DPT Application Basics

Just starting to apply to PT schools? Here is a little cheat sheet to help you by Evan Hoffman, SPT!

 Biographic Info

  • Profile

  • Birth Info

  • Contact Info

  • Citizenship Info

  • Race/Ethnicity

  • Language/Military Info

  • Other Info

 Academic Info

  • Standardized Test

    • Official/Unofficial GRE Scores

      • Verbal

      • Quantitative

      • Analytic Writing

  • Colleges Attended

  • Course Work

    • Every Transcript

➾ TIP: Request your official transcripts for these schools early because it can take a while

    • Each class typed in + each grade received

    • Must do for separately for each semester at each school

 Supporting Info

  • Experience

    • Work or anything you were paid for that involves PT only

    • Will need dates, names, supervisor info, details of what you did

  • Achievement

    • Any award or scholarship you’ve earned

  • Licenses/Certifications

    • First Aid, basic life support, CPR, etc.

    • Personal Training should go here as well

    • Have pictures/pdfs

  • Extracurriculars

    • Anything outside of PT that you did within your community

    • They want to know more about you 

  • Observations

    • Exactly how many hours in each setting

    • The types of patients you observed

    • Supervisor info

    • Facility info

    • Dates

    • Need signed proof (pics/pdfs)

➾ TIP: Look up each schools observation hour requirements, each school is different. They usually want inpatient and outpatient hours so try to get each before apply. Inpatient hours can be difficult to find!

  • Personal Statement

    • This will be a question that PTCAS is requiring and every school will see it

    • Can be short and sweet and to the point

    • They will provide a prompt for you to answer

      • Example: “What was the most meaningful experience in your life.”

  • References

    • Each school will require a different amount of recommendation letters

    • Some want 1 PT and 2 Professors/Counselors/Employers or vice versa

➾ TIP: Get on these early!!! Send your requests through PTCAS, and personally ask each person. Set a date that it is due and make that date AT LEAST 2 weeks before the deadline but the earlier the better!

School Specific Info

  • Each school will have a set of questions specific to them

    • Usually simple questions (yes/no)

  • Each school may or may not have individual essays to write

    • Some had 1 others 3 so it really just depends

    • They are usually pretty broad questions and they typically want them relatively short

➾ TIP: if multiple schools have questions that are somewhat similar, write one essay then just reword/add/subtract/etc. for the other essay (SAVE YOUR TIME)

  • Each school will have its own set of prereq’s

    • From the courses you input earlier, plugin here which ones you want to go for the designated prereq

➾ TIP: I would make a document that had each school and underneath the school name list the prereq’s (which you can find on their website usually), the grade they are requiring, if they allow any substitutions (i.e., biomechanics to take the place of general physics) *this is great if you made a better grade in the substitution that they allow which in turn will boost your overall prereq GPA*, and if certain courses are NOT allowed (i.e., exercise physiology in place of A&P II).

➾ TIP: Once you’ve made this, you can go in and put the courses you took that will work or match the prereqs in a different color, and then you can have an easy guide once you begin inputting these. You can also calculate your prereq GPA to see if it will be high enough for them because each school is different in regards to prereq GPA

Evan Hoffman