Current DPT Students: What is DPT school like?

Started by leon24
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What a great wealth of positive experiences! I can definitely see myself doing what DPT grad does, packing multiple meals throughout the day, I'm always eating lol. It is really refreshing to hear that there is and should be time to workout everyday and a little bit of lounge time here and there. I soooo can't wait to start DPT school eventually! Well, off to go study some physics II, have a great day everybody! 😀
 
great stuff! i think it'd be helpful for me to hear which schools you all go to so i can see if there are differences in how rigorous each program is. although it sounds like everyone is crazy busy with a little time for exercise and relaxation here and there.
 
Thanks everyone for the insight!

Can you tell us more about the group projects and presentations that you are working on?
 
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I've had to write a lot of papers with a partner: a case study about a patient with COPD using evidence-based practice and the motor control framework, a surgical report about an achilles tendon avulsion repair including the surgical procedure, tissues affected, and outpatient rehab protocols, a paper about whether electrical stimulation is appropriate for fitness or for walking in two spinal cord injury patients, etc. It's a LOT of work to write these papers, so the best thing is to start early and do a little bit every week. I tended to leave a lot of work near the due date and got burnt out. Also, beware of the perfectionist partner (I had one of those for the e-stim paper) who will look at EVERY detail of the paper over and over again. Oh boy, that's just not me. Ha ha. But I have found good partners to work with. Usually we just break up what we want to do and work on our separate parts, then come together and finalize everything. I find that's the best way to work on something.

I've also had to do a few group projects, such as for my professional role development class, I was in a group with 2 other students and we had to come up with a new program or clinic. This was the basis for the whole class so we worked on it throughout the whole semester. It was a lot though, because we had to come up with goals, a budget (this is killer), needs assessment, marketing plan, etc. My group got along, it was just hard to find the balance of what to do separately and what to do together.

To be honest, group or partner projects really aren't my thing, because people like to do things differently. But you get through them and the finished product turns out ok.
 
Akira...please tell me the COPD case study was for ICDM? Because I really don't want to do another one of those papers ever again. I'm really over the ICF/Motor Control Framework. It came up during PM rounds as a question and I couldn't remember which framework was which. haha.

Akira and I are going to have similar responses to this, since we're in the same program, just a year apart.

I'm assuming her COPD paper is the equivalent to my LBP paper that I wrote with a partner...it's a case study where you're in a group of about 10 students, and so as a group you discuss the articles/ideas you have, but then write the final plan with a partner.

We've also done several other group papers, which in my opinion are unnecessary burdens...like we wrote a group paper (group=7 people all trying to write one paper) on health care systems in other countries, deeply researching another health profession, etc. Then we break up into smaller groups to discuss our papers.

I just really hate group projects. But that's just me 😛 Mainly because I come from a strong English/communications/writing background, and usually everyone else in my group is from a hard science background, which means while they don't mind writing the paper and are eager to do so, I end up spending an insanely long time editing it (to the point where sometimes it would have taken less time if I just wrote the whole thing on my own). /end rant lol.

But, they're not all bad, and the group discussions are nice to bounce ideas off each other.

We also did a teaching unit where we were in groups of 3, and each group had to learn and come up with a teaching plan to teach the rest of the students how to do something (in this case it was learning to walk with canes/walkers/crutches on flat surfaces, up ramps, curbs, or stairs). It was a nice way to switch it up and keep things interesting.
 
Dancer, yes, it was for ICDM, so don't worry. Ha ha. The ICF/MCF will come back again and again though, especially in Neurodysfunction.

jbizzle, I write about 2-3 papers a semester. At least 1 of them is a long partner/group paper.
 
It depends on what you mean by "papers."

Like legit, actual papers that require research, I agree, maybe 2-3 (and one or two may be group/partner papers).

But our program is all about the self-reflection paper, so everytime we have a practical exam, or go on some sort of health care fieldtrip, or do pretty much anything, they love giving us 1-2 page self reflections. I probably wrote at least 8-10 between January and April...(you can probably detect the cynicism in my writing tone, because I hate these more than anything). We just wrote our letters to introduce ourselves to our CIs for our first clinical this summer, and so I have to go back and make edits because my goals were not good enough. lol. We wrote reflections on articles we read, or on presentations that were given in class.

I mean, I'm all for self awareness and personal growth and improvement, but c'mon. haha.
 
DancerFutureDPT said:
I mean, I'm all for self awareness and personal growth and improvement, but c'mon. haha.
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Ah, this reminds me of my student teaching days... Yes, if I said "Hello" to the class, I needed to reflect on it. Perhaps my hello was too short, or not said with enough of a smile...
 
I've honestly never written a REAL paper in PT school at all. The closest was an opinionated paper on issues in the field for our first seminar we took in our first semester.

Any other "paper-like" assignments have been research outlines or something of the sort.

Group projects mostly consist of researching some condition, how to diagnose, best treatment, etc. Sometimes we get large case studies that we have to dissect and develop a plan of care for. Recently we did projects on the best exercises to isolate major muscles (this was REALLY informative).
 
Dizzy, was your last comment sarcastic or legit? lol.

You're lucky you don't have to write a lot of papers...I think we do because we have a big research project that takes up the majority of our curriculum, so since we'll all be writing a paper (hopefully to be published) they want us to have a lot of practice along the way. I would imagine if you go to a school without some major research component to graduate, there would be less papers involved.
 
DancerFutureDPT said:
It depends on what you mean by "papers."

Like legit, actual papers that require research, I agree, maybe 2-3 (and one or two may be group/partner papers).

But our program is all about the self-reflection paper, so everytime we have a practical exam, or go on some sort of health care fieldtrip, or do pretty much anything, they love giving us 1-2 page self reflections. I probably wrote at least 8-10 between January and April...(you can probably detect the cynicism in my writing tone, because I hate these more than anything). We just wrote our letters to introduce ourselves to our CIs for our first clinical this summer, and so I have to go back and make edits because my goals were not good enough. lol. We wrote reflections on articles we read, or on presentations that were given in class.

I mean, I'm all for self awareness and personal growth and improvement, but c'mon. haha.
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They load up on the self-reflections 1st year, but they're quite sparse 2nd year, so you have something to look forward to. 😉
 
HouTXdude said:
It seems PT school leaves most students with little to no time for socializing let alone some quality time with family! Is this a matter of time management, or is having free time really that scarce? 😱
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It's all about time management and efficiency. If you're not good at it, then you will feel like you have absolutely no free time. I'm a 2nd year now and have a 3 year old. 2nd semester of 1st year was tougher than the other semesters as far as time, but my family was always my priority and i was still able to do well.
 
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JumpAZ said:
I think most people in our program have a pretty good attitude. Our director has told us several times that they want us to have fun and do well, don't worry about grades as long as you maintain 3.0, etc. Our program is not competitive, meaning that grades are not curved and there is no class ranking so everyone is trying to help each other. All that said, these two weeks are very, very tough with 4 exams, three presentations, and a research project due; when it rains it pours!
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Curious; Where are you attending?
 
kscool911 said:
how is the love life like in PT school?
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You mean if you have a significant other? My bf goes to dental school but lives in the same city as me. It was nice that he was in school so he understood that I wasn't going to have tons of time to devote to hanging out everyday. We were able to talk every night on the phone but sometimes only briefly if one of us was busy studying for exams. We'd spend the weekends together studying and/or hanging out, and sometimes we'd meet up once in the middle of the week to workout together or something. So you can definitely have a love life if that's what you mean? ha ha
 
I don't want to make any applicants nervous because DPT school is very fun, interesting, stimulating, and stressful! I think the hardest part of being a DPT student is finding a balance. You will get burned out if you just study all day. You have to learn to study effectively and efficiently because it is impossible to do all of the reading. Especially in the first year when you are taking anatomy, it is important to stay dedicated, motivated and figure out your learning style. You will be forced to figure out how to find time to stay healthy with good food and exercise as well as finding time to take breaks! It is important that you try to take the time once or twice a week to do the things you enjoy.

I think each DPT program is different as far as how the days go. I am in actual classes about 25-30 hours a week, but I am on campus about 12 hours per day. You will need to spend a lot of time out of class practicing your muscle tests on each other, as well as studying for classes like anatomy. I tend to try to do all of my studying during the week so that I can take the weekends to recover. I just study a few hours a day on the weekend (unless there is an exam).

Just try to stay organized, schedule everything, and if there is time to do an assignment early than DO IT. Don't fall behind because the rate at which you receive new info is very fast. Don't procrastinate (like I am doing by writing this) 😀

PT school is really rewarding and fun. Even though I'm on campus all day I still enjoy going. It is stressful but you will be amazed at how much you can learn! I really love my DPT program!!!
 
Is your gpa as important as it was during your undergrad?? I feel like after DPT school, interviewers wont be as concerned with your grades, but will focus more on how knowledgable you are, as well as you as a person. What do you think? Not so much? lol
 
I'm in PT school now, so I don't have experience with getting hired based or not based off a gpa.... but our entire program emphasizes the unimportance of GPA. Overall, you have to meet the passing grade/GPA to stay in the program, but they don't spend long talking about points because they think that your GPA does not indicate your clinical abilities. They are so much more focused on training you to be the best clinician you can be right out of school
 
abynormal said:
What do you guys do when to keep alert while in class all day?
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Epic thread bump...But for most people the answer is coffee or Red Bull...

45-60 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic exercise each day and 7-9 hours of sleep per night (depending on what you personally need) is the best long term solution.

But when faced with 4 hours you could use to either go for a bike ride and then get enough sleep, or not fail the neuroanatomy exam you haven't studied for sometimes the struggle gets real...
 
abynormal said:
What do you guys do when to keep alert while in class all day?
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It's pretty tough, but important since a lot of our professors like to test us on the things they say. The biggest thing I see most people do is play around on facebook, so if you can't handle a laptop or tablet being in front of you for two hours, print out the lecture and take notes on that. I also think beginning to formulate a study guide or writing index cards can be really helpful to stay alert and also get some productive work done in class.
 
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