Yeah, I was part of an inaugural cohort. From what they told me, becoming a candidate is the hardest step and past that, as long as they do what CAPTE tells them, it should be smooth sailing. My school had no problem getting accredited and they were granted the longest time possible before needing to be reviewed. We got accredited a few months before we graduated (which was the original projected timeline, it was a miracle covid didn't eff it up) so taking the boards wasn't a problem. Also my cohort performed well in clinic, and had a 100% graduation rate and 100% boards passing rate, so no concerns about our education being subpar.
If you like the program, the director is experienced and competent, and the school itself has a good reputation, I wouldn't worry about it. Those are the things I researched before accepting my seat.
That being said - expect it to be a bumpy road. It's a special feeling but NOT fun being part of an inaugural cohort. There are so many little details to still be hammered out, the order you take the courses may not make sense, none of the exams have been vetted through numerous cohorts so exams can be a bloodbath (they always calibrated and checked each question's validity via examsoft but it doesn't change how stressful it is to take a jacked up exam), some courses repeated info because they didn't realize it was already being covered elsewhere.....through our feedback they made changes and improvements for upcoming cohorts but it can't take away from how much stress we went through on top of how stressful PT school already is. It's kind of hard to describe unless you've been through it. It was neat to be the very first, and it was also really great having an entire year of the faculty's undivided attention since there were no other cohorts yet. It just also had its stresses.
