Application Requirements for Fall 2013

An applicant must:

• have received (or will receive by the end of the Summer 2013 semester) a baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university;
  
  
• have completed ten (10) of the twelve (12) prerequisite courses by the end of fall semester, 2012. The two (2) remaining courses must be completed in the Spring 2013 and/or Summer 2013 semester (a maximum of one (1) of these courses may be completed during the summer);
  
  
• have a minimum GPA of 2.5 for the last 60 semester units of your baccalaureate degree, to meet minimum requirements of CSU’s Office of Graduate Studies Graduate Application;
  
  
• have a minimum GPA of 3.00 in the prerequisite coursework, with grades of C or better in each course to meet the requirement for the Department of Physical Therapy’s DPT program. A grade of C- is not acceptable. Coursework intended to fulfill pre-requisite requirements must closely match subject, course level [e.g. “introductory”, “general or college”, “upper division”], semester unit value, and lab requirement. Coursework submitted to fulfill pre-requisites that does not closely match descriptions may be rejected. See REPEAT POLICY below regarding calculating GPA for repeats.        

• GPA Calculator

Prerequisite Course REPEAT POLICY: 

Grades from any and all courses taken to fulfill each prerequisite will be considered in calculating your GPA.

• If a course was taken twice (2), only the higher course grade will be used.
  
  
• If a course is taken three (3) times, the grades from each will be averaged.
  
  
• If a course was taken four (4) times to complete one required prerequisite, then the applicant will be disqualified.

A course is considered a “repeat” even if it is taken at a different university, or has a different course number from the same university.

Doctor of Physical Therapy program applicants must apply online to the following two applications: 

1. Physical Therapist Centralized Application Service (PTCAS) online application (apply online at http://www.ptcas.org/)
   Deadline:  December 3, 2012
2. CSU’s Office of Graduate Studies’ Graduate Application (apply online through CSU Mentor http://www.csumentor.edu/)
   Deadline: December 3, 2012

Submit official transcripts from all colleges and universities that you have attended with your PTCAS Application and CSU Graduate Application 

Complete and verify on PTCAS a minimum 100 total hours of observation/work/volunteer experience in at least two different physical therapy settings, under the direct supervision of a licensed physical therapist.  PTCAS will ask you to select “TYPE OF EXPERIENCE” as either “Inpatient”, “Outpatient” or “Both”.  Inpatient refers to treating patients who are admitted overnight at the facility. In addition, PTCAS will also ask you to specify one or more SETTINGS.  Please read the PTCAS descriptions of the settings carefully. The inpatient settings include: Acute Care, Rehab/Sub-Acute Care Facility, and Extended Care/Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF).  The outpatient settings are: Outpatient clinic, School/Pre-school, Wellness/Prevention/Fitness and Industrial/Occupational Health. Specialty area observed does not indicate settings.  Each setting should have at least twenty-five (25) hours of exposure.  For example, 75 hours in an Outpatient type (i.e. Outpatient clinic setting), and 25 hours in an Inpatient type facility (i.e. SNF setting) would fulfill this requirement.   All PT experience hours must be completed by December 3, 2012.

Submit two (2) Recommendation Forms from U.S. or Canadian licensed physical therapists and one (1) from a college level professor with your PTCAS Application.

Submit Graduate Record Examination (GRE) scores (verbal, quantitative, and analytical writing) by December 3, 2012 [School Code: 4671 and Department Code: 7588]. You must have a GRE analytic score of at least 3.5 to be considered for admission. There are no minimum threshold requirements for the verbal and quantitative scores. We accept either the revised GRE or the older (prior to 7/1/11) GRE from the last 5 years.

Applicants who do not possess a bachelor's degree from a post-secondary institution, where English is the principal language, must demonstrate competency in English by scoring a minimum of 550 (213 if computer-based) on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). Submit those scores with your PTCAS Application and CSU Graduate Application

Submit a letter from the director of your previous physical therapy program designating your academic standing (if applicable).

Applicants with Foreign Documents: Domestic applicants applying with transcripts from outside the U.S. must complete  8 units of the prerequisite course work listed in the DPT Supplemental Application by the end of fall semester 2012 and have references from two (2) U.S. or Canadian licensed physical therapists. Domestic applicants with foreign transcripts must submit their transcripts by November 1, 2012 to the Office of Graduate Studies to allow verification time.

NOTE to International Applicants (F-1 Student Visas only):

• A fourth step and application is required of International applicants. Please review the CSU, Sacramento international application procedures at http://www.csus.edu/oge/international-admissions/Intlwelcome.html International applications are due to the Office of International Admissions by January 5, 2013. International students must complete by the end of fall semester 2012 8 units of the prerequisite coursework listed in the DPT Supplemental Application at a U.S. accredited college or university, and must have references from two (2) U.S. or Canadian licensed physical therapists. Please also see the communication competencies in the  DPT Program Essential Functions and Technical Standards
• IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER NOTE: If you will require an F-1 Visa to attend the University, you should be aware that Immigration and Naturalization within the United States Department of Homeland Security requires specific types of certification and licensure for each degree program before the university can issue SEVIS I-20s.  Because we just recently were approved to become a Doctoral Program, our University is currently applying for approval by Immigration to issue I-20s for this new program.  This process is a lengthy one and we wanted to alert F-1 Visa students that while we are willing to process your application, if the PT department admits you, we cannot commit to a specific date when we will have approval to admit international F-1 Visa students to this program.

SELECTION PROCEDURES

All application materials are reviewed by the Admissions Committee to rank applicants. Points are assigned for the prerequisite coursework GPA, recommendation forms from two (2) licensed U.S. or Canadian physical therapists and one (1) college level professor, the GRE writing (analytic) score and additional background criteria. The 60-80 highest ranked applicants will be invited for a panel interview. The top thirty-two (32) applicants, along with alternates, will be notified of their status within two weeks of the final interviews.