"My advice: stay true to yourself. Finding the right program for you is crucial."

Hi everyone! My name is Bri Zabierek and I am a first-year SPT at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science (RFUMS in short). When I applied during the 2017-2018 cycle, I chose to do early decision, or ED. Some people have heard of it, some people have not. So here’s my experiences with ED, what it means and things to consider when applying! 

First things first – What is early decision? Basically, ED is binding option to your first-choice school. You submit your materials very early – like within 2 months of the application opening – and if you’re accepted to that one school, you’re in. Your process is over. The catch is, it involves ONE program and NOT ALL programs accept ED applicants. So why did I want to do ED? Why did I commit my chances of being accepted to only one program so early? Well, I found my favorite program and I wanted in....

“As a student-athlete, I haven’t had time to do much else.” As a collegiate athlete applying to physical therapy school, you may think you’re behind the 8-ball because you didn’t have the time to complete full-time internships, study abroad, or have a ton of campus involvement. Was all that time you put into honing your craft on the court/field really worth it when it comes to your future career? The answer is YES! Being a student-athlete is the best decision you have ever made in preparing yourself for graduate school and the professional world.

As an athlete, you have learned and developed skills that are directly transferrable to the profession of physical therapy and PT school itself. Everything you learn both on and off the field is not a back-up plan for life after sports, it is part of the rest-of-life plan for life after sports. Being a collegiate athlete requires rigorous mental and physical demands that directly correlate to the demands...

It was a couple days before I started my first day of PT school. I was standing in our school’s parking lot looking up at the Wasatch Mountain range just a mile from where I was standing. It was quite magnificent for a Midwest girl who had just moved west for the first time. My dad had just called and during the conversation he asked, “Now Kristen you ARE 100% sure this IS what you want to do, right? You know that’s a lot of debt you’re going to accrue, I just want to make sure before you go into it.” 

“Yes dad, of course, this is what I want to do!” I remember this moment so vividly, answering that question with a positive “yes!” but actually thinking “I’m not 100% sure but I just feel it’s going to to get me where I want to go.” 

As a high schooler I thought I had to have my whole life figured out at age 16, and when I was a junior in high school I decided I wanted to be a physical therapist....

At Pre-PT Grind, one of our main purposes is to help YOU get into physical therapy school without wasting time or money. As you all know, YOU are the foundation and future of the constantly changing physical therapy field. Have you ever thought that maybe your education has set you up for failure? Now, before we dive into this topic, we are not talking about this to go against the education system. We are talking about this to really open up your mind to this topic. How you’ve been “trained” to learn from a young age can dictate the huge impact you can have- not only on other people, but also in your own journey as a pre-PT.

We also have to remember what the education system is there to do for us. For example, PT school is to make us competent, entry level clinicians. So, is it failing us? Not in that sense. Are they doing what they are supposed to do? Technically yeah! They are preparing you to enter into the workforce at a competent level and they are getting you...

It is the time of year where students and young adults across the country send in their applications to Doctor of Physical Therapy or Physical Therapist Assistant programs with the dream of joining the profession of physical therapy.  Some individuals are shoo-ins to get into their desired school of choice, while many others anxiously await the verdict that will be dealt to them.  I am writing this post to help the people that are worried that they will just miss the cutoff or feel there is no hope of getting into school.  These people know they are meant to be in this profession but are not given a fair chance because of a low GPA or some other circumstance.  This post is being written to show prospective students that there is hope and to clear the air of all the false claims on the Internet that you cannot get into physical therapy graduate school with a GPA less than a 3.0.  Point blank, those individuals did not try hard enough.  If you are reading...

Sometimes as pre-PT students, we get into our own heads when any major or minor thing happens. We overthink it until we basically send ourselves down a “hole.” Some of us have a really hard time coming out of that hole when we overthink things and start to doubt ourselves. Sometimes you might need a little help from other people who have been in your specific situation to help you OUT of that hole.

 "Get out of your HEAD and get into TUNNEL VISION MODE. You are CAPABLE!"

Let’s say you are preparing to take the infamous GRE. You invest a lot of time studying for it so you can put yourself in the best position to get into physical therapy school. You take practice exams, you go over practice questions, you buy the GRE workbook, and you practice writing the essays. But what happens when you get in your OWN head while you’re taking the actual GRE test? What if, all of the sudden, you get stuck, or blank out during it? This internalization of fear and...

My PT story begins with the difficult choice between pharmacy and physical therapy. Like most people, I looked for career choices that would provide what everyone looks for in an ideal profession: money, free time, and fulfillment. After high school, I had the opportunity to be a part of the Walgreens–Chicago College of Pharmacy Career Explorers Program summer internship hosted by Midwestern University, which influenced me to enter my college years as a pre-pharmacy major. Although the classes weren’t terribly challenging, I felt anxious about my major for most of my freshman year. Later that year, I began to research and look into physical therapy again and realized that I made a mistake and was simply blinded by the dollar signs in the pharmacy career path. Physical therapy is the field that would not only bring food to the table, but also enable me to make a more meaningful impact in people’s lives.

Crossing My Fingers

My university has a 3+3 program in...

As a native born Kenyan, a question that frequently eluded my upbringing was simply, “aren’t you supposed to be a phenomenal runner?” This is of course in reference to the rich history of Kenyan marathoners who never fail to disappoint when it comes to showcasing their consistent ability to win and win big. In response to this question, I have often found myself responding with a clever, “every champion needs a fan, I happen to be just that.” Honestly speaking however, this has become much more than a clever response, it became my excuse. I somehow came to the conclusion that in regards to my physical fitness, I was meant to simply be nothing more than a bystander, a “fan.”

Many of our goals, resolutions, and ambitions are at times erased by our self-doubts and excuses. “I definitely can’t do that because of__________,” or “I can’t compare with how ____________ does that.” These along with many other...

Structure and Balance. These two words mean a lot to us as pre-PT students and DPT students. But what exactly are the the top 3 steps to mastering your pre-PT school/life balance?

1. Balance doesn’t exist, but priorities do

Even if you’re doing multiple things simultaneously, you’re still not doing them all at the same time. Even in that midst of multitasking, you’re turning off your attention to one thing as your switch your attention to another. If you’re doing 2 things, you’re putting in 50% to each of those things. If it’s 3 things, you’re putting in 33% to each one. Each time you add another, you are reducing your ability to focus on your PRIORITIES.

You might have a ton of different opportunities presented in front of you and might be thinking, “How can I possibly balance and manage all of these things at once?” But what is important to you? What are your priorities? Are you aware of your priorities? Have you wrote...

Are you flying too low as a pre-PT? Let’s use an analogy to talk through this. For example, let’s talk about eagles and pigeons. Eagles are very majestic, strong, and dominant birds. They usually fly alone and tend to fly very high above a storm and above EVERYTHING else. And then there are the pigeons. The majority of pre-PT students are like pigeons. Pigeons will typically flock together in big groups. They’ll designate a leader and then switch or rotate as they fly.

Like the pigeons, as a pre-PT, you might be surrounded by many people that will tell you. “You know what..you’ve taken the GRE three times already. Maybe you should do something else. Maybe you should consider taking a different avenue.” You might be surrounded by who tell you, “maybe this isn’t your calling” and try to persuade you not to commit to a certain career. At the end of the day, those people are the pigeons that are flying around with you. 

Then,...