Pre-Physical Therapy
Academic Requirements - General
- Requirements vary by school and can be found at: Physical Therapy Centralized Application Service
- Check the Education section on the American Physical Therapy Association webpage
- Generally, course work should include general biology, general chemistry, general physics, human anatomy and physiology, statistics, psychology, English, and humanities
Academic Requirements - Messiah University
- Many students at MU who are certain that they want to become a physcial therapist participate in our Health, Nutrition and Exercise Science major with a Pre-Physical Therapy Concentration. For students who are not certain that they want to be PTs or would prefer another major, they generally elect the pre-health professions advising option.
Application Timeline
PT school directly after Messiah University:
- Required courses completed by end of senior year (although preference may be given to applicants who complete the required courses sooner)
- Apply late June prior to the start of senior year
Standardized Test
- Graduate Record Exam (GRE)
- Given virtually daily at computer test centers
- Register on-line
- Overall testing time for the computer-delivered GRE® General Test is about 3 hours and 45 minutes
- 3 sections : verbal (scores 200-800), quantitative (200-800), analytical writing (0-6)
- Receive scores immediately
Application Service
- The Physical Therapist Centralized Application Service (PTCAS) This is the centralized application for students wishing to apply to PT school.
- PTCAS opens in late June and applicants should apply as early as possible.
- Most schools will allow one to three outstanding courses at the time of application. (Three courses is the high end.)