A day in the life of a PT student

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gshoops75 -> A day in the life of a PT student (July 31, 2006 8:25:00 AM)
I'm going to be applying to PT school for the Fall of 2007 and am just wondering what life is like, day to day, for those of you that are in school or who have recently finished school. I'll be a returning student, 30 yrs old w/ a bs and ms already under my belt, but I'm ready for this career change and excited about going back to school. I'd love to hear what your days and weeks are like, how much free time (I'm married) you have (if any), and what some of your likes and dislikes about school are. Looking forward to your posts, Grant

jma -> Re: A day in the life of a PT student (July 31, 2006 2:43:00 PM)
When I was in my PT program, it was basically a 8 am to 5 pm day, Monday through Friday. There were lot of long lectures, the big ones lasting 3-4 hours each and sometimes there were back to back long classes. While breaks were good, it was hard to stay sitting down most of the time listening to the professors. If I went back in time and did it again, I would invest in a good gel seat that I can sit comfortably in. I didn't like the long hour classes but thats how they ran. Long lectures can be a drag but with a good microrecorder, life can be easier writing down notes. The best classes are the ones that integrate laboratory sessions, which also can last 3-4 hours but these are ones where you can be moving around. Life after classes can be draining during the week because one needs to review the material and assignments, mostly reading, in prepartion for the next day and comparing notes to see what you missed that can be filled in. In fact, most of us stayed after classes were over to go over techniques learned and forming study groups to review material. Weekends were okay to relax, except during finals where we would hang out and go over material.

FLAOrthoPT -> Re: A day in the life of a PT student (July 31, 2006 5:37:00 PM)
go to a problem based program and life will be good. Overall, the most rewarding, frustrating, stressful, and fun time of your life. you will love and hate the people and faculty around you. you will be best friends while in school and probably never talk to each other again when it all ends. You will have a deep bond of stress that keeps you together with your classmtes like brothers, but fight with them like brothers too. you will at times find yourself learning for the love of the subject and other times learning purely for the test. As long as you don't let grades get in the way ofyou becoming a good clinician you'll do great. PT school was stressful, but fun too, and I had a great time. In myPBL (prob based learning) program I had what appeared to be a lot of free time, with the ability to golf about 4 days a week, hang out at the pool for an hour or so each day, and yet at the same time have 4 or 5 day binges of studying where i was in the library or at starbucks studying and drawing diagrams 23.5 hours a day. Have Fun!!! Ben Galin, PT, DPT, OCS

Run262 -> Re: A day in the life of a PT student (August 14, 2006 6:17:00 PM)
I just graduated on Saturday with my MSPT (yay...those were the longest 2 years of my life!!). I absolutely loved PT school...even with all the stress and long hours. I think the thing that helped the most was my class was awesome and always helped each other out. We realized that it was completely different from undergrad. It's not about grades anymore and who had the highest GPA. Therefore we worked as a team and it made life a lot easier. During the semesters, we would have very little free time but in between is when we would kick back and have some fun. I think what stunk the most was not having an income for 2 years because we couldn't really work...that, for me, what the hardest. But it's all worth it in the end!!! Best of luck to you!!

james097 -> Re: A day in the life of a PT student (August 14, 2006 6:45:00 PM)
One thing you should do is to make sure you photograph everyone often, students, teachers, all the boy and girlfriends.Tag them all on your photo software with names and details. This will prevent you in 30, 40 or 50 years repeating, "can you remember so and so" again and again in your dotage! James

Sean Weatherston -> Re: A day in the life of a PT student (August 15, 2006 10:23:00 AM)
Ben-- Golfing 4-5 days a week? You totally suck! The only time I did that was during my eight week "research" time. Back to the original point- I was married with one child, and had another one during PT school (born the day before our monster neuroanatomy final). Plan on 8-5, M-F with studying when you can work it in between family life. It's tough and stressful at times, but manageable if you don't procrastinate...or golf 4-5 days a week :) Sean

FLAOrthoPT -> Re: A day in the life of a PT student (August 16, 2006 3:44:00 PM)
we got on a course about 45 seconds from school, would talk about coursework, veg out a bit, 3 1/2 hours later grab a bite and get back to work. It was great stress relief but also good to take give your mind time to absorb it all. I went from a 20 handicap before school to an 8 during school. Back up to a 16, work kills your golf. Ben

srcase -> Re: A day in the life of a PT student (August 17, 2006 4:28:00 AM)
I learned to golf while in PT school, but we went out maybe 2-3 times the whole 3 years!! I agree with Sean, it's stressful and there are a lot of sacrifices if you have a family. My husband took up a lot of the slack with cooking, housework, etc. I don't know how I would've done it without him. But I enjoyed PT school immensely! I would say that if you aren't afraid of hard work and you love to learn and challenge yourself, you'll do fine! Sarah

srcase -> Re: A day in the life of a PT student (August 17, 2006 4:36:00 AM)
Um, I guess I didn't answer the question about day-to-day life. It's difficult to remember a lot of the details, but we usually had a long lecture (1-2 hours) then lab classes (2 or more hours). Our program assigned a ton of groupwork, which wasn't my favorite because I'm an overachiever and I'd rather have everything done my way (the right way). We took classes as a group (40 of us) so it was sort of like being in high school again....with the same people in every class, and some of the cliques too. I know a lot of people got together often in study groups or to party and get drunk. I was more of a solitary studier/partier...haha. What I liked the most, was breaking up my days into smaller chunks of time (classes) compared with doing the same thing all day long (work). Does that make sense?? I like to shift gears and do something different now and then. Dislikes: I think I already mentioned some: group work, people who were more into grades (cheating) than learning...cliques, and immature behavior. You have a common bond with your classmates, but at the same time, you start to really get on each other's nerves....kind of like reality TV. But that's just my perspective...I'm somewhat introverted. Other people probably had very different experiences. Sarah

SJBird55 -> Re: A day in the life of a PT student (August 18, 2006 3:57:00 PM)
It is strange what we remember. I don't really have major memories of studying. I, mean, I know I studied, but my memories don't revolve around studying or stress. I remember always meeting another classmate at a particular pizza joint to eat slimy breadsticks while reviewing material. I remember the most awesome sunset over Lake Michigan in the dead of winter and taking coolers out onto the snow/ice area drinking and laughing and being so amazed at the ice buildup that dropped a good 10 feet into the water. I got so sunburned on the pier one summer studying neuroanatomy. Neuroanatomy was taught by an ER physician and he was so amazing at the odd things he knew in all subject matter - and he'd see if we could stump him with trivia and toss out Oreos to us. His class was a 6 hour lecture. I remember skipping out of dissection to head to a dance/bar for comedy night. There was a group of us that always headed to that place for dancing and assessing the bodies of male volleyball players. I remember flying down M-45 for class one morning and a cop did a U-turn to snag me, but it was foggy so I took a side road and lost him in the country - making it to class with a minute or 2 to spare. (No need for caffeine when being chased by a cop. LOL) I got my truck majorly stuck at the beach in the parking area of a state park and had 2 gorgeous guys get me out of the sand. I never like anyone trying to guilt me into doing anything and I grudgingly agreed to participate in a classmate's study - something about loss of strength or mobilty with immobilization. I believe I lasted 2 weeks with the cast because I do recall drinking on the 4th out at the beach and then deciding I had enough of the study and beat the cast off my arm. LOL Realistically, you always have to have subject drop out. LOL I met a bunch of male Mexicans that came up here to work the blueberry patches in late summer/fall - I learned quite a bit from them at a small local bar. A classmate and I got to experience the differences between species of blueberries via an invitation from a local to check out the commercial blueberry farm she and her husband owned. There is only one person from grad school that I keep in touch with and we talk all time. I didn't really enjoy being around many in my class - I remember a lot of whiney complainers. We did have cliques, but I've never been one to want to be in a clique, so that didn't bother me. The Western side of Michigan is just beautiful, so as best as I could, I tried to know the area and the people that lived there. Ben, I didn't golf... I'm not very good on a course and can only mentally handle the first 4 holes and then I've had enough. LOL Ah, but I get my money worth with 9 holes - I think I shoot 100. LOL Straight, short shots... I suck. LOL

PhilipT -> Re: A day in the life of a PT student (August 24, 2006 3:59:00 AM)
Grant, Congratulations on choosing PT as a career. It is a very rewarding and challenging profession. My PT program was 2 1/2 years long and was non-stop from day 1. I had 5 courses and 4 labs plus research, the first 3 sesmesters and then 4 courses and 3 labs the final semester, with three 8 week clinical affiliations and 3 1 week clinicals. I was burnt out my final semester so I went from studying 25-30 hours per week to 5 hours per week the final semester. Needless to say my GPA went down the last semester, 3.946 to 3.776, A's to B's. I was ready to work at that point and be done with school. Find a group you can study with and learn from each other. Phil

gshoops75 -> Re: A day in the life of a PT student (August 24, 2006 6:13:00 AM)
This is all great feedback. Thanks for the responses. Couple of follow up questions: Regarding clinicals, how intense are those? I'm sure it depends on your CI, but is there any studying/coursework to be done during those times? In my 2-yr MPT program, I'll have 2 weeks at end of first and second semester, 4 weeks at end of third semester, 4 weeks at end of fourth semester, and 14 weeks at end of curriculum - total of 26 weeks. Also, for those of you that were married and had a family during this time, how did you manage to balance the studying and family time? I'd love to hear about your experiences with that.

PhilipT -> Re: A day in the life of a PT student (August 24, 2006 9:14:00 AM)
Grant, I really enjoyed the clinicals, they were a break from the academics and a different way of learning PT. Also, you'll learn more in the first 6 months of working as a PT than you did during the 2 years in school. Understand your anatomy. Phil

srcase -> Re: A day in the life of a PT student (August 24, 2006 10:20:00 AM)
I agree with Phil, make sure you really learn the basics during the first year: anatomy, kinesiology, biomechanics. Those will help you immensely as you get out into the "real world". Clinical instructor's expectations differ based on what level you are at in school. First time clinicals involve a lot of observation and discussion with mastery of very basic manual skills, such as ROM and goniometry, manual muscle testing. Some programs require you to independently perform a simple initial eval by the end of your first clinical rotation. I was married with no kids during PT school and it was very stressful on our relationship at times. We both had to sacrifice a lot of "us" time in order for me to study and do research, etc. But overall, we communicated a lot and knew what our common goals were, so we worked through it. I can't really give you relationship advice, but I've been married 10 years now and it's just mostly about communication and mutual respect. Now that I'm back in school (part-time) and getting to an age where I'm starting to feel the biological clock ticking, I'm thinking about adding kids to the equation. People have done it in the past, so why can't I?? Success in life is about finding balance. Hope this helped! Sarah

connie.pt -> Re: A day in the life of a PT student (August 25, 2006 1:22:00 AM)
Grant, As for studing & having a family, just remember your priorities. Family must come first, because they're the ones supporting you, and they're the ones who you want to still be there when you finally graduate. As a wife & mother during PT school, I would come home, cook & do laundry, spend time with the family, then put the kids to bed early. (Bed time was 8:30, whether they went to sleep or not). That left me some time with my husband before I put him to bed, then I would study after that. Sometimes I would schedule a free house, sending everyone away for the day so I could study before a big test. Definitely not easy, but it's all been very rewarding.

PainFreeMan -> Re: A day in the life of a PT student (October 27, 2006 11:22:00 AM)
Hey Grand, Great choice in choosing PT school! How bad do you want to become a PT? If you want it bad enough, nothing can stop you. Case in point: Two of my classmates were single parent with 4 children......they made it through 3 years of PT school. Go for it, you are going to be just fine. Doug

PainFreeMan -> Re: A day in the life of a PT student (October 28, 2006 9:04:00 PM)
My bad Grant, just noticed that Misspelled your name

smithcove -> Re: A day in the life of a PT student (March 11, 2007 11:26:00 PM)
Love this thread. I will give you two examples. 1. Most PT students as described above grind throughout the long weeks, classes, labs, large amounts of studing/reviewing/coffee. 2. My good buddy in my PT program at the University of Hartford. Completed his entire MSPT education using only "one" five star notebook. Never took notes (duh), never needed to review anything more than once, photographic memory. He has, by the way, a more true-er form of photographic memory. When we all tested him in school he could describe more than just the obvious, he also atteneded to the details. My clinical affils were amazing, I hate to say it but its all about the CI. My final affil was at a level II TC and it was amazing. For me its long days of class and studies, but its also a lot of fun with new friends, and the beers tasted so much better after those loooong exams. Have fun and good luck. Dmitry Libman, MSPT

johnny appleseed -> Re: A day in the life of a PT student (May 21, 2007 11:54:00 AM)
I remember PT school as: a place with well rounded, well adjusted, fun loving people on average.

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