To apply this year or next?

[shredgnar]

Hey,

So I've changed my mind a million times about what I want to do. I've ultimately decided on PT, but I'm wondering if anyone has any advice about applying this year or holding off until next.

My pre-req grades are mostly B's with a couple A's and C's. So pre-req GPA is on the low side. Overall GPA is about 3.4. I thought about pharmacy for a while, so I took Ochem 1, Ochem2, and Bio-Chem this past year and got A's in all of those, but obviously you don't need them for PT. The C's are from undergrad...I am 3+ years removed from undergrad now. I have a ton of PT experience. I worked as an aide for a year and volunteered at another clinic and in a hospital clinic. I also have 2 years of sales experience. Lots of extracurriculars. My GRE score is average (I took it a couple years ago).

I would like to apply as soon as possible, but waiting one more year would allow me to re-take those classes I got C's in to get A's, and also re-take the GRE. If I do apply this year, I'll probably have my application in within the next week (recommendations will probably take a little longer).

I would like to apply to schools in CA, CO, and UT, which are all out of state schools for me.

What do you think?

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[shredgnar]

Now that I'm looking harder at the PTCAS website, it looks like some schools accept OChem in place of General Chem and Microbiology in place of General Bio as pre-req's. If this is the case, my pre-req GPA will be much better..... anyone know if this is the case for sure?

 

[pumpkinpatch]

Why not both? Apply to a few schools this year while taking classes. If you get in, great! And it's not like it's a waste of time re-doing those pre-reqs; they make you take them for a reason, so having stronger knowledge in those will only help you. If you don't get in, as long as you don't go nuts with number of schools, it's not a huge expense, and you can get some feedback as to how you can improve for the next round. It'll keep your options open.

 

[DancerFutureDPT]

Take this with a grain of salt, as I am not an AdCom member. But if I were and I saw someone who got all A's in O-Chem and biochem several years after less than stellar gen chem grades, I'd think something changed and they're focused and clearly know what to do to succeed. Those aren't easy classes. I'm not sure if all schools would accept the more advanced classes in place of the prereqs, but even if they don't it's not like they won't see how you did and take it into account.

As for micro for gen bio...for most schools that's probably okay. I took one semester of general bio and one of microbiology and that was fine for the places I applied.

And like Pumpkin said, you can always apply to a few of your top choice schools this year, and if you don't get in apply again next year.

Which classes did you get C's in that you're concerned about?