Health Career Opportunity Program (HCOP) at NYU RUSK

[timeoclock]

Hello,

I was just accepted to the NYU Rusk Health Career Opportunity Program for summer. Have any of you participated in it or know anything about the program? I applied on a whim. Also, anyone else get in?

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[longhornPT373]

Hi!

I participated in the HCOP program at NYU last summer, but at the time I was actually pre-pharmacy so I worked in the pharmacy department. It was actually there that I became interested in PT and realized I couldn't stand pharmacy and decided to switch majors!

The program itself is a little disorganized and no one in the hospital seems to know about it (I got asked about 100 times what exactly I was doing there and what program I was a part of and none of the health professionals seemed to know about it, so that was awkward but is to be expected when you are a student volunteer/shadower) but it is definitely invaluable experience and you should be able to receive a letter of rec out of it if you talk with your supervisor and form a decent relationship! and not to mention living in New York for a month was an awesome experience (I'm from the south so it was pretty different for me!)

There will be about 50 people in the program and you will have meetings at the end of the days of shadowing at the hospital. You will have homework (just reading articles) and you'll discuss them with a small group and the articles and topics are extremely interesting and important things to learn about for anyone planning to have a career in healthcare. You'll also watch movies somedays which was a lot of fun, and there will be lots of speakers from all different health professions that will come and talk with you.



Overall, it was an eye-opening experience and I am so glad I decided to give it a chance and apply to the program! If I could, I would apply again but this time for the physical therapy department. Have a great time 🙂 If you have any other specific questions, feel free to ask!

 

[Kendall Keefer]

Hey I just got in as well! I'll be in the program there in the department of nursing during the 3rd session. Hopefully I'll see you there!

Kendall

 

[skiflutept]

For the two people who have participated in the program, did you know anyone who was accepted for physical therapy and enrolled in a combined 6 or 7 year BS/DPT program? I will be a junior in a 7 year program and I'm wondering if this will hurt my chances of getting into the program.

 

[timeoclock]

Just finished participating. I definitely recommend for everyone to do it. And no I do not think it will effect you chances at all. Either way I would say it is 100% worth applying. If you have any other questions feel free to ask.

 

[skiflutept]

I am definitely going to apply because I won't get in if I don't try. 🙂

Is the program more for people who are interested in the medical field and unsure of what they want to study or were there a fair amount of people who were set on their career path? I have over 700 volunteer hours in outpatient PT and I'm 110% sure that I want to be a physical therapist. I'm curious if whoever reviews the applications will see how many hours I have and that I'm in a BS/DPT program and choose someone else who is just thinking about going into PT.

 

[longhornPT373]

When I was at the program I talked to a girl who was enrolled in the Boston University BS/DPT program and she had already gotten a lot of other observation hours before applying and they still chose her to do the program. She also said it was beneficial to her since she was able to get a lot of inpatient hours through HCOP and those can be hard to come by otherwise.

I would also say that most people there were set on their career path which was important considering you only observe in the area that you are assigned to. I'm pretty sure I was the only one at the end of my session who ended up saying that I was thinking of changing to a different field (from pharmacy to now physical therapy).

Definitely apply! It was an experience I'll never forget!

 

[timeoclock]

Yeah longhorn is right. Basically the point of the program is to give people a chance to participate in a field they are curious about. But being totally realistic a lot of the people participating in the program are upperclassmen in college (although there were plenty of younger people too). Because of this they had already decided their career path. I honestly believe that everything you said could only help you. They really do take the strongest candidates. I think they said a little over 1000 people applied of which only 180 total got in for the 3 different sections. Also, make sure that you write a strong personal statement as they based a lot on that from what I heard too.