Which school?

I know I wanted to stay in NYC. I used the American Physical Therapy Association website to give me a rundown of all the schools - location, tuition, accreditation, pass rates, amount of clinical weeks, application dates and class size. The site lists all the schools that have PT programs under prospective students tab.

I took all the info, included the schools prerequisites and dropped it in a excel spreadsheet. I started to edit out the schools that I wasn't really interested in. This is the original list of schools that I could take public transportation to from NYC: Columbia, Hunter, LIU, Mercy, NYIT, NY Medical College, NYU, Stony brook, Downstate and Touro.

I removed Columbia and NYU from my list based on tuition. It was my impression that they don't give much aid and more than $100K in loans is hard for me to justify. Columbia was eliminated because I graduated from an ivy league for my bachelors so there is no allure to go to a top notch school for PT. After talking with my two supervisors from my volunteer experiences and reading blogs, the school you attend does not matter as much when getting a full time job. School matters because you get the opportunity to have clinical internships with the hospitals that these schools are affiliated with. Looking at the less expensive schools, I am fine with their affiliations if it means less loans. It is also more important how you perform during your affiliations because often it could lead to a full time job when you graduate (if there is slot available.)

I eliminated NYIT and NY Medical College purely because of location. They were more than a 1.5-2 hour commute from NYC.

Mercy was a part-time/weekend school. I didn't want to work and attend school - and I am very fortunate enough to have this option. Physical therapists are autonomous in the work field. Personally, I feel responsible for getting the most out of my education so I can treat to the best of my abilities. I need to commit myself to school. Work on top of school would definitely split my focus.

I kept Stony Brook because I considered begging my aunt to let me sleep in her basement in LI for the next 3 years during the school week and come home to NYC for the weekends. 

My final list was Hunter, LIU, Stony Brook, Downstate and Touro. Next on my list to do is visit the schools and note my impressions of the faculty, pass rates, style of teaching, preparation for licensure exam, clinical affiliations assignments and class size.

Here is my excel spreadsheet. Its a little hard to read but hopefully you can make out the info.