Taking DPT prereq's as a parent of 2

[cadenza0123]

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Hey all! I'm brand new to SDN and just starting my journey into PT by taking prerequisites at a community college. I'm currently a stay-at-home mom and teach music part time - I have a bachelor's degree in music performance and music education, but I'm looking for a career change that will allow me to work days and engage in my passion for health and physical wellness - I'd especially love to work with pregnant women, as PT has helped me SO much with my own pregnancy complications.

So far in both Chemistry classes, Anatomy, and Physiology I've managed straight A's (I was a summa cum laude grad from my previous college as well). My concern is that since I'm raising small children, my prereq course schedule is not going to look ambitious. I'm taking one or two classes at a time because full-time school for me at the moment is just not an option financially or logistically. Since I already have a bachelor's degree I do not qualify for any scholarships or financial aid from the college I'm currently attending - thus I have to pay everything out of pocket. My son is 2 1/2 and I'm due with baby #2 this December, so I'll be taking a semester off, since taking classes while trying to nurse and care for a newborn is just not going to happen.

My concern is; will admissions take my financial and life situation into account when reviewing my application for admission in, oh, 3 years or so (which is when I'll be done with prereqs)? I'm not concerned about school full-time when it's time to start the PT program, because by then my kids will be 6 and 3 and in 1st grade/preschool. I took 20-24 credits per semester all 8 semesters of my undergrad so I'm not afraid of a heavy course load.

 

[davidtheusername]

I'm a nontraditional student too. I'm a parent and I was working more than 40 hours a week while taking the prereqs so they were slow going for me too. In my experience, nobody cares that you spread your classes out. As long as the grades and GRE are good then you're good whether you took 20 hours a semester or 1 class at a time. Just make sure your science classes don't expire because some schools have time limits on those (five years is common.) School gets way easier with older kids. My daughter is 6 now. It went from finding time to study being a nightmare when she was 2 to her helping with the chores and happily listening to me review now. Good luck!!!

 

[cadenza0123]

I'm a nontraditional student too.

David (I'm assuming that's your name!), how do you find PT school as a parent in terms of rigor? Are you able to find time to study?

 

[davidtheusername]

I'm a first year and things are literally just starting so I can't give you an honest answer yet. Ask me in a few months and I'll tell you if we are insane or not.

 

[starrsgirl]

Your post is so familiar to me! I also completed my pre reqs and prepared for school with 2 little ones at home. I was pregnant with my 2nd when I really started doing the classes and then completed my remaining pre reqs after my second was born.

First, I think you will be fine taking your classes on a slower pace. The biggest thing you have in your corner is you did really well in undergrad (when you were a full time student). So the committee will see that. I agree with you that you need to watch that 5 year timeline on courses expiring for some schools. (Even silly classes like English and speech and psychology may expire and need to be retaken).

That said, be prepared to get grilled on being able to handle the workload during interviews. At least in my school, I'm don't think the stats are great for people like us sticking through the program or passing (going from staying home with the kids or part time work/part time school to full time DPT school). I didn't get accepted my first round and so I took a double course load over the summer (5 classes during the summer term) to help show the school I could handle it.

What is your timeline for applying to school? I just wanted to offer support that I had my 2nd in July and did a semester of school starting in August. I only took 2 classes (one in person, one online) but it was doable. I had to hire a sitter for 2 mornings a week and would pump on breaks. And/or you could look into an evening class and save the daycare cost. One of the most expensive things for us was observation hours. It literally cost me $10 for every observation hour I recorded on my application.

I just finished my first year of DPT and I want to be completely honest with you....it was WAY harder than we (my family and I) ever anticipated. I already have a masters so I was expecting a similar workload to that. I figured being in class would still be less hours than working full time. But you need to go into this as if you are going to start a full time 50-60 hour+ work week. One of the reasons I chose PT over medical school was I thought the balance of going to school would be more manageable for us. That was not the case. There was nothing part time or 3/4 time about it. Again, I'm glad I stuck it out but I was completely unprepared for the impact on our family. Generally, I got the kids up by 6am, we are out the door at 7am. Daycare drop off by 7:15. I'm in class from 8am - 5pm. Get the kids, and home by 5:45. Feed the kids and then are in bed by 7:30pm. Then I studied from 8-11 ish every night. So I feel like I didn't see much of the kids, especially the first semester. 3 hours of studying per night was also NOT enough studying for my school's A&P (but I know A&Ps vary a lot....ours was with the medical students). So I barely passed that by the skin of my teeth. I also couldn't spend extra hours in the cadaver lab like my classmates so I was pretty far behind on that end too. It wasn't pretty, but I passed. The other classes have been more manageable. My saving grace is that I don't need to study as much as some of my classmates (I retain a lot from lectures) so I can cut corners there.

Plan to have a support network in place to take the kids on the weekends. (My hubby wasn't exactly ready for that one either....he's used to it now. I disappear to the office and he hangs with the kids most Sats/Suns. It's a lot on him too coming off a full work week). As a mom, you also have to be ready to study mostly on your own or miss some days with your kids here and there. Most of my classmates have study buddies or groups. I just can't meet up with my classmates regularly because of our crazy schedule. And then there's the sick days. My husband's job isn't very flexible and we need him to have it to finance this whole operation (haha) so I often took big hits to stay home with sick kids. Sometimes I could find a sitter, sometimes I couldn't or it was an unexpected call from daycare. But I lost quite a few points in different classes on absences (even when I called and let them know). Plus if you miss a whole day of lecture, it's very difficult to catch up.

Oh, and depending on the school, be prepared to spend up to 12 weeks away from your family each clinical. You may or may not have any say in where you go for clinicals. So again, just evaluate if you guys can pull that off. I will be about 6 hours away for my first clinical.

I don't want to dissuade you from pursuing this. I went in completely blind though and wish I knew a few of these things before. Please let me know how I can help and best of luck!