My application arrived on December 15. I received an e-mail on 12/23/09 indicating they received my application. They asked me if I would like to submit for May 2010 cycle. I agreed to allow this thinking it may help my chances. I was told in an informational session that they receive the least amount of applicants for May cycle. September is their most competitive.
On 1/5/10, they emailed me again to state they submitted my application for May 2010 and would contact me should they find something missing.
On 1/11/10, they email an interview invitation for either 1/22/10 or 2/12/10. I work full-time, and 1/22/10 is too close for me. So I accepted 2/12/10.
Now I'm trying to make flight/hotel/rental car (I'm 24 which means I have to pay an extra fee to rent a car) arrangements. I'm nervous because I'll be traveling from Louisiana, and I have never traveled on my own like this. I come from a small town. Hehe.
BTW: I applied for San Diego. I wanted to get out of the South.
Hope this helps.
It was a smart choice to switch your application to May 2010 application cycle because it is the least competitive and this year it was apparent. I applied to May 2010 and was accepted
. When i attended the interview there was about 60 or so other applicants there, and I was given the impression that they had a few more still attending later but not nearly the same number that was present at that time. I have applied and interviewed and quite a few other PT departments (8 to be exact, 4 were phone interviews) and it seems to me that this school puts more weight on the interview than the others I have experienced. Temple University actually said that the interview counts for 5% of the total application, of course I did not find that out till after I traveled from WA to PA! I don't want to intimidate anyone with this but rather to give people a heads up so they will prepare beforehand. This forum actually has a WEALTH of info that helped me greatly in preparing. The interviewer actually gave me some informal feedback later on and told me I did very well. So here is my interview breakdown for anyone else who is interested.
Interview
professionalism is desired at this school so start off by dressing well, smiling, and trying to make good eye contact (the obvious stuff). But more than that, one of the interview questions asked was: what does professionalism mean to you? or something along those lines. The interview is done in a group, at mine their was one other applicant, a professor, and another part-time prof. who also was a local practitioner. The interviewers would take turns asking questions, and took turns in addressing myself or the other applicant. Here is a list of both questions asked in my interview, and potential questions asked by USA ad-com I gathered on this forum.
- Why do you want to be a PT?
- Why did you choose to apply to our school?
- What stands out to you about this program over others?
- What did you like most about your observation hours? Least?
- How will you handle the stress/course load of the program?
- Name a time when you failed, how did you handle it?
- Chunky or creamy peanut butter? Haha, they really asked me that!
- what would you bring to a picnic?
- What would I do if someone offered me a copy of an upcoming test?
- what would you do if while attending PT school you caught a friend of yours cheating on an exam?
- How would you feel if Government tried to pass a national anti-smoking law?
- If you wanted to change someones opinion, what would you do?
- What are some things that you have NOT liked in your volunteer/work experience in the PT field?
- What is a time in your life that your integrity was challenged and you had to demonstrate leadership?
- name a time you struggled and what you did to overcome it?
- what was your most challenging course in school and how did you adapt to it?
- Define integrity.
- name a difficult situation and how you handled it
- how do you handle stress and when do you know you are stressed
- do you feel you lead a healthy lifestyle
- what is a time when you changed your priorities/view points about something
- what's your favorite food?
- what was an obstacle in your life and how we overcame it?
- what did we consider leadership and an example?
- then we were given 3 scenarios one of us a had a patient who was a smoker..one was over weight..and one did not do home exercises and we had to reply with how we would approach the patient and help change their bad habits
- finally what is one of our weaknesses?
- Describe a current political issue in healthcare/physical therapy?
- what about physical therapy interests you?
- Do you work better in a group or by yourself and why?
They will probably not ask you these exact questions but you can get from this the type of questions they ask: how you handle stress, ethics, ability to reflect on past experiences and learn from them, some funny/light-hearted questions, stuff on the school, something about if you work well in a group, some questions just to get to know who you are, and why you are interested in PT.
Essay
You are assigned an essay statement or question and given some time to compose a response. You are given about 45 minutes I believe.
My essay question was: what does the phrase "quality of life" mean to you, and how does it relate to healthcare. Other questions that I have gathered from this forum are:
- what is more important to you, the science or the art of physical therapy?
- What have you done to demonstrate your commitment to pursuing a career in PT?
- What is the most important quality for a PT to posses?
- What do you think will be the biggest ethical question you face as a PT over the next decade?
- what will you contribute to your fellow students?
This was the information I used to prepare for my interview, and it helped immensely. I scourged the website to gather it all, and now here it is all nicely bundled for you future USA students. Good luck! and if I see you on campus I will accept a beer for gratuity
