I received an invitation for interview at the USA Austin campus for the DPT Fall 2014 program on May 16. Would anyone like to share their thoughts on the Austin program and its curriculum/faculty. Also any advice for the interview?
I thoroughly enjoyed my visit/interview there. All the faculty that I dealt with were extremely friendly and helpful and were trying to do everything they could to make us feel at ease. The day consists of a campus tour (which consists of one building), a writing/essay portion, and the interview. The order in which you do those things depends on what group you are placed in to (red, blue, or green). I only have one other school in which to compare USA-Austin to, but USA-Austin blew it out of the water in just about every aspect except for campus size (lol). This other school the students didn't seem very excited about what they were doing and ALL they talked about was how much work it was, how difficult the program was, and how you'll never see your friends/family while in school. I understand that most of that is true, as PT school is not a cake walk and requires lots of studying/work, but is that really all you should be talking about to potential candidates during the tour after we've already interviewed? I think not.
There is plenty of information on this forum regarding the type of questions they ask you not only in the actual interview process, but also in the essay portion. The interview itself was very laid back. My interview was me and 2 other candidates sitting across a desk from 2 faculty members. It lasted about 30-45 minutes, but it flew by. The feel of the interview was very conversational and after the first question, I got settled in and became very comfortable with the faculty members as well as my fellow interviewees.
My advice to you would be to do a little homework and look up the question lists on this forums to give yourself an idea as what to expect in a general sense. Also, dress professionally (most males wore suits and ties, most females wore pant suits, etc.) and do your best to be relaxed and show some of your personality.
I'm assuming they're doing a second round of interviews as about 65ish of us interviewed on March 7th (myself included) and a few of us are have already been accepted and paid our tuition deposits and even made a Facebook group (myself included).
Good luck at your interview! The hardest part is already done, if you can get an interview at USA, you have a really good shot at getting accepted!