Hoping for Some Advice, Pre-PT

[AKArbalest]

Hi everyone, this is my first post.

I am hoping to get some input from you guys on my current situation. I graduated in 2007 from Pitzer College in Claremont with a BA in Organismal Biology and Ecology. I worked in the environmental consulting field for about 2 years after college, and realized that I was in a field that I wasn't very passionate about

I made the decision that PT would be a good fit for me and did what I could to apply to schools in Fall of 2009 (for Fall 2010 admission). I knew I was missing a few of the prereqs and my GPA was a quite low, but I figured there was no harm in trying except for the time. I applied to a number of schools on the west coast (USC, MSMC, CSULB, CSUS, CSUN, UW, EWU, UPS, APU) and got no interviews or admittance.

I am going back to school this fall full time in order to fix the prereqs I know I am missing and remediate the poor grades in some of the classes I already have.

I have worked two jobs as an aide in the past year so I do have some experience hours, however not as much as I would like.

I am hoping to hear some advice from you as to the best course of action to get into school for Fall 2011 or even Fall 2012. I am trying to figure out what are some of the schools that I have the best chance to get into given my history and credentials.

Undergrad - Pitzer College (Claremont, CA)
GPA - 2.79
PreReq GPA - 2.6
GRE - Verb. 650, Quant 730, Writing 4.5

Hours
-600 in outpatient orthopedic
-60 in acute care

Extracurriculars
-4 years of D1 rugby at Claremont, served as team Vice President

I had pretty good essays from my first go around, and I think my references were good as well.

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[PTgrl13]

My advice would be to look closely at the schools you are applying to, and then don't bother applying to schools you know won't even look at you. Its a waste of money. I applied to UPS and EWU for fall and I know they have GPA minimums of 3.0. When I was at my EWU interview, I talked to the admissions director and she said that they invited anyone with a 3.3 or higher pre-req GPA to interview, so that ended up being like 200 people and that they had 450 people apply! (for a 34 person class), They really hold true to their minimums, they wont make exceptions with that many people applying. Same, if not even more true, for schools like UW. I think UPS will make an exception for their minimum, I remember reading about it in their FAQs, that you can write an addition essaying explaining yourself.

I didn't have stellar grades, 3.1 cGPA and a little bit higher for the prereq GPA depending on the school and I got in,waitlisted, or offered an interview invite at every school I applied to. I ended up getting into Columbia, Regis and UPS...so there is hope for those with out amazing grades. I think there is so much more than numbers (what your major was, the school you went to, the classes you took, etc). I hope that helps. Stay positive and write your applications with a LOT of care.

 

[jbizzle]

Yeah like the poster above. I would look on PTCAS and check out the average GPA for accepted applicants for each school. If they are high, forget about it. Dont even look at the minimum GPA, because the lower the minimum GPA the more applications received, the more money they get. Then see if you can fall in the the average + or - (know what I mean? like the standard deviations).

To show you, like schools like Franklin Pierce with an avg GPA of 3.1. Some students had to have 3.0, maybe even 2.9 and others had to have 3.2 and 3.3. See where im getting at?

 

[AKArbalest]

That was really helpful, thanks for that advice, both of you.

I know that nearly every school has a minimum GPA listing, but I never thought that some might actually push theirs lowers in order to receive more applicants, and therefore money.

I guess it makes sense to look at which schools have lower than average GPAs for their most recently accepted class. Anyone have any suggestions for the west coast?

I wish someone would publish some sort of book for this sort of thing.

 

[jbizzle]

well idk how west this is but University of Mary in North Dakota. It may be a small town but free from distractions for three years until you get your degree. Their minimum is 2.75, but it doesn't list the most recent entering class avg. There are more schools at www.ptcas.org Choose(Directory>list of pt schools>list by name) then take a look at all the west coast schools. I know north west is very competitive. I think Franklin Pierce has a campus in Arizona. Just try to get around a 3.0, maybe 2.9. You'll see that there are people with 2.9 that get in somewhere.

 

[eddie74]

Hey, I'm kind of new to all of this. I'm currently taking my pre-requisites for my Bachelors in Science. I was just wondering the easiest and best way to achieve my Bachelors and be able get to the DPT program and if I can get any advice? Thanks for your help.