I am currently a junior in college, and a student-athlete doing gymnastics. We practice year-round and our season spans from January-April. I will graduate on time, and due to COVID I will have one more year of sports eligibility. I am currently a full-ride athlete. Doing 5th year of gymnastics would provide me with the opportunity to get one year of PT school paid for. Is it possible to be a student-athlete while attending grad PT school? Our practice times are the same year round (normally in the afternoon). We compete mostly on the weekends during the spring semester. Do people think it would be possible to be both an athlete and PT student successfully? I want to set myself up for success, but also do not want to pass up the opportunity to have a year of graduate school paid for.
PT school as a Student-Athlete
- Thread starter AG2000
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It would be very difficulty if not impossible. Maybe if a school has a more relaxed schedule, but many schools you are in class all day and then have studying. If it could work with the school schedule it COULD be done, but I really wouldn't recommend it.
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Most of my coworkers did a six year DPT program, meaning their last year of undergrad was their first year of PT school, and many of their classmates were athletes. It can definitely be done, but your coach will have to be understanding and you may have to miss the occasional workout or practice for school unlike in undergrad when your sport might have come first.
I think it would depend on the program - both the actual class schedule as well as how many credits you'd be carrying each semester....the more credits you'd be carrying, the more tight your time will be because of studying and whatnot.
That's a hard choice because PT school can be expensive af, but there's no point in a free year if you fail out / totally trash your GPA.
Also, in my program, if school closed due to snow, our labs would get jammed into what were normally free periods of time, so if it's a bad winter wherever you are, you may have to miss practices if your program is set up similarly. It isn't like undergrad where if school closes, you just don't have class. The class time must be made up which can lead to 12 hour days unexpectedly.
You also may miss out on things like open lab to practice, stuff like that.
It depends on your academic abilities. You will be taking 20-24 units of classes per semester unless you choose an extended PT program.
