A little advice for a first time applicant!

[NWH1993]

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Hey all! I'm a first time PT school applicant and although I've submitted all my apps and heard back from them (all rejected) I would still love to hear some advice or suggestions on what I can improve over the next year.

A little background: I'll graduate in May from Mercer Univ with a BA in History and minor in Biology. My cumulative GPA will end up being between a 3.1-3.2 and my GRE score was a 154-154-4.0. I am not exactly sure what my science GPA is but there is only one class I did not earn a grade of B or higher in (Bio 2, C). For clinical experience I've done about 115 hours in settings like outpatient Ortho, inpatient, and home care.

For now, my plan is to move to ATL and re-take Bio 2 in order to improve my GPA. Also, I'll be trying to get as much experience in as many settings as possible; however, I want to find at least one job/internship/research position that will pay (broke college kid). I considered taking an exercise science class but am not sure how much that will help my GPA or fit into a busy work schedule if I have multiple experiences going at the same time.

I understand that many applicants take two or three cycles to get accepted and the median age of first-year DPT students can be anywhere from 25-26 so I'm not necessarily in a rush but I do know that PT is what I want to do.

Like I said, any advice or suggestions are welcome and appreciated! Good luck to all those applying and those who have been accepted!

 

[Watson27]

In order to improve your application, it's important to know exactly what your prereq GPA and cGPA were at the time you submitted your application.

If you applied through PTCAS, your science-math and prereq GPAs are calculated for you. They can be found under "GPA Calculations" on the "Status" sidebar. Knowing these specific GPAs is important and they are arguably more influential than your cGPA. As far as your prereqs, if you got mostly Bs, retaking one class to replace a C might not be that helpful.

If you are going to retake classes, you need to figure out exactly how many credit hours it will take to raise your GPA. Do not blindly take non-prereqs.

There are a lot of threads on the forum about reapplicants, many of which are success stories!

 

[DesertPT]

There are a lot of threads on the forum about reapplicants, many of which are success stories!

Watson indeed speaks the truth, as usual. OP, I would recommend a thorough search for and study of the numerous past threads on re-applicants and how they can improve their application. Watson27, myself and many other posters have written at length on this topic. There have been a couple of pretty good threads on the subject in just the past week or two.

In your specific case, the fact that your don't know what your pre-req GPA is is a bit concerning and indicates to me that you haven't totally done your homework. You will need to do the math to see what retakes will be necessary to raise your pre-req GPA to a competitive level (probably >3.6 with your cGPA being low). Also realize that the cGPA your university gives you when you graduate is not necessarily the same as the one PTCAS will calculate.

As for clinical experience, I would recommend doing another few dozen observation hours in an additional setting that you have never observed before, when it is convenient for you. Obtaining large numbers of additional observation hours will not increase your chances of acceptance significantly if your grades and other aspects of your application do not improve. If you are going to spend a lot of time with PTs, make it a job as a tech so you are at least getting paid something.

Other outstanding questions, the answers to which will make it more helpful to offer you good advice:
1. What is your pre-req GPA?
2. What is your actual PTCAS cGPA?
3. What were your LORs like? Could they have been stronger?
4. What was your essay like? Did you have qualified people look at it and make sure it was a strong as possible?
5. What settings have you observed specifically?
6. How many schools did you apply to? Which schools? Did you receive any interviews? Have you contacted any of these schools to try to find out why specifically you were rejected or what advice they have to offer you regarding your application?