28yo, deaf, and need serious advice and perspective from you

[BeastOfBurden]

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I posted in the pre PT forum but I just realized that this is probably a better place to post this in since you have done it and made it to be DPTs.

Hey everyone how are you? Thank you for taking a look at my post and I seriously appreciate from the bottom of my heart any advice and input you can offer.

I am asking for some serious advice here and would love your perspective. Im 28 years old and was born deaf always had hearing aids and did ok in school albeit significant difficulty. I graduated with a bachelor of science in business (probably the worst mistake of my life). Worked for a bit in NYC and hated it, it was also difficult to get ahead due to no opportunities and the insane competition and my disability. I also went through medical problems such as Meniere’s Disease and chronic fatigue because of the medication for the treatment. In short – life was completely derailed. I went back home to deal with the medical issues and because I had nowhere to turn to. This all happened over the last 5 years after finishing college.

I recently got a cochlear implant, which was a huge blessing. It is a million times better than hearing aids. I wish I had gotten one before college.

While going to training on how to use the implant, which was done out of a university health school, I met several PT students and started hanging around the PT program and asking questions. I really think that this might be for me. I did a lot of reading up on what is needed and I am not sure if I will be making a SMART decision or not. I am 28 years old, I have a undergrad GPA of 2.4 and require taking nearly all pre reqs and the GPA. I am not even sure how long that will take.

I begin observation hours tomorrow. I am also preparing for the GRE (gonna try and take it before fall semester) and going to go see academic advisors about pre req classes. However I need perspective from you, the people who have gone through all of this. I don’t want to make a huge novel of a post, so I’ll bluntly post questions I have.

Questions on my mind:

• Due to my age and not having the opportunity and foresight to get a STEM degree in my youth, is going down this path a bad idea? I’ll probably be in my mid 30s when graduating (IF I am able to succeed in the first place). How will the job market even look like at that point? How disadvantaged will I be? I mean there are already DPTs at my current age and they are starting their careers and lives!

• The competition looks to be insane to get into PT programs right? I was pretty taken aback at the acceptance rates and such. If I cannot get into a school, what the heck will I do? I wont be young enough to pivot into something else. One thing I haven’t seen on here – are there people who never got into PT programs? Or everyone eventually gets in somewhere?

• Even if I make it happen and get into a PT school, how do grad students even make money and pay for rent, food, etc? The rigors of PT school is almost like medical school. I mean we are talking anatomy classes and such that is like medical school. That requires a lot of studying. If I go downt the path of going back to school for pre reqs, I don’t think I can be able to work and go to school. The GPA requirements will probably force me to study all day every day. No time for jobs etc. That means probably no savings etc.

So I am asking… at my age and life circumstances, am I making a good decision despite my desire and passion to become a DPT? From your perspective, what would you recommend? Is the journey and yes, financial consequences/benefits worth it?

 

[jblil]

You have a big mountain to climb... In your shoes, I'd seriously consider the PTA route since the cost/benefit ratio is more favorable. Make sure you shadow PTs and PTAs before you commit to either.

 

[BeastOfBurden]

You have a big mountain to climb... In your shoes, I'd seriously consider the PTA route since the cost/benefit ratio is more favorable. Make sure you shadow PTs and PTAs before you commit to either.

Thank you so much for replying. I was looking into PTA as well. I am just not sure because my dream is to own my own private practice business doing physical therapy. Can a PTA even do that?

Can you tell me more about the cost benefit ratio? From my looking around, PTAs can earn up to 65K if they are fortunate but DPT earn $20=30k more

Also, I am confused about something. Is there a difference between a LPT (licensed PT) and a DPT? Ive come across that several times in researching jobs.

 

[jblil]

As a PTA, you can certainly own a Physical Therapy practice and hire PTs and PTAs to work for you. But if you were treating patients yourself, then you'd have to work under the supervision of a PT.

Cost-benefit ratio: PTA is a 2-yr degree, offered at many community colleges. DPT is 3 years and very competitive to get in, at least into the good and affordable schools. And it can't be obtained at a community college. If you have to borrow $100K to get a DPT, you need to work out the math ahead of time and see how much you'll be paying back each month, and for how long.

Lots of folks dream of opening up their own PT practice. With dwindling reimbursements and increased paperwork requirements, it may not be worth the hassle. The latest buzzword seems to be "cash-based". Good luck with that...

If a PT passes the Board exam, s/he is licensed and can practice. I myself have rarely seen the "LPT" moniker. I assume that if someone puts "PT" behind his/her name, that person is licensed.

 

[jesspt]

I posted in the pre PT forum but I just realized that this is probably a better place to post this in since you have done it and made it to be DPTs.

Hey everyone how are you? Thank you for taking a look at my post and I seriously appreciate from the bottom of my heart any advice and input you can offer.

I am asking for some serious advice here and would love your perspective. Im 28 years old and was born deaf always had hearing aids and did ok in school albeit significant difficulty. I graduated with a bachelor of science in business (probably the worst mistake of my life). Worked for a bit in NYC and hated it, it was also difficult to get ahead due to no opportunities and the insane competition and my disability. I also went through medical problems such as Meniere’s Disease and chronic fatigue because of the medication for the treatment. In short – life was completely derailed. I went back home to deal with the medical issues and because I had nowhere to turn to. This all happened over the last 5 years after finishing college.

I recently got a cochlear implant, which was a huge blessing. It is a million times better than hearing aids. I wish I had gotten one before college.

While going to training on how to use the implant, which was done out of a university health school, I met several PT students and started hanging around the PT program and asking questions. I really think that this might be for me. I did a lot of reading up on what is needed and I am not sure if I will be making a SMART decision or not. I am 28 years old, I have a undergrad GPA of 2.4 and require taking nearly all pre reqs and the GPA. I am not even sure how long that will take.

I begin observation hours tomorrow. I am also preparing for the GRE (gonna try and take it before fall semester) and going to go see academic advisors about pre req classes. However I need perspective from you, the people who have gone through all of this. I don’t want to make a huge novel of a post, so I’ll bluntly post questions I have.

Questions on my mind:

• Due to my age and not having the opportunity and foresight to get a STEM degree in my youth, is going down this path a bad idea? I’ll probably be in my mid 30s when graduating (IF I am able to succeed in the first place). How will the job market even look like at that point? How disadvantaged will I be? I mean there are already DPTs at my current age and they are starting their careers and lives!

• The competition looks to be insane to get into PT programs right? I was pretty taken aback at the acceptance rates and such. If I cannot get into a school, what the heck will I do? I wont be young enough to pivot into something else. One thing I haven’t seen on here – are there people who never got into PT programs? Or everyone eventually gets in somewhere?

• Even if I make it happen and get into a PT school, how do grad students even make money and pay for rent, food, etc? The rigors of PT school is almost like medical school. I mean we are talking anatomy classes and such that is like medical school. That requires a lot of studying. If I go downt the path of going back to school for pre reqs, I don’t think I can be able to work and go to school. The GPA requirements will probably force me to study all day every day. No time for jobs etc. That means probably no savings etc.

So I am asking… at my age and life circumstances, am I making a good decision despite my desire and passion to become a DPT? From your perspective, what would you recommend? Is the journey and yes, financial consequences/benefits worth it?

Have you done the math re: your GPA? Can you actually raise it enough to meet the minimum requirements for most PT schools? Many require a 3.0 undergrad GPA as the minimum necessary to apply.

 

[yodelingyorkies]

I agree with the above posts... I'd crunch all the numbers in regards to finances, debt, and also GPA. Those numbers will help give you a realistic look at what pursuing a DPT would entail. As far as age goes, know that you're not the only one starting this journey later in life! I personally will be 27 when I apply to schools so I can sympathize to a degree. The DPT journey is not short and it sucks realizing how old you'll be when you're through. As for the PTA suggestion, I would definitely check it out. I've had multiple PTs ask me if I've looked at becoming a PTA simply due to the debt and time involved with the DPT.

As far as GPA, it appears that you would have to take a ton of extra classes to get it up to the minimum 3.0 GPA found at almost every school. However, there are schools that look only at your last 60 credit hours (assuming you ace your prereqs, this GPA could be very good!). I would recommend checking those out, but you would definitely have to be willing/able to relocate to any school that would accept you.

In regards to work, most DPT students appear not to work, or work very little (10-15 hours a week). Programs are rigorous, but seem less crazy than med school (there are lots of threads discussing this!). For taking prereqs, this will definitely depend on how much studying you need. I've been going to school full time and working part-time and it's totally doable for me personally (albeit stressful at times). I typically work about 16-20 hours a week, so enough to help out, but definitely not enough to subsist on.

 

[DesertPT]

• Due to my age and not having the opportunity and foresight to get a STEM degree in my youth, is going down this path a bad idea? I’ll probably be in my mid 30s when graduating (IF I am able to succeed in the first place). How will the job market even look like at that point? How disadvantaged will I be? I mean there are already DPTs at my current age and they are starting their careers and lives!

Age is a non-issue. At least 1/4th of my program is >28. Schools do not look at age as an admission criteria.
The field that you're bachelor's degree is in is also a non-issue. Schools could literally not care less about what field you bachelor's degree was in. You GPA is the issue. Getting a GPA from 2.4 to >3.0 when you already have >120 credits weighing in to that average is a large mountain to climb.

As for job market, as long as you are happy to work with old people and sick people you shouldn't have any significant difficulty finding employment as a PT in the foreseeable future.
Once again, your age should not be a big issue in terms of finding a job. If I was a hiring manager I'd love to hire someone that had some years of maturity and life experience and a background in business. And there are a small percentage of patients that will take you more seriously sometimes when you don't look like to might have just graduated high school.

• The competition looks to be insane to get into PT programs right? I was pretty taken aback at the acceptance rates and such. If I cannot get into a school, what the heck will I do? I wont be young enough to pivot into something else. One thing I haven’t seen on here – are there people who never got into PT programs? Or everyone eventually gets in somewhere?

You are correct that the competition to get into PT school is intense, especially at the less expensive programs. If you sink a lot of time and resources into taking pre-reqs and improving your GPA and cannot get into a school you want to go to initially, you will likely have to settle for a highly over-priced private school that will take a lot more people off the wait-list as people get better offers. It may take more than one cycle of applying.

You will also need to research schools very extensively to develop a list of 7 or 8 programs to apply to that will be most likely to accept you based on your particular application package. Talking to admissions offices on the phone or in person is the best way to get more information beyond what they are looking for on their websites. As an applicant with weak stats, targeting your applications to schools that will more likely take you is a more cost-effective and successful approach than just blasting your application to 30 schools at random and hoping for the best (that approach gets very expensive very quickly). If you apply to 7 or 8 well-targeted schools for 2 cycles and still don't get in anywhere, it probably isn't going to happen. But most people who are above the minimum requirements do eventually get in somewhere, but you will have to be willing to relocate just about anywhere in the country to truly conduct a thorough search.

Getting into PT school as a weak applicant is a huge undertaking to say the least. @starrsgirl is the resident expert on the topic and has written many thorough posts about it if you search the forum for them. I've written a few on related topics as well that were probably longer than they should have been. 🙂 Lots of good reading on here if you put in the time.

• Even if I make it happen and get into a PT school, how do grad students even make money and pay for rent, food, etc? The rigors of PT school is almost like medical school. I mean we are talking anatomy classes and such that is like medical school. That requires a lot of studying. If I go downt the path of going back to school for pre reqs, I don’t think I can be able to work and go to school. The GPA requirements will probably force me to study all day every day. No time for jobs etc. That means probably no savings etc.

Unless you have a significant source of external funding, which sounds unlikely, you will incur large if not monumental student debt in the process of becoming a PT. That's just the nature of the educational world we live in in the US today, particularly with the long path that lay ahead of you. Getting your GPA to where it needs to be and getting the necessary stats will require being a straight A student in all of your pre-reqs and a very strong GRE score. Doing this without taking 10 years will probably require going back to college full-time. Assuming you can get your cGPA to >3.0 mathematically, a 4.0 pre-req GPA and a GRE score that is 75th percentile or above will likely convince an admissions committee that you are not the student you were in undergrad and can handle the intensity of PT school. Combining strong numbers with diverse observation hours and strong letters of recommendation will also be key.

Once again, there are many, many, many threads on this forum about how to get into PT school with a bad GPA. Read up and best of luck.

And as others have said, if this is the field you truly see yourself working in, PTA might be a more realistic option unless you really want to be in school (and in student debt) for the long haul. Depends on your career goals and personality, among other things, but it's an option to consider. Can't speak for the job market or anything else really regarding PTA, and we don't have many PTA's on here. Facebook has several great PT/A groups that are worth a try for more info.

 

[brooklynyc]

I worked in finance until 28 and graduated with an econ degree. I quit my job to take pre-reqs full time and started school in summer 2015, class of 2018. I had about a 2.5 GPA as an undergrad. I was able to get a 3.5 for my science pre-reqs as a post-bacc student.

It is possible to do but you have to want it.