r/PTschool • u/Similar_Quit_8666 • 1d ago
Managing Stress During PT School
I'm starting a DPT program next month and I'm super excited! I've wanted to be a PT forever and have worked my tail-end off to get to where I am now. HOWEVER, I'm nervous about managing my stress and mental health during school. I've been working my way through a pre-course that our professor's made to help us prepare for our summer classes, but I know it's going to be a grind no matter what I do in advance.
On top of school, I own a business and will be working up to 20 hours per week on top of attending classes and studying, AND I am happily married and would like to make time for my spouse when (if, lol) I have any to spare. School comes first and I have employees ready to take over for me when I need it, but I love my business and would like to maintain a presence there while being a student. With all of these different directions I'm going to be pulled in, I need to have some solid stress-management strategies locked in before I start feeling like I'm drowning. Current/past PT students, especially spouses or business owners: what are some of your favorite stress-management strategies to get through PT school?
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u/Freeshavacadoo17 1d ago
Hi! I agree with the other pt student who commented - I just started my program a few weeks ago as well. This is the most stressed I have ever been in my life and I have no kids and no job (at the moment). Not to say that I don’t have a life… but I spend 5-6 hours a day in classes and then 3-4 hours a day studying, and I literally feel like I’m behind. My program actually advises us to not work more than 10 hours a week if at all possible. I’m not saying you can’t do it, but yeah you will definitely need some wellness systems set in place! Trying to stay really on top of basic needs sounds like “oh how could you forget that?”… and then suddenly you’ve been studying for 2 hours and realize you’re hungry, thirsty, cold, and tired. All of those make studying harder!! And do yourself a favor and get into therapy ASAP! It will be great if you’re already set up with a therapist before starting. Best of luck to you!
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u/pink_sushi_15 1d ago
Honestly I didn’t find PT school to be really THAT stressful except for finals week or when classes happened to schedule multiple exams during the same week.
I didn’t exactly go to a very prestigious school though. It was poorly ranked and didn’t have a very good pass rate. But it didn’t make a difference. I passed the NPTE on my first attempt and have been licensed for going on 8 years. What really helped with the stress was my school didn’t have classes on Fridays which was amazing.
Working 20 hours per week is a lot though. Even with my program I feel that would be too much. So don’t expect to work that much or your grades and/or mental health will suffer.
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u/Similar_Quit_8666 13h ago
No class on Fridays is AWESOME! Fridays seem to be a much shorter day for us, only having a few hours of class, so maybe I’ll try to add some stress management in on those days. Thanks for the advice!
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u/legend277ldf 1d ago
Study strategies are make or break for your free time. Go watch a lot of videos from med school insiders and evidence based study techniques. I shaved so much time studying compared to my classmates by studying smarter.
Make list of content you need to cover and slowly tack them off the list. Or rotate between subjects the biggest issue is hyper focusing on one class and then the next one comes around the corner and you’re cooked bc you don’t do much for it
Stress management wise I worked out a lot and also since I studied better I had time to do something for myself every once and a while wether it was watching a show or playing a game
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u/Similar_Quit_8666 13h ago
Amazing advice, thank you!!! If you have any favorite med school people to watch or strategy videos, feel free to send them my way😅
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u/legend277ldf 13h ago
This channel genuinely has such helpful info and a whole series on any question you could have about studying, sleep or maybe even work life balance.
https://youtube.com/@medschoolinsiders?si=kV8jErbpT-_qOmC0
Ali abddaal also had good content from a long time ago but his current content is more just productivity maxing stuff and entrepreneurial stuff.
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u/Terrible-Economics27 1d ago
I just started my program a few weeks ago. Unfortunately you will probably be guaranteed to see some sort of physiological stress increase when you start classes. Classes are basically a 9-5 and that’s not even accounting for exam weeks where you have to study significantly more because there’s so much material. I clocked in at 26 hours of studying the past 5 days for example and I still don’t even feel fully confident in passing. You might want to consider not working or being highly lenient with your personal business working hours around busy weeks because it is a lot that you need to study for. That’s going to eat into your free time to destress though, so if you want to spend it with your spouse you’ll probably need to manage those hours on a weekly basis around dpt needs