Online Student's View

Student: Jill
Degree: Advanced Physical Therapy Degree From Boston University Online

2008: Jill, a successful physical therapist in a group practice in New York, is taking a “transitional” doctorate of physical therapy degree online from Boston University. At the level of her study (she already has a master’s degree) there is no need for her to be in a room with an instructor, unlike some of the earlier-level physical therapy courses she took. She got her master’s degree at a traditional bricks and mortar college.

Basics: Jill is “very impressed” with BU’s online program. Her degree will require 24 credits. At a cost of $1,000, it’s a significant total investment of about $24,000. Courses are structured so that her large classes are broken up into groups of 12 or 13 students, each of which has a “facilitator” who views student’s homework and grades tests (which are frequent). Much of the work is done in an “asynchronous” fashion, with students watching course presentations and doing assignments on their own schedules. But each course has a live one hour online session with the professor or instructor, which generally includes time for questions and answers. She says she is always ready to get any questions she has answered in these sessions, though there are many other students participating.

The entire online degree program will take about 18 months of study. Jill recently took some time off, because her schoolwork, combined with her day job, was becoming a bit too much. She should complete the work within about two years at this point – Boston University required that she agree to complete her course work within three years of starting it when she signed up for her online degree.

Getting in to an online degree program at this level, she says, involved a lot more than just signing up. First she had to fill out a pre-admission screening form. Then, she had to be invited to apply. Once she was, she had to submit, in addition to her college grade transcript, one personal essay and another professional essay that referenced current research or professional journal articles on a particular subject in physical therapy.

This is a “non-PhD” type doctorate that Jill feels will keep her well situated in the physical therapy profession, which is becoming vastly more competitive and where an advanced degree is becoming a necessity for success

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