Pre-Physical-Therapy

What Is a Physical Therapist?

Physical therapists are health care professionals who specialize in helping patients to alleviate pain and improve mobility. They frequently work with athletes, the elderly, injured veterans, and people recovering from surgery or injury.

The Path to Becoming a Physical Therapist

First, a Bachelor's Degree

To become a physical therapist, you must first complete a bachelor's degree. This is a separate step, requiring that you choose a major and complete general education requirements. This is different from the system in many other countries, in which health care professionals are on a professional track from the moment they graduate high school. The U.S. system values applicants who have gained a broad education, and who have successfully committed themselves to in-depth study of some particular topic, whether biology or history or exercise science. The point is to show your ability to learn and excel, rather than to complete a narrow preparation for a specific profession..

You must also complete specific prerequisite courses.

After you receive your bachelor's, you will go on to a graduate program in physical therapy to receive a doctorate of physical therapy, often abbreviated D.P.T.

To Gap or Not to Gap

A "gap year" is a year between completing your undergraduate degree and beginning optometry school. Taking a gap year has the following benefits:

• Allows more time to complete coursework necessary for the OAT (see below)
• Usually results in a higher science G.P.A. at time of application
• Full-time work during the gap year can allow money to be saved for use during optometry school
• Provides a break from schooling!

If you are not taking a gap year, you need to take the Optometry Admission Test (OAT) by the summer after your junior year. The OAT covers (along with reading comprehension and quantitative reasoning) material from courses on general biology, general chemistry, organic chemistry, and physics, so to avoid a gap year you will need to complete these courses by the end of your junior year.

If you are taking a gap year, you will typically take the OAT in the summer of your graduation year.

The Application Process

The application process typically begins nearly two years before you plan to enter optometry school, in the Fall semester of your senior year (if taking a gap year) or junior year (if not taking a gap year). At that time, you let us know that you'd like a "committee letter" (the deadline is Nov. 30). A committee letter is a kind of summary of all the arguments in favor of your admission to optometry school, written for you by faculty at Lehman. As part of the process of creating the committee letter, you will provide us with letters of recommendation, a personal statement, and answers to our supplementary questionnaire. We will also interview you. Note: this part of the process is not competitive! Everyone who takes at least five of their core pre-optometry prerequisites at Lehman is eligible for a committee letter. The application and interview are so that we can understand you and your background better, and thus write a more effective letter on your behalf. This process will continue through the Spring semester.

In the summer following your senior (if taking a gap) or junior (if not) year, you will take the OAT.

You then apply through OptomCAS, a centralized admissions system. Optometry schools admit students on a rolling basis, so it's best to apply early in the cycle, perhaps in August.

After you apply to OptomCAS and specify the schools you are interested in, you will usually be invited to complete "supplementary" or "secondary" applications for those schools. These supplementaries request more information, in part to make sure you are serious about that particular school.

Once your supplementaries are in, you will (hopefully!) be invited to some schools for interviews. Interviews typically take place in the fall or winter prior to when you'll start attending optometry school.

After interviews, you finally get to find out who accepted you--hopefully you'll have the happy dilemma of choosing between acceptances!

Optometry School

Once in optometry school, it is very likely you'll end up being an optometrist. Most people accepted to optometry school graduate, pass their licensing exams, and become practicing optometrists.

The first two years of optometry school are usually "didactic," meaning that you'll take courses. The next two years are "clinical," involving working with optometrists and patients directly.

At the end of four years, you graduate as an optometrist.

In order to practice optometry, you also need to pass certain exams.

Some optometrists go on to complete a one-year residency, particularly if they'd like to further specialize. While you are a resident, you are a paid, practicing optometrist, but you're under supervision.

Prerequisite Courses

Regardless of your major, there are certain courses you must complete in order to gain admission to most optometry schools. These requirements vary a bit from school to school, so it's a good idea to check the particular requirements of schools you are considering appling to well before graduation.

Below is a list of some of the more commonly required prerequisite courses. For more detailed information, contact the pre-health advisor.

Required by Nearly all D.P.T Programs

Required by Many D.P.T Programs

Timeline

Below is an example of a timeline for a hypothetical student, Maria. Maria is planning to take a gap year and decides to major in psychology. She entered without a strong math background. Your timeline will be somewhat different, because you're not Maria. (Or if your name is Maria, you're not this Maria.) You'll almost certainly take some different courses than Maria did. Be sure to consult with your pre-health advisor to decide what's right for you. Still, Maria's timeline should give you a sense of how it can all work out.