Non-Trad Applicant - Do DPT schools prefer classes taken at a 4-year college vs a community college?

[bmichare]

Hi All,

I graduated with a finance degree back in 2019 and am looking to do a career change into physical therapy instead. During undergrad, I took very few science courses and have most of my pre-requisite classes outstanding. I've seen in some older threads that schools seem to not discriminate against classes taken at community colleges but couldn't find any more recent discussions. Considering that I still have ~50 credits worth of prereqs, do you think taking classes at a community college rather than a 4-year school would significantly impact my chances of getting accepted?

My undergraduate cGPA was only 3.37 so I'm concerned that I may need to prove to admissions that I can perform well at a 4-year school as well. Any and all advice is appreciated!

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[JMarcusDPT]

Hi All,

I graduated with a finance degree back in 2019 and am looking to do a career change into physical therapy instead. During undergrad, I took very few science courses and have most of my pre-requisite classes outstanding. I've seen in some older threads that schools seem to not discriminate against classes taken at community colleges but couldn't find any more recent discussions. Considering that I still have ~50 credits worth of prereqs, do you think taking classes at a community college rather than a 4-year school would significantly impact my chances of getting accepted?

My undergraduate cGPA was only 3.37 so I'm concerned that I may need to prove to admissions that I can perform well at a 4-year school as well. Any and all advice is appreciated!

Most people do fine taking pre-reqs at community colleges, however, check with the schools you want to apply to because some won't count pre-reqs unless they are from 4-year colleges. For this reason, I took mine at a local 4-year state school that was fairly inexpensive.

 

[zwdpt101]

Hi All,

I graduated with a finance degree back in 2019 and am looking to do a career change into physical therapy instead. During undergrad, I took very few science courses and have most of my pre-requisite classes outstanding. I've seen in some older threads that schools seem to not discriminate against classes taken at community colleges but couldn't find any more recent discussions. Considering that I still have ~50 credits worth of prereqs, do you think taking classes at a community college rather than a 4-year school would significantly impact my chances of getting accepted?

My undergraduate cGPA was only 3.37 so I'm concerned that I may need to prove to admissions that I can perform well at a 4-year school as well. Any and all advice is appreciated!

I am a career change applicant as well and I took most of my pre-reqs at a community college and I had zero issues. I would check with each school’s specifications just to be sure, but all the schools I applied to accepted courses taken at either community college or 4-year institution. I got into my top choice as well so I don’t believe it affects your chances of getting accepted, but again it can depend on the school. Good luck!

 

[kdubz7w7]

Hi All,

I graduated with a finance degree back in 2019 and am looking to do a career change into physical therapy instead. During undergrad, I took very few science courses and have most of my pre-requisite classes outstanding. I've seen in some older threads that schools seem to not discriminate against classes taken at community colleges but couldn't find any more recent discussions. Considering that I still have ~50 credits worth of prereqs, do you think taking classes at a community college rather than a 4-year school would significantly impact my chances of getting accepted?

My undergraduate cGPA was only 3.37 so I'm concerned that I may need to prove to admissions that I can perform well at a 4-year school as well. Any and all advice is appreciated!

I have an associate's degree from a CC so half my credits, including pre-reqs, came from there. I did not have any schools care. Medical schools often won't take CC credits but DPT prgrams almost never care from what I saw, just check before you apply to one. Personally, I would save the money and go to a CC and just not apply to the few programs that are snobby about such things.
Some schools do not allow sciences that are over 10 years old. It sounds like you'd be fine for that but if you took any core sciences when you were a freshman it might be something to keep an eye on depending on when you started college.

 

[On-the-way-to-DPT]

I was also a non-trad student and about 95% of my prereqs were from community college. There was only one class that multiple PT schools specified needed to be from a 4 -year institution but other than that, I had no problems.