Where do I stand? Advice is greatly appreciated.

[Jmazz88]

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Okay so i'm a bit of a unique case. Heres the background:

Graduated back in May of 2012 with a Bachelors Degree in History. Originally was really looking into Law School (specifically Health Care Law) but decided it was not something I really wanted to do and was not worth the financial investment as well as the time. Have some friends that are currently in PT School who love it, along with the fact that I recently broke my collarbone and had to see a PT for a couple of months. Long story short, I know this is the career for me. Unfortunately my cumulative GPA (120 credits) is a 2.51. Complete lack of motivation, along with some personal issues was the reason for my poor GPA. Being a history major, I have not taken one pre-requisite course. Based on most schools, I would need to take an additional 40-46 credits before applying to any PT schools. Now if I received an A on most of these courses, my pre-requisite GPA would be very high, and there is a good chance my cumulative would be close to a 3.0. Assuming I do very well on the GRE, do you think it is worth it for me to pursue this? I would attempt to still apply for next falls cycle, taking a full course load in the spring and summer,as most schools will let you apply with 2 (or more) outstanding pre-requisites at the time of application. Anyone who has been in a similar situation I would love to hear you stories. Thanks!

 

[Kuhdaytee]

There have been tons of others in your similar situation, with a GPA <3.0. I'd definitely use the search bar since there's tons of good advice there. Other than that, just know that many/most schools have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0, so you may be unable to raise your GPA high enough to apply for those schools. I'd recommend speaking to your PT and any other PTs that you know to see if they have any advice, too. I ended up emailing about 20 PTs nearby and 10 replied to me, so I was able to call them and find out more about the profession.

 

[Dragon416]

I am somewhat in the same boat as you. This year, I got a BA in Political Science and wanted to go to law school. However, the LSAT was my worst nightmare that I do not want to relive again. That being said, PT is a much more rewarding career. Furthermore, law school is now becoming like for-profit schools. Just being honest.

 

[Lasombra]

It's not impossible, but you'll need to destroy the prereqs. I think you'll need about 60 semester units of As to pull the overall to a 3.0. Anything less than that will really drag you down. A lot of programs use the 3.0 overall as a hard cutoff.

If you haven't taken any lab sciences, I'd suggest doing an intro chem class first. I found it really helpful to be clear on the concepts before stepping up the rigor when I started this path (I was a hybrid computer science/design major). This approach gave me a smoother adjustment to the whole scientific mindset, and set me up for success in the more challenging chem, bio and physics classes.

If it were me, I'd plan for an extra year and aim for 60 to 70 units to pad things a bit. Maybe in tangentially related subjects like extra psych, or speech, or Spanish... But anything with an A will help your cause!

Good luck!

 

[starrsgirl]

I definitely have some thoughts for you....mistakes I made and things to do differently.

Yes, you will need 60 credit hours of straight A classes to make a 3.0. So if you take 15 credit hours in the spring and 15 in the summer (which is very very difficult....I took 14 last summer....had to enroll at 2 different schools to do it...it was insane because of the compressed schedule) you still won't even be halfway to 60 credits when ptcas opens.

That said, do not even apply unless you are already at a 3.0 at the time of your application. To be honest, I wasted a lot of time, money and effort applying last year in that boat. My classes in progress showed that I would likely make a 3.0 when I finished but its not enough. The problem is, you will either be rejected outright by a computer system or shuffled to a last look scenario where they don't even consider you until say Feb after you apply. Although there are likely exceptions here and there and schools with really late cycles, I don't think it's worth it. Plus, you will taking a full load next fall so doing apps on top of that may take away from academics. If you get even one B, that's more classes you have to take.

Also, I made the mistake of neglecting observation hours in favor of academic work because I also was coming from a 2.5 GPA. But I should have balanced it better. Like taking a slightly lighter load and getting a ton of hours throughout.

My advice is to put your goal out another year....look to apply in summer/fall of 2015 after you have a 3.0 and hours. I did this year and it made all the difference. I wish I could have saved myself the heartache and trouble and money last year.

One last thing to remember is its still a very tough road to apply with a 3.0 but its doable. I think what finally made me successful was showing that I got straight As in everything from that moment when I decided to pursue PT, getting a decent amount of hours and writing great essays. Also, make sure to apply to the right schools. Know their admissions requirements inside and out. I made that mistake again this year when I missed a little GPA calculation that one school did differently than others. Even though my pre Reqs are good and my overall is good, I didn't meet this schools math and science GPA because I have a lot of old math classes that go into that number. Bottom line is go through everything with a fine tooth comb and target schools that are best for you.