What activities should be included on the application?

[Aero SSX]

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To my knowledge for PTCAS it's basically a mix of your resume and transcript, as they want to know quite a lot. My question is, how much should we put on there?

For example, I'm part of a church "club" called Chi Alpha. I do not have leadership experience (at least not yet). We basically meet once a week for a college sermon. I'm also in a small group, though I'm guessing that shouldn't be included.

What about Relay for Life? We just had a Relay for Life night as part of our club. Could I include that? I helped make root beer floats and gave people bone density scans.

Lastly, this summer I will be playing in and helping run several USTA tennis tournaments. So I'll play in the tournament and also help run the front station to sign people in, add scores, etc. Could these be included in the resume? Would helping run the station be considered as a leadership position? I'm just curious where the line should be drawn. Thanks.

 

[tcpt]

Activities where an individual demonstrates a commitment to service or has held a leadership position are helpful. Physical therapy is fundamentally a people oriented, service based profession. Many applicants state that they want to help people, however, not all applicants can actually demonstrate or articulate how they've actually done that. Relay for Life, mission trips, Habitat for Humanity, service related organizations, and other activities that go beyond self-promotion and actually provide a community service are good for admissions committees to see.

 

[DesertPT]

For the most part these things don't make or break your application. If you include the fact that you go to church once a week and you passed out root beer floats one time, adcoms can see that you are pretty much just trying to fluff your application. Honestly though, I don't get the feeling that EC activities get looked at that closely by adcoms at most PT schools, but it's definitely good to have a couple things on there. Volunteer experiences that you committed a substantial amount of time to (aka don't put one-time things on there) are certainly great to include. But I'd avoid putting a lot of "fluff" on there. I have never heard anyone on here report that they got rejected due to their ECs or lack thereof though. If you have diverse PT observation hours, write a convincing essay, have strong LORs then that's the key. I feel like the ECs and Honors sections of PTCAS are honestly the least important sections. But I would encourage you to call the schools you are applying to and ask them what their opinion on ECs is....I'd be interested to hear if they report caring much about ECs and honors or not.

 

[tweaze]

I feel like the ECs are an opportunity to demonstrate skills/acquired experience that may not be reflected in your academic record or work history. I don't think a "leadership" role is necessarily important, as playing an active role in an organization and showing a commitment over time.

I don't know how much of a difference ECs make in the long run, but mine definitely came up during my interviews.

 

[HughLee]

Like tcpt, I am also a PT faculty member/admissions committee member. And I would agree with tcpt. the best purpose for mentioning your activities is to provide support for your statements about leadership, caring for people or your other intangible characteristics.

Also keep your audience in mind. If you lead a prayer group, it probably would not help you if you are applying to a state university, but it may help if you are applying to a PT program based in a Christian school.

The information about your extracurricular activities can also make it into several different parts of your application: the experiences section, possibly your personal essay and/or your letters of recommendation, and your interview.

 

[Aero SSX]

Thank you guys for the responses. It's helpful to hear, especially from those on the inside.