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Any Western PT questions?


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Yes!! I know you need to do 2 placements outside of london, are these placements for sure you need to relocate? Or are some drivable? and with these placements, do more than one student get placed at a the same one outside of london, meaning are you all alone or would you have someone to potentially room with? 

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Would you be able to list the major pros and cons of going to western! Including the school itself, placement, instruction, and the city? 

 

Thank you!! 

10 hours ago, UWOPT17 said:

Well jeez, I guess its that time of year again! Anyways I graduated from Western PT in September, just here to help anyone out if they've got questions about the program, city, placements, etc.

 

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27 minutes ago, NorthernO said:

Yes!! I know you need to do 2 placements outside of london, are these placements for sure you need to relocate? Or are some drivable? and with these placements, do more than one student get placed at a the same one outside of london, meaning are you all alone or would you have someone to potentially room with? 

There are definitely some driveable ones, depending on how long you're willing to commute! Off the top of my head Strathroy, St. Thomas and Woodstock all had quite a few placement offers and were within 30-45min driving distances. Generally unless you are placed in an extremely small town, there will be other students in the same city or placement as you! Waterloo and Windsor usually have multiple students each placement cycle, so you don't have to be alone on placement!

23 minutes ago, PTinBC said:

Would you be able to list the major pros and cons of going to western! Including the school itself, placement, instruction, and the city? 

 

Thank you!! 

 

Pros: Huge orthopedics focus, many of the instructors are fairly high up in the OPA Orthopedics Division, so if that's your cup of tea they are an invaluable resource for learning. With the Manual Therapy course you can challenge your Level 1 Orthopedics Division course while you're still in school (I believe U of T has the same as well, unsure of Mac/Queens). Living as a student in London is a very fun experience, it really is similar to Kingston in that it is a student-city. The profs are all extremely personable, and even just a few months into the program they knew the majority of our class by name. Most importantly, a lot of OSCE/practical scenario type exams. Although it seems trivial, it was a huge help in preparing us for placements as well as eventually working and challenging the practical portion of the national exam. Most importantly, OVERALL CLASS VIBE. I had 2 of the best years of my life doing my MPT, and you really become one big family. You have a huge network of classmates going through the exact same thing that you're going through, so lean on them for support and have a great big party every now and then. 

Cons: Huge orthopedics focus. Although in recent years the neurology program has been getting revamped and has been much stronger as well, in part due to a lot of the profs/associate profs having connections to Parkwood Institute. In general I'd say acute care/cardioresp was probably the area of least focus during my studies. Facilities wise, Elborn College is a fairly dated building, and can sometimes feel cramped in the classrooms and training labs. However when I was finishing up there they were undergoing some pretty big renovations, so hopefully that as improved things. It can be seen as a pro or con, but due to the small size of London some of the placements can be pretty far away (i.e west to Windsor, north to Owen Sound/Wiarton and east to KW). Although there is a housing subsidy, it can be a pain to try and find a place for 6 weeks as well as moving in.

Overall though, aside for the London specific things a lot of the faculty/placement/teaching points will probably be similar across the schools. In reality PT school is only the tip of the iceberg, and employers really don't care what school you went to. So pick a school close to home, cheap, where all your friends are going, etc. 

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Thank you for doing this! I was accepted into Queens, McMaster and Western and am currently leaning towards Western due to the smaller class size and more lecture-based learning style... Although I do think that PBL would be beneficial as well. Do you think it is important to go into a PT program with an open mind? More specifically,  keeping an open mind about the different specialties? Do you think that which school you graduate for affects your ability to be hired at certain locations post-graduation?

Also wondering if you have heard any pros for Queens? Through my research, I could only find pros for McMaster and Western, but not so much Queens. I didn't want to discount it yet though. These are all I can think of for now... may have more tomorrow. Thanks again for doing this!

 

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On 5/20/2018 at 12:50 AM, PT.2018 said:

Thank you for doing this! I was accepted into Queens, McMaster and Western and am currently leaning towards Western due to the smaller class size and more lecture-based learning style... Although I do think that PBL would be beneficial as well. Do you think it is important to go into a PT program with an open mind? More specifically,  keeping an open mind about the different specialties? Do you think that which school you graduate for affects your ability to be hired at certain locations post-graduation?

Also wondering if you have heard any pros for Queens? Through my research, I could only find pros for McMaster and Western, but not so much Queens. I didn't want to discount it yet though. These are all I can think of for now... may have more tomorrow. Thanks again for doing this!

 

I think its absolutely important going into PT school with an open mind! As much as you can read about what a physiotherapist does in each setting, nothing compares to actually being able to experience it yourself. Myself and many of my friends went into school with the typical dream of working for a sports team, opening our own private practice clinic, etc. Now that we're working, a lot of us found ourselves in way different fields than we imagined; part-time at hospitals, long term care, pediatrics, chronic pain, and brain injury. PT has a much wider scope than many people realize, and you'll find that out for yourself as you work your way through placement! 

So above, I mentioned that the school you graduate from doesn't really affect applying for jobs, but I'll actually add a caveat to that. Usually every school has members of local hospitals, rehab facilities, etc. in teaching positions as well. So for certain specialties and especially for getting hospital jobs, the connections that you make with other physiotherapists during school can definitely help you get a job once you graduate. However aside from that specific situation, I have never heard of a certain employer rejecting or accepting someone based purely on what school they gradated from, although that is simply from my own limited experience.

I have heard that Queen's shares many of the similar benefits to Western due to the small class size as well and student-city, i.e great student experience, getting to know your profs really well, close-knit class. I have also heard, purely through word of mouth, that their cardioresp and acute care stuff is a strong point. If there's any Queen's students/grads out there that know about the program, feel free to chime in and correct me!

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