I’m currently a 2nd year Residential Student at the USC DPT program and in my opinion the program is definitely not worth the money.
Upon entering the program in the pandemic I knew we were going to be mostly online, we watch online recordings of lectures then met up for 1-2 hours for each class over zoom to discuss the lectures we’d watched and then go on campus for hands on lab stuff. We were told that as soon as we were allowed to we would return to traditional classroom lectures but in the meantime we were doing “flipped classroom” where we read and watch information on our own then discuss it with faculty to promote active learning.
It was often brought up to us (class representatives) that people really did not lIke the online recordings as we couldn’t ask questions in real time and the zoom discussions were done in small groups of faculty that didn’t know the course well enough to answer questions about assignments being due and logistics of the class.
Throughout the year we had many discussions with faculty about how we did not like this format and wanted to return to traditional as soon as possible but understood that for pandemic reasons we could not. We were promised less online recordings and more in person learning as soon as we were allowed to.
However, once we were allowed to return to campus this fall low and behold the only thing that changes is that now our live sessions that used to be on zoom are in person, AND we have MORE online lecture videos to watch. On top of this we’ve transitioned our online material all through Canvas and it’s been absolute mayhem. When asked about the logistics of a class, the head of the department who made the decision to switch us to this format replied that they were all still figuring out the system as it was their first time using it, basically meaning they didn’t even test the system to see if it would do what they wanted it to do.
So all in all you’re paying a small mortgage for YouTube and Kahn Academy videos to be neatly organized for you, faculty that treats you like children and doesn’t tell you what’s going on, and maybe maybe maybe you’ll make a good connection but it’s unlikely because you’re spending most of your time watching recordings and only a handful of hours actually interacting with faculty.
If you like this style of teaching it could definitely be the place for you though. They definitely went all out with it but I just thought I should tell those of you considering the tuition costs what to expect since I would not have come here had I know this would be the new normal for the program.
Upon entering the program in the pandemic I knew we were going to be mostly online, we watch online recordings of lectures then met up for 1-2 hours for each class over zoom to discuss the lectures we’d watched and then go on campus for hands on lab stuff. We were told that as soon as we were allowed to we would return to traditional classroom lectures but in the meantime we were doing “flipped classroom” where we read and watch information on our own then discuss it with faculty to promote active learning.
It was often brought up to us (class representatives) that people really did not lIke the online recordings as we couldn’t ask questions in real time and the zoom discussions were done in small groups of faculty that didn’t know the course well enough to answer questions about assignments being due and logistics of the class.
Throughout the year we had many discussions with faculty about how we did not like this format and wanted to return to traditional as soon as possible but understood that for pandemic reasons we could not. We were promised less online recordings and more in person learning as soon as we were allowed to.
However, once we were allowed to return to campus this fall low and behold the only thing that changes is that now our live sessions that used to be on zoom are in person, AND we have MORE online lecture videos to watch. On top of this we’ve transitioned our online material all through Canvas and it’s been absolute mayhem. When asked about the logistics of a class, the head of the department who made the decision to switch us to this format replied that they were all still figuring out the system as it was their first time using it, basically meaning they didn’t even test the system to see if it would do what they wanted it to do.
So all in all you’re paying a small mortgage for YouTube and Kahn Academy videos to be neatly organized for you, faculty that treats you like children and doesn’t tell you what’s going on, and maybe maybe maybe you’ll make a good connection but it’s unlikely because you’re spending most of your time watching recordings and only a handful of hours actually interacting with faculty.
If you like this style of teaching it could definitely be the place for you though. They definitely went all out with it but I just thought I should tell those of you considering the tuition costs what to expect since I would not have come here had I know this would be the new normal for the program.
