Office of Rural Programs

Why Choose Olympia LIC

The Olympia LIC experience creatively combines the required clerkships in Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Surgery, and OB/GYN into a blend of blocks and longitudinal experiences throughout the academic year.

Family Medicine, most of Psychiatry, some of OB, and the outpatient parts of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, along with a scattering of subspecialty and elective days, are blended each week over two 11-week blocks.  This allows for better continuity over longer periods of time to help foster deeper and more meaningful relationships with patients and preceptors, and to allow for more effective integration into the primary care healthcare teams with whom you will work.

Information regarding learning environments and clerkship specifics can be found here.

Information about the application process and timeline can be found here.

Olympia is a small and eclectic town with a rich history…

  • It is the seat of Thurston County, sits on Budd Inlet and Capitol Lake at the mouth of the Deschutes River, and is 60 miles south of Seattle.
  • Its population is roughly 50,000 with its metro area accounting for 250,000.
  • Chosen as the territorial capital in 1853, Olympia developed port facilities on a lumber-based economy augmented by oyster farming, dairying, and brewing.
  • The Capitol building, completed in 1935, stands on a promontory in a 35-acre park and establishes a visual identity for the town. State laws are crafted and debated under its dome.
  • Olympia is home to both Evergreen State University (est. 1967) and St. Martins College (est. 1895).
  • Lastly, homelessness has become one of the most significant and urgent public concerns facing Thurston County. 2018 data showed a 56% increase in homelessness from the year prior, and the Olympia City Council declared a state of public health emergency related to homelessness.

Olympia is an eclectic blend of government and industry, students and state workers, and the poor and vulnerable.  With its well-resourced breadth and depth of talented healthcare workforce and well-equipped facilities, it can serve as an ideal base for your Patient Care Phase of medical school learning.