Let’s deal with the exercise stuff first, shall we? After that, I’m going to have to go to bullets because my brain is still pretty flooded with information from last night. So, to wit: Yesterday, I did a short, easy run followed by the B workout of the second phase of FBB. I did like it, overall; this one had more of a leg focus with some adjunct focus on core and shoulders. I can see it balancing pretty well with the A workout and it would make a nice M/W/F, A-B-A, B-A-B routine for a few weeks. I could see myself doing it again with a few mods. Or, not. I’m still a bit ambivalent about the program, overall; I guess the focus is eluding me, perhaps because I’m just using it out of convenience and not because I’m committed to it. I skipped karate last night, even though I probably could have made class after the open house, but my mind was going in a zillion different directions and I was happy to just chill for a bit. Besides, tomorrow will be a day of karate saturation: we’re having the first instructor and black belt retreat, beginning right after class. I am not entirely sure what it’s going to entail, although I do know it’s going to be off campus, and he’s bringing in at least one special guest. My curiosity is piqued.
OK, OK, so - the Open House. As it happened, it was a very small gathering, just myself and one other prospective student (and her mom), a current college senior. The people available were one of the professors as well as a first year student. The professor went over the nuts and bolts of admissions - a lot of stuff that is on the school’s website, plus admission rate (which is based on the number of applicants, because they only accept 30 students a year), matriculation rate, rate of passing state exams, getting a job right out of school, etc. The student gave us a campus tour and answered questions on the fly. Afterwards I got to sit down with the professor for a while to go over admissions stuff, specifically holes in my educational background. It was very, very helpful as it was and raised plenty more questions for me, going forward. Some highlights:
The program is what they call a lock step program, meaning you start with your graduating class and go through all of your classes together for the duration.
Going to school there is more or less a 9 - 5 job, five days a week. It’s not recommended that you work at all during the first year, and after that, only limited hours. So, no working your way through this particular program unless you have no need for sleep and an unlimited attention span.
This particular program prepares you to be a generalist. It includes subunits in all of the major areas of PT, which of course I can’t remember off hand, but range from kids to geriatrics and ortho patients to cardiac patients.
Because the class size is so small, the professors get to know the students very well; the woman who lead the discussion last night said that they will usually know a student is in trouble before the student knows s/he is in trouble. This (surprisingly) appeals to me, I suppose because I’ve been out of school for so damned long it’d be nice to know everyone has my back.
And that IS the general attytood there - once you’re in the program, the competition is over and focus is on EVERYONE successfully completing it.
The campus is very small, although I don’t know what one would expect considering the class size. It is shared with nursing and medical students of various stripes, but the PT program seems to only have three or four rooms to call its very own.
There is, as one would expect, a lot of hands on work, and a lot of clinical experience built into the program.
One of the first classes you take is human anatomy, which involves doing that thing which I presumed I’d have to do, but really hadn’t thought about in practical terms until last night, when our student guide took us to the anatomy lab. Everything was under wraps, but there really was no mistaking exactly what was on those dissection tables. And yes, the room smelled of preservative, and I STILL have that smell in my nose/head today, even though I think we were in that room for a grand total of about two minutes.
Turns out that, aside from my need to take undergrad anatomy and physiology (which, for all I know, will also involve cutting up a person), the biggest potential problem with my adacemic background is not a bad grade in one semester of chemistry (they will tend to overlook an outlier grade, provided it really is an outlier), but the fact that my physics class did not include a laboratory element.
Depending on the actual content of my physics classes, I may have to retake physics 1 and 2 entirely, something I do not really wish to do, not so much because I dislike physics, but because I haven’t had to use higher math in twenty plus years. So, yikes!
At this particular program, there is obviously no degree of specialization in any branch of PT, something that did surprise me a little bit. When I think of a graduate-level program, I do think specialty, and had figured that at some point beyond the gross anatomy/kinesiology/biomechanics/etc., one would have the opportunity to get a bit more into the area in which they wished to practise. I don’t know if this is the way all programs are run (obviously, something I have to look in to) or if that is just the way things are now; you come out of school a generalist and then look for a practise that is in your area of interest and then do the on the job training thing, along with continuing ed.
Although they have rolling admissions, they really want you to have your application package in by November 15 for spring admission (and there is only spring admission). Sooooo, it looks like I will not be applying to this particular school for spring. The wheels that are churning in my head have spit back the proclamation that that is probably a good thing, overall, as it gives me more time to get my shit together, mentally and academically.
That about covers it. I don’t know if it all made sense, but it was good for me, at least, to type that all out, helped to clarify and organize my thoughts a bit. And so, with a clearer head and the lingering smell of preservative in my nose, I bid you a happy Friday.
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