New with questions

[coues]

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I graduated a year ago with a BS in Biology, minor in Chemistry and have now decided to do a career change into PT. I had a Cumulative 3.1 GPA. I have a few questions regarding ptcas. Sorry if these questions are dumb, i'm pretty new to this thing. thanks

1. Who do the recommendation letters need/or should be from?

2. Each school looks at what gpa? Cumulative and prereq? If they go by prereq then my prereq gpa will be higher 3.4 3.5 because of english and math classes. Why are prereqs so different school to school?

3. Are there classes some schools require but you have not done? If so, do they substitute a related class or are they strict on requiring all prereqs.

4. What month do the programs start? July?

5. How expensive is applying to each schools? Do you have to pay much through ptcas?

I have a specific school I would like to get into but they have 13 credits of prereqs that I have not completed: Anat and Phys 2, 2 Psychology classes, and exercise physiology.

I have zero shadowing hours but do have 300 hours or so of volunteering at a hospital, goodwill and retirement communities. I could complete 40 hours in the next month if needed.

I have not taken the GRE.

Is it worth my time applying this cycle or should i complete my prereqs and take the GRE and apply next year?

 

[ptootles]

I graduated a year ago with a BS in Biology, minor in Chemistry and have now decided to do a career change into PT. I had a Cumulative 3.1 GPA. I have a few questions regarding ptcas.

1. Who do the recommendation letters need/or should be from?

2. Each school looks at what gpa? Cumulative and prereq? If they go by prereq then my prereq gpa will be higher 3.4 3.5 because of english and math classes. Why are prereqs so different school to school?

3. Are there classes some schools require but you have not done? If so, do they substitute a related class or are they strict on requiring all prereqs.

4. What month do the programs start? July?

I have a specific school I would like to get into but they have 13 credits of prereqs that I have not completed: Anat and Phys 2, 2 Psychology classes, and exercise physiology.

I have zero shadowing hours but do have 300 hours or so of volunteering at a hospital, goodwill and retirement communities. I could complete 40 hours in the next month if needed.

I have not taken the GRE.

Is it worth my time applying this cycle or should i complete my prereqs and take the GRE and apply next year?

I will take a shot at these - I'm sure there are more experienced people who can add to this and even clarify futher. My answers after each of your questions:

1. Who do the recommendation letters need/or should be from?
Each school specifies where/who the letters should come from. Most require a LOR from a PT and a professor but each schools' requirements will be listed on the PTCAS website.

2. Each school looks at what gpa? Cumulative and prereq? If they go by prereq then my prereq gpa will be higher 3.4 3.5 because of english and math classes. Why are prereqs so different school to school?
I cannot answer this one because I am not sure anyone knows what criteria the schools use in reviewing GPA's or why the pre-req classes may vary. I am sure they consider both but cannot say which (if either) receives any weighting.

3. Are there classes some schools require but you have not done? If so, do they substitute a related class or are they strict on requiring all prereqs.
I don't have any experience with this because I knew, by reviewing each schools' pre-reqs, what was needed well ahead of the application cycle.

4. What month do the programs start? July?
If you mean, when does the next PTCAS cycle start, yes it will probably be early July.

I have a specific school I would like to get into but they have 13 credits of prereqs that I have not completed: Anat and Phys 2, 2 Psychology classes, and exercise physiology.

I have zero shadowing hours but do have 300 hours or so of volunteering at a hospital, goodwill and retirement communities. I could complete 40 hours in the next month if needed.
Most programs require shadowing/observation specifically in the PT setting - preferably multiple setting to demonstrate a fairly balanced view of PT in the real world. You don't say if your 300 hours are in PT or not -I'm guess 'not'.

I have not taken the GRE.
This is a requirement for virtually all programs and I know the test is changing this coming August and have heard people say try to take it before then (using the older test).

Is it worth my time applying this cycle or should i complete my prereqs and take the GRE and apply next year?
Given that you have your eye on a particular program that you are 13 credits shy of, I would say wait and get those pre-reqs done and try again next year. Also, if your volunteer work is not in PT, that's a double impediment to this year's application. You can still take the GRE (the old one before August or the new one beginning in August) - if you don't do well, you can always take it again next year after doing more preparation.

 

[coues]

thanks for the reply. Anyone else? I'd like to hear a few opinions on this.

 

[markelmarcel]

1. Who do the recommendation letters need/or should be from?
Depending on the school(s) you apply to, the numbers change slightly, but you should plan on obtaining 4 letters-- 2 from professors and 2 from PTs. Most schools require 2 PT and 1 academic, but one of the schools I applied to wanted 1 PT and 2 academic-- so I had 4 total uploaded to PTCAS to cover my bases. 🙂

2. Each school looks at what gpa? Cumulative and prereq? If they go by prereq then my prereq gpa will be higher 3.4 3.5 because of english and math classes. Why are prereqs so different school to school?
PTCAS will give you many GPAs - math GPA, science GPA, math & science GPA, pre-requisite GPA, overall GPA, etc, etc. It's a safe bet to say that the schools will be looking at any and every GPA that PTCAS spits out. In my opinion I really think that the science GPA is the most important because that's where you prove you can handle the "harder" courses.

3. Are there classes some schools require but you have not done? If so, do they substitute a related class or are they strict on requiring all prereqs.
In my experience I know that the substitutes did not work. I needed 2 psychology courses and I had taken general psychology, child development & educational psychology. They would not accept child development or ed psych and I had to take developmental psychology. Interestingly enough, I'm not even going to that school (even though I got accepted)...

Anyway- you really have to research and be annoying-- call/email/contact all the schools you are interested in and drill them about questions no matter how stupid you feel they are. I prefered email communication so that I could then have the proof that I talked to someone and print it out if I needed to. Before I took my prereqs I would send the course descriptions to the schools I wanted to apply to, to make sure that they would count.

4. What month do the programs start? July?
Again, it depends on the program- some start in June, some start in fall and a few start in spring. Research the schools you are interested in! 🙂

5. How expensive is applying to each schools? Do you have to pay much through ptcas?
Applying can be as expensive as you want/need it to be depending on how many programs you decide to apply to. PTCAS also has a fee waiver form that you can fill out if you made under 12,000 in the previous tax year. You just have to send the form with a copy of your filed tax return and then they get back to you on whether you recieved the waiver or not. I did, so I only paid a reduced amount to apply to the three schools I was interested in.

I have a specific school I would like to get into but they have 13 credits of prereqs that I have not completed: Anat and Phys 2, 2 Psychology classes, and exercise physiology.

I have zero shadowing hours but do have 300 hours or so of volunteering at a hospital, goodwill and retirement communities. I could complete 40 hours in the next month if needed.

I have not taken the GRE.

Is it worth my time applying this cycle or should i complete my prereqs and take the GRE and apply next year?

Get the prereqs done, you won't be able to be accepted without them. If you want to apply this coming July, most schools will not accept 13 credits of outstanding prerequisite courses (in generaly it seems that schools they will take at most 2 classes outstanding).

In addition, a lot of schools are requiring the "old" GRE for this upcoming application period, so that means you would have to take the GRE before August, and potentially more than once if you don't get a satisifying score the first time (and you are not able to take it more than once a month.)

So yes, take the year and apply next cycle. 🙂

 

[Svfina]

If you can devote your summer to completing your application you can apply this cycle. Before you take my advice, find out when the application deadline is for the school you are looking into. If the deadline is after you get your grades for the fall semester, you could potentially only have two outstanding prerequisite classes. If the deadline for the school you would like to apply to is early, maybe you should think about applying to some other schools that may not have exercise physiology as a prerequisite (you will need A & P 2 and the 2 psychology classes for almost every other school) or have later deadlines. It all depends on whether you would rather attend this specific school (assuming you are accepted) or would rather begin DPT school a year earlier.

I didn't begin volunteering until the summer (July) before I sent in my application and I was able to get around 150 hours under my belt in 2 and a half months.

You should also begin preparing for the GRE now. Take it once in August and if you need to, take it again in September or October.

Although you could work during the year you apply and save money and get some "real world" experience, why not begin PT school in 1 year instead of 2 if it's possible? That way you have an extra year of being a PT instead of being an aid or some other job you may not truly want.

 

[Litlwarrior08]

You can get a preview to most of your questions and specifics for the various universities (2010 cycle) on line at the PTCAS.org site. You can't apply until July 5th, 2011 for 2012 acceptance. But there is a lot of info to ease some of your stress. Helped me a bit, but still stressed. Universities are in the process of updating their info into the PTCAS program...........if you call and speak with the specific university program they can give you some info / changes pertaining to the 2012 applicants.

 

[Sceneofcrime]

Hey guys, I have quick question about the letter of recommendations... I understand that I should get 1 or 2 from a PT, but I'm not sure about what professor to ask... should they be from a prereq course or just from a class you did well in? I have a few psych classes with A's that I would be really comfortable asking the teacher to write me up a nice LOR but my bio and chem gpa's aren't the hottest. Any advice/suggestions? TY!

 

[Yohan]

Hey guys, I have quick question about the letter of recommendations... I understand that I should get 1 or 2 from a PT, but I'm not sure about what professor to ask... should they be from a prereq course or just from a class you did well in? I have a few psych classes with A's that I would be really comfortable asking the teacher to write me up a nice LOR but my bio and chem gpa's aren't the hottest. Any advice/suggestions? TY!

Here is my opinion, so take it for what it's worth... free 😉

I think you should get an LOR from the person who is going to give you the best/strongest one. With that said I also think it is wise to get it from a professor who has had you as a student for multiple classes (ie. a year or longer) because that will help with the validity of the LOR and make it more impressionable to the reader(s). I also think it would be preferable to get an LOR from a professor in chem, phys, A&P, etc. (but not necessary) because they are usually more difficult classes and commonly considered "weed-out" classes; which I think would only help, not hurt. Basically it all comes down to who you think will most favorably describe your academic ability/potential and personality. If that is your psych prof, then ask him/her.