Certifications related to Physical Therapy

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NWH1993

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I am graduating in May and while I have not been accepted to school I am planning on retaking one or more prerequisite classes to improve my GPA. Along with this, I plan to work as a PT Aide as well as gain more hours as a volunteer in different settings. While looking over job descriptions and requirements I see that some certifications are necessary for the clinical setting (I.e. a CPR/AED or BLS). What my question is: are there other professional certifications that can be attained without a DPT or PTA license that are relatable to the field and can improve a graduate school application? I've seen a couple such as FMA/SFMA but am having a hard time finding more information. Thanks in advance!
 
CPR/AED/BLS are just a basic certs you get from a class or two on the weekend. No biggie and not any real impact on your application.

Professional certifications that can be obtained without any sort of licensure generally have marginal impact on application success. This process is highly random, so you never know with certainty. But speaking in generalities, I would say focus your efforts on observing in as wide a variety of settings as possible and getting a 4.0 in your retakes. Some people get a CSCS (one example of a certification of the top of my head), but again not highly likely to impact your chances substantially.

cGPA, pre-req GPA, GRE score and current status of observation hours would be helpful to know.
 
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Thanks for the feedback! As I said, just looking for things to strengthen my portfolio.

As far as grades are concerned...I did not update my coursework on PTCAS (had already been denied from all my schools so I had a period of lost hope) so I cannot give you my GPA as they would calculate it. However, I can give you the numbers as they are on my official transcripts minus my final semester which is still in progress:

core GPA = 3.09
Chem 1: B
Chem 2: B
Bio 1: B+
Bio 2: C
Anat/Phys 1: B
Anat/Phys 2: B
Physics 1: B+
Physics 2: B
Psy 1: B
Psy 2: B
Stats: C
Stats (re-take): A
Other Bio: B+ & B
science GPA = 3.11
pre-req GPA = 3.03
GRE = Verbal: 154 (63%), Quant: 154 (56%), Analyt: 4.0 (56%)
Volunteer/Observation: 44 (inpatient/nursing home), 64 (outpatient)

As I said, these are not PTCAS numbers so they are likely a little lower.
 
So you have been officially rejected from everywhere you applied? ie are you officially taking a year and then reapplying?

Assuming that's the case, we can safely say the fact that you have nary an A in your pre-reqs (other than your one retake) is the primary reason you were not accepted. I would set yourself up a spreadsheet and sit and do the math: calculate the minimum number of retakes with A's you would need to get your pre-req GPA to >3.6 preferably. Alternatively, figure out how many classes you can afford to/have time to/can stand to retake at CC this coming summer/fall and calculate what your GPA would be after retaking the worst of your grades. This all has to be done taking into consideration the policies of the schools you want to apply to of course. I think there are some schools that just do grade replacement for all retakes. You should do your research and look into what other options are out there. There have been quite a few threads here in the pre-PT forum on what to do about bad grades. Do a good search and you will find a lot of good advice.

Your GRE is average, but not bad. If you have time to study enough it would be worth retaking if you could for sure get above a 160 in both V & Q and a 4.5 or greater on the writing. Retaking and getting another average score actually makes things look worse not better in some cases. But an improvement of several points in each category looks good. Some schools allow you to cherry pick the highest score in each category if you have multiple test dates. Most just look into the latest test date. This is something you should look into if you retake. But again this is not a mission critical issue, your grades are the bigger deal.

Lastly, you have a pretty good number of observation hours, but if they are only in two settings I would recommend doing some shadowing in a couple more. Accumulate 30 hours here and 30 hours there in a couple more settings that you have never seen before. Acute care hospital is one that a large number of applicants are lacking because it is by far the hardest observation experience to set up, but it is one that schools often like to see.

Other areas of improvement are essay and LORs. Carefully evaluate your LOR writers and consider if there is any potential problem in this are. It can be hard to know but just do your best to do anything in your power to make this as strong as possible. The essay you have more control over: get some harsh feedback (ie not a family member or friend, someone who won't be afraid to tell you like it is).

There are other minor things your can do to improve your app but the biggies are what matter the most: pre-req GPA, cGPA, GRE, observation hours, LORs, essay/interview score. I would focus on improving these things as much as possible, in roughly that priority order. If you have time to get some kind of certifications or any other "fluff" type things, it can't hurt but won't probably be the highest yield.

Also, target your applications wisely next cycle. This takes extensive research. There are a number of good threads and blog posts on this lurking around the forum. This one comes to mind, and there are a number of other good reads out their on this subject as well: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/my-experience-in-applying-to-dpt-programs.1115591/

I believe @dalingil has a blog post or posts addressing some of these topics as well that may be helpful.
 
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