Setting sail for a career as a PT

[Celery]

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TL;DR warning. Please read it!

1. I want to the get into the DPT program at Med. Univ. of S. Carolina.

2. I have been in college for the last 3 years (and got an AAS in electronics) but I don't have any of the pre-reqs for DPT. However, I can get a BS of Exercise Science in 2 years from USC. Is this a good BS to get? I chose it for the fact that it contains a lot of physio as well as all the DPT reqs, but I dunno if I'm better off with a bio or chem major.

4. I have around $60k in student loans right now. Any tips or experiences for getting a local clinic or something to foot the bill? Otherwise, I'm looking at $42k for DPT and $24k for the BS. BTW, my mom is a well-respected PT with lots of connections - she's helping me out.

5. Anyone know about Taiwan? I want to study there. Not that important.

6. Is there any way at all to get a BS in less than 2 years? The DPT reqs will only take me about a year and I get impatient.

That's all i got.

Thanks in advance

 

[artizzle]

Exercise science would be the best major because a lot of the prerequisites for the major overlap with PT school. That's a lot of debt. It seems like you are in a hurry to get this done. If you aren't, it might be better to take the prerequisites at a local community college, while getting experience observing, volunteering, or working. You don't actually need a BS in exercise science, you just need the required courses. Also if you take your time with this, you might find out if this is what you really want to pursue instead of jumping into it so quickly.

I am interested to shadow or observe at some clinics in Taiwan and I plan on trying to find some places during my winter or summer break. When I was looking around on google (which you should try searching) I found http://www.pt.ntu.edu.tw/english/ It's NTU's physical therapy school. My Chinese is marginal at best, but I still would like to see how the setting is different from here.