You make a good point! That's part of why I'm trying to look at indirect indicators like graduation rate. Tutoring options, office hours, and open labs are also important to me. For instance, I remember interviewing at a program where the faculty and dean all had open door policies in place for office hours. My program offered office hours by appointment only and questions about the material were to be directed to the TA, not the professor.
When I interviewed current/former students before I applied, they spoke very highly of the program with nothing negative to report. Once I became a student myself, a few of them spoke more candidly about specific professors but unfortunately it was too late by then. As a new, excited PT student, I initially blew off the warnings and thought the aforementioned professors were fine, but I, too, ended up having some disappointing interactions with them during my short time in the program. One bullied me through an entire competency and then laughed and ridiculed me when she realized she had successfully shaken my confidence. When my morale was at its lowest and I performed poorly on an important exam, the other told me she believes I have a retention problem but that I would be fine no matter what career I end up in since I'm good with people.
Also, my experience was atypical as a student with a developmental disability who had been utilizing my university's disability services since undergrad. Those resources were more than sufficient in undergrad but their accessibility became somewhat problematic as a graduate level PT student. The university's PT department and disability resource service did not communicate well or have standard policies in place with each other. I continually had to be the middlewoman and advocate for myself on both ends throughout the semester (in undergrad, I only needed to deal with this once at the beginning of each semester). Additionally, the university's disability resource department wasn't aware of how the PT program operates (i.e. schedules, taking accommodation matters into their own hands, etc.) or of program specific test-taking policies, which contributed to some of the issues with accessibility. Because I advocated for myself instead of passively accepting the situation, I was treated like a burden by the professor of my most challenging course, who complained that accommodating me sufficiently sounded "too complicated" and insisted on doing it her way despite desperate requests from me to compromise. After my dismissal, the faculty admitted to my disability resource advisor that they didn't know how to adequately accommodate me, to which my disability resource advisor replied that they should have been utilizing her as a resource all along.
I don't want to completely badmouth the program. It is an excellent program with some talented educators and challenging standards. I know anyone who graduates will have the tools to become a skilled and knowledgeable physical therapist, which is why I'm bummed it didn't work out. I honestly felt extremely burnt out between studying/attending classes all day, constantly advocating for myself, and trying to take care of my worsening mental health. There were a few unique circumstances that resulted in my negative experience, but I'm also aware I can work on myself, have a game plan in place, and develop more efficient study skills to set myself up for success next time around. I want to make sure I'm intentional about applying to programs that care about the success/wellbeing of students beyond NPTE scores/academic reputation. I've been considering creating an anonymous poll since people haven't been completely forthright when asked directly in my experience.
