Career Changer - what are my chances

[frankla2ga]

Hi all,

I am in my early 30s and trying to change careers from urban planning to physical therapy.

I have a bachelor's and master's degree in urban planning but ultimately found it unfulfilling after working in the field for several years. I have spent the last year taking prerequisites at a community college and volunteering in various settings. Here are my basic stats:

Undergraduate GPA: 3.58 (I did have to retake one course during undergrad and had a few C's my freshman year, but did much better the next 3 years and during grad school)
Prerequisite GPA: 4.0
GRE: 170V, 163Q
Volunteer experience: Nearly 200 hours in a combination of settings including a rehab hospital, outpatient clinic, and skilled nursing facility.
Letters of rec: 1 physical therapist, 2 professors, 1 previous employer/supervisor.
Essay: In the process of writing it, along with the supplemental essays for each school I plan to apply to.

I know the stats are generally good, but I am anxious about the lack of "real" experience as an aide/tech. Outside of the prerequisites, I haven't taken additional courses such as kinesiology, biomechanics, etc. Would you recommend trying to take some of these or is it fine just to have prerequisites? Should I be trying to get additional experience? I'm planning to apply to 8-10 schools this fall (I'm getting old - ain't got time to wait another year, lol). Would appreciate your takes! Thanks!

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[PTstudent8]

You are very competitive. 200hrs is plenty of real experience wheather it's shadowing or working. Don't worry about taking unnecessary classes. I'd say you get into at least half of your picks.

 

[kdubz7w7]

Hi all,

I am in my early 30s and trying to change careers from urban planning to physical therapy.

I have a bachelor's and master's degree in urban planning but ultimately found it unfulfilling after working in the field for several years. I have spent the last year taking prerequisites at a community college and volunteering in various settings. Here are my basic stats:

Undergraduate GPA: 3.58 (I did have to retake one course during undergrad and had a few C's my freshman year, but did much better the next 3 years and during grad school)
Prerequisite GPA: 4.0
GRE: 170V, 163Q
Volunteer experience: Nearly 200 hours in a combination of settings including a rehab hospital, outpatient clinic, and skilled nursing facility.
Letters of rec: 1 physical therapist, 2 professors, 1 previous employer/supervisor.
Essay: In the process of writing it, along with the supplemental essays for each school I plan to apply to.

I know the stats are generally good, but I am anxious about the lack of "real" experience as an aide/tech. Outside of the prerequisites, I haven't taken additional courses such as kinesiology, biomechanics, etc. Would you recommend trying to take some of these or is it fine just to have prerequisites? Should I be trying to get additional experience? I'm planning to apply to 8-10 schools this fall (I'm getting old - ain't got time to wait another year, lol). Would appreciate your takes! Thanks!

You're fine. You don't need to take any more classes. Just put your effort into your essays now.
And I'm 38, was 37 when I started my first year - you're never too old...there are two other students in their early 30s in my cohort

 

[DPTTELl]

Hi all,

I am in my early 30s and trying to change careers from urban planning to physical therapy.

I have a bachelor's and master's degree in urban planning but ultimately found it unfulfilling after working in the field for several years. I have spent the last year taking prerequisites at a community college and volunteering in various settings. Here are my basic stats:

Undergraduate GPA: 3.58 (I did have to retake one course during undergrad and had a few C's my freshman year, but did much better the next 3 years and during grad school)
Prerequisite GPA: 4.0
GRE: 170V, 163Q
Volunteer experience: Nearly 200 hours in a combination of settings including a rehab hospital, outpatient clinic, and skilled nursing facility.
Letters of rec: 1 physical therapist, 2 professors, 1 previous employer/supervisor.
Essay: In the process of writing it, along with the supplemental essays for each school I plan to apply to.

I know the stats are generally good, but I am anxious about the lack of "real" experience as an aide/tech. Outside of the prerequisites, I haven't taken additional courses such as kinesiology, biomechanics, etc. Would you recommend trying to take some of these or is it fine just to have prerequisites? Should I be trying to get additional experience? I'm planning to apply to 8-10 schools this fall (I'm getting old - ain't got time to wait another year, lol). Would appreciate your takes! Thanks!

I am also on my early 30’s decided to switch careers and I will be attending PT school this fall. I had no experience as an aid all my PT related “experience” came from observation hours. My stats were not as good as yours and I was accepted into a couple of schools and placed on several wait lists. I think you’ll be fine.

 

[deleted797640]

Youll be able to get into most any school. Unfortunately PT schools don't require many hours so having even just 200 over qualifies you.

 

[astarblaze]

Hi all,

I am in my early 30s and trying to change careers from urban planning to physical therapy.

I have a bachelor's and master's degree in urban planning but ultimately found it unfulfilling after working in the field for several years. I have spent the last year taking prerequisites at a community college and volunteering in various settings. Here are my basic stats:

Undergraduate GPA: 3.58 (I did have to retake one course during undergrad and had a few C's my freshman year, but did much better the next 3 years and during grad school)
Prerequisite GPA: 4.0
GRE: 170V, 163Q
Volunteer experience: Nearly 200 hours in a combination of settings including a rehab hospital, outpatient clinic, and skilled nursing facility.
Letters of rec: 1 physical therapist, 2 professors, 1 previous employer/supervisor.
Essay: In the process of writing it, along with the supplemental essays for each school I plan to apply to.

I know the stats are generally good, but I am anxious about the lack of "real" experience as an aide/tech. Outside of the prerequisites, I haven't taken additional courses such as kinesiology, biomechanics, etc. Would you recommend trying to take some of these or is it fine just to have prerequisites? Should I be trying to get additional experience? I'm planning to apply to 8-10 schools this fall (I'm getting old - ain't got time to wait another year, lol). Would appreciate your takes! Thanks!

I had very similar stats to you when I applied two years ago. (3.6 cum GPA, 4.0 prereq GPA, 4.0 last 60 GPA, 169 V 169 Q, ~350 observation hours in outpatient, acute, snf, and peds, career changer from nonprofit/tech world, almost no related coursework other than prereqs). I applied to 10 programs and received interviews at every program I applied to, including some pretty competitive state schools. Two programs offered me significant merit-based aid.

Assuming your essays and recs are of similiar quality to your stats, you will be absolutely fine. A tech job is unnecessary. You just need to be able to speak to your observation experiences in your essays and interviews. If you want to take a kinesiology, biomechanics, or additional anatomy class for yourself, go for it, but it’s probably unnecessary for admission purposes, unless the program you’re looking at specifically indicates that they give you additional points for such courses (as with programs like Regis and UCSF). I wish I had taken more anatomy/kinesiology prior to starting my program (because I think I would have gotten more out of our program’s anatomy class if it all wasn’t so new to me), but it certainly didn’t hurt me in the admissions process to not have additional courses under my belt.

Good luck! What programs are you looking at?

 

[frankla2ga]

I had very similar stats to you when I applied two years ago. (3.6 cum GPA, 4.0 prereq GPA, 4.0 last 60 GPA, 169 V 169 Q, ~350 observation hours in outpatient, acute, snf, and peds, career changer from nonprofit/tech world, almost no related coursework other than prereqs). I applied to 10 programs and received interviews at every program I applied to, including some pretty competitive state schools. Two programs offered me significant merit-based aid.

Assuming your essays and recs are of similiar quality to your stats, you will be absolutely fine. A tech job is unnecessary. You just need to be able to speak to your observation experiences in your essays and interviews. If you want to take a kinesiology, biomechanics, or additional anatomy class for yourself, go for it, but it’s probably unnecessary for admission purposes, unless the program you’re looking at specifically indicates that they give you additional points for such courses (as with programs like Regis and UCSF). I wish I had taken more anatomy/kinesiology prior to starting my program (because I think I would have gotten more out of our program’s anatomy class if it all wasn’t so new to me), but it certainly didn’t hurt me in the admissions process to not have additional courses under my belt.

Good luck! What programs are you looking at?

Thanks for the responses! Appreciate the insight. It's good to hear the stories of other nontraditional students.

astarblaze, that's awesome and encouraging. I'm planning to apply to pretty much every school in Georgia along with a few schools in other Southeastern states. For out of state, I'm looking at VCU, Duke and Florida. Those are my reach schools.

 

[One Punch Man]

Seriously with your stats you can get into essentially any DPT program you'd like! You have more than enough hours, as the most any school would require is 100 hours.

By the way, may you provide some insight as to how you scored a perfect verbal score?

 

[Smash Atoms]

Perfect score on the verbal section of the GRE Eh? Not bad at all.

My stats were fairly similar to yours, non trad career change as well. I got interview offers everywhere I applied and ended up landing a spot at my top choice (an absurdly competitive state school in TX).

Write great essays, get great letters, give great interviews and you should be fine.

 

[frankla2ga]

Seriously with your stats you can get into essentially any DPT program you'd like! You have more than enough hours, as the most any school would require is 100 hours.

By the way, may you provide some insight as to how you scored a perfect verbal score?

Lol that's good to hear. And I just want to clarify I'm not posting that to show off, but when I read about people with thousands of hours of experience not getting in I do get anxious!

Regarding the GRE verbal - I used the Kaplan GRE flash cards app, the Manhattan Prep 5 lb. GRE book, and the ETS Official GRE general test book. I honestly just tried to work all the way through both books, being sure to read explanations for questions that I got wrong. I think one of the keys was to just keep touching the material repeatedly on a regular basis. I did have the luxury of time since I'm not taking a crazy prerequisite courseload right now. I'd say I studied seriously for about a month. I also took the GRE 10 years ago for my previous career, so there was some residual knowledge.

 

[frankla2ga]

Perfect score on the verbal section of the GRE Eh? Not bad at all.

My stats were fairly similar to yours, non trad career change as well. I got interview offers everywhere I applied and ended up landing a spot at my top choice (an absurdly competitive state school in TX).

Write great essays, get great letters, give great interviews and you should be fine.

That's awesome, I am crossing my fingers and hope to have a similar outcome!

 

[One Punch Man]

Lol that's good to hear. And I just want to clarify I'm not posting that to show off, but when I read about people with thousands of hours of experience not getting in I do get anxious!

Regarding the GRE verbal - I used the Kaplan GRE flash cards app, the Manhattan Prep 5 lb. GRE book, and the ETS Official GRE general test book. I honestly just tried to work all the way through both books, being sure to read explanations for questions that I got wrong. I think one of the keys was to just keep touching the material repeatedly on a regular basis. I did have the luxury of time since I'm not taking a crazy prerequisite courseload right now. I'd say I studied seriously for about a month. I also took the GRE 10 years ago for my previous career, so there was some residual knowledge.

Don't worry about too much about those who have thousands of volunteer hours. That was likely a paid job as a PT Aide; and admissions likely recognize that not all of us are able to work as a PT Aide either due to monetary reasons or lack of jobs hiring.

Thank you for your insight on the GRE. I'm essentially following the same study plan as you were save for the fact that I'm using Magoosh for relearning math and for mastering common GRE words. Looks like I should be fine when I take it

 

[JMarcusDPT]

I also switched careers (from journalism) before PT school. Your stats look great and as long as you hit the pre-req's, admissions committees won't care that you haven't taken kinesiology or exercise science. However, if you can take a course or two in that, I recommend it because in my first semester of PT school, I felt like my classmates had a leg up on me in those subjects.

 

[frankla2ga]

I also switched careers (from journalism) before PT school. Your stats look great and as long as you hit the pre-req's, admissions committees won't care that you haven't taken kinesiology or exercise science. However, if you can take a course or two in that, I recommend it because in my first semester of PT school, I felt like my classmates had a leg up on me in those subjects.

Good to know, I'll definitely look into that - I might be able to, or at least do some reading on my own.

For those who switched careers, any tips on how to approach essays and interviews? Did you talk much about skills and qualities you developed over your working life that translate to PT? How did you explain your desire to switch to PT? I'm guessing for some of you there were aspects of your old professions that you didn't enjoy, and things about PT you found really appealing.

 

[JMarcusDPT]

Good to know, I'll definitely look into that - I might be able to, or at least do some reading on my own.

For those who switched careers, any tips on how to approach essays and interviews? Did you talk much about skills and qualities you developed over your working life that translate to PT? How did you explain your desire to switch to PT? I'm guessing for some of you there were aspects of your old professions that you didn't enjoy, and things about PT you found really appealing.

I definitely talked about being a journalist in both my essays and interview. I highlighted the aspects of my former career that I knew would make me a good PT/PT student. I didn't mention what I didn't like about journalism, but rather why I wanted to be a PT. I think this helped me stand out as an applicant. Also, different programs place different values on having PT as your second career, and my program had a decent amount of career-swtichers.

 

[frankla2ga]

I definitely talked about being a journalist in both my essays and interview. I highlighted the aspects of my former career that I knew would make me a good PT/PT student. I didn't mention what I didn't like about journalism, but rather why I wanted to be a PT. I think this helped me stand out as an applicant. Also, different programs place different values on having PT as your second career, and my program had a decent amount of career-swtichers.

Appreciate the insight! Will definitely keep that in mind as I'm writing.