<p>Anyone know anything about this career? Is it enjoyable with decent pay?</p>
<p>Great field--hard work, good pay ($40-70K), fantastic job market--if you obtain the DPT degree (4 yrs undergrad, 2-3 yrs grad) you basically are assured of a job, period.</p>
<p>Wife has been a PT for 25 years, still enjoys it, was able to (and still does) work part-time and raise our 2 kids. Daughter is a HS senior and has been accepted to 2 direct-entry physical therapy programs already.</p>
<p>would you reccomend the direct entry programs or the undergrad 4 years, then grad degree?</p>
<p>Good question Celeb---</p>
<p>Wife, D & myself are debating that point right now. She has been accepted so far to 2 direct entry programs. The main plus to that is she wouldn't have to apply to PT grad school, which apparently is no picnic, on a par with med school. Once you're in to a direct entry program as a freshman, as long as the wheels don't come off grade-wise, you're in for the duration, graduating after 6+ years with a clinical doctorate, the DPT, the new degree that ALL physical therapists are supposed to have by the year 2020. And in theory you save at least a half-year of tuition, room & board.</p>
<p>The downside is this--accelerated programs are tough--the student basically does 4 years of undergrad work in three years. Fine for the single-minded, hard-driving wanna-be PT, but we were told by the PT director at one of her accepted schools that she would be taking extra classes right off the bat as a freshman, and that D would have to manage her time extremely well if she wanted to participate in ANY extracurricular activities like club sports or music. Add to that the situation of one of D's friends who entered a direct-entry program out East two years ago. Within a semester she had switched over to occupational therapy and at winter break this year she came home and is now attending community college near home. And this is a smart kid too.</p>
<p>So I would examine each program on a case-by-case basis. My D's first-choice school right now, in the South, has a neat deal where the student enters as a pre-physical therapy major, with a normal course load, and once she gets the 'lay of the land', maybe taking an extra course or two but not every semester, she may enter direct-entry program at the end of the sophomore year. Seems like the best of both worlds to me.</p>
<p>Im sorry if you already addressed this jnm123, (I didn't really follow what you said before) but if I was debating between a career in law and physical therapy, would attending a 4 year university and deciding from there be a good idea?</p>
<p>thank you so much jnm123. Is there an actual pre-PT major, if you're going the way your wife did, or is it like med school where you have to take the prerequisites, but you can major in whatever you want?</p>
<p>Many universities have pre-PT majors, but no actual graduate PT school. That's fine too. The undergrad will take a lot of humanities, psych, and other pre-med type courses. But I want to make it clear that you don't have to do a pre-PT major--one can major in psych, health science, etc. Majoring in athletic training is a possibility too but the bottom line is this--for the specific grad PT school one is applying, yes, you have to have the necessary prerequisite undergrad courses.</p>
<p>Then, upon graduation, you have to apply to physical therapy grad school (about 3 years), and competition to be admitted like I said is very fierce--the good ones (top 5 are USC, Emory, Duke Pitt and WUSTL) are brutally hard to get into, but fortunately there are others.</p>
<p>jnm123 thanks for ur responses. .</p>
<p>I am curious about the type of work a PT does. Is there a lot of heavy lifting or acutal "physical" work that goes w/ it. I am not a big 5-10 150 pounds. Is that a problem?</p>
<p>I do enjoy helping people a lot, but not really use to seeing really handicapped disable people. is there patients w/ missing legs etc?</p>
<p>Thanks for your help.</p>
<p>My first choice is to become a pharmacist b/c it's a very high paying job and very clean. My second choice is PT b/c pharmacy is increidibly competitive admission. The good thing is that the prereqs are very similar.</p>
<p>If you can't deal with disabled people, I think that could be a problem. Obviously, I'm not a PT, but my mother has a couple of friends who are, and there is a difference between handicapped from birth (wheelchair, etc.) and handicapped from illness/injury (missing limbs, etc.)</p>
<p>It's not that i can't deal w. them, i just have not had any expirience being around people who have seriously injuried or handicapped. So, i don't really know how i would react etc. </p>
<p>I am kinda an athlte, somewhat, not a really successful one lol. But i was kinda hoping if i did go into PT, i would be working w/ athelete rahabing etc. I am not really sure if thats what a PT does.</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure it just depends on where you're hired. I've been around people of all handicaps my entire life, so I'm really used to it. Athlete rehab seems more like sports medicine however, unless it's something more serious.</p>
<p>You certainly have to have a mindset towards helping people, and then hopefully the rest of the uncertainty with being around disabled people will take care of itself.</p>
<p>I'm not a PT myself, just married to one and D (who is 5-2, 105 BTW) is going into it. So I don't have first-hand experience, but I've been around physical therapy for the better part of 30 years. My remarks are--from what I see, it's not THAT much heavy lifting, more massage & manipulation through leverage and isometrics. But don't think pharmacy school is any harder to get into than graduate PT school--it's a bear & a half, which is why I'd like my D to go into a direct-entry program now to bypass the app process 4 years down the road, but that will be her decision.</p>
<p>Other than Physical therapy, there are also Kinesiology majors for those who are interested in sports-related physical therapy.</p>
<p>jnm,</p>
<p>I live in California, we have only 6 pharmacy school and average admission rate is about 15%. Here are some %. <a href="http://career.berkeley.edu/Health/PharmApp.stm%5B/url%5D">http://career.berkeley.edu/Health/PharmApp.stm</a></p>
<p>While, in cali, we have a ton of PT schools. About 14. Some admitt pretty much everyone who meets the reqs. <a href="http://www.apta.org/rt.cfm/Education/accreditation/Dir_Acc_PT_ED_Prog?process=1&state=CA&type=PT%5B/url%5D">http://www.apta.org/rt.cfm/Education/accreditation/Dir_Acc_PT_ED_Prog?process=1&state=CA&type=PT</a></p>
<p>There is also a salary gap of about 25-30K from pharm to PT. </p>
<p>THats why PT is a second choice for me.</p>
<p>highschool--</p>
<p>As they say, to each his own. That salary gap you mention is really at the very top end of the salary scale--PT's max out at about $75K, while I suppose pharmacists can hit $100K. But starting out they're relatively equal. Both occupations, however, are pretty cool in that a female can get established in her field, then have kids and still work part-time at a nice hourly wage.</p>
<p>If you work in pediatrics there is no lifting, just sitting on the floor to play,do mat work; private practice PT's make well above the above mentioned salaries.The benefit too is you can make your own schedule.My D considered 5 years programs for OT but was told you basically have no life. Some of the professors said they would not have their children do it. My D wants to minor in a language and have a semester abroad so she is waiting for a grad school program. She is also not totally sure abour OT/PT or a PhD in psychology so obviously she has decided not to go with the 5 year programs she got into.</p>
<p>jnm, we meet again, I think both our D's were looking at St. Louis U. Let me know what you finally decide on. Best of luck!</p>
<p>We too have been debating the direct-entry vs. 4 years then applying again. S has been accepted to 2 direct-entries, one 6 year DPT and one 5 year MPT. At first I thought the MPT would be a financial advantage because he could finish a year earlier and get licensed just the same. But now I am beginning to wonder if this is really setting him up for problems in the future. He seems to like the school offering the MPT better. Also, this is the last year tey are offering the MPT and for next years class they will start the DPT but he can not participate because he will enter this year. </p>
<p>I have been trying to find statistics regarding REALLY how hard is it to get into the grad programs after an undergrad program. The advisors at the 4-year schools are saying it is not as bad as everyone makes it seems. I would like to find facts.</p>
<p>Any information or opinions would be helpful.</p>
<p>seenitall, we are debating the same issue, if you find info on PT program stats for grad school let me know.I may call some programs and ask them directly. Which programs are you considering for 5 yr.I am not convinced that the doctrate is neccesary as a lot of PT's I know who come out with doctrates don't have as good clinical skills.Once in the field it should come however.</p>
<p>Ithaca is the 5-year MPT program. We will be visiting next week and hope to get more information about the MPT vs. DPT at that time. </p>
<p>Duquesne is the 6-year DPT program under consideration. </p>
<p>Wheeling Jesuit is also under consideration with a 6 year DPT, although not direct entry they give significant preference to their undergrads. </p>
<p>Anyone know anything about any of these programs? or advice about MPT vs. DPT? Or facts about competitiveness for grad programs?</p>