I just attended the Get Acquainted day on the 28th. I asked the professor at my lunch table if they had finished sending out all their acceptances yet and she said no. First round of deposits is due Thursday (the 31st) so keep an eye out in the next couple weeks. My acceptance came FedEx and a week later I got an email saying that if I hadn't received it I should call them.
Plusses: All of the professors seemed nice and personable, including the Director. They seemed really proud of their students and their unique modular based curriculum. They have used this style since they switch to the DPT in 2001 which I liked because they had plenty of time to work the kinks out. They also had great credentials such as editor-in-chief of the PT Journal and holding offices in the national APTA. They are really active in research and students have the opportunity to help out with this, I think in their second year.
The facilities were great. There is literally a castle there that a lot of the offices such as financial aide are in plus apparently the freshman dorms is in the castle which sounds fun for them. The Health Sciences college was new and modern looking and up to date. The program uses 2 classrooms which were fine, normal classrooms. One had stadium seating and one didn't. The classrooms have pwer outlets at each seat to plug in your computer, plus they do all their testing on laptops they provide on test day which they said helps to prepare you for the NPTE.
I attended a lab and thought it was well done. There are 60 people in the lab so along with the professors they had like 4 other people (PTs from the area) there to make sure students got individual attention. They also had a live video feed on the prof up front and big screens so everyone had a great view of the demos. It was actually really great because the demo was palpating muscle of the hand/wrist and they could zoom in on the hand so everyone had a blown-up view.
They also really sold me on their alternative module based curriculum. It was hard for them to explain but basically each 3 weeks they do a unit based on a "patient" case study. In the beginning the patient is just an aging adult to teach basic interventions, then you move on to harder things like musculoskeletal injuries, until you get a complicated patient that might have a musculosketel injury with a medical complication like a stroke. They stressed that, that way you learn everything in pieces, like if the "patient" has an injury you learn the anatomy and interventions of that body part, but always have the big picture in mind. You don't do your cadaver class until year 2 when you've already reviewed a lot of the anatomy so you know what you're looking at. You do the anatomy class at Drexel in their lab and there are 4 students to a cadaver which is a really good ratio. You don't share your cadaver with any other programs.
I hope I explained that right, it gets a little confusing but they explained it really well so by the end of the days it sounded like a great way to learn. Especially compared to a program like BU where you go straight in to a cadaver class and do nothing but really hard, in depth anatomy for like 6 weeks. This seems more doable, though the students said it was a demanding program and of course they study like crazy.
Another plus is that they are tested on each unit. That means every 3 weeks you test, I think a written and a practical, then you're done with that unit and move on. There are no mid-terms or finals, just these tests. I like this because you can't get behind when you have a test every 3 weeks and you never have a crazy week with like 6 finals in 2 days which is what always happens to me now.
There are also travel opportunities. You can go to Jamaica, Peru and I think one other place for a couple weeks. You can also do your shorter clinical in London, but you have to pay more for it.
Drawbacks: Not much. Some people will not like the town because it's tiny and maybe a little homogenous, but there are other towns to live in and students even commute from Philadelphia and it's really doable because the train goes right to Glenside then you can take a bus or walk. It's about a mile away.
The other drawback, and really the only one in my mind, is the clinicals. You do enough time, though some people didn't like that there were two instead of three because one is 6 months. I thought that was fine but they have a finite list you have to pick from. They said they are just super picky and strictly vet the sites for good habits, teaching etc and aren't open to others if you already have some in mind. I didn't see the list but I think there are only a couple not in Pennsylvania, one in Texas and one in California. I just wanted more options because I'm specifically interested in interning at certain places if I can. Not a deal break though because the sites they do have are really good.
Whew that was long! Hope it's helpful for folks considering the program or that can't make it to the Get Acquainted Day!
