I just wanted to make a post here for everyone in the process of applying to PT schools. Within the last year, I graduated from one of the top PT schools in the country, and this has been weighing on my mind for a while. I want to dispel they myth that the US News and World ranking system has anything to do with the quality of your PT school experience, because these rankings really do not reflect that. I made my final PT school decision based largely on its rank, and I know that there are many, many PT students who made similar decisions. But I also know that myself and the majority of my classmates were very unhappy throughout the course of our program, and I want to inform potential students about how the ranking system works and how irrelevant it really should be to your choice of PT school.
Here is a quote from the US News description that explains how the rankings are put together:
“All the health rankings are based solely on the results of peer assessment surveys sent to deans, other administrators and/or faculty at accredited degree programs or schools in each discipline. All schools surveyed in a discipline were sent the same number of surveys.
Respondents rated the academic quality of programs on a scale of 1 (marginal) to 5 (outstanding). They were instructed to select "don't know" if they did not have enough knowledge to rate a program. Only fully accredited programs in good standing during the survey period are ranked. Those schools with the highest average scores appear in the rankings sorted in descending order.”
And here’s the link with more details for anyone curious:
https://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/articles/health-schools-methodology
I had absolutely no idea how the rankings were put together when I applied to school, as I expect is true of most applicants, and I had assumed that it was somehow an average representation of the overall quality of a program. But what this actually ends up boiling down to is PT school faculty nation-wide ranking programs based on whose names they most recognize, usually based on a program's research output, since that’s the information they have to go on. There’s no input regarding student experience, satisfaction, or quality of education received that goes into these rankings. There’s not even any input from more objective measures like graduation rates, board passage rates, or employment rates after graduation. So these rankings really reflect the clout of each institution when it comes to churning out research and promoting their brand in the PT world rather than anything directly relevant to students.
I can only speak to my experience at a top-ranked program, but extreme stress, harsh standards with minimal student support, and distance of faculty from students was routine for myself and my cohort. And it’s possible that student satisfaction at other elite schools, or even just other highly-ranked ones, was higher than where I attended. But I really want to encourage everyone out there applying to schools to look beyond these rankings because, unless you’re really invested in the research output of your potential program for some reason, these rankings are essentially irrelevant to you. There’s currently enough jobs in PT that you won’t have a hard time finding work as long as you have a license, work ethic, and a degree, wherever it’s from. And I can speak from first-hand experience that higher rankings absolutely do not equate to happier or smarter students.
So I just want to encourage everyone applying to schools to please look beyond the rankings. They aren’t the final say on where you will receive the best education. Instead I would really encourage you to find a way to reach out to current students and recent alums of the programs you’re considering. It takes more work, but will paint a much better picture of what a program will be like once you start. Ask specific questions about faculty attitude and engagement with students, how clinical sites are selected for internships and how you’re prepared, how the program engages with its local community, and about overall student happiness and how students view their experience from day 1 through starting their first job as PTs.
Hopefully this post can make a positive difference in some of your career paths. Look past the number next to the schools on this list, dig deeper, and hopefully you’ll have a more satisfying and well-rounded education than I did.
As an aside, please strongly consider the financial aspect of where you attend. This advice is all over this forum, but I feel like a lot of prospective students really don't understand how little PT pays compared to the financial investment required to attend school, especially more expensive schools. So whatever you do, think twice before inundating yourself with debt to attend a top-ranked program where you may not even end up happy.
Here is a quote from the US News description that explains how the rankings are put together:
“All the health rankings are based solely on the results of peer assessment surveys sent to deans, other administrators and/or faculty at accredited degree programs or schools in each discipline. All schools surveyed in a discipline were sent the same number of surveys.
Respondents rated the academic quality of programs on a scale of 1 (marginal) to 5 (outstanding). They were instructed to select "don't know" if they did not have enough knowledge to rate a program. Only fully accredited programs in good standing during the survey period are ranked. Those schools with the highest average scores appear in the rankings sorted in descending order.”
And here’s the link with more details for anyone curious:
https://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/articles/health-schools-methodology
I had absolutely no idea how the rankings were put together when I applied to school, as I expect is true of most applicants, and I had assumed that it was somehow an average representation of the overall quality of a program. But what this actually ends up boiling down to is PT school faculty nation-wide ranking programs based on whose names they most recognize, usually based on a program's research output, since that’s the information they have to go on. There’s no input regarding student experience, satisfaction, or quality of education received that goes into these rankings. There’s not even any input from more objective measures like graduation rates, board passage rates, or employment rates after graduation. So these rankings really reflect the clout of each institution when it comes to churning out research and promoting their brand in the PT world rather than anything directly relevant to students.
I can only speak to my experience at a top-ranked program, but extreme stress, harsh standards with minimal student support, and distance of faculty from students was routine for myself and my cohort. And it’s possible that student satisfaction at other elite schools, or even just other highly-ranked ones, was higher than where I attended. But I really want to encourage everyone out there applying to schools to look beyond these rankings because, unless you’re really invested in the research output of your potential program for some reason, these rankings are essentially irrelevant to you. There’s currently enough jobs in PT that you won’t have a hard time finding work as long as you have a license, work ethic, and a degree, wherever it’s from. And I can speak from first-hand experience that higher rankings absolutely do not equate to happier or smarter students.
So I just want to encourage everyone applying to schools to please look beyond the rankings. They aren’t the final say on where you will receive the best education. Instead I would really encourage you to find a way to reach out to current students and recent alums of the programs you’re considering. It takes more work, but will paint a much better picture of what a program will be like once you start. Ask specific questions about faculty attitude and engagement with students, how clinical sites are selected for internships and how you’re prepared, how the program engages with its local community, and about overall student happiness and how students view their experience from day 1 through starting their first job as PTs.
Hopefully this post can make a positive difference in some of your career paths. Look past the number next to the schools on this list, dig deeper, and hopefully you’ll have a more satisfying and well-rounded education than I did.
As an aside, please strongly consider the financial aspect of where you attend. This advice is all over this forum, but I feel like a lot of prospective students really don't understand how little PT pays compared to the financial investment required to attend school, especially more expensive schools. So whatever you do, think twice before inundating yourself with debt to attend a top-ranked program where you may not even end up happy.
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