U Penn vs U Kentucky Medical Physics

[Mgphys]

hi,
I'm wondering if anyone knows anything about the qualities of U Penn and U Kentucky medical physics programs and if one is better than the other!

 

[Choppy]

I don't have any personal experience with either program.

@EricVT came through the Kentucky program and has posted positive things about it. Their https://radiationmedicine.med.uky.edu/program-statistics-0 look pretty good with what looks like all recent graduates getting into residencies or clinical positions. It doesn't look like they have a PhD program though, so if you're interested in the more academic/research side of things it might not be the best institution for that. Of course, there's nothing to keep you from enrolling in a PhD at another institution after getting the MSc there. It also looks like they're introducing an imaging track. Generally I think that's a good thing, but my personal feeling is that the MSc is too early to specialize. Medical physics graduate students should be able to go on into any of the branches for a residency. But I don't know enough about the details of what the differences are between the tracks - it could just be differences in the clinical experience focus.

Penn doesn't appear to have a PhD program either and it seems to be a little larger than Kentucky in that they admit and matriculate more students. Their program statistics are http://www.sas.upenn.edu/lps/graduate/mpp/mmp/statistics. They are also affiliated with a proton therapy center, so if you're interested in that, it might offer an advantage (although I seem to recall Kentucky also having some kind of proton affiliation as well, but I can't point to anything specific).

Both have residency programs and that's a good thing, because you'll need a residency to be eligible for your board certification.

Sorry if that doesn't really give you any decisive information to lean one way or the other.