Rankings of PT programs?

[member0000]

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So this might sound a little silly, but, I have been looking at lists online of the rankings of PT programs, and I just keep wondering...Is ranking really truly something a student should pay attention to when applying? I mean, obviously, it would SEEM that paying attention to rankings may be important, but...Just how important of a role should paying attention to rankings be in making your decisions of which schools to apply to?

I kind of have a bit an attitude toward it as "The education you receive at a really low-ranked schools likely won't be as good as a higher-ranked one"...Would anyone say this could be true, or are rankings really not "as" important as they seem? Thanks for any insight.

 

[NeophyteParkour]

I just looked at a PT school rankings list just to see, and I noticed UNE was ranked kind of low. I remember when I went to my interview there they said something like, "over the past 4 years only 1 person hasn't passed the license exam." If a school has a 100% pass rate for a typical year, then what could possibly be so bad about the education?

So no, when I was applying to schools I really didn't place any importance on rankings. In my opinion there are several more important things to consider when applying to schools. If you want to check a school out for yourself, just attend an open house.

 

[Seatown87]

Does anyone have an idea of how rankings are produced?

 

[goyo1010]

Does anyone have an idea of how rankings are produced?

If you look at US World News & Report's methodology, they basically send out surveys to different program deans, professors, etc, and these people rate other schools based on what they know (and what they don't know) about the program... Not a very good way to rank programs...

It's very different from how they rank other fields such as medical school, where more objective measures are utilized in ranking a program.

 

[jblil]

Does anyone have an idea of how rankings are produced?

It's a "beauty contest", i.e., based on questionnaires sent to the schools. Not a very scientific way to rank the programs, IMO.

 

[jesspt]

So this might sound a little silly, but, I have been looking at lists online of the rankings of PT programs, and I just keep wondering...Is ranking really truly something a student should pay attention to when applying? I mean, obviously, it would SEEM that paying attention to rankings may be important, but...Just how important of a role should paying attention to rankings be in making your decisions of which schools to apply to?

I kind of have a bit an attitude toward it as "The education you receive at a really low-ranked schools likely won't be as good as a higher-ranked one"...Would anyone say this could be true, or are rankings really not "as" important as they seem? Thanks for any insight.

Rankings don't matter. At all. Search through previous threads and you'll see this gets hashed over every few months.

You want a good, relatively inexpensive education, go to VCU and don't worry about the basement.

 

[NewTestament]

When you interview a high-ranking school, don't tell them it was because they were highly ranked. That's a poor reason to apply to any school. Tell them you were impressed with feedback, the curriculum, or something else, but not the ranking. The program director at UDel completely disparaged the rankings, even though his school is #2.

As Jess said, don't worry about the basement. You don't have to go to the Ritz Carlton to learn PT skills.

Kevin

 

[rangardrum]

I think they should just abolish the rankings altogether. Too often they're being misinterpreted as a guide for choosing programs. Any ranking system that doesn't take into account any input from the actual students in the program shouldn't be used to choose where to attend.