Physical Therapy Program and Schools

To be a physical therapist you have to complete our an accredited physical therapy program, ten years ago when I went to school that was a master's degree in physical therapy. The modern equivalent is a doctorate in physical therapy, so upon completion of the program and passing of the state board exam, you are a physical therapist.


My bachelor's degree was in pre physical therapy kinesiology. Most applicants to physical therapy school have a science background because others that studied accounting, philosophy, or something like that and if so then they have to do a little bit more education and complete a variety of classes in a minimum requirement of science classes to be accepted into the graduate physical therapy program.
I think an ideal candidate for physical therapy school has completed the scientific courses required with above average grades. They also want to see a well-rounded student, they like to have multiple experiences in the world of physical therapy.

schools So for myself, I volunteered in a outpatient physical therapy practice, I volunteered at a hospital. They’re looking for a variety of experiences not only in the world a physical therapy but in other parts medicine because they want to make sure that you've chosen physical therapy as a career, a lifelong passion and you're not going to shift gears y midway through a graduate program thinking you want to be a dentist or a nurse or a PA or something in lieu of being a physical therapist. In addition I think schools they do require letters of recommendation, they require a personal statement of why you want to be a physical therapist and so I think the more well-rounded you are in your experiences in the world of medicine, even in the world of life. I know there was a number of people that I went to school with that were older than the typical applicant but they had great lifetime experiences academically and not academically that I think made them an ideal candidate to be a great physical therapist.