Questions on Physical Therapy

[Jula]

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Hi I'm a new member here and I was wondering more about Physical Therapy. I am currently a Kinesiology major and minor in Chinese at my school. I am currently on the Pre-pharmacy track but I am thinking of dropping it because of the saturation of Pharmacists and unemployment along with high stress of being one. I have a couple of questions if anyone can help me out.

-I took a Biology course at my school for Biology majors and it is considered the "weeding out class." About 75% failed that class and I came out surviving with a B-. Should i retake the easier Biology for Kinesiology majors or would PT schools be like "Ohh he took the more challenging biology course"?

-Next semester I will be taking Organic Chemistry, will that be a bad idea? I know I'm not doing pre-pharm as of now but I am still kind of curious of O. Chem.

-Will minoring in Chinese put me of a little bit more competition with other applicants along with being in a fraternity and was external v.p. of VSA at my school?

-Is salary you receive as a PT able to pay off the debt? I think my school is about 30k annually so total would be around 90k.

-I heard that physical therapists have to continue their education after school, is that stressful?

Sorry for the long post but I have recently decided to lean more towards physical therapy and I'm new to everything. If you guys can help thank you!

 

[jblil]

I have also been lurking over at the Pre-Pharm & Pharm forums on SDN and the discussions about an oversupply of pharmacists have been enlightening. I hope the same thing doesn't happen to the PT field.

In answer to your questions:
- Biology class: as with many things, this is school-specific so the best thing for you to do would be to call the schools you want to apply to and ask. I know one school I considered specifically said they would not consider advanced Bio classes (I never understood why, but alas I don't make the rules).

- Orgo: take it if you think it will not lower your current GPA.

- Chinese: anything that make you stand out from other applicants -in a good way- is useful.

- Salary: take a look at this thread: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=931151

- Cont. ed.: I don't think it's stressful; that's something I look forward to as we need to keep up with advances in the field.

 

[djb051]

Hi I'm a new member here and I was wondering more about Physical Therapy. I am currently a Kinesiology major and minor in Chinese at my school. I am currently on the Pre-pharmacy track but I am thinking of dropping it because of the saturation of Pharmacists and unemployment along with high stress of being one. I have a couple of questions if anyone can help me out.

-I took a Biology course at my school for Biology majors and it is considered the "weeding out class." About 75% failed that class and I came out surviving with a B-. Should i retake the easier Biology for Kinesiology majors or would PT schools be like "Ohh he took the more challenging biology course"?

-Next semester I will be taking Organic Chemistry, will that be a bad idea? I know I'm not doing pre-pharm as of now but I am still kind of curious of O. Chem.

-Will minoring in Chinese put me of a little bit more competition with other applicants along with being in a fraternity and was external v.p. of VSA at my school?

-Is salary you receive as a PT able to pay off the debt? I think my school is about 30k annually so total would be around 90k.

-I heard that physical therapists have to continue their education after school, is that stressful?

Sorry for the long post but I have recently decided to lean more towards physical therapy and I'm new to everything. If you guys can help thank you!

Every PT program has a list of prerequisites that they require. For BIOL, I usually see BIOL 101 and 102 as a prerequisite requirement. This can vary somewhat from school to school though. So what is important is to take the one that they require. I am not sure if some schools will let you use a different biol course to replace the biol prerequisite that is required, you would have to check with each school that you are interested in.

Most PT programs I think do not require OChem. Some might so again, you may have to check with each school you apply to. Although, most seem to just require general chemistry I and II as a prerequisite. Although, if you take it and do well, that might help to make you look like a stronger applicant. I took Ochem and did well, but it was required for me to take in order to graduate with my BS, but is not a prerequisite for any of the PT programs I will be applying to.

I agree with above, anything extra you can put on your application is a good thing since PT school can be pretty competitive to get into.

I think the starting salary for new dpt graduates is around 55 to 60K on average. Of course that can vary depending on what setting you work in and in what state and type of area you work. With more experience, the national average salary for PTs is about 75K. The cost of tuition + cost of living for many dpt programs can exceed the annual salary so for me personally, if I didn't absolutely love physical therapy, I would not be going this route.

Yes, PTs do have to take continuing education after PT school and have to periodically renew their license. I don't see that as being a stressful thing though. I personally would love to continue to learn new things in the field.