PT school is intense. I went to Ohio State's graduate PT school. We started at 8 am took 10 minute breaks every 50 minutes and didn't stop till noon. We got an hour for lunch and then two days a week we had three to four hour labs in the afternoon. Half the class were TTh, the other half was MW. Once a week we had journal club where we researched evidence based articles and performed critically appraised topics telling us how valid, reliable, etc. the articles were. We did get fridays off to study, but most people used it to work or relax. Classes consisted of anatomy, neuroscience, pediatrics, geriatrics, orthopedics, neurology, and complex case studies to name the biggees. Not a lot of chemistry used, but quite a bit of physics. We did take a course on pharmacology, and one quarter specifically on pathology, but pathology was indirectly taught in every class since therapists know how disease and trauma impact impairments, functional limitations, and disability. we concentrated on the NAGI model of disease, which begins at the cellular level, which is where PT school will differ the most from medical school. Medschool will look much closer at the genetic and cellular level of disease. I would say the amount of information, at least the first year, is compareable to what you would encounter in med school.
The aspect of PT school that I disliked were all the little extra things they had us do, like service learning projects, writing 1-2 10-15 page case studies each quarter, or making your own company with motto, marketing strategy, pamphlets, etc. and then presenting them to the class and faculty. Oh yeah, putting together a 20 minute learning project presentation in front of the entire class and department was nice and not relaxing.
Clinicals were so so, but they are not near the length of what you have to do for medical school and of course there is no residency. We did 2 four week clinicals in orthopedics and neurology, and 3 eight week clinicals; one had to be in acute care, and the other two were your choice. I chose inpatient rehabilitation and another outpatient sports medicine and orthopedics. This is the best I can recall, but i'm sure I could think of some of the other hoops they made us jump through if you want. Bottom line is PT school is hard and challenging. While no one failed out of my class of 35, some were put on academic probation because you had to maintain above a 3.0, and you could easily fall behind if you let yourself. Happy New Years, and much success with your decision!!!
