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Making Decisions, Dalhousie, U Of A And U Of M


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Hey everyone, so now that we've heard from all the schools it's time to make decisions. I was wondering if anybody here has gone through any of these schools or will be accepting them for occupational therapy and would share why they choose the particular school. I'm having trouble deciding and have made pros/cons lists but it's proving difficult.

Any help would be great, thanks!

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Dalhousie OT student here! That's quite the geographic spread you have there. I think you can't go wrong with picking a school that's close to where you want to practice, so you can do your fieldwork placements there. Here's my two cents on Dal: 

 

Education: Similar to undergraduate, in that course content is taught in lectures, with our understanding developed through application in lab. We do a lot of interprofessional education. Anatomy in Year 1 and Neuroscience in Year 2 is with the PTs, and we have multiple projects in other courses in which we work with other professions. Some count towards your grades, some are just participation. I've worked most closely with social work, PT, and SLP (including group practical exams!), but have done projects with every profession under the sun. In semester 1 you have Anatomy. It's cadaver based, with around 9 hours a class time a week. Theory is not as dry as it sounds - we use a lot of cases and local environments to learn about how OT theory applies in the real worls. Enabling 1 is our mental health course and a great way to start the program. A lot of skills you learn here will transfer to non-mental health settings. You do a lot of group work with your learning groups here - they become like a mini family in those first few months. In Semester 2, you start on physical dysfunction with OT, which is great while anatomy is fresh in your mind.You also do our assistive technology and design class at the same time. These courses fit very well together, and the labs for both are fast paced and hands on. And we have a course on formal assessments, like the PEDI and Cognistat. You are also on fieldwork every Friday at a site in the community! The summer semester is great. We have a course on the social influences on occupation (thinking critically about your social location as an first-generation immigrant to Canada, for example), which I do not think is covered in its own course at other universities. In Year 2, your focus is on neuro and pediatrics. We also do a course on pharmacology here - might not be obvious for OT students, but I think it's super helpful when understanding the impact of side effects in planning treatment. You also get started on your thesis here. Then it's more fieldwork, and 6 weeks of classes. We finish school on June 15th this year! Some people are starting work the next week, so you do get a bit of  leg up when applying for jobs because we graduate fairly early. 

 

Research: We have four courses on research spread throughout the two years, but we are not required to actually conduct field research. It seems from what I've read online that some schools require an actual field research project as part of their degree requirements. We do have students doing this, but it's on their own time, for their own learning/career aspirations. If you hate research (or have no experience with scientific research and are coming out from BA to OT school), Dal gives you some flexibility. We do still have to do a thesis, but not actually conduct research in the field. I was happy with the research opportunities I've had here. 

 

Fieldwork: We have four fieldwork placements (check out page 32 of this document https://www.dal.ca/content/dam/dalhousie/pdf/faculty/faculty-health-professions/occupational-therapy/OT%20-%20Handbook%20September%202013.pdf). The first one is not hospital based. It's usually in an emerging area that does not employ an OT. This can be hit or miss with some students - some people end up in really interesting areas, others, not so much. For placements 2,3 and 4 you need to prepare to move. Waivers are granted for people with a reason to stay in Halifax (i.e. caring for a child, if you have a job), but it's common to bounce between provinces during placements. NB students get priority for NB spots, but other than that, it's a free for all. One pro is that while Atlantic Canada is sparsely populated, we have multiple regional centres. If the IWK (Children's hospital) is only offering 1 placement that semester, there's always the Janeway in Newfoundland. I think this is a huge advantage of having our catchment area spread across all of Atlantic Canada. Out of region and international fieldwork placements are available for placements 3 and 4, and people are generally successful at being able to go out of the region for at least one of those two.

 

Housing: You can get a 1 bed within 15 minutes of the campus for around $900 a month, and room with roommates for anywhere from $400-700 depending on how far you want to be from campus. 

 

Halifax: There's not a lot of school spirit, but Halifax has a great live music and bar scene. The hiking is great if you like the outdoors! And being by the water is peaceful in itself. The restaurants and bars are great - there are a lot of locally owned gems. I actually haven't been to a chain restaurant once since coming here (aside from take out). For such a small city, there's a great variety. OT Ball and For the Health of It (a series of comedy skits by the health students) are the two school-based events of the year, and almost everyone is involved in some way. So we have some school spirit, but I would never go to a football game, for example. 

 

Hope that helped! I can add more detail if you have specific questions, but it's just so hard to sum up 22 months in 1 post! 

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Hopplah that is so helpful thank you so much! I've been leaning towards Dalhousie but I'm just unsure about a few things since it's so far away from my home province. Most notably housing and having to find a place to stay for a couple weeks in various other atlantic provinces during fieldwork placements. Do you know if there are a lot of out of province students in your class/ is your graduating class diverse? 

 

I was also curious about the job outlook in the atlantic provinces for recent graduates. Do you know if students have had success in finding jobs once they have completed the program? 

 

Lastly, I was hoping to take one of the certificate programs that is offered through the Occupational Therapy program. I think it's called Chronic Condition Management. Do you know if you have to be a graduate occupational therapist to take these programs or can you take it as a student concurrently with the masters program. 

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Our class is super, super diverse! About a third of my class comes from outside of Atlantic Canada. I think we have around 20-25 spots available for out of region students. I'm originally from Ontario and I love it out here. 

 

Because we are generally sending people to the same cities and towns, people often ask the people who went there last year for tips. The people in our classes from there originally usually have a lot of connections to smooth out the process as well. And the preceptors in the smaller, really rural locations know it can be difficult to arrange housing and help with that. They also would never send you to a really insane location without running it by you first, like Labrador. Setting up housing out of Halifax can end up being a nuisance/annoyance, especially if you are trying to put that together last minute during exams before fieldwork begins, but it doesn't seem to be a huge burden (however, I haven't had to do it personally!). When you rank your placements, you rank your top 5 preferred practice areas, and top 5 preferred locations. You can be as specific or as general as you want for either of those, and they tell you to indicate if practice area or location is more important, and then they (try) to place us all based on that. For my placements I got my top practice area every time, in Halifax for all of them, so it can work out! Two pediatrics, one mental health, and one neuro/hand therapy. 2 of them were in a hospital. I'm thrilled with that mix! 

 

The job outlook for Halifax is not amazing to be honest. I don't think there's a health program besides nursing where the Halifax market is great for new grads. But Atlantic Canada as whole seems strong. I'm not applying for jobs out here, but a lot of people from here have been interviewing (especially in NB) and I know of a handful of people who have jobs lined up in the region. But there's definitely a trend emerging in my class in which the people who have jobs lined up are moving to Alberta or BC. I know of people who have had to stay in Halifax have ended up in non-OT jobs (i.e. like disability case management, or case coordination) before getting an actual OT job. It's hard to get hired into a hospital in Halifax as a new grad. 

 

You can do (some of) certificates concurrently, but not many people do, and the school doesn't really advertise them to us. You will have to pay extra tuition to take the courses as well. I completed the Certificate in Disability Management during OT school because I'd like to work in Toronto, and I'm hoping this certificate can help give me a little more flexibility in the job hunt. I had already started it in my undergrad, so I just needed two courses to finish it. I had to get permission from the school to do so (not difficult), but other than that, it was not hard. I did the two courses during my fieldwork and found the workload manageable. EDIT: I just looked up the one you mentioned, and I think it might be specifically for after you have your license, but the application requirements make it seem like you only need a Bachelors to register. I would probably just send them an email about it! 

 

I also went back and actually looked at how many people stayed in Halifax for our first placement last semester - around 23 which is a third of our class. Which is quite high considering that many of the NB, NL, PEI students can and do want to go back to their home provinces. So I think for placements you need to be prepared to move, but you also might end up in Hali for all of them. 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 2017-05-23 at 8:32 PM, Hopplah said:

Our class is super, super diverse! About a third of my class comes from outside of Atlantic Canada. I think we have around 20-25 spots available for out of region students. I'm originally from Ontario and I love it out here.

Hi Hopplah,

Just have a couple more questions. As I'm planning going to Dalhousie and don't know anybody out there, do you know if there will be a Facebook group that will be organized for the OT class? I'm curious because as the class has many members that will be out of town and would need housing/accommodations it might be nice to share a townhouse with other classmates. 

Lastly, from your experience, do you need a vehicle in Halifax? I was hoping that I could just get around on public transportion or either biking/walking. 

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I am a current Dal student and will be attending Dal in the fall for OT, to answer your question about transportation, you don't need a car because I am almost certain you will get a metro transit pass for the bus/ferry system. Also if you are just talking about the Halifax area, biking and walking are reasonable most of the year (outside of snow). However, you may or may not need a vehicle for fieldwork placements depending on where you are at! Hope that helps some! 

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Facebook group should be up by late July, once the first years are back from fieldwork and get going on the Orientation Committee. You definitely don't need a car. The bus system is alright - they've made some improvements in the last few years and it's better than ever, but still not great. You get a bus pass with your student ID. For fieldwork, having a car can open up some more rural/community-based options (i.e. that involve more home visits) for you, but you don't need one. They will be able to find something that is reachable by public transit for you, but it may be a far bus ride. Or it could be a different city, since a lot of small towns in the maritimes don't have public transportation. And for daily life, every you could need is easily reachable via bus, even great hiking spots.

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I'm also planning on attending Dal for OT this upcoming Fall and I am curious as to how people are finding accommodations?? Looking to live with 2+ other fellow OT students however I'm not sure how to coordinate this since there doesn't seem to be a facebook group up yet :( 

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