What do you wish you would've done?

[Killtron]

I'm currently going to school for a DPT (I'm entering my senior year soon) and I was wondering if there was anything you wish you would've done at any point in your early career that you didn't. Maybe I can learn from your mistakes . I would also like to introduce myself, seeing as how this is my first post. I already mentioned I'm going to be a senior. I go to Saint Louis University and I'm totally stoked about going into debt

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[hefe]

I'll be an incoming PT student who's starting in summer soon after I graduate ugrad.

Study abroad or travel now in undergrad! My biased opinion says to learn Spanish in Central/South America while you're there!

Get scholarships or work beforehand to pay for it, it's completely do-able. I was an idiot and rationalized to myself I couldn't even though I paid for a 4 year degree that I easily could have done it and turned it into a religious sabbatical. Find ways to make this time productive!

So now I have plans to go abroad between breaks and after training to try to live with some of these experiences into my future career track. This world's such a large place and few of those stuck in their myopic patterns of daily life realize this fact. The responsibilities of life usually tend to keep piling on more and more as you age.

 

[hefe]

Oh, more advice to pre-PT's and pre-Health that I did do in undergrad that I found to be great things to try to do/prevent and would highly recommend.

• Work a part-time job with higher responsibilities as a student and save into a roth-ira or eliminate debt! This could be projects management, student manager, fitness instructor, retail salesman ect. ect. You can do these easily part time while still succeeding as an undergrad in your classes. This will give you better perspective and skills to succeed once you graduate and enter the workplace.
• Become a research or teaching assistant in undergrad for an entire project or a years time. This will be extremely helpful when leveraging for those rare graduate assistantships out there, if you're lucky these positions while in DPT program can eliminate virtually all graduate debt load (if you're qualified in other areas as well).
• Keep your criminal record squeaky clean. One even minor slip up will unfortunately follow you for the rest of your career and will take much more effort to over come it. This isn't so much a country of second chances as we'd like to think.
• Remember, above all else, when you are enrolled in school full-time you are a student first and everything else second. KEEP THAT GPA UP, it will open doors if leveraged correctly!

 

[markelmarcel]

Hefe- awesome advice, but I think the OP might want tips from current practicing PTs -- like advice on what they did/didn't do at the beginning of their career as a PT...

Correct me if I'm wrong!

 

[DancerFutureDPT]

Hefe- awesome advice, but I think the OP might want tips from current practicing PTs -- like advice on what they did/didn't do at the beginning of their career as a PT...

Correct me if I'm wrong!

No I think you're right....SLU has a 3+3 PT program, so she's probably about to start the PT program/is already in the PT program and wants to know from that perspective.

 

[Killtron]

Actually I am a guy lol rare I know. I'm not really asking anything specific, any advice is helpful, whether it be early career or still in college. Thanks.

 

[mtm34]

are you starting PT school or do you have another year of undergrad?

 

[Killtron]

Both lol they combine my last year of my undergrad with my first year of grad school. Technically I start grad school this summer with gross anatomy and kinesiology, but I don't get my bachelors until after next year. It's weird.

 

[mtm34]

That is awesome, congrats- I wish I would of done a 3+3 but I just didn't know about them when I graduated HS (thanks guidance dept.) Regardless I just finished my first year of my DPT program and as far as school is concerned I would brush up on anatomy, hit the gym, and enjoy the summer off, once you get rolling it's intense. Good luck to you.

 

[Killtron]

Ha I wish I had the summer off. I am taking an anatomy class and we get to dissect a cadaver and its super rigorous.