Here what I have used for my interview, these are series of questions that I have found from this forum. Hope this helps and Good Luck!
Do you by chance know if these essays need to be written in 5 paragraph format?
My Essay Question, " why do you want to become a PT and list 3 individuals who inspired you, be specific....something like this. Don't forget to prepare yourself regarding "healthcare issue" type of question.
Interview
professionalism is desired at this school so start off by dressing well, smiling, and trying to make good eye contact (the obvious stuff). But more than that, one of the interview questions asked was: what does professionalism mean to you? or something along those lines. The interview is done in a group, at mine their was one other applicant, a professor, and another part-time prof. who also was a local practitioner. The interviewers would take turns asking questions, and took turns in addressing myself or the other applicant. Here is a list of both questions asked in my interview, and potential questions asked by USA ad-com I gathered on this forum.
- Why do you want to be a PT?
- Why did you choose to apply to our school?
- What stands out to you about this program over others?
- What did you like most about your observation hours? Least?
- How will you handle the stress/course load of the program?
- Name a time when you failed, how did you handle it?
- Chunky or creamy peanut butter? Haha, they really asked me that!
- what would you bring to a picnic?
- What would I do if someone offered me a copy of an upcoming test?
- what would you do if while attending PT school you caught a friend of yours cheating on an exam?
- How would you feel if Government tried to pass a national anti-smoking law?
- If you wanted to change someones opinion, what would you do?
- What are some things that you have NOT liked in your volunteer/work experience in the PT field?
- What is a time in your life that your integrity was challenged and you had to demonstrate leadership?
- name a time you struggled and what you did to overcome it?
- what was your most challenging course in school and how did you adapt to it?
- Define integrity.
- name a difficult situation and how you handled it
- how do you handle stress and when do you know you are stressed
- do you feel you lead a healthy lifestyle
- what is a time when you changed your priorities/view points about something
- what's your favorite food?
- what was an obstacle in your life and how we overcame it?
- what did we consider leadership and an example?
- then we were given 3 scenarios one of us a had a patient who was a smoker..one was over weight..and one did not do home exercises and we had to reply with how we would approach the patient and help change their bad habits
- finally what is one of our weaknesses?
- Describe a current political issue in healthcare/physical therapy?
- what about physical therapy interests you?
- Do you work better in a group or by yourself and why?
They will probably not ask you these exact questions but you can get from this the type of questions they ask: how you handle stress, ethics, ability to reflect on past experiences and learn from them, some funny/light-hearted questions, stuff on the school, something about if you work well in a group, some questions just to get to know who you are, and why you are interested in PT.
Essay
You are assigned an essay statement or question and given some time to compose a response. You are given about 45 minutes I believe.
My essay question was:what does the phrase "quality of life" mean to you, and how does it relate to healthcare. Other questions that I have gathered from this forum are:
- what is more important to you, the science or the art of physical therapy?
- What have you done to demonstrate your commitment to pursuing a career in PT?
- What is the most important quality for a PT to posses?
- What do you think will be the biggest ethical question you face as a PT over the next decade?
- what will you contribute to your fellow students?
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