Hi- I'm new to this thread and have a question about GPA calculations. I did not do too well in undergrad-- my cum gpa was 3.18. But, I went on to grad school and got a 3.8 for the Master's gpa. Do PT applications take into account the GPA from my master's degree? (Neither degree is in a science field). I will also have a third transcript from my pre-req classes. I'm just wondering if I have a chance of getting in somewhere since my undergraduate GPA is so terrible. Also, I am a non-trad student so I'm not sure how that plays into it as well.
GPA calculation for applications
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You are in a very similar situation as myself, check my recent post in the GRE/GPA sticky thread at the top of the forum. I graduated with a 2.7 in 2009 via a BS in business management. I went on to complete a MBA w/ finance emphasis @ a 3.7 and worked in money markets for a bit. I went back to school in 2012 to complete science prepress in preparation for PT school and have a 3.93 post-bach (54 credits). I'll actually end up with a second bachelors degree in Biology this upcoming May. You'll be fine. Your original undergrad degree was even higher than mine and my overall cumulative is a 3.17 with a 3.8 prereq GPA, 3.93 post bach, 3.69 graduate. I made sure to do as well as I could on the GRE in order to offset my low cumulative. Ended up with a 320 and a 4.5. I'd recommend you do the same. Good luck!
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I'm also a non traditional student. One thing I checked with every program I applied for was the average age of their PT students. That is very telling. For example, I wanted to apply to the Medical University of South Carolina, but their average age is 23.46. Those numbers show they don't take many, if any, non traditional students. I also met with Wheeling Jesuit University's PT Director two years ago. He told me flat out that they did not like non traditional students because we "lack the cognitive abilities of younger students". Of course I thought that was a load of horse$#@% since I work 50-60 hours a week and still have the highest A in all my classes 
. Either that or I'm one of the lucky ones who have escaped the long reach of dementia to this point. I forget what my point was now.... Oh yeah, research each program and definitely look at the average age of a programs students . Judging by what I can see, you'll get in multiple schools.
. Either that or I'm one of the lucky ones who have escaped the long reach of dementia to this point. I forget what my point was now.... Oh yeah, research each program and definitely look at the average age of a programs students . Judging by what I can see, you'll get in multiple schools.- Joined
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I was in your shoes last year. In my experience, schools don't really care that you did a masters degree. But it does factor in to raise your overall GPA which is nice (it's just not given any more "credit" or anything). Hopefully your pre req grades are pretty high too....so your overall GPA will have all 3 of your transcripts factored in. There are a lot of breakdowns the PTCAS GPAs give in addition to overall. There is one for just undergrad and grad....so your schools can see the breakdown in they choose, but again, I didn't see it as a factor either for or against. If your first GPA was from a really long time ago, I think that "helps" in the sense it's more forgivable. For example, I graduated 12 years ago from undegrad....all of my "bad" grades from my frosh and sophomore years are 14-15 years old. So it's reasonable to see that I've changed and my recent grades show it. If I had the same bad grades from 2 years ago, I think that would be a harder sell.
In retrospect, I wish I had looked more closely at the types of students in different programs. I'm an older non traditional student in a very traditional program. I'm one of two older students in the entire class of 50 and the only one with kids. It's a pretty lonely road but, more importantly, the program then gears towards extremely full time, traditional students who eat, sleep and breath it. It's disconcerting to be studying your brains out, every free moment and still realize you are lucky to be putting in even half the hours that the other students are (just pointing out that it would feel more balanced along the bell curve if there was a bigger variety of students. But because everyone's background is so similar and mine is so different it's a big chasm. I don't think they favor non traditionals here either and now I understand why....it's not cognitive ability, it's hours available to keep up, lol)
In retrospect, I wish I had looked more closely at the types of students in different programs. I'm an older non traditional student in a very traditional program. I'm one of two older students in the entire class of 50 and the only one with kids. It's a pretty lonely road but, more importantly, the program then gears towards extremely full time, traditional students who eat, sleep and breath it. It's disconcerting to be studying your brains out, every free moment and still realize you are lucky to be putting in even half the hours that the other students are (just pointing out that it would feel more balanced along the bell curve if there was a bigger variety of students. But because everyone's background is so similar and mine is so different it's a big chasm. I don't think they favor non traditionals here either and now I understand why....it's not cognitive ability, it's hours available to keep up, lol)
lotsofpraying and Starrsgirl, you both make really good points about the age of the average student in various programs. I think this is important and is something that I have not looked into enough. It is actually a bit hard to tell from their websites what kind of students their programs are geared to. I noticed that University of Vermont, several (if not most) NY schools, and several PA schools are all direct admit/ combined BA-DPT programs. I personally am looking at a few schools in TX, South Carolina, and a few in North Carolina predominately. I wonder if there are any programs that are more geared toward non-trads, or at least more interested in them (us) as applicants.
