Here are some key things you should know.. because I want to make sure you dominate. One thing that can hold you back as a pre-PT is not taking it upon yourself to figure out what the solution is. It is important when reflecting on your solutions that you are not blaming others, like blaming professors for your low GPA. Listen, we all had crappy professors, but in this situation where you have a low GPA, I want you to think “What am I going to do about it?” I want you to take action right now on those situations. The second you put your success on someone else you have failed but the second you put your success on yourself, you succeed. When you take action on your success it is completely different and it's not passive.

There are three key steps to be successful, number one, you got to do the work. What I meant by doing the work is to figure out what action to take and just do it. An example of this is doing the work to match ourselves up for those PT schools. Or if...

Hello, my name is Briana Lievanos, and I am currently enrolled in Tufts University DPT program. Tufts DPT program is an accelerated hybrid program and I have been accepted into the first cohort of this program. I will start by saying that this first month of DPT school flew by, probably because of the high load of work from being an accelerated program. While this program is challenging with time management and balancing course work, I do not think I could have picked a better program for myself. I have felt truly blessed being part of Tufts DPT first cohort with the amazing and supportive faculty and my wonderful and helpful peers.

After researching all the different programs, I feel like I am a perfect fit for my program at Tufts. I remember starting my journey in preptgrind in June of 2020 and I am so happy to have gotten guidance this time around for my PT application. I remember one of the first things Joses and Casey mentioned, was to research the DPT schools that you are...

This is MORE than just getting into PT School!

My name is Joses Ngugi; I'm one of the co-founders of pre-PT grind. This platform helps future physical therapists get into PT programs. I want to share a little about my life; I was born in Kenya, Africa and moved to the United States. The specific group I am writing to is future black physical therapists. Casey and I understand that the department of physical therapy does not have a strong black representation. Casey and I have talked about obstacles that our students have to face and things that are stopping them from getting to where they're trying to go. Whether it's your race or the lack of not having the background in what we are trying to achieve can be the biggest obstacles that can get in the way. I want you all to know that you all belong here. You all belong in this profession in physical therapy especially as the minority because; you are part of an element of change. That's why I am advocating for you to continue to...

Start treating your application like a workday and treat it with priority and importance as a job. If you can start practicing breaking everything down like most of the students in the Accepted System, we literally teach them how to reverse engineer everything. Make it simple for yourself and ask yourself, what do I need to do tomorrow? What do I need to check off the list? That will allow you to be on track for what you need to do and worry about your application. Once you check the task off the list, then treat yourself to some snack you like, watch whatever movie you want to see. Like literally, if you do that, then what will happen in those days will build upon your application.

If you continue to treat your application like a priority, eventually, those little things on your checklist will build this grand, pretty, beautiful, and massive completed application. In reality, what makes the application great, is you. You made the observation hours great, and you made PTCAS great....

The topic today is; it's common sense. Have any of you ever heard those three words? Maybe when you have been preparing for the GRE or PT cast and someone says, "it's common sense." If it was common sense, well, the truth is every single one of you would already be in PT school. Some of you may not have heard those three words. The truth is what holds people back with that statement is that it discredits the detail of what has to take place for you to set yourself up for your PT application. These details can be holding you back, whether it's a low GPA or GRE but, to say it's common sense means one of two things either we have forgotten what we went through, or we are saying it was much easier than it was. We remember memories that showed it was not a straightforward journey, but we will remember it as being much lighter than it was. These actions can throw people off because we're like, "don't worry about the GRE and don't worry about focusing on the program that you're going...

I'm going to give you five things that I want you to start thinking about doing so that you can set yourself up to crush it. Here are the five things that I would highly advise you to do next if you feel like you're running out of time right now.

The first step is to take a deep breath. Sounds simple, but it's if you're going through this right now you know how hard it feels to do this, right? So first of all take a deep breath. The reason why I say this is because, instead of panicking over everything, maybe there's another way to go about this. Like as a pre-PT, you have to realize where you are right now and have to figure out where you are stuck right. An example would be after taking a deep breath then to decide how do you fix your grades or GPA? You might not be able to control everything in your life but there are certain things you can take on control during your application process. 

The second step is you have to ask different questions. What I mean about this...

Hi, my name is Briana Lievanos, I wanted to share my story of how I got accepted into PT school because it is not a traditional path. During this journey, I have learned so much about myself and about the physical therapy career and in retrospect, I realized my adventure was right for me. I also wanted to do this blog because now being part of the accepted system family; I know that I am not the only one overwhelmed, stressed, anxious, and balancing life while applying to different PT schools.

So my journey start back in 2015 when I had applied to two PT schools, I had graduated with my undergrad from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio and moved back home to El Paso, Texas to finish up some prerequisites classes and also get a job as a PT technician at an outpatient clinic.  To my great devastation, I did not get accepted into PT school at this time. This led me to do some reflection on myself and my PT career. What was my next step? What do I need to change to get...

Self-awareness is your greatest and most valuable tool as a pre-PT, but the truth is, we don't use it that much. It's like, I know, I'm good at those classes or, I'm not great at standardized exams, we think that is self-awareness. Self-awareness is a lot deeper. Being self-aware is like being good at bowling. The concept of bowling seems simple, but the truth is, practicing it over and over is what allows you to become a better bowler. In your pre-PT journey, it is the same concept of you starting to practice to become more self-aware.

When we're not able to look inside and say, why am I feeling those things? Why am I stressed about that? Why am I anxious about that? Well, if we don't look inside, and assess those things, then what happens is we put ourselves in a position to self-sabotage by getting our way. There's a reason for everything you feel, whether it's stress or excitement. Do you understand why certain environments stress you out? Maybe it's the people you have around...

I'm going to share a story with you today about how I almost did not become a PT. I lived in Michigan for about 18 years.  I was in high school; one time every year, at my school, they would bring different professionals like a career day. I was focusing on two different professions which were becoming a lawyer and becoming a physician. My parents had expectations of me becoming a lawyer, engineer, physician, a minister, or something that my family would have seen as respectable. I just never fully felt like that was my calling. In school, we had an event where you had to register for which profession you wanted to listen to before being able to go listen to the professionals talking. But the two I wanted to go to were full. So I chose the next profession which most of my friends registered for and, this was a physical therapist. So I had no idea what a physical therapist was. I didn't know the difference between a PT or a regular therapist. 

I do remember being in...

There are four things I want you guys to prioritize when choosing a physical therapy school. Number one is cost, two is location, three is clinical experiences, and four is when you can take the NPTE your National Physical Therapy Examination.

Number one is the cost. I don't want a scenario to happen years from now, where you're regretting your decision to go to that school because of how much student debt you're in due to the cost of the school.  Now, with cost, I'm talking about not a difference between $2,000 and $3,000. I'm talking about a difference in costs of $10k, 15k, 25k, 35k.. of the schools that you're going to go to. The next thing with the cost is the rank of the schools that you want to apply to. So oftentimes, we get students asking about schools they have ranked number two, number five, number seven, but it costs so much more money than another school. If you're going after schools because it's ranked number two on your list, but it's a million dollars, you...