DPT Student to Med School: Looking for Advice on Weaknesses

[bren58]

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Hello,

I am following up on a post I made about a year ago. Currently, I am in my last semester of my DPT program and I will graduate in May. I am planning to finish my remaining pre-reqs and apply to medical school in May of 2028. I just wanted to get some advice on my current and planned activities to identify and weaknesses in my future application. I am a current WI resident.

GPA (Small liberal arts university)
Undergraduate GPA: 3.85
PT GPA: 3.97

Paid clinical experience:
1. Inpatient Rehab Aide (8/25- current) 150 hours
2. Sports Medicine Assistant (Assisting AT staff at my university) (7/2024-10/2024) 100 hours

Unpaid clinical/ clinical volunteering:
1. Inpatient facility hospice volunteer (3/2025-current) 120 hours
2. PT Clinical rotation #1 Outpatient orthopedics (6 weeks FT)
3. PT rotation #2 Inpatient Rehab (8 weeks FT)
4. Current PT rotation: Outpatient Cancer rehab (8 weeks FT)
5. Upcoming rotation: Outpatient Cancer rehab (8 weeks FT) - This is at Froedtert, which is associated with MCW
6. Planning to work as PT on the weekends in acute care or inpatient rehab for 2-3 years while preparing application and taking pre reqs

Non-clinical volunteering:
1. Big Brothers Big Sisters of MKE mentor: (2/2025-current) 50 hours
2. Freelance companion to an adult with down syndrome (1/2025-current) 75 hours

Leadership:
1. Founder and lead tutor of cadaver lab tutoring for 1st year PT students. (I did this as a 3rd year PT student, recruited a second year to help and carry on with the program. (8-12/2025) 75 hours
2. Volunteer assistant high school football coach (position coach) (5/2021-8/2021) 100 hours

Shadowing:
1. 11 hours surgical oncology
2. 2 hours Internal medicine
3. Planned surgery observations on my rotations (Does this count as shadowing?)

Research:
1. 1 poster presentation at WI PT conference (Dynamometry validation study)
2. Presenting the above poster at national PT conference in May (should be publishable- 2nd author)
3. Potential poster presentation on educational based research about the cadaver tutoring I started
4. I applied for a summer research program at MCW for this summer

Misc:
1. NCAA D3 Football player (8/2020-5/2021) 500 hours - Would this be beneficial to include if I only played 1 year (freshman year)? I "retired" due to injury concerns
2. Line cook 800 hours
3. Freelance undergrad anatomy/physiology tutor (1/2021-5/2021) 100 hours
4. Hobbies: powerlifting, reading, cooking

I know I need more shadowing, but that should come easy as a physical therapist, so I will continue to add to that. My target schools are MCW and UW-Madison, as I want to serve Wisconsin. Just looking for any advice on what I should try to strengthen. Thanks!

 

[RockClimberMed]

You cant list hours spent as part of a course as unpaid clinical volunteering i.e 2-5 on your Unpaid clinical/ clinical volunteering list. Youll need more clinical experience, shadowing and preferably volunteering in medicine not therapy settings.

I dont really see anything that shows you understand what being a physician means or why youre interested in being one aside from 13 hours of shadowing.

 

[bren58]

You cant list hours spent as part of a course as unpaid clinical volunteering i.e 2-5 on your Unpaid clinical/ clinical volunteering list. Youll need more clinical experience, shadowing and preferably volunteering in medicine not therapy settings.

I dont really see anything that shows you understand what being a physician means or why youre interested in being one aside from 13 hours of shadowing.

That is fine that I cannot put my clinicals as experiences on my application, but I will use the experiences in them in my essays. My clinicals are where I first started to feel the limitations of PT, which guided me towards my path to medicine (I explain this more in my previous post).

I mentioned I would work as a PT in a hospital setting in the post for 2-3 years. I also will continue my hospice volunteering throughout this time.

What clinical experiences would you recommend I add alongside working as a physical therapist and my hospice volunteering?

As far as why I am interested in medicine, this would be explained in my essays through my experiences as a physical therapist/ SPT (working closely with physicians, feeling limited by scope/ education, only being able to address physical impairments).

 

[AJ25]

Stick to DPT dude. It's a great career that a lot of people are trying to pursue right now.

I concur with the person above that, based on what you listed above, you don't know what this path is REALLY all about...and it would be a waste of your time to put in the time to figure that out.

 

[Dral]

I would be intentional with your shadowing. I would say to get a good number of hours of primary care and maybe pepper in a few hours of other specialties as well.

Your main job is to convince adcoms you're running to medicine instead of running away from physical therapy.

 

[bren58]

You cant list hours spent as part of a course as unpaid clinical volunteering i.e 2-5 on your Unpaid clinical/ clinical volunteering list. Youll need more clinical experience, shadowing and preferably volunteering in medicine not therapy settings.

I dont really see anything that shows you understand what being a physician means or why youre interested in being one aside from 13 hours of shadowing.

I would be intentional with your shadowing. I would say to get a good number of hours of primary care and maybe pepper in a few hours of other specialties as well.

Your main job is to convince adcoms you're running to medicine instead of running away from physical therapy.

Thank you for the help!

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Repeating what has been said already:
1) You can't double-dip with your clinical hours from your DPT training.
2) I'd take some time working as a DPT first. Give the career a chance and pay off some of that debt.
3) You can talk about being a varsity player for just 1 year due to injury. Figure out how you intend to discuss it: in secondary essays or your primary essay?
4) You should do more shadowing, especially in areas that don't require PT, though you can include some that do. Make a clear pivot, or determine the value of the years you have already spent. In what ways will this add value to you as a doctor?

Everybody craves becoming an orthopedist, and I'm sure you have, or will, work with many who come to you for rehab. There is also pain med and rehab (PM&R) where your training may be valuable. Then there are children, veterans, and the physically disabled.

 

[analysis]

Hello,

I am following up on a post I made about a year ago. Currently, I am in my last semester of my DPT program and I will graduate in May. I am planning to finish my remaining pre-reqs and apply to medical school in May of 2028. I just wanted to get some advice on my current and planned activities to identify and weaknesses in my future application. I am a current WI resident.

GPA (Small liberal arts university)
Undergraduate GPA: 3.85
PT GPA: 3.97

Paid clinical experience:
1. Inpatient Rehab Aide (8/25- current) 150 hours
2. Sports Medicine Assistant (Assisting AT staff at my university) (7/2024-10/2024) 100 hours

Unpaid clinical/ clinical volunteering:
1. Inpatient facility hospice volunteer (3/2025-current) 120 hours
2. PT Clinical rotation #1 Outpatient orthopedics (6 weeks FT)
3. PT rotation #2 Inpatient Rehab (8 weeks FT)
4. Current PT rotation: Outpatient Cancer rehab (8 weeks FT)
5. Upcoming rotation: Outpatient Cancer rehab (8 weeks FT) - This is at Froedtert, which is associated with MCW
6. Planning to work as PT on the weekends in acute care or inpatient rehab for 2-3 years while preparing application and taking pre reqs

Non-clinical volunteering:
1. Big Brothers Big Sisters of MKE mentor: (2/2025-current) 50 hours
2. Freelance companion to an adult with down syndrome (1/2025-current) 75 hours

Leadership:
1. Founder and lead tutor of cadaver lab tutoring for 1st year PT students. (I did this as a 3rd year PT student, recruited a second year to help and carry on with the program. (8-12/2025) 75 hours
2. Volunteer assistant high school football coach (position coach) (5/2021-8/2021) 100 hours

Shadowing:
1. 11 hours surgical oncology
2. 2 hours Internal medicine
3. Planned surgery observations on my rotations (Does this count as shadowing?)

Research:
1. 1 poster presentation at WI PT conference (Dynamometry validation study)
2. Presenting the above poster at national PT conference in May (should be publishable- 2nd author)
3. Potential poster presentation on educational based research about the cadaver tutoring I started
4. I applied for a summer research program at MCW for this summer

Misc:
1. NCAA D3 Football player (8/2020-5/2021) 500 hours - Would this be beneficial to include if I only played 1 year (freshman year)? I "retired" due to injury concerns
2. Line cook 800 hours
3. Freelance undergrad anatomy/physiology tutor (1/2021-5/2021) 100 hours
4. Hobbies: powerlifting, reading, cooking

I know I need more shadowing, but that should come easy as a physical therapist, so I will continue to add to that. My target schools are MCW and UW-Madison, as I want to serve Wisconsin. Just looking for any advice on what I should try to strengthen. Thanks!

Hey bren58, your profile is already very competitive for MCW/UW-Madison – stellar GPAs, diverse clinical hours (Froedtert rotations are a big win), strong volunteering, leadership via cadaver tutoring, and decent research posters. Shadowing remains the weakest spot (target 50+ physician hours across specialties) and a bit more research wouldn't hurt.
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overall your profile is very strong. your GPA, clinical experience, volunteering, and leadership all look solid. more shadowing will help, and maybe try to get some clinical exposure specifically in medicine rather than PT to show commitment to becoming a physician. research is a bonus but not mandatory