Physical Therapy Program | Application Deadline

Hunter College > Schools of the Health Professions > The School of Health Sciences > Physical Therapy

Physical Therapy (DPT)

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faq

Before Applying to the DPT program:

The PT Program holds informational sessions throughout the academic year to provide applicants with the opportunity to visit the Program and be provided with information about how to improve your candidacy for admission. Any questions you may have will be answered. Please click on "News and Events" in the upper right of each page for dates and more information.

We suggest you read and print every page on this website with links under the heading “admissions process-DPT”, especially the information about the clinical experience requirement. You should also print out and save the applicant checklist and clinical experience forms.

To help guide applicants on meeting our prerequisite requirements, print out the Applicant Checklist. We also require submission of this checklist (filled out by you) when you submit you’re supporting documents.

We require the prerequisites listed below if you are applying for our DPT curriculum. Course numbers are examples of courses offered at Hunter College.

1. Students must have completed a bachelor's degree (BA or BS) from an accredited four-year institution by the end of the spring semester prior to entry. You are not required to be a graduate of Hunter College to apply to this program. IF YOU HAVE TAKEN COURSES IN A NON-ACCREDITED INSTITUTION AND/OR YOU HAVE TAKEN COURSES OUTSIDE OF THE U.S., PLEASE READ THE STATEMENT AT THE END OF THIS PAGE!! The bachelor's degree requirement for entry is based upon the CAPTE criteria that mandates that physical therapy programs are "built on a balance of course work in social sciences, humanities, and natural sciences, which is appropriate in depth and breadth, to develop the ability in students to think independently, to weight values, to understand fundamental theory, and to develop skill for clinical practice, including critical thinking and communication."

2. Two semesters of Anatomy and Physiology, with labs (e.g., Biol. 120 & 122).

3. Two semesters of physics for science majors, with lab (e.g., General Physics; Phys 110 & 120)

4. Two semesters of chemistry for science majors, with lab (e.g., Chem 102, 103, 104, 105; if taking A & P at Hunter, Chem 100-101 & 120-121)

5. One semester of mathematics. (e.g., Math 125 (Precalculus). If you are taking this course at Hunter, you may email [nmoy@hunter.cuny.edu] to request registering for MATH 125 without the MATH 126 corequisite.

6. Two semesters of psychology. We recommend, but do not require, one semester of developmental or child psychology.

7. One semester of statistics (e.g., Stat. 113, or Statistics for Psychology majors) and;

8. One semester of English composition (e.g., Expository Writing) or its equivalent

9. Basic Life Support by the American Heart Association (212-878-5900 or www.americanheart.org) or Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Certification by the Red Cross (212-787-1000 or www.nyredcross.org). An advantage of taking CPR through the American Heart Association is renewal is every two years, not one year.

10. An undergraduate grade point average (GPA) calculated from all college courses of 3.0 or above is preferred. Applicants with a GPA below 3.0 will be considered but are less competitive for admission.

11. Documented clinical experience of at least 100 hours in the United States under the supervision of a licensed physical therapist, with a minimum of 50 hours in a hospital based or rehabilitation setting. See documented experience for additional information on meeting the Clinical Experience requirement. You cannot complete all your clinical experience in a private practice!

12. Filing of the Graduate Center of CUNY Online Application. You can use this link to access the application: Graduate Center of CUNY.   We recommend you do not download and print the application, it is an older version. The deadline is has been changed to NOVEMBER 1ST, including transcripts and clinical experience form(s).

13. The TOEFL examination is required for applicants who have not earned a bachelor's degree in an English speaking country. A score of at least 550 is required (or 213 on the Computer Based Test). Contact the Educational Testing Service, Princeton, New Jersey for information on taking this examination. Their telephone number is 609-771-7100 (web site: www.toefl.org).

14. Students who have not completed prerequisites may be conditionally accepted for the incoming class; but all requirements must be met prior to the starting date of the program in early June. You may apply during the year you are completing your requirements. Indicate on the checklist what courses are completed and what is in progress, and submit transcripts before November 1^st. We will expect updated transcripts after completion of each semester once the application is submitted. DO NOT WAIT TO SUBMIT TRANSCRIPTS UNTIL AFTER FALL GRADES ARE POSTED.

15. The GRE is required and scores must be forwarded to the Graduate Center. The Graduate Center college code number for the GRE's is 2113. We do not have a specific cutoff score required for being considered for admission. For information on the GRE, go to www.gre.org

16. Payment of the application fee is required.

Meeting these minimum requirements does not guarantee acceptance to the program, which is based, by necessity, on the limitations of space and resources. The Hunter College Physical Therapy Program is dedicated to equal opportunity for all applicants who meet admission requirements. Please read the section below which describes our acceptance process.

What type of bachelor's degree should you get:
We are often asked for advice on what type of bachelor's degree an applicant should earn. It makes no difference what your undergraduate degree is, as long as you are completing our prerequisites. You may pursue a bachelor's degree (BA or BS) in a major that suites your interests and is related to working with people and/or is related to healthcare. Our philosophy is for you to obtain a marketable undergraduate degree in an area of interest. This degree, coupled with a DPT degree upon completion of our program, will give you great credentials for working in any area of Physical Therapy and health care in the future.

Trimester schools & quarter hour credits:
Schools that use the trimester calendar award quarter hour credits for courses. One quarter credit equals 0.7 semester credits. If a course was 4 quarter credits, then it is equal to 2.7 semester credits, if the course was 5 quarter credits, then it is equal to 3.3 semester credits.

Recently, we have reviewed transcripts of students who have taken courses in institutions not accredited. These courses will not be accepted as equivalent to Hunter College courses, and will not be accepted as helping to meet the number of credits required for earning a bachelor's degree or as counting toward our prerequisites. Even if another U.S. college accepts those credits, Hunter College will not. For example, if you have taken 30 credits abroad or in the U.S. within a non-accredited institution, these credits will not be accepted by Hunter as meeting the minimum of 120 credits to have earned a bachelor's degree, even if you were granted a bachelor's degree by another college in the U.S. Be sure the credentials you are paying for are valid elsewhere.......