3 Steps To Fix Your Nervousness Before A Physical Therapy School Interview Or Campus Visit

A lot of people, especially through the Pre-Doctor of Physical Therapy Students Facebook page, always ask questions like, “Have you gone to a physical therapy interview for this school? How was it? What should I know going into it? What questions did they ask?” That’s what that Facebook page is for, and we are so glad you can benefit from others through posts like that.

Today, we want to talk about physical therapy school interviews and campus visits and the 3 steps to help you fight your nervousness. Because it’s a real thing and it can screw up and what you’ve worked so hard for. Have you thought about getting to that interview and then thinking, “Man, my heart’s pounding. I can feel those butterflies. I just don’t know what to say when the time comes up.” Let’s tackle how to handle those nerves.

1. Be over-prepared

A lack of preparation is killing a lot of you guys. If you’re thinking that you only need an hour to prepare for your interview or campus visit, think again. You should be preparing for more than just 1 or 2 hours. You might be thinking  “Oh, I only need to go over 5 questions or 10 questions to prepare for my physical therapy school interview.” Times that by 3 or 4 because whatever you think you need, you WILL need much more of that. This is one of the biggest and most important things that’s about to happen in your life so far. This is the first step to something so huge. Don’t underachieve in preparing for your interview or campus visit.

Come prepared with 20 questions (the more the better) that you want to ask the faculty members or students. Over prepare because once those lights hit you, once those faculty members walk into the room, once you open the door and walk into the school, your chest will be pounding. Don’t go into your physical therapy interview or campus visit with any thought other than you’re going to kill it. It’s okay to be nervous or have butterflies in your stomach. But think of Lebron James, Michael Jordan, Kobe, Tiger Woods… they all get nervous before they go into a big game or match, but at a certain point, they just hop out onto the court or course. Yeah, nervousness is a part of it. We get it. We’re not totally discounting it. But they’ve done it so many times. They’ve practiced that same shot, that same stroke, that same hit so many times and you have to do the same thing. This is your championship.

2. Connect with your audience

Putting your best foot forward and trying to impress the faculty members that you’re interacting with is something you’ll definitely go through during your campus visits or physical therapy interviews. You really want to connect with your audience and focus on them - not so much yourself. Focus on the faculty. Focus on what you can bring to the school and PT program. Focus on your future patients who you will be impacting in the future. You have to remember that yes, they are evaluating and interviewing you. Yes, they want to see you if you’re a good fit for their program. However, it’s really not about you in the long run.

And in reality, the faculty or your interviewer are probably thinking about how you might be perceiving the program or school. They might be curious to know if you like the campus or if you have multiple offers from other schools already. We can have a lot of things start to run through our own minds and that’s probably not what’s happening on the other side of the table. They’re probably thinking totally different and you’re just in your head making yourself more nervous.

Think to yourself.. “How many people am I going to impact because of this moment right here?” Take that pressure off for yourself. It doesn’t matter if you messed up with sentence. It doesn’t matter if your hair is not done as nice as you wanted. Take that focus off of you and the confidence switches. Connect with your audience. Make it all about the people who you’re going to impact after you go through a PT school and that nervousness should be cut down a lot.

3. Get them to engage with you

You have to get that audience to engage with you. Whether it’s a student that’s giving you a tour of the facility on your campus visit or with the chair of the physical therapy department. Get them to engage. Don’t make it all about yourself. Have those questions prepared. If you switch it back towards them when you ask a question, you’re putting them in the hot seat. Make it clear to them that you’re serious about this school and in physical therapy in general. This should cut your nervousness down by another 50%.

Because now it’s on them. Now it’s on them to respond and impress you because you are putting your time into this school. You are putting tens of hundreds of thousands of dollars into your education. So this should be very important to you. And when you get them to engage with you, that pressure is off of you. Have some questions prepared for them. Have questions that are important to you and that should cut your nervousness down even more.

Don’t forget that you’re technically “interviewing” the program as well when you go on your campus visit or physical therapy school interview. Take advantage of that! Start looking into things NOW and don’t procrastinate. Set yourself up for success and start NOW!

 

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