Admission Difficulty

[TopShelf85]

Hi All,

I read statistics on the PTCAS website all the time about enrollment and applicant numbers. The range seems to vary from 30-55 spots for roughly 500-800 applicants per institution. Would you say these numbers are accurate?

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[easb]

From what I have seen, on average it is 35-70 spots for over 1000-1200 applicants (for 2013) . But It's only for CA.

 

[TopShelf85]

Hi Easb,

Are you a resident of CA? That is obscene! Since the PTCAS is making it easier for people to apply to schools, do you think the volume of applications is going to increase in '14, '15, as well?

 

[IndianaDPT]

PTCAS does make it easier for applicants to apply. This inflates application numbers. Note that not everyone who applies to a particular program is eligible, much less competitive, for admission.

As always, I advise applicants to apply selectively and ensure that they at least meet, if not exceed, admission requirements. If you are "borderline" or do not meet requirements, it doesn't make any sense to designate a program.

Best,

Josh Morrison
Director, Student Enrollment Services
IU School of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences, IUPUI
www.shrs.iupui.edu
[email protected]

 

[janie3]

Hi All,

I read statistics on the PTCAS website all the time about enrollment and applicant numbers. The range seems to vary from 30-55 spots for roughly 500-800 applicants per institution. Would you say these numbers are accurate?

This seems pretty accurate to me. I know the 3 schools around my area had over 800 applicants for only 30-35 spots. I have heard of other schools that are somewhat less competitive, but overall I would say admissions difficulty is increasing more and more every year.

 

[TopShelf85]

What are the 3 schools in your area which had over 800 applications for 30-35 spots. Most schools are in that general ballpark from my own independent research and the overall trends.

Please let me know which schools and where you're at geographically.

 

[bnwj89]

This seems pretty accurate to me. I know the 3 schools around my area had over 800 applicants for only 30-35 spots. I have heard of other schools that are somewhat less competitive, but overall I would say admissions difficulty is increasing more and more every year.

As IndianaDPT said, MANY applicants don't even meet the minimum requirements, and their applications go directly in the trash. So those numbers are inflated a little bit, since you are not competing against those applicants.

 

[easb]

Hi Easb,

Are you a resident of CA? That is obscene! Since the PTCAS is making it easier for people to apply to schools, do you think the volume of applications is going to increase in '14, '15, as well?

ToShelf85, according to the numbers published, I can see that the number of applicants almost doubled for the last 3-4 years, whereas programs accept approximately the same number of students as they did 4 years ago (again, I am looking only at CA schools; and yes, I am a CA resident). I am not sure if the number of applicants will double in 4 more years, but it looks like that the number is increasing.

 

[TopShelf85]

Easb, well that sucks for the applicants... I'm sure the trends are the same for all DPT programs across every state. The PTCAS makes it easier to apply to more schools at very little additional cost.

The applicant pool is most certainly growing y/o/y from all my conversations with program officials. What do you think the solution is?

 

[ptisfun2]

ToShelf85, according to the numbers published, I can see that the number of applicants almost doubled for the last 3-4 years, whereas programs accept approximately the same number of students as they did 4 years ago (again, I am looking only at CA schools; and yes, I am a CA resident). I am not sure if the number of applicants will double in 4 more years, but it looks like that the number is increasing.

The graphs on Page 17-18 describes this. Careful though the y-axes are different on 17 and 18, and the graph on page 17 (MPT) wlill be unnecessary at some point. This report is from CAPTE, so includes PTCAS and non-PTCAS schools.

 

[easb]

Thanks for the link, ptisfun2!!!
TopShelf85, on the bright side, probably 20-30% of all those applicants are not qualified. The rest 70-80% most likely apply to more than 1 school. So you are not really competing with 1200 students, but there is still lots of competition. The only solution that I see is to do our best to look good on our application.

 

[DesertPT]

The graphs on Page 17-18 describes this. Careful though the y-axes are different on 17 and 18, and the graph on page 17 (MPT) wlill be unnecessary at some point. This report is from CAPTE, so includes PTCAS and non-PTCAS schools.

You can see that as the number of applicants has sky-rocketed, the number of enrollments per school has barely changed...I guess more schools open all the time and people apply to a larger number of schools all the time, fueling the trend.

It's pretty mind blowing though that from '10-'11 the average number of apps per school went up by over 100...although the average number of qualified apps seems to have only gone up by a couple dozen...

 

[TopShelf85]

Hi Knj27, the total volume of applications has ballooned to unprecedented levels since the implementation of PTCAS. Picture this '10-'11 was 2 years ago... now imagine the impact 2 years later... the graph in the link was pretty good but its outdated. Logic says the applicant pool has grown even more significantly.

What I'm worried about is the impact on tuition the growing demand for the education will have. Tuition in just about every fact of higher education has gone up y//o/y I dont see this trend fading.

 

[janie3]

Hi Knj27, the total volume of applications has ballooned to unprecedented levels since the implementation of PTCAS. Picture this '10-'11 was 2 years ago... now imagine the impact 2 years later... the graph in the link was pretty good but its outdated. Logic says the applicant pool has grown even more significantly.

What I'm worried about is the impact on tuition the growing demand for the education will have. Tuition in just about every fact of higher education has gone up y//o/y I dont see this trend fading.

I am worried about that as well. One of the schools I applied to increased their total tuition by 7k in one year.