what to do if entertaining PT instead of med school

[RUc10]

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I'll be taking classes in order to take the MCAT next summer. Med school is my true desire but just in case, my two back up plans are either to do research after graduating to get my doctorates in physiology and be a professor or to do physical therapy which was actually what I wanted to do back in high school. Is there something I should be doing outside of pre-med standards that I need to do in order to apply to PT schools? I haven't looked it up but normally people who have already applied or plan on applying in the near future give more clear answers. Thanks.

 

[Bad0 Fish0]

if you fulfill all the pre-reqs for med school, you shouldn't be lacking anything for PT school, but it obviously depends on the individual program so i can't say that 100% positively. at my school, the pre-reqs are the same except for one semester of organic chem which is required for med school but not PT. so the only thing you'd really need to do outside of pre-med standards is take the GRE.

 

[Buckeye4life]

The prereqs for where I went were much more extensive than med schools. The only overlap was for physics, biology, and general chemistry. There were additional courses needed in psychology, medical terminology, anatomy, physiology, exercise physiology, statistics, and research methods. I'm actually surprised that med school only requires the bare miniimum for admissions.

 

[RUc10]

The prereqs for where I went were much more extensive than med schools. The only overlap was for physics, biology, and general chemistry. There were additional courses needed in psychology, medical terminology, anatomy, physiology, exercise physiology, statistics, and research methods. I'm actually surprised that med school only requires the bare miniimum for admissions.

Well I think I luck out since my major is actually exercise physiology and will be taking/have taken all of those classes except medical terminology. Is that even a class?

And how does the GRE compare to other standardized tests in your opinions?

 

[Buckeye4life]

Well I think I luck out since my major is actually exercise physiology and will be taking/have taken all of those classes except medical terminology. Is that even a class?

And how does the GRE compare to other standardized tests in your opinions?

Medical terminology is definitely a class at The Ohio State University, and it was very invaluable when learning the logic of medical jargon.

The GRE is one of the easiest post-graduate exams I've taken, and I am not that great of a standardized test taker. I think I did 2-3 abbreviated self assessment exams from a Kaplan book and did fine on the real thing. The next difficult was the PT licensure exam, and the MCAT was definitely the hardest, imo. Granted I took the MCAT 8 years after having taken the prereqs.

 

[Bad0 Fish0]

Well I think I luck out since my major is actually exercise physiology and will be taking/have taken all of those classes except medical terminology. Is that even a class?

And how does the GRE compare to other standardized tests in your opinions?

medical terminology is a class at my school, and it's offered online over the summers which, is what i did.. it was sooo easy. and i thought the GRE was very difficult, personally.. specifically the verbal reasoning section. the essays are graded rather difficultly, too. i got a 1260 the first time i took it and hated the experience so much that there was no way i was taking it a 2nd time. the only other standardized test i've taken is the ACT in highschool.

the GRE is different in that the test adjusts to how well or poorly you do based on the first 5 or so questions in each section, so it's important to get those right so you get harder questions, because your score will be higher. if you're getting easy questions, you're not doing well. i suggest kaplan review.