Advice for my case

[Nailey13]

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It seems like these threads have become increasingly popular recently and I'll add my name to the list of people concerned about their chances for DPT admissions.

I'll be applying for the next admissions cycle (class of 2016) and had some questions regarding my situation. I graduated from a small liberal arts college back in 2009 with a 3.82 GPA and a double major in Philosophy and Spanish. (Mistakenly) thinking that grad school was the way to go, I applied to and was accepted to several PhD programs in philosophy and began attending one in the fall of 2009. As I came to understand what (humanities) grad school culture was like I increasingly felt bewildered, frustrated and lost in my specialized seminar-style classes and I began to form an exit plan. I studied for and later successfully passed my personal trainer certification exam (through the NSCA).

Long story short (and I'll try my best to address this in my letter to programs) I left the program with a couple of B+'s, a couple of A-'s, a couple of A's and two incompletes (both of which were in my last quarter of the program and neither of which have been converted to F's since I left the program; I believe they are coded in a unique way that indicates that courses were audited or not taken for credit). I left the program, began working as a trainer and became increasingly interested in corrective exercise.

Beginning in August of this year I started taking the prerequisite courses needed for admission to DPT programs at a local community college (currently ranked in the top 5 in the country). For what it's worth, I have all A's thus far (but with 7 additional courses to go) and a 1400 GRE (720Q, 680V, 5.0 AW) taken in the fall of 2008.

I have several questions: will graduate schools require me to include my graduate GPA in my overall GPA calculation? Will the incompletes/audits be converted to F's? Can I convince DPT programs that my less than ideal performance in grad school (in the humanities) does not reflect negatively on my ability to excel in a science-based professional graduate study? (It is my hope that an explanation of how my graduate coursework was extremely obtuse, arcane and esoteric and not at all relevant to PT-related work can help assuage their concerns). My worry, though, is that programs may look at my success in PT prerequisite courses as paralleling my success in undergraduate philosophy courses; success in the latter led to a failed attempt at a graduate degree - who's to say this won't happen in the case of the former.

From my own perspective I know PT to be the path I should be on. I have been more motivated to do well in my current coursework than in any other venture I've worked toward thus far. The concerns I talk about above constantly worry me and prevent me from truly feeling confident about my chances at competitive PT programs (NAU, Mayo, Army-Baylor).

Any advice and/or insight would be much appreciated.

Nathan

 

[jblil]

It seems like these threads have become increasingly popular recently.

Indeed...

I think the answer is "It depends on the schools you are targeting." Some compute their own flavor of GPAs, others use the PTCAS values, some will weigh the last 60 credits more than others, etc. So it's very hard to give you a firm answer.

A better tack would be to look at the schools you would like to attend, then research their admission policies (you could ask the folks who are at those schools, here on this board), and see if your background would pass muster at those schools. At least you'd have a better idea where you stand.

Somewhat off the subject: what does one do with a PhD in Philosophy, aside from teaching? I am asking, not questioning.

 

[Nailey13]

One teaches with a PhD in Philosophy. I intended to teach and still do like speaking in front of people very much. My last employer allowed me to speak to a very large audience about run training program design (one of my long-term interests) for new/out-of-shape runners and it was a great experience!

I've poured over the admissions websites for the programs I'm most interested in, looking for information about how they compute GPA (most say "all institutions attended"), but short of calling the programs and asking (something I don't quite have the guts to do just yet), I don't know how I would find out for sure. I guess talking to current students is a good idea.

 

[jblil]

I'd send an email to the schools and ask them how they compute GPAs. If they're in PTCAS, then all of your classes are thrown in the mix (undergrad and grad - I also have a MS). And you can use the same email with all the schools, it's a lot more efficient than calling them on the phone. All of the schools I have dealt with have a point person/coordinator whose main job seems to be answering applicants' questions; and I am sure they would have had that question before, and so will have a detailed answer for you.

 

[Badgerpt03]

It seems like these threads have become increasingly popular recently and I'll add my name to the list of people concerned about their chances for DPT admissions.

As jblil said, it does depend on the schools your targeting, but I believe your overall undergraduate performance and great pre-req GPA are much more important to programs. Although your grades weren't ideal in your PhD program, they aren't low B's or C's. I also have an MS (Kinesiology), so I can shed a little light on how schools factor in graduate performance.

1. For PTCAS schools, you will have 9 separate GPA calculations since you attended a graduate program (as opposed to 8). It will be broken down into several undergad GPAs, overall undergrad GPA, graduate GPA, post baccalaureate GPA and total combined GPA. For some schools that only use your last 60 credits as your cumulative GPA, it is literally your last 60 credits of undergrad before graduation. At UW-Madison (where I'll be attending this summer), anything after you graduated is not factored into your cumulative GPA, but can be applied to your pre-req GPA. Again, it all depends on the school's policy. 2. I'm not sure about this, but I would think that since the incomplete classes weren't graded by your institution, they would stay as incomplete (again, I am not sure and would recommend emailing PTCAS). 3. I definitely think you can convince PT programs that you can be successful due to your high undergraduate and pre-req performance. Even though you didn't get straight A's in your graduate work, they weren't awful grades in non-PT related courses. When I asked schools about how much my graduate experience would factor into my chances, they described that it would be considered, but they were most interested in my GRE, pre-req and overall undergraduate performance (and that was with a 3.78 graduate GPA).

I think you have a unique and interesting perspective on why you want to be a physical therapist. Write a great essay describing what led you to make the mature decision to stop your PhD program and what led you to PT, and I think it'll help make you stand out from the crowd. You have a much better perspective than many students coming straight out of undergrad. Everyone makes mistakes, and you can feel fortunate that you realized the PhD route wasn't your calling before you got further along.

I had less than ideal undergrad GPA (3.31), but I went back after grad school and boosted my pre-req GPA and gained useful working experience in the field. I would recommend making sure that you have excellent observation/and or working experience in the PT field as well. That's my best advice I can offer. Feel free to PM me with any questions!

 

[Nailey13]

Thank you for taking the time to write me that reply, Badger; I really appreciate your insight. After looking at my graduate transcript again, my overall GPA of 3.617 doesn't look all that bad and even if factored into my overall GPA, won't significantly lower it (especially with what I hope will be continued academic success in my pre-reqs). The one thing (fully within my control) to address then is the path I've taken from undergrad to grad school to physical therapy and my reasons at each stage. I hope I can convince the grad programs that I like to give me a chance.