general opinion I'm reading is that OTs who went to higher ranking schools don't regret their experience and are thankful for their access to faculty and research opportunities but do wish they had thought more about the price when they have to start paying their often exorbitant student loans.
I'll admit that I have strong opinions about the benefits of attending the least expensive accredited school with high pass rates that's available to you (and that's what I'm choosing to do), but you can read that
here if you want.
TL,DR: Take the U.S. News rankings with a huge grain of salt and recognize that there are many programs that will give you an excellent education, even if they aren't ranked the highest. Try to also weigh in factors such as cost (including cost of living), location, program length, fieldwork opportunities, co-curricular opportunities such as community clinics, master's versus doctorate, & faculty interest areas as you decide.
Hope this helps and wishing you all the best in your decision-making process! Feel free to message me if you have questions about my thought process!
[edited for spelling!]
