Is PT even possible for me at this point?

[Tayb91]

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Hello everyone I am 23 years old and hoping someone could shed some light on my situation.

Had no real direction when I first went into college at a university and took some classes but did not recieve the best grades and left with a lowish gpa. Went to a community college and had no real direction and have about 90 credits from a couple different major pre reqs and have recieved Mostly As and Bs but I don't know what to do now.
I have 4 cs in general ed portion of kinesiology for the CC and am wondering if i should finish up the classes at CC for an associates in science and then transfer back to university to finish a bachelors or if I should transfer back now and take te classes I would be at CC to start raising my gpa back up and re taking those I got Cs in?? But that would mean 60 credits of classes that don't apply to a kinesiology degree would get transferred as well as opposed to finishing lower courses at cc and having only the higher level courses to raise my gpa at the university I am so stressed out and I don't know what to do please help 🙁

 

[davidtheusername]

I know there are schools that only look at your last 60 credits for GPA. You might be best off looking into those schools so your lowish GPA from the early years won't matter. If you search around on here, I'm pretty sure there are posts that list those places.

 

[Tayb91]

Did I really screw myself that bad?:/ I have a 3.2 gpa at my community college, do pt schools look at your gpa at this point in your schooling or do they look at your cumgpa you had when you graduated with your bachelors? I am sort of confused as to how all of this works!!

 

[Tayb91]

Okay question kinda sucks I'll re state it lol
So I left university with subpar gpa
Went to community college wasn't too sure what I wanted and since then have 95 credits of random classes and a 3.2 gpa with no science courses yet
If I apply myself now that I know what I want towards a kinesiology degree at the university I came from and finish with a good gpa is there a possibility I can still get into a physical therapy school?
I have 4 cs on my transcripts from when I didn't know what I wanted and kind of just messed around, but As and Bs for every other class I've ever taken how does that look for my future towards this dream?

 

[starrsgirl]

If you retake all the Cs and get As and do well from here on, you should be fine. Either option sounds like it will work. Buckle down and go for highest grades from here on.

 

[davidtheusername]

3.2 isn't too terrible really especially if you do awesome in the prereqs. Play around on the ptcas directory and see if you can see the normal gpa and gre for the schools you like. Just do well at your prereqs and do well on the GRE and you should be fine.

 

[davidtheusername]

As far as what they look at, what schools focus on specifically varies, but they look at both cumulative GPA and prereq GPA plus GRE. If you look at PTCAS you can see what a lot of schools average for those things.

 

[davidtheusername]

And don't get too freaked if the median GPA at a school is higher than yours. Median is in the middle. The last person into a class off the wait list is still a physical therapist at the end. Plenty of people get in with scores below the average.

 

[dianebiz]

Have you thought about being a physical therapy assistant? They make good money with a lot less schooling.

 

[Tayb91]

Thanks for the replies everyone but after further research and getting my password reset from the help desk at the school, here's how my one year at the university went(much worse than I thought)
2Cs
2C-s
B-
And a math class I failed once and retook and got a crappy D
Now how does it look for me?
Pretty sure the university allows one retake and the higher score is what is calculated for the GPA
I have under a 1.68gpa there when I left,
Say I go back and retake the ones I am able to(not the math class since I totally messed up) and get As in them. How does this look for me? Am I screwed?
I really regret being such a crappy student, and I wish I had seemed out guidance 4 and a half years ago before getting myself into this mess. I didn't apply myself or care about school like I am now.
Yes I have looked into PTA at the community college I am at now, only thing is I am on an excess credit fee and it would be pretty expensive to do that, though slightly cheaper than university but if I have a chance to retake classes and do well from here on out with PT as my goal, I would much rather do that you know?
So much regret in my soul over my whole college career, I feel like I have just pissed it all away

 

[davidtheusername]

I mean it's obvious that this makes it harder for you, but not out of the question. C's in random classes are way less damaging than C's in the major physical therapy prereqs (biology/chemisty/physics/ anatomy and physiology.) You ALWAYS need to retake C's in those. C's in other classes you can just offset by A's in other courses and don't really need to retake. I've seen people dig their way back from some pretty big holes. I mentioned before that some schools only look at your last 60 credits for GPA calculations. That would obviously help you. Even aside from that, if you do great at the GRE, do great at the prereqs, and do great in your other classes you have a real shot. Just apply to lots of schools and stare at the waitlists hopefully like lots of people do. You aren't screwed completely. You just need to show you turned it around. However, if you go into the prereqs and start seeing similar grades to your early ones then you probably want to look into a new plan.

 

[Tayb91]

So I still have a shot??
Well that makes me feel better...
So transferring back that university, rataking pretty much all of those classes(general education courses) to raise my gpa, and do well from here on out and I honestly have a chance?? I thought I'd get told Id have absolutely no shot with what I've done to my college career so far.

 

[Tayb91]

Any one else have any input on wether or not I can still redeem myself?

 

[starrsgirl]

I had a 2.5 cum GPA with quite a few failures scattered in. Retake everything (pre reqs that is. Not other classes), get straight As over the next few years and you def can redeem yourself. You will want to take as many credits as possible. You need to get your cum GPA up to at least a 3.0. Figure out right now how many classes that will take.

 

[Tayb91]

My cumgpa is based on the school I graduate from right? And not every class I've ever taken at different schools? I am sort of confused on this.

 

[Sunshine~Runner]

I'm pretty sure cumGPA is EVERY class ever taken, whether its from the university or CC. Same goes for Pre-req GPA. For example I am taking an Anatomy and a Psychology course this summer at CC and these will calculate into my cumGPA as well as my pre-req GPA from the university I just graduated from.

 

[starrsgirl]

cumGPA is every class taken EVER. All initial attempts and retakes included, any random summer classes....everything.

 

[davidtheusername]

When you send your transcripts to PTCAS they calculate a million different GPA's for you. The ones that matter most are prereq GPA (general bio/general chem/general physics/anatomy and physiology no matter where you took it) and cumulative GPA (which is everything you ever took anywhere.) It also calculates things like math/sci GPA, upper division GPA, post-bachelors GPA, and a bunch of others, most of which schools ignore.

 

[davidtheusername]

To make it even more complicated, some schools calculate your gpa's differently from PTCAS. They might calculate retakes differently for instance. It's simplest just to think of pre req gpa, cum gpa, and GRE as what matters though. If those are good the others should come out good as well. Don't underestimate the importance of the GRE. Rocking the GRE can go a long way to making up for a lower GPA.

 

[Tayb91]

Wow so many gpas to take into consideration lol
Okay so then my best bet would probably just transfer over to my university I didn't do so well in and retake the classes, instead of doing classes for my major at cc and having only the higher up classes to re establish a good GPA at my university.
Can anyone help me out at calculating my overall cumulative gpa?
Would this be the correct formula?
(Amount of Attempted credits*gpa of cc)+ (attempted credits*gpa at university) and divide that by total amount of attempted credits at both schools to get total overallcumgpa? I'm sorry if I seem totally ******ed about this 😛

 

[davidtheusername]

Yes. That would get you your cumulative GPA.

 

[Tayb91]

Oh okay thank you! well that brings me to a 2.8 gpa :/

 

[starrsgirl]

Agree, I think transfer back to the university and work on your major. I would NOT retake any general ed classes....just focus on your major classes and retake any pre req classes.