BananaSlug2PT
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- Sep 4, 2018
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I debated whether to post this because I feel like my path is not the norm; but I remember being frantic last year stalking the forums looking for any sliver of hope that there would be a chance I could get into PT school. So while I am not sure if this will have any specific advice that helps anyone, perhaps it will give someone that hope you need to not give up, and to just try.
TLDR: I was accepted into a PT school after my first round of applying so don't give up, hopefully you can too. General tips after my story
I graduated undergrad with a degree in Biology and 2.8 cGPA. I knew this was not reflective of the best of my abilities but I had some big stuff happen while I was in college which resulted in me not doing as well as I had hoped. I spent the next year working at an Out Patient Clinic and taking some pre-req classes that my major did not require but I needed for PT school apps. Also decided to retake the full year of Bio to show that I could do well in the series. While I knew my GPA was horrible, I did not realize how bad a shape I was in when it came time to apply because most schools require above a 3.0 cGPA. I had sort of thought this was a suggestion, and schools would look past this at the other parts of my application, and then consider me. This was definitely not the case, and I when I started looking into schools I wanted to apply to I started freaking out about how I was not even qualified to apply to most schools.
I then went through every single school on the PTCAS website to see which ones I was even qualified to apply for. I think there was only like 15 total that I could even apply to. I put them all into a doc and made notes about all the information I could find on the specific school, application process etc I would also attend all the webinars so I could write down buzzwords they kept emphasizing so I could keep it in mind when writing the individual school supplementals.
I also emailed a lot of questions to ensure that I had everything ready to apply, and that there would be no reason for my application to be automatically thrown out. I went to a quarter system school so some of my labs for science classes were 2 quarters instead of a full year long so I made sure to clarify with almost every school that my pre-requisites would be cleared. I had emailed the head of admissions of School ABC about 3 months before I sent in my application at first just about some general pre-req questions. We then ended up emailing quite a bit, so after some time he knew of my backstory a bit before I even sent in my application. By doing this I also found the opportunity to naturally share my reasons why my cGPA was so low even though I did not have a chance to go that much in depth about it in my PTCAS application itself.
I sent in my application to about 8 schools. At first I was denied from school ABC, but because I had emailed back and forth with the head of admissions, he knew my name and he also knew the backstory of my cGPA. He said he would keep me in mind for the waitlist sort of unofficially. When the deadline passed for students to either accept or deny their offer to school ABC it seemed like they had a full class and would not need to go to the waitlist so my chance of attending that school was over. But then, 6 months later, I received the best news that someone had dropped their acceptance, and a spot suddenly was open if I wanted it. I accepted 2 hours later and am now getting a chance to pursue my dreams of becoming a Physical Therapist.
Just wanted to share that while I know it is hard to get into PT school with a low cGPA, it can be done. It might take a couple tries, and some really hard work, but if it is something you want to do, I really believe it can be done!!
General Tips (based on my experiences and people I have talked to):
-do yourself a favor and try to get your GPA to at least above 3.0 - I know when you have a low cGPA it seems like it'll take forever to raise your GPA, but taking random online community college classes only take a couple hours a week to get an easy A and they will definitely help your cGPA when PTCAS calculates it. You increase the amount of schools you can even apply to AND a lot of schools don't look at your cGPA past seeing that you just meet their minimum requirements
-make sure to do well in pre-req courses. it seems like that is the GPA they care more about. When submitting your application, you choose which specific classes you want to meet each school's pre-requisites so try to find classes in your transcript that qualify and that you did well in. And re-take pre-reqs at community college, or wherever, to ensure you get an A
-do well on the GRE. i feel like if you have a low cGPA the schools want to know you can take a standardized test and not ruin their statistics. Schools have their percentage of students who passed their boards on the first try listed on their websites and don't want that number lowered so I assume that is why they want us to take the GRE in the first place
-a lot of people suggested contacting the schools ahead of time, which I totally agree with, but sometimes it is hard to know what to say. I think it is best to think of genuine things you want to know about the program, or actual questions about your application and sort of go from there. There was this one school I did not get into, that I totally thought I was a match for (i had the same/better pre-req GPA, GRE scores, kind of leadership qualities they asked for). A month of so after the decisions had been sent out, I emailed the director of admissions and listed my stats in comparison to theirs, how parts of my resume fit their mission statements, what were specific reasons I wanted to go to that school. I then said what I planned to do to improve my application before re-applying and asked what she suggested I do in addition in order to better my chances. She replied the next day with a really kind email; she said she went through my application again and was not sure exactly why I was rejected, but gave a couple specific suggestions then said to email her when I reapplied (but I never ended up needing to reapply to PT schools) so she could specifically look for my application.
TLDR: I was accepted into a PT school after my first round of applying so don't give up, hopefully you can too. General tips after my story
I graduated undergrad with a degree in Biology and 2.8 cGPA. I knew this was not reflective of the best of my abilities but I had some big stuff happen while I was in college which resulted in me not doing as well as I had hoped. I spent the next year working at an Out Patient Clinic and taking some pre-req classes that my major did not require but I needed for PT school apps. Also decided to retake the full year of Bio to show that I could do well in the series. While I knew my GPA was horrible, I did not realize how bad a shape I was in when it came time to apply because most schools require above a 3.0 cGPA. I had sort of thought this was a suggestion, and schools would look past this at the other parts of my application, and then consider me. This was definitely not the case, and I when I started looking into schools I wanted to apply to I started freaking out about how I was not even qualified to apply to most schools.
I then went through every single school on the PTCAS website to see which ones I was even qualified to apply for. I think there was only like 15 total that I could even apply to. I put them all into a doc and made notes about all the information I could find on the specific school, application process etc I would also attend all the webinars so I could write down buzzwords they kept emphasizing so I could keep it in mind when writing the individual school supplementals.
I also emailed a lot of questions to ensure that I had everything ready to apply, and that there would be no reason for my application to be automatically thrown out. I went to a quarter system school so some of my labs for science classes were 2 quarters instead of a full year long so I made sure to clarify with almost every school that my pre-requisites would be cleared. I had emailed the head of admissions of School ABC about 3 months before I sent in my application at first just about some general pre-req questions. We then ended up emailing quite a bit, so after some time he knew of my backstory a bit before I even sent in my application. By doing this I also found the opportunity to naturally share my reasons why my cGPA was so low even though I did not have a chance to go that much in depth about it in my PTCAS application itself.
I sent in my application to about 8 schools. At first I was denied from school ABC, but because I had emailed back and forth with the head of admissions, he knew my name and he also knew the backstory of my cGPA. He said he would keep me in mind for the waitlist sort of unofficially. When the deadline passed for students to either accept or deny their offer to school ABC it seemed like they had a full class and would not need to go to the waitlist so my chance of attending that school was over. But then, 6 months later, I received the best news that someone had dropped their acceptance, and a spot suddenly was open if I wanted it. I accepted 2 hours later and am now getting a chance to pursue my dreams of becoming a Physical Therapist.
Just wanted to share that while I know it is hard to get into PT school with a low cGPA, it can be done. It might take a couple tries, and some really hard work, but if it is something you want to do, I really believe it can be done!!
General Tips (based on my experiences and people I have talked to):
-do yourself a favor and try to get your GPA to at least above 3.0 - I know when you have a low cGPA it seems like it'll take forever to raise your GPA, but taking random online community college classes only take a couple hours a week to get an easy A and they will definitely help your cGPA when PTCAS calculates it. You increase the amount of schools you can even apply to AND a lot of schools don't look at your cGPA past seeing that you just meet their minimum requirements
-make sure to do well in pre-req courses. it seems like that is the GPA they care more about. When submitting your application, you choose which specific classes you want to meet each school's pre-requisites so try to find classes in your transcript that qualify and that you did well in. And re-take pre-reqs at community college, or wherever, to ensure you get an A
-do well on the GRE. i feel like if you have a low cGPA the schools want to know you can take a standardized test and not ruin their statistics. Schools have their percentage of students who passed their boards on the first try listed on their websites and don't want that number lowered so I assume that is why they want us to take the GRE in the first place
-a lot of people suggested contacting the schools ahead of time, which I totally agree with, but sometimes it is hard to know what to say. I think it is best to think of genuine things you want to know about the program, or actual questions about your application and sort of go from there. There was this one school I did not get into, that I totally thought I was a match for (i had the same/better pre-req GPA, GRE scores, kind of leadership qualities they asked for). A month of so after the decisions had been sent out, I emailed the director of admissions and listed my stats in comparison to theirs, how parts of my resume fit their mission statements, what were specific reasons I wanted to go to that school. I then said what I planned to do to improve my application before re-applying and asked what she suggested I do in addition in order to better my chances. She replied the next day with a really kind email; she said she went through my application again and was not sure exactly why I was rejected, but gave a couple specific suggestions then said to email her when I reapplied (but I never ended up needing to reapply to PT schools) so she could specifically look for my application.
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