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- Apr 11, 2018
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I'm a current University of Delaware PT student. I can't believe I'm even writing this post, but I wish someone had told me this before I had decided to attend, so here it goes.
The clinical education environment here is miserable. Our clinical layout consists of two part-time on-site internships during our time here (AKA "integrated clinical experiences" = ICEs) followed by 3 10-week off-site internships to end the program. The ICEs, really our CIs, are the main problem. A substantial portion of our CIs are punitive, demeaning, and ready to drill down on a student far beyond what's needed for good clinical learning (we have 3 or 4 great CIs too, in fairness, but that's less than 1/3 of the staff).
We started our program with 63 students, and now we're down to 53 between students being ground out or being outright dismissed by the admins for what they deem to be poor clinical performance, which is in large part determined by CI judgement (one classmate was just kicked outafter investing nearly 2 years and $100k in this place). That means our attrition rate is approaching 20%. It's hard to get an estimate on how many of us have done so because not everyone wants to talk about it, but I'd guess that close to half of us have gone to counseling specifically to deal with the stresses caused by treating in our clinic and the looming threat of dismissal.
I don't want to say it's all bad...our lectures and professors have been really good, and maybe networking will be great after graduating. But clin ed is a nightmare.
Basically, it's a repeating cycle of insane stress that feeds into poor performance. A lot of us here are desperately unhappy, a few are legitimately depressed, and many of us regret our decision to have attended in the first place. Maybe the reputation is too good to ignore, that's why I came here after all. Even being from DE though I wonder if my misery had been worth the in-state tuition. But I guess my real warning is that you should try to independently contact current students or recent alums to get a CANDID ASSESSMENT of how they feel about their program, their happiness, wherever you go. I wish I had done that before coming here. Because if you come here on interview day we'll all paste on smiles and tell you it's awesome with the administration hanging around the halls.
Maybe this won't change anyone's mind, But I couldn't avoid doing it in good conscience. Make sure you'll be HAPPY where you go, because this is time from your life you'll never get back.
The clinical education environment here is miserable. Our clinical layout consists of two part-time on-site internships during our time here (AKA "integrated clinical experiences" = ICEs) followed by 3 10-week off-site internships to end the program. The ICEs, really our CIs, are the main problem. A substantial portion of our CIs are punitive, demeaning, and ready to drill down on a student far beyond what's needed for good clinical learning (we have 3 or 4 great CIs too, in fairness, but that's less than 1/3 of the staff).
We started our program with 63 students, and now we're down to 53 between students being ground out or being outright dismissed by the admins for what they deem to be poor clinical performance, which is in large part determined by CI judgement (one classmate was just kicked outafter investing nearly 2 years and $100k in this place). That means our attrition rate is approaching 20%. It's hard to get an estimate on how many of us have done so because not everyone wants to talk about it, but I'd guess that close to half of us have gone to counseling specifically to deal with the stresses caused by treating in our clinic and the looming threat of dismissal.
I don't want to say it's all bad...our lectures and professors have been really good, and maybe networking will be great after graduating. But clin ed is a nightmare.
Basically, it's a repeating cycle of insane stress that feeds into poor performance. A lot of us here are desperately unhappy, a few are legitimately depressed, and many of us regret our decision to have attended in the first place. Maybe the reputation is too good to ignore, that's why I came here after all. Even being from DE though I wonder if my misery had been worth the in-state tuition. But I guess my real warning is that you should try to independently contact current students or recent alums to get a CANDID ASSESSMENT of how they feel about their program, their happiness, wherever you go. I wish I had done that before coming here. Because if you come here on interview day we'll all paste on smiles and tell you it's awesome with the administration hanging around the halls.
Maybe this won't change anyone's mind, But I couldn't avoid doing it in good conscience. Make sure you'll be HAPPY where you go, because this is time from your life you'll never get back.
