<p>Hi.
I am considering to go PT school with History bachelor, but can you seek the teacher certification in history while taking the Pre physical therapy classes?</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>If you don’t mind it taking you 5+ years to do so.</p>
<p>The physical therapy requirements are similar to the pre-med requirements - most DPT programs are going to want two semesters of biology and/or anatomy and physiology, two semesters of chemistry, two semesters of physics, a semester of psychology, a semester of statistics and sometimes 1-2 other courses (like other social sciences). Those are just minimum requirements; most successful DPT applicants have taken more classes like exercise physiology, kinesiology, abnormal psychology, organic chemistry, microbiology, etc.</p>
<p>In addition, you usually need to have some clinical experience (generally gained through shadowing a DPT) and a recommendation from at least one physical therapist. I chatted with a DPT student at Columbia, and she told me that she and a large proportion of her classmates actually became PTAs after their bachelor’s degrees and did that for 1-2 years before applying for the DPT program.</p>
<p>However, the education courses you need to get teacher certification are also pretty extensive - in most states like 20-30 credits, and you also need a semester of student teaching. So I would think that to do both you would need to go to undergrad for at least 5 years to finish all the requirements.</p>
<p>I think this is one of those situations in which you need to make a decision. Do you want to be a physical therapist, or do you want to be a history teacher? After all, what is the point of getting certified to teach if you want to be a PT - or vice versa?</p>