I never thought about it until my second year, but I am very grateful that my school mixes up didactic and clinic. We went to our first clinic shortly after our first year, second clinic at the end of second year, final two clinics in our third year (wellllll 3rd year was supposed to be 2 rotations but covid, now it's one extended clinic). Basically 4 didactic semesters, 1 clinic, 2 didactic, 1 clinic, 1 didactic, 2 clinics (two of the didactics were condensed 8 week semesters to allow for 8 weeks of clinic).
By the time I went to my first clinic I was burnt out and miserable, and clinic allowed me to breathe, reset, and rediscover why I wanted to become a PT to begin with. I was able to go back to the classroom refreshed and somewhat rested ("only" working 40 hours/week was a rest).
Returning to the classroom, all of us had very different experiences we could share with each other, and related to the material being taught very differently. We could also ask our teachers about different things we saw in clinic as we learned about things in class. Classroom discussions became much more rich and meaningful since we could share and talk about so much more.
I don't know that how a school structures its program is a deal-breaker per se but if you are lucky enough to be comparing offers, this is something I would take into consideration...but I think that's very much a personal opinion & you probably won't know your own opinion on it until you experience it.
I'm really curious what students think who do all didactic first two years and then only rotate their final year.
