For coolrunnins and Ics2074, good luck in your interviews for Salus! I have an interview scheduled in January and will be on the fence for attending if I am accepted to other schools beforehand, (I will be hearing back from one program in two weeks.) Can you let me know the information you learn about the program during the interview? I would be specifically interested in tuition costs (seemed a bit unclear to me on their website,) average financial aid they award, clinical focus (specifically if they have students work on cadavers,) how widespread their fieldwork opportunities are, and when they expect to become accredited.
For those of you who have spent a lot of time in and around Philadelphia- could you share your impression of it. Pros and Cons? What is drawing you to apply to Philly schools. I am not a big city person and am trying to see how my well-being would fair as a student there.
Thanks and good luck everyone!
Hi inchbyinch!
No problem, I can actually tell you some of this information already. You should really do one of their online info sessions, you can find the answers to a lot of your questions there. Though I am a little confused on their total costs too, I received an email with a link to this extensive presentation on their financial aid:
http://www.salus.edu/_videoFinAid/index.html. They will know their accreditation around March/April. They seem very confident they will receive it, they already have quite a few other fully accredited health science programs. They do have a full cadaver lab, as they already have an established Physician Assistant program that requires it too.
In regards to fieldwork, I want to find out more about this too since I know it is competitive between all the different OT schools in Philly (there are 5). When I was at Temple's info session though, the head of their OT program was talking about fieldwork and mentioned that they were competing with "Jefferson, Salus, Philadelphia U and other programs." It made Salus's new program more legit to me since the head of Temple's long-established OT program considers them competition haha. The greater Philadelphia area is huge though so while it may be more competitive in the city, there are still plenty of opportunities in the area.
I grew up about an hour from Philadelphia, and I love this city. There are lots of diverse neighborhoods, great museums, festivals and events, always something interesting to do, lovely parks, decent public transportation, and lots of history. Salus is actually in Elkins Park, which is slightly outside the city so more suburban. That area might actually be more your speed then say where Jefferson or Temple are located, which are both very much in the city (though Jefferson's in a MUCH better location then Temple.)
Hope that helps! What other schools are you applying to? Would you mind sharing your stats?
