Why I Chose Columbia’s DPT Program

One of the most common questions I’m asked is what I think about the Columbia University Doctor of Physical Therapy program since I’m an alumna. Overall, I thought it was great. It prepared me well to be a physical therapist, and I enjoyed my time there. I will add that I graduated in 2015 and some things have changed since then. Here are some of my thoughts about the program:

1. Cost: For me, Columbia made sense financially. The way it worked out with pre-requisites, I couldn’t have gone to my state’s PT schools. I also got a merit scholarship from Columbia, and was able to live with my now-husband at times (splitting a one bedroom) or with my parents (rent free). Since I am from a New York City suburb, I didn’t have to relocate. All of these factors made Columbia work for me. That said, I don’t know that Columbia makes sense financially for most people, and I think that is a serious consideration.
2. Preparation: Columbia has a few unique factors in its curriculum. It has advanced seminars and several electives in the final year. I chose the advanced track in orthopedics and took electives in women’s health and sports, among others. My clinical instructors and bosses remarked that I was better prepared than the average new grad, and my experience working alongside other new grads confirmed this. Also, our tests were almost all multiple choice to prepare us for the boards. I hear many other students struggling with the format of the NPTE when they go to take it, so I’m glad to not have had this problem.
3. Atmosphere: Most of the professors were knowledgeable, helpful, and friendly. I’m proud to still be in touch with a bunch of them. (I do think it’s worth noting, however, that there is a new program director and several new professors since I graduated). Likewise, my classmates were friendly, intelligent, and noncompetitive, which made school much more enjoyable.
4. Location: I was choosing graduate school locations with my now-husband and we limited our search based on factors that made sense for both of us. As I said, I grew up close to The City, so living there wasn’t a big adjustment for me. However, it’s an expensive place to live, and while living near campus is relatively more affordable, it puts you about 30 minutes by subway from most of the fun activities you think of when you consider NYC. I think people from other parts of the country were slightly disappointed by this.
5. Clinicals: One of the best parts of Columbia is the way they do clinical education. The first clinicals comes halfway through the second year, which served as an invaluable reminder as to why I was in school in the first place. Additionally, the school let us be flexible in settings. For example, since I knew I wanted to work in outpatient orthopedics, I got to do three clinicals in this setting! When picking clinicals, we were guaranteed to get one of our top 10 choices. Most importantly, we got to set up our own clinicals. This was extremely helpful for me since my husband got a job four hours away while I was in school. With this flexibility, I was able to set up two clinicals where he was located, as I knew this would be where I was headed after graduation. Luckily, they both offered me jobs, and one was the site of my first job as a new graduate. If I had gone to a school that had assigned my clinicals to me, or forced me to choose from a list, I would have been less prepared as a new grad and had a much harder time finding a job.

A few things I would change about the program:

1. We didn’t have a lot of opportunities inside the hospital. From what I can recall, we had “field trips” there once or twice a semester. I’ve heard that in many other PT schools with hospitals attached, you get inside the hospital once a week. I hope this has changed, because with the school located at one of the best teaching hospitals in the world, this is a huge missed opportunity.
2. It was hard to get clinicals in the city, and especially in the Columbia hospital network. This didn’t affect me since I did my clinicals in New Jersey and in Ithaca, but I know it was frustrating for many of my classmates.

As I said, I’m happy I chose Columbia, but I also appreciate that it might not be the best fit for everyone. I have other posts with general tips for choosing a PT school, as well as choosing schools based on location and graduation + NPTE pass rates.