So close, yet so so far

[preprept]

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Hello all! I am new to the forum, but not new to the PT career area.

I'm very far away from applying to PT school, but am hoping to get some feedback from experienced students.

Just as a backstory:
I've been working at a physical therapy clinic since I was 17 (first working as a receptionist and then working my way up the ladder into a PT tech position). It roughly adds up to around 6 years.
Anyways, the first few years of my college career I blew off school (by not attending or withdrawing or failing) just for a paycheck.
This caused me to have a VERY low GPA of 2.17
Something I am obviously not proud of.
But, either way, I started working harder towards my degree about two years ago. But, my overzelous-ness caused me to fail a few classes just because I took too many at once.
My GPA is 2.51 right now... but I'm still at a 2 year college.

My boyfriend and I just purchased a house around a year ago and I've been working overtime to pay for that. And with that, my school has taken a backseat.
I just started again this semester and have all A's so far.

Should I retake all poor grade classes, or should just focusing on future classes suffice?
I haven't taken any Biology, Chemistry, A&P classes yet and I'm wondering if just getting excellent grades in those courses would make my transcript easy on the eyes? Or with all my withrdawal and F classes be something that would not be looked over?

Thanks for reading. Truly appreciate it. 🙂

 

[GMA2013]

I would take anything you got a F or a W in over. I would do everything in your power to get your cumulative GPA to be at least a 3.0. If you do really well in your pre req classes and are able to get a high pre request gpa you would have a very good chance.

 

[preprept]

Thank you for the tip!

One thing I forgot to mention:
This entire time I've been in college (already four years now) I haven't changed my major from accounting to biology.
And I've taken quite a bit of unnecessary courses for my current field.
Do I still retake the unnecessary courses to improve my GPA or should I only focus on my old necessary poor grades?

Again, thank you. 🙂

 

[nicolej5]

do whatever it takes to raise your gpa to AT LEAST a 2.75. Again, that's at a minimum. Retake any and all f's, d's and c's. If you can't get your gpa to at least a 2.75 (it really needs to be a 3.0 or greater though imo), don't even bother applying to dpt. Sorry to sound harsh, but that's the reality due to the competitiveness. Good luck.

 

[preprept]

Can you bring a GPA up from a 2.5 to a (at least) 3.0 with the remaining courses in a bachelor program? I have yet to even attend a bachelor program and am really kind of getting ahead of myself. I just want to know realistically what my chances are for raising my GPA from now being considered a sophomore to senior year?

 

[pubicsymphysis]

Thank you for the tip!

One thing I forgot to mention:
This entire time I've been in college (already four years now) I haven't changed my major from accounting to biology.
And I've taken quite a bit of unnecessary courses for my current field.
Do I still retake the unnecessary courses to improve my GPA or should I only focus on my old necessary poor grades?

Again, thank you. 🙂

Hi! My story is very similar to yours. I graduated at a 4 year university with a 2.4 as a Fine Art Major. I had about 3 F's and 15 withdrawals.

What I did to improve my GPA
1. Obtained a 3.8 in all my prereqs
2. Retook the courses i received an F.

All the schools that I applied to did not think my withdrawals were a problem in the application process. But in the interview they did ask why I received Fs and 15 withdrawals. Make sure you are able to explain any faults to your GPA.

I really believe with hard work you can bring your GPA back up. I definitely did it from a 2.4 to a 3.1. It took me two years with a total of 75 units. It was a pain but worth it.

I applied to 12 schools - interviewed with 4 schools - and got accepted to all 4 including my #1 school of choice.

This site is awesome. WIthout it, i truly believe i would have been lost. These people are great. Ask question. But don't ask dumb questions lol.

GOOD LUCK!

 

[preprept]

Hi! My story is very similar to yours. I graduated at a 4 year university with a 2.4 as a Fine Art Major. I had about 3 F's and 15 withdrawals.

What I did to improve my GPA
1. Obtained a 3.8 in all my prereqs
2. Retook the courses i received an F.

All the schools that I applied to did not think my withdrawals were a problem in the application process. But in the interview they did ask why I received Fs and 15 withdrawals. Make sure you are able to explain any faults to your GPA.

I really believe with hard work you can bring your GPA back up. I definitely did it from a 2.4 to a 3.1. It took me two years with a total of 75 units. It was a pain but worth it.

I applied to 12 schools - interviewed with 4 schools - and got accepted to all 4 including my #1 school of choice.

This site is awesome. WIthout it, i truly believe i would have been lost. These people are great. Ask question. But don't ask dumb questions lol.

GOOD LUCK!

Wow! Thanks for that info. I thought I might be a lost cause! I'm pretty excited to have found this forum, and though I'm years away from being close to applying to PT school, I'm definitely going to stay involved in this forum.

 

[staxxington]

Focus on re-taking any classes you got Ds or Fs in. Those are killing your GPA. I was able to get into 2 schools with 3 Cs on my record, 2 of which were pre-reqs.

 

[bnwj89]

OP, here's how to calculate GPA:

A=4 pts
B=3 pts
C=2pts
D=1pt
F=0pts

Multiply the final grade by how many credits the class was worth.
Do this for each class, then divide by # of credits you took. This is your GPA.

Do the math yourself on different re-taking scenarios. I had to retake a couple classes, and doing these calculations REALLY helped me figure out my most effective route for increasing my pre-req GPA. Keep in mind that if you retake a class, some schools will only use the higher grade, while other schools will average the two together.

Another helpful hint, is that schools literally do not care at all what your undergrad degree is in...as long as you get the pre-reqs done. If you are a Bio major because you enjoy it, then good. But if you switched to Bio from Accounting because you think it is going to "look better" to admissions committees, you are wrong.

Another thing that I have found is that pre-req GPAs are more important than cumulative GPAs. Also, theres only like 10 or 11 pre-reqs.... so each grade is extremely important. I cant stress enough that you need to make these classes your priority if you want to get in.

Finally, it is important to know that most schools will throw your app in the trash if you have less than a 3.0 cumulative.

Go to www.ptcas.org and go to program directory. From there you can see many details about each program.

 

[okramango]

Thank you for the tip!

One thing I forgot to mention:
This entire time I've been in college (already four years now) I haven't changed my major from accounting to biology.
And I've taken quite a bit of unnecessary courses for my current field.
Do I still retake the unnecessary courses to improve my GPA or should I only focus on my old necessary poor grades?

Again, thank you. 🙂

You need to keep taking courses and getting A's in them until your total GPA is above 3.0, to have a chance at getting into a DPT program. Different people will have different opinions about whether to retake courses or not. In my opinion, it is not worth retaking old courses that have nothing to do with either your current major, PT prerequisites, or science classes in general. However, if you got a low grade in a science class or a class relevant to PT, then I think it could be worth retaking.

I got into PT programs with several F's and more W's than I could count in my undergrad, and I had only retaken one of those courses. However, I managed to get my stats up pretty high by the time I applied, so my schools didn't really care about those old grades. I suggest just keep taking classes, whatever classes they are, to get that GPA above the minimum of 3.0, and to especially get a high prereq GPA.

Also, there seem to be a lot of programs that only consider your last 60 units for your cumulative GPA, so if you start getting high grades now, you still have time to put together a pretty competitive application if you apply to those schools. Good luck!

 

[NewTestament]

I suggest just keep taking classes, whatever classes they are, to get that GPA above the minimum of 3.0, and to especially get a high prereq GPA.
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A 3.0 is a 3.0, no matter how you attain it. If your overall GPA is not 3.0, don't apply to 75% of the schools. If your pre-req GPA is only 3.0, you need to do exceptionally well in your science courses.