Looking for some insight for my D25. She was originally looking at Engineering but recently (after a sports injury) switched it up to physical therapy/athletic training. She is looking for a small to midsized college that has labs with hands on opportunities and good internships opportunities. Would love to work with one of the sports teams. (she is currently a two sport athlete and is a trainer in the season she is not competing in).
We have done a tour in the Northeast and visited Gettysburg, Ithaca, Skidmore and Vermont. She did not like UVM but, did like the other three.
Her rigor, grades, testing, and extracurriculars are strong. Most of the very top schools do not have what she is looking for so that is not an issue and she should be competitive with the schools right below the top.
She is looking for a school that is under 10,000 students, has strong reputation in the field, and while she would prefer a colder climate, it is not a deal breaker, and she is open to any region of the country.
As for costs, our EFC has been consistent across the board and is roughly what we anticipated paying so that is not an issue.
Looking for help finding other, well regarded, smaller schools that have the facilities and opportunities she is looking for. TYIA
Just keep in mind that the vast majority of colleges do not guarantee to meet your full financial need. Did you do net price calculators on each different college website? Those will give you an estimate only because they are currently set for students starting college fall 2023, and that is not your student. And yes, financial aid policies can and do sometimes change.
You could check out Lebanon Valley College in Pennsylvania. They are a small school but very strong in physical therapy and athletic training programs, which can be direct entry from high school for academically excellent students.
She can complete the PT school requirements at basically any school. But it sounds like she wants an exercise science or kinesiology major? But, bio and psych would work too, as well as many others.
Adding U Dayton, Merrimack, Xavier (Cincinnati), John Carroll for now.
These schools do not really care what your FAFSA EFC is, and are unlikely to meet that number. Run each school’s Net price calculator on their website to get a cost estimate. NPCs may not be accurate if parents are divorced, own real estate beyond a primary home, or own a business…are any of those the case for you?
My daughter was an exercise science major at university of Delaware, not small, but very strong for PT and AT. My daughter had Quinnipiac and Scranton on her short list, all three gave good merit.
Apologies, I should have been clearer, she is our oldest so I am not up on the terms. Yes, we have run the Net Price Calculators and the numbers were all in the range of what we were expecting to pay.
@MMB21 great that you have run those net price calculators…but please use the results you have now as an estimate only. The NPCs are not set for students starting college in 2025. There are some changes to the FAFSA happening between now and then, and colleges also do sometimes change their financial aid calculations.
Understood, don’t really want to go down the cost rabbit hole too much. Understand both our finances and the schools calculations can change over two years but, the NPCs are the best we have to go on right now. The only reason I mentioned it was to try and show that we have considered costs and to try and ward off the “well you have to consider finances to determine a match” posts.
My D22 who wants to be a physical therapist was accepted to two 6-year DPT programs with merit. These are Saint Louis University which is Jesuit and midsize. SLU has a very strong presence in health/medicine (our pediatrician went to SLU for med school and she and we are from CA). My D’s other 6-year acceptance was at Simmons University in Boston. They were super generous in their offer–her merit scholarship would apply for all 6 years of the program! (not the case at SLU). Simmons is women-only for undergrad, but then is co-ed for the grad programs, of which there are many. Simmons is also known for their pre-professional health programs.
Anyway, my daughter fell in love with Chicago and chose DePaul, which meets none of your daughter’s criteria. But she’s loving DePaul and is a health sciences major there.
Thanks all! Any suggestions out side of the Northeast would be appreciated as well. Some additional facts, she does not want a Catholic school (not sure what happened, we visited one and it really turned her off) and is looking for more of a college town as opposed to a big city.
If she is open to very rural, Clarkson University has a Direct Entry Physical Therapy 4+3 BS/DPT Program as well as a standard undergrad pre PT track. It would also have the engineering if she decided to stick with that.
Several things here. As has been mentioned she can major in anything and as long as she completes and does well in the pre PT prerequisites she can apply to DPT programs. PT is a professional doctorate so budget for that as well. Instate publics tend to be the most cost affective but can be the most difficult to get into because of that. She will also need a number of shadowing hours. It may be different from when my D was applying due to Covid restrictions but in her experience most of those have been lifted. Direct entry programs can be a plus, however, they are often more expensive as they tend to be private schools and typically the graduate portion of the program is not part of any scholarships. Attending an instate public will often be considerably cheaper.
My D attended Ohio University for both her undergrad (Dance major and ended up with a Biology minor) and her DPT program. For her 3 years in the DPT program the cost for tuition and fees were around $54000 (instate) plus room and board. There will also be clinicals so you may have a couple of times where you will be paying for two residences. Be aware starting salaries for PTs are in the $60 - $70k range. and max wages range in the 80s to low 100s depending on where you practice. There are people who make more in certain settings or by owning their own business. Ohio University is a mid sized public university with a good athletic training program. Their DPT program is top notch as well. They have a direct entry program from various majors that you apply to after your first year I believe (It’s been a few years). I would recommend she check into it.
My D is in her final clinical and will take her NPTE (National Physical Therapy Examination) late this month. She is winding down the process and moves on to applications and interviewing. She is hoping to get into performing arts PT. Her current clinical is working with a company that provides PT services to a dance company in Chicago. Good luck to your D.
Ok, looking for schools that are in colder areas but not in the northeast or Catholic with fewer than 10k students and popular majors in some iteration of exercise science/kinesiology (I translated popularity with strength…which isn’t necessarily true…just a correlation) I would look at:
Augustana (SD): About 1700 undergrads
Colorado Mesa: About 8700 undergrads
Cornell College (IA): About 1100 undergrads; this school has students take one class at a time, similar to the format at Colorado College
DePauw (IN): About 1700 undergrads
Gustavus Adolphus (MN): About 2300 undergrads
Hamline (MN): About 1800 undergrads
Hope (MI): About 3100 undergrads
Michigan Tech: About 5800 undergrads
North Central (IL): About 2400 undergrads
Ohio Wesleyan: About 1300 undergrads
St. Olaf (MN): About 3k undergrads. Perhaps not the largest exercise science/kinesiology major, but the intellectual vibe of the student body sounds like a good match to your D.
U. of Evansville (IN): About 1800 undergrads
U. of Idaho: About 8600 undergrads
U. of Montana: About 7200 undergrads
U. of North Dakota: About 9700 undergrads
U. of Northwestern-St. Paul (MN): About 3300 undergrads
The school that I am most familiar in this area is John Carroll University, where my older son went for pre-pharmacy/chemistry. It’s a 3000+ Jesuit university in the suburbs that has a very well regarded department in Exercise Science and Sports Leadership (just google “John Carroll” and “NFL” if you want to see why). The proximity to all the major sports teams in Cleveland makes it easy for the kids to get internships with pro teams.
I know you mentioned that you don’t want a Catholic school, but Jesuit schools tend to be more open than Roman Catholic schools.
I would confirm this but U of Evansville has a guaranteed pre PT program that carries it’s scholarships all the way through the DPT portion of the program. What I don’t know about is if they have an Athletic Training degree.
I just checked U of Evansville direct entry PT program scholarships and it seems they changed it. You get your undergrad scholarship then once your promoted to the graduate portion you become eligible for a graduate scholarship of $5k per year. Not as generous as they once were.