goldaline.my.dear
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You have a low GPA and you want to be a PT? It’s going to be a long journey but I’ve been there and I can tell you that if you are committed it can be done.
I realized at the end of undergrad that I wanted to be a PT and immediately was terrified. In school I had been living with an embarrassing chronic pain issue that made school incredibly difficult, ultimately leaving me with a GPA that wasn’t very competitive for PT school. I knew I had to put all of my effort in and be nearly perfect if I was going to be admitted to a DPT program. It worked out so here are my tips if your cumulative GPA leaves something to be desired.
My Stats
cGPA out of undergrad: 3.02
cGPA post-grad: 3.85
cGPA with post-bach added: 3.28
pGPA: 3.4-3.6 (depending on the school)
GRE V: 162 Q: 152 W: 4.5
1. Raise your Cumulative GPA
I knew I had to raise my GPA so I took classes at my local community college where I ended up with a 3.85 over 2 years. I also had some prerequisites to finish so this helped me as well. I got all A’s in A&P and Physics excluding 1 B in the final quarter of Physics. Sooooo, unfortunately, a lot of schools will not consider your cumulative GPA with the addition of any classes after you complete your bachelor’s which makes raising your GPA impossible. What you can do almost everywhere is raise your prerequisite GPA which demonstrates mastery of fundamental concepts necessary for pt school. I’m also going to recommend calling programs you are interested in and asking them how you calculate cumulative GPA. This takes a lot of time but if you have a low GPA you have to be particular about where you apply.
Added Tip: If you’re doing post-bach work this is a great time to take those niche/specific classes that prevent lots of possible applicants from applying. Some schools require things like medical terminology, exercise physiology, English composition, specific psychology courses, etc. Taking these classes will help you apply to places that have weeded out a decent number of applicants who never took these courses.
2. Get Experience in the Field
The summer after undergrad I immediately started trying to get a physical therapy aide position to rack up those observation hours. Unfortunately, those jobs aren’t super common due to some insurance regulations put into place a few years back. This meant being really diligent and waiting to get offered a position. In the meantime, I called a bunch of different clinics and started observing in my free time. You want to get hours in as many settings as possible. Having 1000 hours as an aide at 1 clinic will not look as good as having 50 hours each at 6 clinics. You want to get experience in a hospital, skilled nursing facility, and an outpatient clinic for sure. If you can get hours in home health, women’s health, pediatric, wound care, or some other niche setting absolutely go for it. While observing try to remember specific patient interactions that impacted you and try to learn as much as you can about the field. This is a great time to learn about the medical field as a whole and about insurance. When I applied to PT school I had 2000 hours from working as an aide for 2 years and observing in 7 different places.
3. Extracurriculars/Volunteering
In high school, I was really active in my school and did countless after-school activities and volunteer work. While being sick in college this wasn’t really an option for me. In high school, I was in Key Club so after I graduated I reconnected with my local Kiwanis Club and started volunteering with them. Schools want to see that you are different than every other person applying. Just observing for your own benefit is not enough to prove that you are ready to serve your community as a PT. I’d highly recommend picking an organization to volunteer with that says something about you. I want to be a women’s health PT and was planning on volunteering as a coach with Girls on the Run, an organization that promotes empowerment and a healthy lifestyle for young girls through running.
Other activities besides volunteering can say a lot about you too. PT schools receive thousands of applications for only 50-odd spots. My school accepted 6% of applicants. You are trying to paint a picture of who they are admitting to their program. If you don’t have the GPA to snag a spot you have to really flesh out who you are in order to compel a school to accept you.
4. The GRE
You are going to want at least a solid score, if not a higher than average score, to prove that you are ready for PT school. If your GPA isn’t great the GRE is a great place to show that you are smart, capable, and deserving of a spot in a DPT program. I read somewhere in some else’s advice that you need a good GRE because it can get admissions to pause after seeing your low GPA. They’re more willing to look at the rest of your application or even give you an interview. You need to cast doubt in their mind that your application isn’t worth looking at.
I ended up taking a GRE class through Xceptional Prep because I was really serious about getting a good score. They were cheaper than other programs. I spent 4 hours every Sunday for 8 (or 6????) weeks practicing my GRE skills. I also studied throughout the week. Ultimately this class didn’t seem to help me. They give you a practice version of the GRE before you take the class and after to compare your progress and my score remained EXACTLY the same. And then when I went to take the real GRE my score remained stagnant once again. Maybe I did a bad job studying??? I know some people have a lot of success with GRE prep classes but I didn’t. Possibly due to the fact that I worked 5 days a week, spent 8 hours on Saturday in a condensed physics class, and took the GRE class on Sunday. There just wasn’t much time to study. Luckily my initial score was pretty solid. If this is not the case for you then I am going to recommend you do some pretty serious studying. Also, take the test early enough that you have time to redo it if you need to before applications are due.
5. $$$$
Ok so, unfortunately, I have some bad news for you. PT apps are EXPENSIVE. And if you have a low GPA it’s gonna really hurt because you have to apply to more schools. Expect to spend a couple thousand dollars if not more. I had to pay to send all of my apps through PTCAS, send my GRE scores, fly to interviews, hotels, car rentals, buy a suit, pay to take the GRE, hire a tutor for my essays, and pay for that dumb GRE class. Seriously it adds up. Plan accordingly. Even though I was hardly making anything as an aide I saved as much as I could to enable me to apply to enough schools to give me the best chance of getting accepted.
When Picking your Schools Research Research Research
All of the PT schools have slightly different requirements and expectations which makes applying really difficult. Be diligent in comparing your stats and prerequisites to a schools application. If you do not meet their minimum standards they will throw away your application without a second thought.
Also really consider the spirit of the school and their values. My school does very little research in favor of having professors all continuing to work in the field with patients. Since I am not going into research I value professors that are more current on patient interactions over their time spent doing research. When I went to interviews I also got a strong impression that my school wouldn’t let you fail and that they would help you along the way. Other schools I interviewed at seemed to have a more closed-door policy and seemed less helpful. When you visit the schools you will get a feel for where you fit in best.
Writing the Essays
This is another component of your application that will really make or break you, especially if your GPA is low. Again, knowing this, I went all out to ensure my essays were perfect. I hired a tutor through a service and made sure to ask for their best tutor. I wanted someone who had been to grad school before. I didn't want another student with a bachelors degree bumbling through trying to help me with my apps. Sooooo they gave me the most amazing guy. He had a doctorate in film studies and was a writer by trade. He only did tutoring in between books/screenplays to pay the bills. Either way, he is a brilliant writer and really helped me craft essays that made me stand out. He also helped me figure out how to explain my embarrassing health issue in a way that really showed admissions who I was without totally destroying my privacy/last shreds of dignity. I saw my tutor twice a week for 2 hours each for the first month and then once a week for the next couple of months. It was very expensive and I did get some financial assistance with this. That being said it was worth every penny. I ended up writing 12 essays and I couldn’t have done it without him. If you have the means I would HIGHLY recommend at least hiring a tutor to help you edit your final draft. I really do believe that this made a world of difference for me.
Where to Apply?
If you have a low GPA you are going to need to get creative. You can’t just apply to your local state school and expect the red carpet to get rolled out. This is where you are going to have to decide how badly you want to be a PT.
States like California, Texas, Florida, and New York have a lot of schools to choose from and therefore can accept more students. I am from the PNW and we just don’t have that many schools and the ones that we do have are just ridiculously hard to get into. I have a boyfriend of 5 years who is unable to move with me but with my grades, I knew I would have to apply out of the area if I was going to achieve my dream. Does it suck? YES. But I want to be a PT and he supports my dream.
Make sure to be open to lots of different types of schools in lots of locations. PT school is only 3 years so even if you aren’t in your favorite location you will survive. Start an excel sheet and start recording stats of schools that look promising to you. Consider cost, location, qualities of the program, how heavily they consider other aspects of the application besides grades, if they do interviews, etc. This will be very time consuming. I spent years doing this and it just simply has to be done. Make sure you call promising schools to get an idea of where to apply.
If you have bad grades you are going to want to consider St. Augustine. NO PT SCHOOL IS EASY TO GET INTO. That being said they accept more applicants than any program in the country and tend to consider an applicant more holistically. They have 4 locations accepting 60 students apiece 3 times a year. That’s about 700 students a year. It wasn't the ideal fit for me when I visited but if I hadn’t been offered a spot at my dream school I probably would have gone here. They produce solid PTs despite their cohorts being large. I’ve met more St. Augustine grads than any other school and we don’t even have a location in my region. They all have been top notch.
Lastly, DO apply to your dream school. I did not apply to any schools in the PNW and I regretted it at first after seeing how positively my application was received. (Fortunately, my school is a really wonderful fit so I'm not too bummed). Make sure you pick 1 school that you just love and apply no matter how unlikely it is that you’ll get in.
Unaccredited schools
So I’m going to recommend applying to 1 or more unaccredited schools. They get a bad rap but every school has to get accredited at some point. A fear of mine was that if the school didn’t receive accreditation that I would be out 100 grand and have no degree. That’s not how it works. If your program doesn’t receive accreditation then the APTA will select the courses that prevented the school from passing. Your cohort will have to retake these courses at another program that is partnered with yours before you receive your DPT and you do have to pay to take them. Is this ideal? No. But unaccredited programs are easier to get into and ultimately you will graduate with your DPT. Some of them are really excellent programs so consider this option.
Bonus: What did I say when asked if my grades represent my academic ability on PTCAS?
So this is a question I really grappled with personally. I knew my grades did not represent me but I didn’t want to come off like I didn’t take responsibility for my actions or that I was whining. If you have low grades because you had an adjustment period in college or because you weren’t as mature/ready for college I would advise against writing about it. This is something that commonly happens to people and although I believe you that you have matured since then I just don’t think most PT schools want to hear about it. They can presume from your GPA increasing over time with your post-bach work that you have matured.
IF you have another reason for low grades then I would go ahead and try to write a factual, short, and concise explanation for your grades. I did this with my medical issue in probably 3 sentences. Again you want to make it clear that you take responsibility for what’s happened but you faced adverse circumstances. I would recommend highlighting that you are currently ready for a DPT program for reason x, y, and z. Personally, I noted that I had a 3.85 GPA after college once I got healthy.
HAPPY ENDING
I applied to 11 schools.
I was accepted outright to 5 DPT programs and ultimately was offered admission to my top choice.
Waitlisted at 1 who I declined.
Offered interviews at an additional 2 that I declined.
Denied entrance to 2.
Currently I am waiting on the other 1, one of which is unaccredited and may be slower to respond. Be aware that if a school rejects you, you may never hear from them. I’m not sure how often this is true. I heard it from a PT who had this experience.
I currently attend Rocky Mountain University in Provo, Utah
I realized at the end of undergrad that I wanted to be a PT and immediately was terrified. In school I had been living with an embarrassing chronic pain issue that made school incredibly difficult, ultimately leaving me with a GPA that wasn’t very competitive for PT school. I knew I had to put all of my effort in and be nearly perfect if I was going to be admitted to a DPT program. It worked out so here are my tips if your cumulative GPA leaves something to be desired.
My Stats
cGPA out of undergrad: 3.02
cGPA post-grad: 3.85
cGPA with post-bach added: 3.28
pGPA: 3.4-3.6 (depending on the school)
GRE V: 162 Q: 152 W: 4.5
1. Raise your Cumulative GPA
I knew I had to raise my GPA so I took classes at my local community college where I ended up with a 3.85 over 2 years. I also had some prerequisites to finish so this helped me as well. I got all A’s in A&P and Physics excluding 1 B in the final quarter of Physics. Sooooo, unfortunately, a lot of schools will not consider your cumulative GPA with the addition of any classes after you complete your bachelor’s which makes raising your GPA impossible. What you can do almost everywhere is raise your prerequisite GPA which demonstrates mastery of fundamental concepts necessary for pt school. I’m also going to recommend calling programs you are interested in and asking them how you calculate cumulative GPA. This takes a lot of time but if you have a low GPA you have to be particular about where you apply.
Added Tip: If you’re doing post-bach work this is a great time to take those niche/specific classes that prevent lots of possible applicants from applying. Some schools require things like medical terminology, exercise physiology, English composition, specific psychology courses, etc. Taking these classes will help you apply to places that have weeded out a decent number of applicants who never took these courses.
2. Get Experience in the Field
The summer after undergrad I immediately started trying to get a physical therapy aide position to rack up those observation hours. Unfortunately, those jobs aren’t super common due to some insurance regulations put into place a few years back. This meant being really diligent and waiting to get offered a position. In the meantime, I called a bunch of different clinics and started observing in my free time. You want to get hours in as many settings as possible. Having 1000 hours as an aide at 1 clinic will not look as good as having 50 hours each at 6 clinics. You want to get experience in a hospital, skilled nursing facility, and an outpatient clinic for sure. If you can get hours in home health, women’s health, pediatric, wound care, or some other niche setting absolutely go for it. While observing try to remember specific patient interactions that impacted you and try to learn as much as you can about the field. This is a great time to learn about the medical field as a whole and about insurance. When I applied to PT school I had 2000 hours from working as an aide for 2 years and observing in 7 different places.
3. Extracurriculars/Volunteering
In high school, I was really active in my school and did countless after-school activities and volunteer work. While being sick in college this wasn’t really an option for me. In high school, I was in Key Club so after I graduated I reconnected with my local Kiwanis Club and started volunteering with them. Schools want to see that you are different than every other person applying. Just observing for your own benefit is not enough to prove that you are ready to serve your community as a PT. I’d highly recommend picking an organization to volunteer with that says something about you. I want to be a women’s health PT and was planning on volunteering as a coach with Girls on the Run, an organization that promotes empowerment and a healthy lifestyle for young girls through running.
Other activities besides volunteering can say a lot about you too. PT schools receive thousands of applications for only 50-odd spots. My school accepted 6% of applicants. You are trying to paint a picture of who they are admitting to their program. If you don’t have the GPA to snag a spot you have to really flesh out who you are in order to compel a school to accept you.
4. The GRE
You are going to want at least a solid score, if not a higher than average score, to prove that you are ready for PT school. If your GPA isn’t great the GRE is a great place to show that you are smart, capable, and deserving of a spot in a DPT program. I read somewhere in some else’s advice that you need a good GRE because it can get admissions to pause after seeing your low GPA. They’re more willing to look at the rest of your application or even give you an interview. You need to cast doubt in their mind that your application isn’t worth looking at.
I ended up taking a GRE class through Xceptional Prep because I was really serious about getting a good score. They were cheaper than other programs. I spent 4 hours every Sunday for 8 (or 6????) weeks practicing my GRE skills. I also studied throughout the week. Ultimately this class didn’t seem to help me. They give you a practice version of the GRE before you take the class and after to compare your progress and my score remained EXACTLY the same. And then when I went to take the real GRE my score remained stagnant once again. Maybe I did a bad job studying??? I know some people have a lot of success with GRE prep classes but I didn’t. Possibly due to the fact that I worked 5 days a week, spent 8 hours on Saturday in a condensed physics class, and took the GRE class on Sunday. There just wasn’t much time to study. Luckily my initial score was pretty solid. If this is not the case for you then I am going to recommend you do some pretty serious studying. Also, take the test early enough that you have time to redo it if you need to before applications are due.
5. $$$$
Ok so, unfortunately, I have some bad news for you. PT apps are EXPENSIVE. And if you have a low GPA it’s gonna really hurt because you have to apply to more schools. Expect to spend a couple thousand dollars if not more. I had to pay to send all of my apps through PTCAS, send my GRE scores, fly to interviews, hotels, car rentals, buy a suit, pay to take the GRE, hire a tutor for my essays, and pay for that dumb GRE class. Seriously it adds up. Plan accordingly. Even though I was hardly making anything as an aide I saved as much as I could to enable me to apply to enough schools to give me the best chance of getting accepted.
When Picking your Schools Research Research Research
All of the PT schools have slightly different requirements and expectations which makes applying really difficult. Be diligent in comparing your stats and prerequisites to a schools application. If you do not meet their minimum standards they will throw away your application without a second thought.
Also really consider the spirit of the school and their values. My school does very little research in favor of having professors all continuing to work in the field with patients. Since I am not going into research I value professors that are more current on patient interactions over their time spent doing research. When I went to interviews I also got a strong impression that my school wouldn’t let you fail and that they would help you along the way. Other schools I interviewed at seemed to have a more closed-door policy and seemed less helpful. When you visit the schools you will get a feel for where you fit in best.
Writing the Essays
This is another component of your application that will really make or break you, especially if your GPA is low. Again, knowing this, I went all out to ensure my essays were perfect. I hired a tutor through a service and made sure to ask for their best tutor. I wanted someone who had been to grad school before. I didn't want another student with a bachelors degree bumbling through trying to help me with my apps. Sooooo they gave me the most amazing guy. He had a doctorate in film studies and was a writer by trade. He only did tutoring in between books/screenplays to pay the bills. Either way, he is a brilliant writer and really helped me craft essays that made me stand out. He also helped me figure out how to explain my embarrassing health issue in a way that really showed admissions who I was without totally destroying my privacy/last shreds of dignity. I saw my tutor twice a week for 2 hours each for the first month and then once a week for the next couple of months. It was very expensive and I did get some financial assistance with this. That being said it was worth every penny. I ended up writing 12 essays and I couldn’t have done it without him. If you have the means I would HIGHLY recommend at least hiring a tutor to help you edit your final draft. I really do believe that this made a world of difference for me.
Where to Apply?
If you have a low GPA you are going to need to get creative. You can’t just apply to your local state school and expect the red carpet to get rolled out. This is where you are going to have to decide how badly you want to be a PT.
States like California, Texas, Florida, and New York have a lot of schools to choose from and therefore can accept more students. I am from the PNW and we just don’t have that many schools and the ones that we do have are just ridiculously hard to get into. I have a boyfriend of 5 years who is unable to move with me but with my grades, I knew I would have to apply out of the area if I was going to achieve my dream. Does it suck? YES. But I want to be a PT and he supports my dream.
Make sure to be open to lots of different types of schools in lots of locations. PT school is only 3 years so even if you aren’t in your favorite location you will survive. Start an excel sheet and start recording stats of schools that look promising to you. Consider cost, location, qualities of the program, how heavily they consider other aspects of the application besides grades, if they do interviews, etc. This will be very time consuming. I spent years doing this and it just simply has to be done. Make sure you call promising schools to get an idea of where to apply.
If you have bad grades you are going to want to consider St. Augustine. NO PT SCHOOL IS EASY TO GET INTO. That being said they accept more applicants than any program in the country and tend to consider an applicant more holistically. They have 4 locations accepting 60 students apiece 3 times a year. That’s about 700 students a year. It wasn't the ideal fit for me when I visited but if I hadn’t been offered a spot at my dream school I probably would have gone here. They produce solid PTs despite their cohorts being large. I’ve met more St. Augustine grads than any other school and we don’t even have a location in my region. They all have been top notch.
Lastly, DO apply to your dream school. I did not apply to any schools in the PNW and I regretted it at first after seeing how positively my application was received. (Fortunately, my school is a really wonderful fit so I'm not too bummed). Make sure you pick 1 school that you just love and apply no matter how unlikely it is that you’ll get in.
Unaccredited schools
So I’m going to recommend applying to 1 or more unaccredited schools. They get a bad rap but every school has to get accredited at some point. A fear of mine was that if the school didn’t receive accreditation that I would be out 100 grand and have no degree. That’s not how it works. If your program doesn’t receive accreditation then the APTA will select the courses that prevented the school from passing. Your cohort will have to retake these courses at another program that is partnered with yours before you receive your DPT and you do have to pay to take them. Is this ideal? No. But unaccredited programs are easier to get into and ultimately you will graduate with your DPT. Some of them are really excellent programs so consider this option.
Bonus: What did I say when asked if my grades represent my academic ability on PTCAS?
So this is a question I really grappled with personally. I knew my grades did not represent me but I didn’t want to come off like I didn’t take responsibility for my actions or that I was whining. If you have low grades because you had an adjustment period in college or because you weren’t as mature/ready for college I would advise against writing about it. This is something that commonly happens to people and although I believe you that you have matured since then I just don’t think most PT schools want to hear about it. They can presume from your GPA increasing over time with your post-bach work that you have matured.
IF you have another reason for low grades then I would go ahead and try to write a factual, short, and concise explanation for your grades. I did this with my medical issue in probably 3 sentences. Again you want to make it clear that you take responsibility for what’s happened but you faced adverse circumstances. I would recommend highlighting that you are currently ready for a DPT program for reason x, y, and z. Personally, I noted that I had a 3.85 GPA after college once I got healthy.
HAPPY ENDING
I applied to 11 schools.
I was accepted outright to 5 DPT programs and ultimately was offered admission to my top choice.
Waitlisted at 1 who I declined.
Offered interviews at an additional 2 that I declined.
Denied entrance to 2.
Currently I am waiting on the other 1, one of which is unaccredited and may be slower to respond. Be aware that if a school rejects you, you may never hear from them. I’m not sure how often this is true. I heard it from a PT who had this experience.
I currently attend Rocky Mountain University in Provo, Utah
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