Waiting to Apply?

[boogiepicker]

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Hey all. I just got done with my 5th and final year of undergrad. I took the last year to finish all my PT pre-reqs and graduated with Comm/Psych degree. My overall GPA is around 3.1, but my science GPA is around 3.5. I have around 100 hours of service but all in outpatient clinics and I'm volunteering at a local hospital starting next week. Deadlines are coming up quick. I've been having trouble deciding whether or not to rush myself and apply this cycle or wait for next year. No doubt I can get myself ready for schools with later application deadlines, i.e Nov-Jan. I'm just not sure if I should take a year off or go for it. I'm 23, and if I wait til next cycle I won't start PT school until I'm 25 (considering the cycle doesn't start til the summer and school wouldn't actually start until Spring the earliest). Has anyone taken time off between graduating and applying? Any thoughts/comments would be appreciated.

 

[kcrat21]

Hey all. I just got done with my 5th and final year of undergrad. I took the last year to finish all my PT pre-reqs and graduated with Comm/Psych degree. My overall GPA is around 3.1, but my science GPA is around 3.5. I have around 100 hours of service but all in outpatient clinics and I'm volunteering at a local hospital starting next week. Deadlines are coming up quick. I've been having trouble deciding whether or not to rush myself and apply this cycle or wait for next year. No doubt I can get myself ready for schools with later application deadlines, i.e Nov-Jan. I'm just not sure if I should take a year off or go for it. I'm 23, and if I wait til next cycle I won't start PT school until I'm 25 (considering the cycle doesn't start til the summer and school wouldn't actually start until Spring the earliest). Has anyone taken time off between graduating and applying? Any thoughts/comments would be appreciated.

I graduated in 2007 and I'm currently applying. I wish I had figured all of this out sooner so I could be a PT now but thats not how my cards fell. If you have the opportunity now, why wait? If its a money issue that's different, but if you really want to be a PT and have the means to go to school sooner rather than later, why would you want to put it off?

 

[optionpaloma]

Have you taken the GRE and researched schools?

If you know which schools you want to apply to and haven't taken the GRE yet, look up each school in PTCAS to find their GRE cut-off dates. If you have enough time to study before the cut-off dates, I would go ahead and register to take it.

It sounds like your only other incomplete element would be inpatient hours, which you'll be getting shortly and which I'd think you'd have enough of by Nov-Jan. Having your outpatient hours and all your pre-reqs done puts you in good shape!

As for money, be sure to apply for the PTCAS fee waiver if you qualify -- this makes your first school free (each subsequent school would be $35).

 

[boogiepicker]

I did take the GRE, original version. Another thing to consider is will schools take the old GRE if I apply next year? It's not a 100% decision-breaker but I'd rather not go through the GRE again.

For me, taking time off would be more of a mental break. PT is going to be the most challenging thing I've ever done, and I want to go into it fresh. Then again even if I applied to schools with a December deadline they wouldn't start until summer the earliest, so in effect that is a year break too.

 

[optionpaloma]

The schools I looked at take GREs up to 5 years old, so unless your GRE is older, it should be fine (but check with each individual school).

Since you're done now, you'd have a year off for schools with a fall start and about 9-10 months for those with a summer start. If you'd want a longer break, I wouldn't blame you in the least! As a new grad, you have plenty of time to start this path.

I, myself, have taken a zillion years between graduating (BA in History) and applying this cycle, but I've worked in two different fields in the meantime. Both were fun, but I think PT will be more fulfilling.

 

[markelmarcel]

Honestly, I'm having a really hard time adjusting to being back in school and also in school for something so rigorous after taking off 4 years post-undergrad and a year off after finishing my prereqs... I told my parents that if I ever have kids I'm going to encourage that if they are going to school and want to get more than a bachelor's degree to do it all at once. It's really hard to be in the real world and turn the wheels back to school mode, at least for me. Especially with bills to pay.

 

[boogiepicker]

The only reason I ask about the GRE is with the implementation of the new GRE I want to make sure that old GRE results are nullified starting next year. But I don't think they will be.