Don't get me wrong, we are learning a ton and there are times when the stress level is very, very high! However, I do not find myself studying for hours each night after being on campus for 8 hours at a time. There is a good balance. We are in class a MAX of six hours, usually with an hour or two lunch break in between. A lot people use that time to relax, catch up, study or workout at the gym down the street. Since we can schedule the learning outside of class we can ensure we are mentally receptive. We also have a few weeks break between semesters. At first, I did not think I would like that but it's actually a really good thing. Some people take vacations, some people use it to work for financial reasons and some people just relax to recharge. I've been able to fly back home a few times a year due to this and it really helps me to recover/prepare for the intense work.
MGH's affiliations definitely contributed to it being at the top of my list for programs. The Partner's network is amazing. They allow us to rank our top 5 choices for two rounds then we are matched. I had a great experience my first rotation due to a great match for facility and CI. I just started my 2nd rotation this past week (why I'm replying so late) and I feel the same about this facility and CI as well. Going into the first clinical you will have finished all the ortho and cardiopulm intensive modules so the majority of that first list are ortho sites. Going into 2nd you will have finished all the neuro intensive modules so there are more OP neuro, IP acute, IP rehab, LTAC and home health placements. They have not released the final site list for our final internship/14 week so I can't speak to that yet. There have always been a handful of sites which service specialty populations such as peds, vestibular, aquatic therapy and sports (most notably MGH Sports.)
