Ok really how am I going to pay off these damn loans?

1. Scholarships? Few and far between. I have a scholarship for 10K/year at my school now but it just skims the surface of my $40K/year tuition. But I'm not complaining.

Board of Education of NYC provides one year of tuition in exchange for 24 months of services. If you get 2 years covered, that's 48 months. You provide services in a high-needs area of NYC. Not a bad deal if money is a real issue. Here is the application.

I'm going to try this one. Small but everything counts in small amounts! Hazing Awareness Scholarships.

APTA provides some scholarships. If one of their visions is to promote cultural diversity in the profession, they need to think about more minority scholarships (brilliant idea from one of my classmates)!

Other scholarship opportunities.

2. Pray that the loan forgiveness program comes to fruition.

3. Minimize debt. Do what you can without impacting your studies - part-time job, graduate assistant job, bring your own lunches/coffee/tea to school, consider doing research to earn scholarships, bike/walk to school.

4. Prepare. Know what you are getting yourself into. Here's a loan calculator. Be realistic about how much you will make when you are done and how long it will take to pay off your loans. This might help with planning your time in DPT school.

Picture from Forgivemystudentloans.com

Is working out a requirement for physical therapy school?

Is working out a requirement for physical therapy school? I had no impression that physical therapists had to be uber fit or had to go to the gym regularly. I volunteered at a community hospital and a sub-acute rehab center. The therapists were average, not fat, but not super fit...definitely some bellies. Basically I had no impression that I had to go to the gym as a requirement to be a physical therapist. Then I arrived at DPT school.... During the first week, my professor wanted to show us something cool so he asked for a volunteer. My classmate goes to the front of the room, takes his t-shirt off and I swear I gasped. His abs were so ripped, it looked like a xylophone. I joked with my girlfriends at home that his abs were so rock solid, it would ting if I hit it with a drum stick. You bet your bottom everyone started hitting the gym hard after that day. Me included.

With all that said, nope, I don't think you need to go to the gum regularly in order to be a PT. But in PT school, you better be confident with your body image because I spend at least 1 class a week in a skimpy tank top and shorts. Sometimes, I'm required to wear a bikini top. Ugh. No exceptions except for religious reasons.

Once you get past school, then it's just good ol' body mechanics. Making sure you are not using your arms and back when you should be using your body to work with the patient. Getting down to your patients level so you are not lifting from the back but rather those legs and core. I remember asking one of the working PTs, if she works out. She laughed at me and said "...with what time or energy."

Up to you to decide if the gym is your thing.

Photo of woman from Sydney Morning Herald.

Photo of xylophone from this site.

Does age matter?

The average age in my class is 24 years old. I'm the oldest - 30 years old. Really! I thought I would be the average age considering I'm obtaining a post-baccalaureate degree! I didn't realize how many students came straight from college. When I have conversations with my classmates, I feel like we are worlds apart.

When I see my classmates whine or worse, cry over a bad grade, I think, WOW, wait till they start working. Then they'll really have something to cry about. In my thoughts, I feel so much older and "wiser" with experience. I almost feel like its insane to cry over a grade, professor, or class. This is how I felt when I started classes.

Fast forward 6 months later, I feel so foolish for having thought this way. Age ain't nothing but a number. Though I'm somewhere between 6-9 years older than my classmates, they have impressed me with their experiences.

What they lack in years of life, they make up in applicable experience to physical therapy. From working with people with disabilities, running marathons, competing in national athletic programs, studying nutrition & exercise science in undergrad, volunteering in pediatric clinics, working as aides in outpatient clinics and trying out new sports, they have some serious experience! On top of that, I've heard some really passionate stories on why they want to be physical therapists.

So although I still think it's ridiculous to panic over bad grades, I'm not so quick to judge my peers. I certainly got knocked off of my pedestal. Humbling...

Photo from forums.beyond.ca

How will I pay back those $120K in loans?

I am a minority in my class... because I will have less than $50K in loans by the time I graduate DPT school. The majority of my classmates will have racked up loans from undergrad and now, they are maxing out their Grad Plus loans. Our tuition is $119K for the 3 years. No one said DPT would be cheap.

American Physical Therapy Association is fighting for physical therapists to be eligible for National Health Service Corps Loan Repayment Program. If you work for a qualifying undeserved community for a certain amount of years - certain loans (I'm thinking Fed loans) can be forgiven. Right now, doctors, nurses, physical assistants, midwives, psychologists, social workers qualify. But not, physical therapists...

I took time out of my busy facebook stalking schedule to fill out an email to my senator and congresswoman to support APTA in this fight. If you are an APTA member, it took me no longer than 3 minutes to do on the APTA site.

Photo from NoShootFoot Blog.

You're so cool - DPT personal statement

This is the last scene from True Romance where Alabama thinks "...my thoughts were so clear and true, that three words went through my mind endlessly, repeating themselves like a broken record: you're so cool, you're so cool, you're so cool."

"You're so cool" - here are some tips to help get this message across to admissions in your personal statement.

The personal statement is probably one of the most important components of your application. Its something you can affect. By the time you apply, you can't really change your GPA or your GRE score but you can differentiate yourself through the personal statement.

Do's...

1) Start early.
You want to be able to go through several versions & angles of the same story. Also its a good way to get the anxiety of the application process off your chest. Just do it! I was taking prerequisites for the last 4 months and a classmate who was studying to be PA told me to get started on my personal statement. I started in December and I submitted it in March. I was glad to have all that time to try out different angles and revise.

2) Make sure you are answering the right question.
When you are writing your personal statement, you are not really answering the question, why do I want to be a physical therapist? You are really answering the question, why should I choose you for my program? You are telling the admissions board, why are you so cool? So if it was a person that inspired you or recovery from an injury that inspired you, there has to be some component of the story that explains why this person or event will make you a great PT student. If you read your story and it just tells the story but does not answer the question - why am I so cool, you have to tweak the story. You have to put the words in the admission board's mouth - [Your name] is the perfect candidate for our program because [admission person pulls excerpts from your essay].

3) Have a few people read it.
Have a few people that are strong writers read it.
Have someone that knows your journey read it.

You get so caught up in your story sometimes you don't notice that you used technical PT language and the faculty member reading your essay is not a PT but the the research methods professor. Or your story doesn't make sense because its missing some background information or even worse...the essay is boring.

You are studying to be PT not a novelist so its OK to get someone to give you tips on how to making it interesting or help you edit. I hate writing so I had my best friend and boyfriend help with my essay. They are incredible writers. They helped me through the career switch so they knew what I'm trying to say or it was easy to work out what I was trying to convey. Their help made the process less stressful because I had them to bounce ideas off of.

Don'ts...

1) Don't forget about the little stuff - grammar & spelling. Seriously. Are you really going to write a killer story and screw up the grammar and spelling. Get someone with strong writing skills to review your essay.

2) Don't forget to make sure your story is relevant to the field of PT. Its weird when people write sad stories that have no relevance to PT. Its just a story of how they got through a hard time and they found PT. It keeps the reader wondering why you picked PT. I read a sample online about how Katrina changed this person's life but the author didn't make the connection WHY they chose PT. You can talk about overcoming challenges but it should not take away from "why PT."

3) Don't avoid the question. For the career changers, you probably have to explain why you switched your career if not in your essay, definitely in your interview. I wouldn't keep admissions guessing. I would try to incorporate into your essay. You want admission to feel like you chose PT. You do not want them to get the impression that you are running away from your previous career.

Also, PT schools are looking to diversify their incoming class. 50% of my class come straight from undergrad. I think writing my career switch differentiated mw from the majority of the students that were applying to PT school.

I hope this helps. Here is also a link that provides a structured approach to the personal essay.

Plan accordingly

I'm a big post-apocalyptic movie and book geek. So this was the first image I thought of when I wrote the subject line of this post "plan accordingly."

Because I did NOT plan accordingly, I was only able to apply to two schools - Long Island University and Touro College. By the time I had enough prerequisites, it was Dec 2011 and the application due dates had passed for most of the major schools. If I had just quit my job 6 months earlier and started my prerequisites then, I would have had enough completed to apply in the Fall 2010 for Summer/Fall 2011 admission for several more schools.

Know the timeline for PT applications. Start your personal essay early. Trust that the mail system will let you down and your transcript will get lost in the abyss. Build a lot of cushion into the application process.

Plan accordingly.

Prerequisites & Community College

I love the Fall. This picture has nothing to do with my post except that I started my road to prerequisites about this time last year in the Fall.

It was a plenty painful process to get my prerequisites completed. I did my undergraduate degree in apparel and textile management so I had a lot of catching up to do - I had to take 2 A&P, 2 Chemistry, 2 Physics, 2 Psychology classes. I took all these classes at a community college. It was $190/credit. At CUNY's (City University of NY), it was $280/per credit. At private schools, its about $1000/per credit. If you have to take prerequisites, take it at a community college. PT schools put more weight in overall GPA and prerequisites GPA than which school you attended. Unless you attended an ivy league school, they take that into account when looking at your GPA.

Some schools won't accept prerequisites that were taken more than 10 years ago. If you took it say 11 years ago (I would even push this if you took it 12 years ago), I would ask one of the counselors if they would accept it (bring your transcript and be prepared with your overall GPA). If you were generally a good student 3.0 and above, some schools will let it slide - make sure you get it in writing if they approve the use of a course. Never hurts to ask. I took a biology class just over 11 years ago. The director at one of the PT programs approved it as one of my prerequisites. Saved me $720 at community college and a semester's worth of work! Please note that I have more than a 3.5 GPA and went to an ivy league so this might have helped.... but boyyyy was I happy that I asked. Then I went to other schools with this information and generally they accepted it as well. I'm not guaranteeing anything but give it a whirl. You never know!