Two Questions

[sjlamb77]

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Hey guys, I have two questions for you. I'm a liberal arts student about to graduate without the required prereqs for PT school. I wasn't planning on going to PT school when I took Meteorology for my science. We have two universities and two or three community colleges in the area. Do programs generally care where you get your prereqs? I understand from those who have attended these schools that the ccs are usually easier than the universities, so I was curious if you guys think it would put me at a disadvantage on my application.
I have a second part to that question with a bit of a timeline. I'm graduating December 2012. That means I would have spring, summer, and fall of 2013, and spring and summer of 2014 before the PT program would start. I will only have one science prereq (microbiology) out of several I will need to get in that time. Seeing as I will be applying to PT school in late fall 13, early spring 14, I will not have all of my prereqs completed by the time interviews come around. I'm sure I'll have two or three I'll be taking that spring semester of 2014 before entering PT school (hopefully) in fall 2014. So, can I apply to PT school without my prereqs being completed? Would they ever let someone in on a condition that I complete the remaining courses and do well?

My second question is a quicker one. I'm applying to be a clinical aide at the local hospital for physical, speech, and occupational therapy. Will this give me valuable observation hours, or is it moving patients from rooms to therapy areas?

 

[ptootles]

I believe that taking the pre-reqs at a community college will not be an issue for most DPT programs. I did that and as far as I know, the programs I applied to did not care they were from a CC versus a university. I have read on this board though that some DPT programs do scrutinize to that level and may give less "credit" for pre-reqs at a CC, that's just not my experience. As to your question about not having the pre-reqs complete during the application cycle, I can only answer for my personal situation - one program that I applied to had a science pre-req that I was missing (I was post-baccalaureate) and they told me that if I successfully finished it prior to start of classes for their DPT program, I was "in". I cannot say other programs will do that but I'm sure others on this board will have some experience with that.

On your observation question, programs look for a variety of PT setting exposures so the hospital work will be good but you need to also see others - outpatient, SNF, etc. to be well rounded in your observations.