Chemistry major

[dgt329]

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I came into college as a biology major (we have no kinesiology/biomechanics major), but found that chemistry was more fulfilling. So, I decided to double major in biology and chemistry. Honestly, at this point, I'm just keeping the bio major because I'm almost done with it anyways. I really like chem, and plan to spend a lot of time doing chem related activities relative to PT related activities. Of course, I would do PT related activities if I could, but my school just doesn't have the resources. To give you an idea of what it's like, the only relative courses we have are an upper div human physiology (1 quarter), upper div human anatomy (1 quarter), upper div kinesiology (1 quarter, may be discontinued soon), and a lower div exercise science (1 quarter, mostly used by non majors to get their natural science lab core class). There are no exercise science, biomechanics, kinesiology, etc. research labs or cadaver labs. Anyways, here are some stats:

Year- Class of 2017
Major- Chem and Bio
Cum GPA- 3.26
Prereq GPA- ~3.6
GRE- Not taken yet
Observation hours- 40 in a private setting, shooting for 100 in outpatient and 100 in inpatient at a public hospital by the end of summer
Extracurriculars- Founder of our school's pre-PT club, chemistry lab TA, chemistry lab research assistant starting in the fall, likely gonna be a chem tutor (ochem and gen chem), club sports, ACT math/science tutor
Notes- My GPA has been improving every quarter by anywhere from .04 to .10 points, which I plan on keeping up. I still have to take a 3 course physics sequence which should be a definite GPA booster, A&P, and statistics. My low GPA is mostly due to 2 core biology classes that I got a C+ in and a few school-required cores. This was all freshman year, and I'm a much better student now.

As you can probably tell, I love teaching, and will use that to help out my application. My big concern is that I'm unsure of how to relate my work in chemistry to PT and use it to my advantage in the application. Are there any PT students that were chem majors that can offer me some insight (or other pre-PT chem majors)?

 

[Phyline]

I majored in chem. Switched gears and will have worked in immunology research for 3 years post-undergrad. Honestly it shouldn't matter what you majored in if you have the prerequisites and can show that you're passionate about PT. My undergrad didn't even offer anatomy (just a semester of physiology), let alone stuff like biomechanics or exercise science. (I'm looking at you, engineering school...)

 

[dgt329]

Yeah that's kind of what I've gathered from reading around. I'm really not worried about my majors (in fact, I'm glad I'm gonna be able to do both of them), but mainly the things I do outside of the classroom. And wow, you didn't even get anatomy?! Now I feel spoiled haha

 

[Phyline]

Nope, no anatomy! You'd have to cross-register at another school in the city. I'm really annoyed that I have to retake the entire sequence.

 

[starrsgirl]

We didn't gave anatomy or any exercise science classes at my school either. They are primarily a pre med focused school so they don't even touch those. Anyway, don't worry about your major or whether or not it relates to PT. There doesn't have to be an obvious connection. Keep up the good work on your grades and keep working on your observation hours.

 

[DesertPT]

You don't need to take PT "relative" classes (aka relevant classes). You just need to take the required basic science pre-reqs. I worked in cancer research for several years before PT school, and I'm glad I did. People will argue against me on this, but I feel like getting a biology background before PT school was better preparation academically than kinesiology or excercise science would have been.

Being an ATC may make some parts of PT school easier on you, but other than that your ability to succeed in PT school is unlikely to be determined by undergrad major.