Start Preparing Now For Your Application

This is something that for me was necessary this application cycle. I believe that planning as well as I did helped me. This is For First Time Applicants and Reapplicants. So here are a few tips and things you can start doing:

As a first time applicant:

Begin to look up schools. Initially have some that are “ realistic schools” (schools that your GPA, GRE, and observation hours etc. align with their minimums). I would not waste money, personally on schools that I do not meet the minimums of. I advise against this because most of the time the school won’t look at the application. Which is money wasted on a school that won’t take the time to review your application. With that said, I do believe it is okay to have one “reach” program in the bunch. This means a program that you meet some of the minimums and want to apply. But a disclaimer I will put on this is before you consider doing it is to reach out to the school. I did this with almost every school I applied to. I wanted to know how my stats compared to their current students and if I had a C, my GRE wasn’t high enough, etc. how would this affect me as an applicant to their program. Some schools explained that having a C or a not so great GRE score was not a make or break factor for admission.
With that said reach out to admissions! Make your name known! It is honestly okay, its what they are there for. If you admire a professor and their work ask the program how that professor responds to receiving emails from potential students. Some are willing to some are not. In the end, it is always nice to have someone on the inside of a program that knows your name and what great of a person and student you are. It helps them see what type of addition you would be to their program.
Make sure you have observation hours in the areas of : outpatient and inpatient. Some specific topics that are good to look in to are: Orthopedics, Pediatrics, Geriatrics, Neuro. My advice is to have between 30-40 hours at each clinic you go to because most schools minimums are between these amounts. ( You can look at outpatient clinics, hospitals, and skilled nursing facilities)
Let your letters of recommendation know that you are thinking of applying to PT school and would like it if they could write your letters. Let them know that you will be contacting them in a few months when the application opens up. This just gives them a heads up way in advance so that you don’t have any issues finding letters of recommendation.
Get some community service under your belt. If you don’t have time- thats okay. I completely understand, I did not have time for much during undergrad or when I graduated with work . But if you have the time it looks good.
Make sure you are involved with some type of organization. Be involved at school it helps because it shows admissions you can handle a heavy course load, interests, and other responsibilities. Graduate school is not easy they want to see that you can juggle multiple things. It also helps admissions get to see you as a person.
Research. I loved research as an undergrad. Many schools have research opportunities for students to work with faculty on a literature review, that professors own research, or helping you start your own. Some schools offer summer research programs for students. This is awesome. They pair you with faculty in your field to do research with for a whole summer. Some even give you stipends. I did it for a summer and loved it. I even had a friend do one this past summer at a university she wanted to attend for DPT school –it is now the school she will be attending. If you need suggestions let me know! With that said sometimes you do not have time for research or it may not be an interest -that’s okay it is not mandatory. It helped me get strong letters of recommendation and learn more about the field from another perspective.
Work/Observation Hours. AH yes. So it took me a long time to find a rehab aide/physical therapy technician position. I was persistent though. I would call every local clinic to see if they were hiring and this often gave me information on if they were hiring and a chance to speak with the person who did the hiring. This helped my name stick out, which gave me a few interview offers. I love my job as a rehab aide. BUT it is not the most important job to have before PT school it helps yes, but sometimes it is hard to find one, or it does not pay enough to support yourself. Or you just have another job. Either way working somewhere looks good, it is an experience that taught you something. You can always get more observation hours and gain just as much knowledge as anyone who is a Rehab Aide. Remember, everyone starts somewhere and some exposure is better than none. I would suggest working in the health field if possible so that you are still exposed to some things. I for a while worked at a school for children with Autism, this experience was awesome and helped me realize pediatrics is a field I may want to pursue. Every job has a lesson. Besides, during PT interviews I have been asked what is a difficult situation I had been in and how did I handle it- I always refer back to past jobs!
More on Observation Hours-As far as observation hours go START EARLY. Don’t wait for the last minute to gain some in various areas it’ll be hard to do it all and get a solid letter of recommendation from a PT. My advice is if you start early make sure to get the information of the PT you are shadowing and the information of the department head. I would get their email, document all the times you went and have them initial next to it, if you can I would get a phone number too. I say this because I had done over 50 hours of observing at a skilled nursing facility but when it came time to have my hours verified the Physical Therapist had left the facility and no one could vouch for me that I had completed my hours. I had to scramble and gain some hours last minute, which was hard and upsetting since I had put so much time in previously.
GRE. I am extremely terrible at standardized tests. I had to take the test twice. The consensus on the least amount of time you should spend studying is two months from what I have seen. I spent about two months studying. What I used was : Magoosh.com for verbal studying, Manhattan Prep GRE for math and essay (I have read that their text completion book can be confusing so I bought every book but that one…I also bought the 3rd edition, it is similar to the 4th edition which is the newest), and Magoosh Vocab flashcard app to learn vocab words. These were my methods after looking at several sites and doing some research.
Essay. Once you are ready to apply begin to list your experiences in PT and what they taught you about the profession. Also begin to think of what kind of therapist you want to be and any professional goals you would like to achieve. PTCAS releases the essay in June that they will be using for that application cycle. This is one month before the application opens up. Which give you lots of time to construct an essay.
Make sure someone reads over your essay! I had mine read by fellow PT applicants, mentors in the PT field, the writing center at my institution, and people who were not in the PT field. This helped my essay be strong all around.
PTCAS SUPPLEMENTAL ESSAYS: I would take a peak at some of the essay topics that programs use during the application cycle . This helps you know what to expect.

Reapplicant:

Call the programs you did not get accepted to and find out how you can improve your application.
Reapplying to a program you were rejected or wait-listed to: work with that program to let them them know you are improving your application. Let them know you are still interested etc. This helps so much do not let your name get lost!
DO NOT apply to programs you don’t meet minimums of . As a reapplicant you have to be strategic, and really spend time looking in to programs that you qualify for. As a reapplicant I really liked programs that looked at the applicant HOLISTICALLY -meaning they looked at every part of your application to make a decision. I also applied to programs that had no minimum GRE score requirement since I personally struggled with it.
Try to apply to programs that take the higher grade of a course you repeated in to their GPA calculations. This was major for me, my pre-req GPA was considered really high for some school when they took my highest grade. Sometimes, not all, it can hurt your application if they average the two grades together. This can be harmful sometimes when you have retaken multiple classes.
Look in to gaining more observation hours and really getting strong letters of recommendation.
GRE- if you struggled with this retake it. Spend the time studying and really try to do well. See above for materials I suggest.
GPA/Retaking classes: Retake classes you got anything below a “B” in. With that said, one C does not always hurt you, but multiple C’s will. I had one C when applying after I retook a different class that I had received another C in. ***BUT*** some schools do not like when applicants repeat a course more than twice, so find out if the school you are applying to has this as a rule. IF you don’t it may be a waste of your time and money.
Essay- See above. Really take the time to reflect on the past year what has it made you realize about what type of physical therapist you want to be.
Please also review some of the points under the Applicant essay they still do apply for you!

Bottom line as a reapplicant. Fix what you can in your application. Do not give a school a reason to reject you. Be confident with your application do not leave anything to chance. And especially because this process isn’t cheap you want to make sure you have the best application possible.

I really hope this helps someone. If you have ANY questions whatsoever please email me, message me on SDN, or hit the ASK button on the top of the page. I am more than willing to provide any help or insight that I can. Contact info is in the sidebar to the left. I’ll edit this post if anything else comes to mind.