One year after beginning as the inaugural cohort of the University of Pittsburgh Doctor of Chiropractic (DC) program, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, our students have gained new and informative experiences that they want prospective DC students to know about. From friendships with their peers, classroom environments and faculty connections, hear what our DC students have to say about their experiences so far during their first year of the program.
Classmates and Faculty Experiences
“Our classmates and faculty are really of the same mindset. They’re all trying to advance the field. There is really not a competitive sense and because we’re such a tight-knit cohort, there’s a drive to bring everybody else up along with you and I don’t think you’d find that in some other chiropractic schools that have a hundred people in their class sizes. In addition, the faculty are really great about fostering relationships. Because there are less of us and more of them, we’re able to have better relationships and better understandings about what their interests are and how they can best help us become the best clinicians we can be.”
— Matt Boyle (DC ’28)
“The faculty and the classmates are awesome. Our faculty are incredibly dedicated to this program. They put so much time and effort into making sure that we have everything that we need to succeed. They make it so enjoyable being here, even on the hard days, the long days, they make it all worthwhile. The classmates are just as great. Everybody here wants to be here. We all love what we’re doing and what we’re learning. Everyone has become like a second family. There’s been a lot of great relationships formed, and everyone really supports each other and is there for each other.”
— Taylor Nabb (DC ’28)
“Something I think is super cool about this program is a lot of our teacher assistants [adjunct professors] are also chiropractors themselves in private practice, so they’ll help with manipulation classes or exercise classes. They bring in their own way that they treat patients to the program and that inside knowledge really helps to see from a different perspective.”
— Mark Sullivan (DC ’28)
“My advisor, Dr. Bell, has been phenomenal in helping me navigate through this entire process, whether that’s the courses or if I’m really struggling with the concept. I always know I can go to her and she has an open-door policy, whether that’s in my personal life or academic life. Being that I’m one of the older members of my cohort, I was definitely struggling a little bit when I first started the semester with whether I was making the right decisions—‘Am I too old to be here?’ She really let my mind be at ease, and she assured me that this was where exactly I needed to be. She has supported me thus far, and I hope that she continues to do that for me moving forward.”
— Alyssa Reyes (DC ’28)
Classroom Experience
“The sciences are super important. It’s going to be your foundation for everything else you learn from there on out and is also important for boards. This was something that I was worried about coming into the program because my exercise science major didn’t have a huge focus on a lot of those biology, chemistry and neuroscience classes, but our professors are really helpful in that way. They know that everybody comes from a different background and they are good about offering help to those that need it.”
— Steven Samuelson (DC ’28)
“I think my favorite class that we took last semester was our soft tissue mobilization class. That was really where we got to be hands-on with our classmates and really work through soft tissue injuries, whether that’s a tendon, a ligament or just a focal lesion. That course really solidified that we are in the right place and that we’re learning the skills that we need to practice in the future. The hands-on courses have been phenomenal. We have great technology here, like the pressure force sensors. When we get into our manual skills and psychomotor skills classes, they’ve been a huge help and it’s nice to see how accurate and reliable we are with our pressure and our techniques.”
— Alyssa Reyes (DC ’28)
“The faculty and staff in the program are so kind. They all want the best for us, and they are so innovative in their teaching styles as well. Something that stuck out to me is their drive and capability to diversify how we are receiving information in the classroom. I think a lot of times you go sit in a lecture hall and it’s just PowerPoint after PowerPoint and there’s no variety in how we’re receiving material. But these faculty are unique in their ability to diversify case-based studies and how that relates to actual patients that you’ll see in clinic. They are so intuitive and their ability to make sure that we’re comfortable is really fascinating.
“The didactic portion of our classroom experience has been really interesting. One thing that the Pitt DC program has emphasized is case-based learning. We’ve seen that across almost every class we’ve been in so far. The Human Function and Metabolism class was really case-based. That’s a combination of biochemistry and human physiology that focused a lot on how patients might present in the clinic and then understanding what the underlying pathologies of their potential presentations were. We’re working to understand what a disease is like, how it presents and then what that treatment is like. This is something that I think is really unique to our program.”
— Matt Boyle (DC ’28)
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