30 year old trying to get into PT school..

[tgreek2320]

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I've recently made a career change to quit my job and go back to school and take the prerequisites for most PT schools. A few things worry me though. First, my cumulative GPA is not good. I started college in 2004 and got horrible grades in the beginning. Around my junior year I began to take school more serious and got all A's and B's. I graduated in 2009 with a degree that has no relevance to PT (Political Science). In June of 2015, I quit my job to begin taking prerequisite classes required by PT schools. My GPA for the last 60 credit hours is a 3.6, and should stay right around there as I finish the rest of the prerequisite classes. SO..

The reason I am writing on this thread is because I am worried PT schools will not even give me consideration because of my low GPA (my overall at the moment is 2.9, meaning my cumulative is lower). I will be done with all of my prerequisites after the Fall 2017 semester. I'm also curious if PT schools accept applicants with a non science degree but have fulfilled the necessary prerequisite classes.

I'd like to also add that I've been volunteering at PT clinics for observation hours and plan to get at least 150 hours in. Any feedback or info will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

 

[musiciancyclist]

Re: the age question. I'm 30 going on 31 and applied this cycle. I also have an undergraduate degree in nothing related to PT. (Anthropology and Music) I have been accepted to one school and waitlisted another and still waiting to hear back from many more. All the schools I've talked to have been really encouraging about me being an older student. They like that I (and you) will bring a lot of other experience to the table and the commitment you are making going back to school shows them that you will likely be dedicated to it...

p.s. Nice to see another "older" person heading into the field

 

[tgreek2320]

Very encouraging to hear that! Thank you!

 

[steveyk]

I've recently made a career change to quit my job and go back to school and take the prerequisites for most PT schools. A few things worry me though. First, my cumulative GPA is not good. I started college in 2004 and got horrible grades in the beginning. Around my junior year I began to take school more serious and got all A's and B's. I graduated in 2009 with a degree that has no relevance to PT (Political Science). In June of 2015, I quit my job to begin taking prerequisite classes required by PT schools. My GPA for the last 60 credit hours is a 3.6, and should stay right around there as I finish the rest of the prerequisite classes. SO..

The reason I am writing on this thread is because I am worried PT schools will not even give me consideration because of my low GPA (my overall at the moment is 2.9, meaning my cumulative is lower). I will be done with all of my prerequisites after the Fall 2017 semester. I'm also curious if PT schools accept applicants with a non science degree but have fulfilled the necessary prerequisite classes.

I'd like to also add that I've been volunteering at PT clinics for observation hours and plan to get at least 150 hours in. Any feedback or info will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

I'm also a non-trad applicant (mid 20's, pursued a short music career) and I had to go back to school and do the same, so I admire you for doing that. I can assure you with a last 60 credit hour GPA of 3.5 or more, you'll be able to get some interviews. My cGPA may be even lower than yours, but I was able to land some interviews bc of my grade trend. As long as you do well on the GRE's (I'd say score higher than ~155 on both sections and 4.0+ on writing if you are worried about your GPA) and you strategically apply to schools that only see the last 60 hour GPA, you'll have a good shot at it. Oh and also, apply early. Some programs offer interviews for the first X amount of applicants that meet their requirements regardless of how competitive your application is. And don't worry about being a Poli Sci major.

 

[JCdpt]

32yo here in the same boat as all of you. Degree in marketing...9 years of experience in that and needed to get out. took my prerequisite courses and managed to do pretty well with a 4.0 in those. My overall undergrad gpa wasn't great but wasn't terrible either. I think where it made a difference for me was my volunteer hours. I commited to this change and have roughly 550 hours of experience as an aide or volunteer. as of now, i've been accepted to two programs and waiting word on a few others.

it's challenging but possible...i would say do things that help you stand out. at the end of the day, you have more life experience and know what you want. i'd say you're more driven than some - not knocking anyone fresh out of college pursuing this, but in all my interviews, they've mentioned our advantage is in knowing how to talk to people, and manners with patients.

 

[cvc29452]

I was in the same boat a year ago. I quit my job to get the pre-requisites I needed (spanish majors don't take a lot of science classes either), and work as an aide in an outpatient clinic. It was a rough year, but I've gotten into two schools so far and am waiting on the others that don't conduct interviews. My undergraduate GPA was a 2.9, but my last 60 credits is a 4.0, so I made sure to apply to schools that looked at grade trends, like steveyk said. These forums were really helpful to see where other people had gotten accepted with similar stats in the past so I would also spend some time looking through here. Now I can definitively say I'll be starting PT school next year somewhere as a 30 year old--And I, too, like hearing that I won't be the only one! Best of luck to you!

 

[starrsgirl]

Best of luck to you! I'm a non trad DPT student in my second year (almost 35). Do your very best on those pre reqs! I literally told myself there was no other option other than a 4.0 in my pre reqs (my GPA was dismal!!).

I didn't have the option to apply to schools who only look at the last 60 hours (I needed to stay within a small geographic area). So I had to take a ton of classes, pre reqs plus random classes) to get my cum GPA above a 3.0. It took a ton of classes but I did it and then landed some interviews.

 

[JCdpt]

Hands up to the 30+ making changes, over coming challenges and being brave enough to take this on. Cheesy plug - my fiance makes it all possible. Having a support network helps tremendously. Good luck everyone.

 

[scrawnyguy]

Hands up to the 30+ making changes, over coming challenges and being brave enough to take this on. Cheesy plug - my fiance makes it all possible. Having a support network helps tremendously. Good luck everyone.

Ditto! My then fiance, now wife gave me the last little push to leave my last job and head back to school to finish my prereqs. During that time she definitely paid the lion's share of the bills and was always there to calm me down when I was overwhelmed. I couldn't have done it without her.

I think being an older can be an advantage. We don't have as much wiggle room if something goes wrong. If I was 24 with no family and I messed up in school I could probably recover. Now that I'm 34, married, and on the verge of starting a family the stakes are a little higher. Failing is not an option.

 

[PennyP]

I'm in pretty much the same boat as the OP. 32, bachelors in film and didn't do well with the freedom I had as an undergrad (low cGPA) I went on to become a PTA, but that really doesn't seem to get me much in terms of PT school. My pre-req GPA is decent. I had to be choosey about the schools I applied to, but hoping for the best. Best of luck, hopefully there's room for us non-trads in some programs.