Advice on GRE / PT School?

As I am now coming close to finishing up my undergrad and will be taking the GRE this semester I am interested in any advice any of ya’ll who have done this already can give. More specifically, things that you think helped you get into a PT program, any advice on taking the GRE, and finally if you know of some schools you want to recommend. I am still not sure on exactly which ones I will apply to so this would help. Thanks.

I don’t have any advice on PT school, but for the GRE, definitely don’t cram for the exam; it’s something you need to study for for about 3-6 months. Studying a little bit everyday helps out greatly. Buy a GRE book (I use Princeton Review), take some online practice tests (usually free if you look in the right places). If you want, you can take a class, but they are generally pretty expensive ($400-$1200). The test will cost you $130 also, so you definitely want to get your money’s worth.

Oh yeah, and buy a dictionary, if you don’t already have one. This will help you out greatly for the verbal portion of the exam.

Hope this helps, good luck with your goals.

I would say just buy a couple of books and do some practice tests. I wouldn’t do a class unless you check the book and don’t know any of the math.

Also, keep in mind that the GRE is basically just an SAT with slightly more advanced stuff on it. If you did approximately as well in college as you did in high school, then you most likely can expect to make around the same grade on the GRE as the SAT. My GRE and SAT scores were only 10 points off, for example (they used to use the same grading system, but it may be different now). If you were fine with your SAT score and didn’t bomb college, you probably don’t need to worry about how you’ll do on the GRE.

I was actually looking at what some PT schools required. One thing I noticed is volunteer hours at a physical therapy office. I would just look at what different schools require and try to cover all the bases. Good luck on the GRE.

My brother was accepted and had to decide between NYU and STonyBrook. He went with Stonybrook because of several reasons:
-Affiliated with a very respected hospital
-Cheaper tuition
-(and this was huge) finished combined Masters/Doctoral program in 3 years (classes throughout the summer as well).

Anyway, he graduated a year ago, and has been working mostly with athletes, and seems quite happy with the program he was in, and where he’s ended up

-S

I’m currently in a DPT program(in my 2nd year) at the Medical University of South Carolina. I would not recommend this program at all. I recommed the University of Saint Augustine. Their program is only 7 semesters(versus 9 for mine) and you get A LOT MORE manual therapy, bodywork type stuff that I assume you are interested in if you are on this site.

[quote]rehabman28 wrote:
I’m currently in a DPT program(in my 2nd year) at the Medical University of South Carolina. I would not recommend this program at all. I recommed the University of Saint Augustine. Their program is only 7 semesters(versus 9 for mine) and you get A LOT MORE manual therapy, bodywork type stuff that I assume you are interested in if you are on this site. [/quote]

thanks for all the advice. I did quite well on the ACT (took that instead of SAT) and have a fairly respectable GPA. I am doing volunteer work this semester and then a 200 hour internship next semester. So I just bought a GRE book and figure I’ll work through that.

Rehabman28, thanks allot. I will look into St. Augustine. Three quick questions, do you know anything about UNFs program? I have heard that all the PT schools were switching over to a Docterate program in order to allow PT’s to see walk ins. Do you know if this is correct?And also compared to your undergrad how much harder is PT school? Thanks man.