Competitiveness once in PT school?

[azhiker]

---

Members don't see this ad.

I had a question related to once in PT school:
Once you get in, are people competitive within the program? I have heard that at some schools, only so many A's and B's are given out and people are fighting to be at the top of their class? Do you guys see much of that? Or is it more of "you have made it this far to get here, don't make it a competition anymore" and a working together type concept?
I was just very curious about this as I feel that this factor would really change the atmosphere and feeling of the program overall.

 

[artizzle]

There are going to be programs of both types out there. Fortunately, mine is one that grades solely on a scale; so no curves or any funny business. My class works together to create study guides for everyone and we all try to help each other out as much as possible. We are competitive together as a whole class, each of us trying to do our best and making sure that each person truly understands the material. In my opinion, any PT school or class that has a certain allowance on A's and B's are setting people up to work against each other and going against the team philosophy of PT. Again, that's my opinion and I just can't understand why it happens in PT school.

 

[MinnDasota]

Ya, there is can be a sense of competition between students (more due to their inherent competitive nature). I find this less true for the programs themselves. Ours was mostly the "you have made it this far to get here, don't make it a competition anymore, and "learn from each other" concepts. Programs want to graduate their students and have their students pass the boards. Thus, the competition is more so between individual students and not created by the program. In the real world, grades don't matter, passing the boards does.

 

[Akiramay]

There isn't any competitiveness in my school. The professors told us right off the bat that we are supposed to help each other, and that's exactly what we do. We study together and only try to be the best that we can be. That's also why our grades and class average aren't posted. There's no need to know how well other people did. As long as you passed and are learning the material, it doesn't matter.

 

[johncronejr]

I am not in PT school yet, but I assume at the University of Central Arkansas they do keep up with grades in a competitive nature since they award a "outstanding student of the class" for each graduating class.

Now whether the students are kept abreast of the grades during the three years, I do not know.

 

[MinnDasota]

I am not in PT school yet, but I assume at the University of Central Arkansas they do keep up with grades in a competitive nature since they award a "outstanding student of the class" for each graduating class.

Now whether the students are kept abreast of the grades during the three years, I do not know.

I don't know if that necessarily means that they have the best grades in the class. Our class did recognize the students with the top grades during graduation. In addition, we had an outstanding student award in ortho, neuro, and peds. However, those that did receive these awards did not have the top grades in the class. Everything was taken into account.