Physical therapy/Kinesiology Masters degree

[kurtin2kiter]

So I have a B.S. in Kinesiology and am currently finishing my first year of Grad school in general Kinesiology. After exploring other ideas in Kinesiology, I have decided I want to go to Physical Therapy school. To do this I have to take another Bio, Chem, and Physics class that I did not need in undergrad. I was thinking I should just work full time to save up and take these science class while I apply to PT school. I am going back and forth on whether I should finish another year of my Masters degree when I really want to do PT. Just want some opinions: Will finishing my Masters (just to have the MA after my name) benefit me as a PT? or would saving up money be more important to pay for PT school?

Any thoughts would be great. Thanks!

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[Akiramay]

I say you should save up the money and take the rest of the classes you need. If you know for sure you want to be a PT, then go for it all out.

 

[kurtin2kiter]

thanks, I think that is the direction I'm leaning toward so far...

 

[kcgregor]

I think you should finish the degree before you apply to PT school. You're already half way done. When you finish you can get a better paying job than you can with just a BS in Kinesiology so you will be able to save up more money before you start PT school. Plus I think having the degree will give you an edge over other applicants.

 

[MinnDasota]

I'm curious, prior to your awesome revelation of going into PT (I must say, good choice...no bias here, jk, what were your plans with a masters in kines? What made you go for a masters in the first place? Research focus or just to have a MA? Has there been a difference between your undergrad and grad in kines so far?

I agree with the above poster and I think you should finish your masters. You're already halfway done and I think it will add to the strength of your applications in the future. However, I think the masters will help most if you can explain to schools why you did it.

Once you're done with your masters and if you still have prereqs, observation hours, recommendations to get, then go ahead, save up then. Having a masters is a great accomplishment and a good stepping stone. It may also help after PT school by broadening your scope of practice and expertise beyond PT in the exercise sciences.

 

[MJHUSKERS]

When I talked to multiple PT schools in person or over the phone (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Dakota schools), they told me that having a masters degree will play no advantage to getting into a PT school. They have to compare "apples to apples" so it is fair for everyone. Which I think is stupid, I would take a graduate student over someone fresh out of undergrad.

I say finish your masters degree because like other posters have pointed out, it could be helpful finding jobs within sports related PT. You're half way there, finish it. Although you won't have any advantage when applying to PT school with your higher degree from what I have learned, that could be different for each program.

 

[MinnDasota]

Interesting huskers. I guess I would think someone who has a masters in kinesiology/atc/exercise science would have and up on the next applicant. I would understand if it was a masters in an unrelated field. Did you specifically ask them about certain masters degrees or just masters degrees in general?

 

[MJHUSKERS]

I believe I told them that I wanted to get masters in kinesiology or human performance and then go to PT school. Couple of them thought I was crazy because to them that just ment 2 more years of tuition and 2 less years of a salary. I'm just trying to repeat what U of M, UND, UWL, St. Kates, told me. To be "fair", they have to compare us on an equal playing field (pre-reqs, gpa, gre, etc.). Even if you have an M.D. behind your name, you have no advantage over my BA degree.

 

[callmecrazy]

To be "fair", they have to compare us on an equal playing field (pre-reqs, gpa, gre, etc.). Even if you have an M.D. behind your name, you have no advantage over my BA degree.

PT programs have no obligation to be "fair", whatever a person's definition of "fair" may be. Of course they won't tell you that a master's is going to give you a leg up because they can't make promises, and if you barely squeak by in your grad courses, that doesn't look good either. PT programs want students that are going to excel at the graduate level. If you've already proven that you can, it's going to hard for them to ignore that. In reality, the adcoms aren't aiming to play fair or spare feelings. They want the best students and they can use anything on your application that they want to determine who to accept.

 

[kurtin2kiter]

I'm curious, prior to your awesome revelation of going into PT (I must say, good choice...no bias here, jk, what were your plans with a masters in kines? What made you go for a masters in the first place? Research focus or just to have a MA? Has there been a difference between your undergrad and grad in kines so far?

I agree with the above poster and I think you should finish your masters. You're already halfway done and I think it will add to the strength of your applications in the future. However, I think the masters will help most if you can explain to schools why you did it.

Once you're done with your masters and if you still have prereqs, observation hours, recommendations to get, then go ahead, save up then. Having a masters is a great accomplishment and a good stepping stone. It may also help after PT school by broadening your scope of practice and expertise beyond PT in the exercise sciences.

Honestly, I was not sure what I was going to do with my masters. It was really something to do in the mean time while I figured it out (and yes, just to have the MA). Physical Therapy has always been on the back of my mind (and love the subject of course!) and was actually my original college plan, but I did not go through with it since I would need more pre-req's, hours, money, etc. I finally decided that I need to just go for it since it is what I want.
Grad Kinese is definitely more about research whereas undergrad was more of the fun stuff (anatomy, physiology, biomechanics, etc). I feel like PT will definitely be more of what I like and will lead me to definite career and direction. I am having a hard time motivating myself in the masters program when I don't have a real direction or reason to be doing it except for the "MA" and the fact that I already started it. This is why I'm considering just putting all of my effort into PT; I can always go back to my Masters later if I want to. Looking at the debate (will an MA help me get into PT school or not?) I'm not sure that that would be my reasoning to finish my masters anyway because either way I would like to apply to PT school within the year.

Thanks for all the replies, it is very helpful

 

[MinnDasota]

I can see why adcoms would say not to get your masters because it will make no difference in the end, to start sooner so you can work as a PT sooner, and save money. Also, there is no sense in getting your masters unless you want to do something with it outside of having the MA behind your name. However, because you are already in a masters program, my opinion slightly changes. It may not look so favorable for you (on paper) if the adcoms see that you were in a masters program that you didn't finish. That could send up a yellow flag until you are able to explain in person why you didn't get through your masters. I'm sure there are others on this forum that may have been in the same situation and am curious if it affected them at all.

Huskers, even though those programs told you there is no difference, I bet it will factor in at some point, especially if they're trying to decide between you and someone else with the same stats. Anything that makes you stand out can only help you, right?

 

[vail100]

I am 5 classes away from my MS in Kinesiology and want to apply to a DPT program. I have to take some prerequisites in order to get in now. I'm debating if it's worth finishing now. I was hoping to do cardiac rehab but it looks like in my area it is hard to get a job and in many cases they give the jobs to RN's. What did you decide to do...finish or go back to it later? Thanks!

 

[black]

A masters degree in and of itself may not give you an advantage but it could help the essay, volunteer experience, internships, and other things that play a large part in the application process. My sister was denied into the current program she is in, when she was denied she went for a masters in teaching where she taught learning disabled children in the Bronx. She related the experience to what she wanted to do in her admissions essay and she was admitted.
Moral of the story is that a masters or doctoral degree in and of itself will not give you a better chance of getting in but the experience that comes with those degrees can.

 

[stephilosphy]

Is it matter that only one class got C when I apply the DPT program?

 

[kurtin2kiter]

I am 5 classes away from my MS in Kinesiology and want to apply to a DPT program. I have to take some prerequisites in order to get in now. I'm debating if it's worth finishing now. I was hoping to do cardiac rehab but it looks like in my area it is hard to get a job and in many cases they give the jobs to RN's. What did you decide to do...finish or go back to it later? Thanks!

Hey, that sounds very similar to my situation! I found the same thing with cardiac rehab and didn't know what the master's alone would bring me. I ended up taking a leave of absence from the Master's program (so I can always go back whenever I want!) and I finished up my prerequisites. Part of it was also that if I finished my Master's, some of the prereq's I did have would have expired by the time I applied... did not want to retake Chem, etc. I applied to my first choice (USA) and was accepted to start this January! It all happened much faster than I expected, which is great.

It's definitely tough explaining to people why you would ever stop in the middle of getting your Master's... but for me I think it was definitely the right decision. I don't think it counted against me at all with admissions... if anything, it just showed i had a few extra Kinese classes. Depending on how many/which prereq's you have, maybe you can take one or two while taking the grad classes?

Good luck & let me know what you decide!

 

[Bweiss321]

Hey So I joined this thread to see if anyone has advice they can offer. Any would help. Here's my situation.

I'm 23 years old, and graduated Hofstra U. with a Bachelors in Marketing then later decided to change into physical therapy. Since I was a business major I now need to take all the science pre-reqs. My GPA was a low 2.8 in undergrad since had no real interest so I realize that my sciences need to be high. I started taking pre-reqs at Touro College in NY and am nearly done with the fall semester. Im taking Bio II, Chem I, Physics I, and Pre-Calc right now and should have A's in all of them. The problem is my last final isn't until Jan 15th, 2010! I dont want to apply to schools before I get grades for at least these couple classes.

From the spring-Summer I, I still need A&P I and II, Physics II, Chem II and Statistics. After Spring, only A&P II will need to be done in Summer.


My GRE score is 480 Verbal, and 630 Math with 4.0 Writing.

Basically I'm looking for any information or direction on which schools to apply to given my situation. More importantly is When to apply. I want to get into sports related pt so maybe there are schools better suited for that?

Thanks to whoever can help...

BW