For all of you who do not understand how rankings work... allow me to help. Though I may be a little bias because I am an MD resident, you will have to realize that you will be working with a lot of us. I have gotten to work with a few Podiatry students, and from what I saw I was pretty impressed. But when it comes down to it, Podiatry is a "specialty" in which ranking wouldn't really matter for the actual school, but instead your residency. While their may be argument that some schools are better at "Podiatry" than others, it's likely based off the quality of your staff that works with you in your clinic and not your board scores (which is obvious because you don't even get to know yours).
So if you are more concerned with "rank" and "reputation" than you are which school suits you best... the methodology is simple... Put the schools into 3 categories... MD/DO/and POD only.
Why? Because if the podiatry schools do end up merging with MEd schools... this is the future you are looking at anyway- not to mention that the medical community around you (non Podiatrists) pretty much rank it like this anyway.
This sucks for a LOT of schools, because even though NYCPM is "technically" associated with a med school- it's not really, and would count as independent. Why? Because at schools, such as Temple and Scholl's (Rosalind Franklin) , the students take the exact same exams the Medical Students (MD/DO) do in the first two years for their basic science classes, which is what get's them the part I board scores that gets them that "ranking" and "respect". Schools such as Barry, who are associated with a University directly, but only have a P.A. program, are not really any better than those who don't have any at all.
Of all the POD schools, the only one that is ranked nationally in medicine is Temple University. Which is ranked both in top 50 Research and top 100 Primary Care. At first I thought maybe the DO schools just didn't get ranked, but US News and World Report made sure to note that they were included in the ranking but did not publish ranks below a specific number.
Their specialty rankings for Hospitals (which is where the residency you got into would matter), is based 100% on Upper Level Faculty Members... which makes sense because you are only as good as the faculty members that teach you. For this reason, I would have been tempted to give NYCPM a second look because of they were the first POD school established, but with the issues they have had not being able to work on the ankle- makes it obvious that you will not be learning as much their as the other schools. Which actually makes me rank it almost at the very bottom, only beating the single school that is left without accreditation, Western University in Cali.
Another HUGE thing to consider is the community where the school is located. Again, sad about NYCPM because they for sure would have the most active clinic. Leaving Temple, Scholl's, Samual Merritt(oakland) and Berry next in line. Sure, Midwestern is close to Phoenix, but when you only have 30 students per class, and a typical girl to guy ratio of 1:9... it's obvious the patient base is going to be about as large and diverse as it's incoming class. I also hear a lot of people say good things about Des Moines and Ohio, though unfortunately being in more "driving dependent" cities, they are likely to lack in clinical experience that residencies elsewhere prefer you be experienced with.
So yes, fundamental education may technically be better in places like Ohio and Iowa, your GPA is not what is going to get you into the best residencies... sorry to break the news to you. Not saying it will hurt, but if you aren't personable, you better go to whichever school will get you out of your shell as fast as possible- because you will be talking to patients every single day... if you aren't good at talking, maybe you should try taking the DAT.
So here are your tiers for "rankings" and "reputations" among the medical communities (and go ahead and say- "it's not true, I know a Dr that says this school is way better than this one"... sure, you will find that in some places, but as a Orthopedic Resident at a TOP residency... this is the typical view). P.S. if you go to schools in lower tiers, you still have a chance at getting into great residencies, but again, this is for people who are more looking for reputation and if the merge does happen... pretty much what the ranking reality would be.
Tier 1:
1. Temple (also previously called Penn Podiatry until it spit- but the ivy league associated never hurts)
Tier 2:
2. Scholl's - (above the others because of location, though outside of downtown chicago, rotations through inner city hospitals will give them the "big city" experience that will benefit them come residency application time) Also US News and World report listed it's Med school ranking as "Unpublished"as opposed to "not ranked", meaning that is was ranked but not high enough to be listed.
3. Des Moines, (good school, but smaller city than Chicago and "unranked" DO program)
4. AZ - (AZ only here because of the DO school it's associated with... it's unfortunately made fun of a lot because of the lack of women ... BUT if you are Mormon, it is rumored to be a great opportunity to make connections, not sure how accurate that is though)
Tier 3:
6. Berry (No DO/MD program but good weather and lots of people- though I have heard A LOT of students complain that they kick a lot of people out... but being the only southern school really helps it out as far as residency placement goes.)
5. CSPM (Oakland)- Apparently use to be in San Fran ... but now in Oakland. So you will get a lot of patients, but it is not associated with any other university so it may not have the access to surrounding hospitals or as many connections as the others)
7. OCOM (same as CSPM but a smaller school in a smaller city- but MUCH safer city!)
Tier 4:
NYCPM (UNLESS GOING FOR A 2 YEAR RESIDENCY THAN EASY TIER 2) Really saddens me to put them here, because I would love to put them right there with Temple- because they are the founding school. So while connections within the state may be amazing... going much further may be hard until they change the laws back (if they haven't already).
Tier 5:
Western (not accredited)
**CA is where the merge is being actively pursued- so even though they aren't associated directly, it may be a good area to go because in the near future the state may let them do a lot more than others (though the others are likely to follow eventually).
So if you are more concerned with "rank" and "reputation" than you are which school suits you best... the methodology is simple... Put the schools into 3 categories... MD/DO/and POD only.
Why? Because if the podiatry schools do end up merging with MEd schools... this is the future you are looking at anyway- not to mention that the medical community around you (non Podiatrists) pretty much rank it like this anyway.
This sucks for a LOT of schools, because even though NYCPM is "technically" associated with a med school- it's not really, and would count as independent. Why? Because at schools, such as Temple and Scholl's (Rosalind Franklin) , the students take the exact same exams the Medical Students (MD/DO) do in the first two years for their basic science classes, which is what get's them the part I board scores that gets them that "ranking" and "respect". Schools such as Barry, who are associated with a University directly, but only have a P.A. program, are not really any better than those who don't have any at all.
Of all the POD schools, the only one that is ranked nationally in medicine is Temple University. Which is ranked both in top 50 Research and top 100 Primary Care. At first I thought maybe the DO schools just didn't get ranked, but US News and World Report made sure to note that they were included in the ranking but did not publish ranks below a specific number.
Their specialty rankings for Hospitals (which is where the residency you got into would matter), is based 100% on Upper Level Faculty Members... which makes sense because you are only as good as the faculty members that teach you. For this reason, I would have been tempted to give NYCPM a second look because of they were the first POD school established, but with the issues they have had not being able to work on the ankle- makes it obvious that you will not be learning as much their as the other schools. Which actually makes me rank it almost at the very bottom, only beating the single school that is left without accreditation, Western University in Cali.
Another HUGE thing to consider is the community where the school is located. Again, sad about NYCPM because they for sure would have the most active clinic. Leaving Temple, Scholl's, Samual Merritt(oakland) and Berry next in line. Sure, Midwestern is close to Phoenix, but when you only have 30 students per class, and a typical girl to guy ratio of 1:9... it's obvious the patient base is going to be about as large and diverse as it's incoming class. I also hear a lot of people say good things about Des Moines and Ohio, though unfortunately being in more "driving dependent" cities, they are likely to lack in clinical experience that residencies elsewhere prefer you be experienced with.
So yes, fundamental education may technically be better in places like Ohio and Iowa, your GPA is not what is going to get you into the best residencies... sorry to break the news to you. Not saying it will hurt, but if you aren't personable, you better go to whichever school will get you out of your shell as fast as possible- because you will be talking to patients every single day... if you aren't good at talking, maybe you should try taking the DAT.
So here are your tiers for "rankings" and "reputations" among the medical communities (and go ahead and say- "it's not true, I know a Dr that says this school is way better than this one"... sure, you will find that in some places, but as a Orthopedic Resident at a TOP residency... this is the typical view). P.S. if you go to schools in lower tiers, you still have a chance at getting into great residencies, but again, this is for people who are more looking for reputation and if the merge does happen... pretty much what the ranking reality would be.
Tier 1:
1. Temple (also previously called Penn Podiatry until it spit- but the ivy league associated never hurts)
Tier 2:
2. Scholl's - (above the others because of location, though outside of downtown chicago, rotations through inner city hospitals will give them the "big city" experience that will benefit them come residency application time) Also US News and World report listed it's Med school ranking as "Unpublished"as opposed to "not ranked", meaning that is was ranked but not high enough to be listed.
3. Des Moines, (good school, but smaller city than Chicago and "unranked" DO program)
4. AZ - (AZ only here because of the DO school it's associated with... it's unfortunately made fun of a lot because of the lack of women ... BUT if you are Mormon, it is rumored to be a great opportunity to make connections, not sure how accurate that is though)
Tier 3:
6. Berry (No DO/MD program but good weather and lots of people- though I have heard A LOT of students complain that they kick a lot of people out... but being the only southern school really helps it out as far as residency placement goes.)
5. CSPM (Oakland)- Apparently use to be in San Fran ... but now in Oakland. So you will get a lot of patients, but it is not associated with any other university so it may not have the access to surrounding hospitals or as many connections as the others)
7. OCOM (same as CSPM but a smaller school in a smaller city- but MUCH safer city!)
Tier 4:
NYCPM (UNLESS GOING FOR A 2 YEAR RESIDENCY THAN EASY TIER 2) Really saddens me to put them here, because I would love to put them right there with Temple- because they are the founding school. So while connections within the state may be amazing... going much further may be hard until they change the laws back (if they haven't already).
Tier 5:
Western (not accredited)
**CA is where the merge is being actively pursued- so even though they aren't associated directly, it may be a good area to go because in the near future the state may let them do a lot more than others (though the others are likely to follow eventually).