Advice Needed for a Potential DPT applicant

[moniqueb]

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I am 27 year old considering pursuing physical therapy as a career. I graduated with BA in Psychology 5 years ago and went straight into the family business working as marketing, sales and business development professional in the tech industry. On the side, I have been pursuing my passion for health and fitness by becoming a Pilates and group fitness instructor. Recently, I realized I want to do something completely different. Physical Therapy seems to be the perfect combination of everything I love about psychology, Pilates and my knowledge of business. All that is left is that I go back to finish all the science pre-requisites I skipped my first time around. My undergraduate GPA is 3.463. I am still missing bio, chem, physics, and AP and am looking at starting full time at a local community college to finish those courses starting in January. However, I am scared to take the leap considering how competitive it is to get into DPT programs.

Down to my questions:

1.) Does going to community college for pre-requisites hurt my application?
2.) Does my Pilates background help?
3.) What advice would you offer to someone in my situation?

 

[okramango]

1.) Does going to community college for pre-requisites hurt my application?
2.) Does my Pilates background help?
3.) What advice would you offer to someone in my situation?

1. Most PT programs don't care if you take your prereqs at a community college, but a small handful of them do, so you might want to check with programs you are interested in. I took all my prereqs at a CC and was accepted to all the programs I applied to.

2. Your background can provide valuable content for your interviews and essays, but won't necessarily help you get the interview in the first place. Definitely focus on getting high grades in your prereq courses and doing well on the GRE.

3. My advice is to get as close to all A's as you can in your prerequisite courses. Your prereq GPA will probably be the number one thing that programs look at, and you're in a good position right now to make that number really high, since you still have a lot of courses to take.

My PT program has a lot of students who are returning to school after working (including me). Also, I know a few PTs who incorporate pilates into their work. It sounds like you're making a great decision for yourself! Good luck!

 

[moniqueb]

Thank you okramango, your advice and words of encouragement are greatly appreciated! From what I have been hearing, GPA seems to be #1 factor so I guess I just have to work my butt off and get some tutoring since I am pretty sure chem and physics will not be my forte!