Well, once again, I have a lot to catch up since my last post. First of all, I was accepted to the wait list of the 4th school I applied to, Arcadia University. Their acceptance seemed almost like another way to weed out students. If I accepted a spot on the wait list, I had to put down a $500 deposit. If I was then moved off the wait list, I owed them another $500 deposit, for a total of $1000. If at any time I chose to take myself off the wait list or the acceptance list, I would forfeit any and all of the deposit. To me, it seemed like the extra deposit money and the wait list was another way to weed out candidates, and see who was really serious. Another strange thing was there wasn't an interview process for this school either. Fortunately though, I never had to really make a decision.
Earlier that week, I had sat down with a close friend and advisor and went over the two programs I was trying to decide between: Drexel and Shenandoah. We compared the programs on a number of qualities. First of all, we looked at how the programs were structured. The way Drexel is structured is that you learn about one area of the body in its entirety before moving on to the next. For example, start with the shoulder and you learn the anatomy, kinesiology, injuries, etc... of the shoulder before moving on to another part of the body. Shenandoah was different. At Shenandoah they taught anatomy of the body, then kinesiology of the body and so on. Personally, I learn better in Drexel's learning environment.
The second thing we looked at was the cost. By doing a rudimentary comparison of the cost over the length of the program, Drexel came out as the cheaper of the two programs. Now I know that money isn't the biggest thing to worry about, but it does factor in. Drexel was cheaper because they offered me a Merritt Scholarship. In order to keep it I have to maintain a B+ average instead of a B average.
Finally, we looked at the faculty that worked at each of the two Universities. While both programs have good, well educated faculty, the programs just don't compare. The way we figured, 3 of the 8 Shenandoah faculty held advanced degrees. However, 9 of the 12 Drexel faculty held advanced degrees. To me, that pushed them over the top. Drexel faculty are among the best in their field. Learning from them is going to be a challenge, but the amount of information they will be able to provide will probably be much higher and much more in depth. Also, considering both programs are approximately the same size (Drexel ~50, Shenandoah ~40), Drexel has a lower student to faculty ratio. My own experience tells me this is a good thing for my educational experience.
All in all, I was able to make my decision. I'll be attending Drexel University in the fall. I'll be starting late September. As you can probably guess, my blog will now move to focusing mostly on my experience at Drexel and living in Philadelphia. Hopefully this information is helpful to anyone reading this. If anyone would like more information, just comment on any given post and I'll try to provide more information.
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