<p>I am interested in becoming a physical therapy as a future career path. I am currently a high school student looking around at different colleges for a solid school for physical therapy; however, I was convinced from one of my friends that PT was difficult. Although I take basically all honors and AP courses in high school, how can I really tell if I am prepared for a vigorous PT program? I heard Temple's PT program is a lot easier in comparission to University of the Sciences in Philadelphia's program. I also hear that anatomy is a very vigorous course? Can someone expand to how hard this course really is and how difficult is gross anatomy (dissecinting humans and such).</p>
<p>@blinky8225</p>
<p>I am a senior that is entering the DPT program – but haven’t decided yet where I will accept. I have been accepted into Marquette, Duquesne, and SLU - still waiting on BU and Northeastern. There are approximately 34 colleges in the country that have a freshman entry level 6-Year Doctorate of Physical Therapy Program. If you are a good student and have performed well on the SAT or ACT you should definitely try to apply into one of those programs. They are very selective - but not that many high school students know what career they want to pursue. By the end of college - many more are considering becoming a DPT - thus more competition to get into a PT school then. There are approx 200 PT schools and they normally want a 3.5 GPA to apply. </p>
<p>If you go to the American Physical Therapy Association website - you can get a listing of all the freshman entry level 6-year DPT and all other DPT schools. Also as for Temple. which I applied to and was accepted, it’s actually a 3+3 program. Which means, after junior year you must apply to the graduate level part of the program. You need a 3.5 to continue and complete in 6 years. As I was told, even if you have a 3.49 you wouldn’t be allowed to apply. Pretty severe - no exceptions for Temple undergraduates. At Marquette, SLU and Duquesne you need to maintain a 3.0 or 3.2 (depending on school) to continue in the program. Much better odds considering the hard science requirements.</p>
<p>I hope this info helps. Also, all three colleges offered me great Merit money because of my GPA, ACT’s and community service etc. I would definitely take a look at the APTA website and work from there. Also, try to get in some shadowing hours with a PT - it’s looks great on application, but also some school require it - it also will confirm whether you really want to do this as a career.</p>
<p>Good Luck – it’s a great career choice – jobs galore - a 26% increase over next few years.</p>