The University of St Augustine for Health Sciences

Date: Dec 31 1969
Major: Physical Therapy/Exercise Science (This Major's Salary over time)
After working in the hospitals, I knew quite a lot about physical therapy, but I knew going in that I still had a lot to learn. Unfortunately, this school was not the place to learn it. The teachers don't teach, they merely read from slides. They are condescending and say they are there to help you, and yet, they never answer e-mails, or when they do it is with a nasty response. Just like the other few students who had actually worked in the field prior to going to the school, I had to re-learn so many things. Their skills class is worthless. Fi you tried to do some of the techniques they taught at a hospital, you'd be laughed at, at best, and at worst, you'd injure a patient. Their modalities class is just as big of a joke. As a tech, you must learn everything they teach you in 2 days during a check off, no need for an entire class on the "lack of" information. Furthermore, there were so many time I had to keep my mouth shut when the instructor was completely wrong about the instruments, or medications mentioned.

So aside from these poor classes, expect to be saddened by the number of students cheating at the university, while the administration does nothing about it. Or you can have teachers changing grades only for particular students, and not for others. This is an expensive school, and extremely difficult. The motto there is "Cs get degrees," where the majority of the students are just praying for the C to pass them on so they don't have to repeat the class, or get kicked out. So many students worked their tails off to pass with a C while having to witness other students cheating. The cheaters ruin any chance to refute a teacher's question/answer, ruining it for everyone else.

Another issue is that the testing methods are not standard across all classes in a format similar to the board exams. If nursing schools, med schools, and other pt schools standardize their questions, why can't this school? Probably since they can't take the time to make new questions.

The majority of the teachers are demeaning and condescending, and have only outpatient experience from the clinic downstairs. They seem to have zero knowledge about real world physical therapy in hospitals, so don't bother asking. There are a couple of teachers who care, but they only care about their "special select" students.

I have found that the students that are arrogant, and aggressive seem to make it, and the ones that don't are nice, and can't fathom doing the things other students do there. Oh, and be careful of the student council/honor society students, they seem to be the ones with the easiest access to cheating materials, and plus, who would accuse them, right?

In the end, I made great friends there (mostly OTs since they are nicer), learned by teaching myself, and would not do it again if you paid me the 12 grand per semester. So choose wisely. Message real students on social networks, or privately talk to students on the campus (not tour guides). It is not worth the money (that increases continuously and you never see improvements), nor is it worth the stress. Go find teachers who care about molding the minds of amazing therapists (not teachers who look at you like future competition), and go find a school that teaches well rounded material (not their personal method which is not used professionally). Most importantly, go find a school that values you.