MUSC’s Occupational Therapy Program has been named for the first time among the top 20 nationally recognized health discipline programs in U.S. News and World Report magazine’s America’s Best Colleges for 1998.

MUSC is ranked as 20th in a field of 56 surveyed occupational therapy masters programs. Other programs in the list include the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, Boston University and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Mo.

The school’s Occupational Therapy Program was established in 1976 as a unit of the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences and operating under the College of Health Professions. The college expanded to provide a three-year masters degree program in 1996. It is scheduled to be reviewed for accreditation in summer 1998.

“The U.S. News ranking is a corroboration of what all of us have felt about the faculty and students in that program for quite awhile,” said Valerie West, Ed.D., interim dean of the College of Health Professions. “We are very proud of them.”

The rankings for health professionals for U.S. News was determined by a survey of peers. Participants were asked to use a five-point scale to rate only schools within their disciplines. Rankings were based on scholarship, curriculum and the quality of the program’s faculty and graduate students.

Occupational therapy students at MUSC have consistently performed well in both the clinical setting and classroom. In the 1996-97 academic year, 30 occupational therapy students took the nationally standardized licensure examination. A total of 29 or 97 percent passed and the program’s average score ranked above the national average.