What prompts those of us with already stable careers to take the leap and apply to PT school later in life? Are we driven by unseen forces and internal fire? Are we simply bored with our current career path and looking for a change? And most of all, is it worth taking the leap?

"I love the independence and freedom I have as a practicing PT."

Applying to PT school as an established professional and well developed adult has its positive selling points. We tend to look more well-rounded on applications because of the additional experiences those years have given us. Perhaps we have travelled, lived in a foreign country, run a business, or raised children. We bring to the table a maturity, and in making this transition to PT school later in life, we show we are serious.

Making this decision as an older candidate also comes with a different variety of challenges. Perhaps we are in the process of raising small children, have mortgage payments to make, or feel inept at using modern...

Spending weeks of writing and editing your application essays can easily leave you feeling emotionally and mentally drained. I’ve been in the same boat of working tirelessly through what seems like constant writer’s block. Unfortunately, I repeatedly asked myself the same question: “Is my essay what the admissions committee is looking for?”

I had the pleasure of speaking with 4 individuals involved with the admissions process through their respective physical therapy programs. While each program will have differing opinions on each of the following questions, overall each of the 4 individuals wrote similar answers for each question. The following answers are direct quotes (with minimal editing).

I truly hope that this post helps guide you through this stressful time, and I wish you the best of luck with completing your essays!

 1. What are qualities that you typically look for in an essay?

• Make sure you answer the question or theme the essay is...

"Are you just an average PT student? Or will you be an excellent PT student who will then become an excellent PT?"

What would your perfect PT school applicant look like? The most interesting part about it is that many times, it’s pre-PT’s that are saying, “If I were on the other end, what is it that programs are looking for? What would I be looking for if I were a faculty member or as a student that's already in the PT program? What would I’ve been looking for?” Before we get into conversation, this is a question that you should think about as a pre-PT. If you are able to answer it, it will help you so much in terms of putting you in a position where you can now become your own perfect PT school applicant.

So first of all, let’s get the elephant out of the room. Let’s address it. We gotta talk about GPA. We gotta talk about GRE. The admissions crew for the school you are applying to look at those things. They have to pay their...

"Based on the compound law of improvement, if everyday we commit to become 2% better than yesterday, our performance will be more than 1,000 times better one year later."

Being a PT is rewarding and promising. We are able to help people get better and return to doing things they enjoy just with our brains and hands, and we don’t rely on medications, expensive machines or scalpels. Our professional knowledge enables us to do amazing things. However, becoming a PT is no doubt a grind. As a PT who just finished school fairly recently, I would like to talk about three attributes that I think are the most important to succeed in school and become an effective therapist.

1. Be Open-minded: Lifelong Learning

We all know that learning continuously is important, and it’s important to establish the
habit of learning inside and out of the classroom. Acquiring PT-related knowledge helps
us treat our patients better. Also, continuing education is...

I was in the final months of my internship at Jump Start Physical Therapy in Massachusetts, and I was knee deep in the process of obtaining my PT license back home in New Jersey when my phone buzzed. My brother texted me that one of his friends who coached high school soccer was looking for a JV coach for her program. I thought, ‘Hey, that could be fun while I look for a real PT job back home, sure!' I spoke with the head coach and got the job a few weeks later. Little did I know how much I’d love coaching high schoolers, and that 2 years later, I’d be forging a way to integrate coaching and practicing physical therapy.

In the past 2 years, I’ve worked in an outpatient ortho facility part time, covered various outpatient clinics, and worked in a school district treating pre schoolers, all while locally coaching high school soccer, basketball, and softball. I traveled to Cincinnati and became a certified Sportsmetrics trainer so I could specifically offer ACL...

It has been repeatedly said that there is nothing new under the sun. There are many who desire to do incredible things with their lives, but stop just short of putting that desire into action. Why is that? How can the dream to reach one’s potential, remain just that, a dream? Is it that we become short of steam after enthusiastically chasing that dream, to only realize that we lack the endurance to push through? Could it be that we have actually worked hard and tried everything but fall short? Or maybe we know what we want to achieve, but as we attempt to navigate ourselves to that destination, we soon realize that we might be a little lost, and in need of some guidance. If you can identify with any of the previous 3 groups, this blog is for you. In re-stating that there is nothing new under the sun, I mean to say that there is a great power derived from the influence of someone who has already done it, setting the path for you, while also being willing to guide you through a...

It’s application season and most of you will have your list of schools picked out already. I, however, am indecisive when it comes to choosing schools. I can see the benefit to both sides of everything -- small vs. large cohort sizes, city vs. suburban, lecture vs. team based learning styles, you name it and I’ll say “I can see how that would be great”. I was also a bit attached to the “idea” of a school because I had heard it is great program from one person, or because it has a great reputation, or is located in a wonderful sounding place. Being drawn to the idea of a place is a definite plus, but I realized I should have the evidence to prove to myself that these schools would be a perfect match. These thought patterns resulted in my being rather indecisive about selecting a concrete list. So, I spent A LOT of time researching what I want. What it has come down to is this: although all schools offer many great things, there are ultimately...

PT school interviews can be a daunting experience for even the most confident Pre-PT students. They can be even more overwhelming if you don’t have previous interview experience in these types of settings. The latter was myself as I was applying to PT schools and hitting the road for interviews. I really hadn’t experienced a tough interview to that point so when I received an email informing me of the interview day I was to attend, I definitely got a pit in my stomach. 

I applied to eight schools if my memory serves me correctly and I had interviews for two of them: Methodist University in North Carolina and Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia. I was really interested in Wheeling Jesuit as it was one of the closer schools geographically. My first interview was at Methodist though and although I wasn’t super interested in going there, I took the interview to get some experience dealing with some of the tough...

"..find out what is driving you to pick yourself back up after you fall over and over and over again."

There is always a reason behind everything. A reason behind why the sky is blue and the grass is green. Why the earth revolves around the sun instead of the other way around. There’s a reason why we blink, why we talk, why we breathe. Of course I can go on and on about why this and why that. It’s a 5 year old’s favorite question, and as annoying as it may be, WHY can it be so hard to answer the question why?

I have been pursuing physical therapy since high school, stemming from a passion of sports and an inquisition on my multiple injuries I acquired throughout my high school career. Does this story ring a bell? Something had to happen in your life to bring you here, right now, reading this blog on the Pre-PT Grind. If you were anything like me, you have tried to apply to PT school and got rejected. Maybe, you are even more like me and failed to get accepted for...

"You are EXACTLY where you are supposed to be, and you have the amazing gift of navigating where you’ll go next."

The quick and cliché answer? The years spent between obtaining a baccalaureate degree and pursing your Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) degree is what you make of it. The circumstances by which one finds themselves hanging in the balance can be nerve-wrecking and discouraging. Watching friends begin their graduate programs and careers inspires a unique type of anxiety when our own lives are punctuated by a question mark. Do I have what it takes? Did I miss my window of opportunity? Will I get accepted this third time around? The truth is there is great power in uncertainty, and the unknown represents boundless opportunities for growth and transformation. I’ve learned my greatest lessons by veering off the path my family and peers expected me to take.

The Pressure to Be Pressed 

American culture is obsessed with productivity, and social media makes...