I know for a fact there are certainly a number of PT professors and practicing PT’s both in the US and Canada who will echo the sentiments I lay out within this article. I know this for a fact because I’ve talked with dozens of them over the years regarding this subject.

My hope is that, if nothing else, it is enlightening and helpful to anyone who is trying to weigh their options for which PT school they should attend and if there are any important factors that should be weighed during the process.

The quick takeaway from this article:

It doesn’t matter where you go within the US for PT school. What matters is knowing that it doesn’t matter. When you know this, you can save a ton of student loan debt by staying in-state, living at home (if possible) and not paying “prestigious” school prices. You also don’t live under the false impression that graduating from a more well-known school will leave you more well-off immediately after you graduate PT school.

Here’s the key points to know:

Key point 1: Where your diploma is printed has no bearing on how good or successful of a PT you will be.

Key point 2: The DPT curriculum is standardized across the US for all schools since your institution is CAPTE accredited. You’ll be learning the same baseline material, regardless of where you go. All PT students finish school by writing the same national examination, regardless of which school they went to.

Key point 3: Student loans can be absolutely crippling to pay back if you’re not careful, and where you go to school can vary greatly in tuition fees. There is a massive student loan crisis ongoing in the US right now. For more insight on all things pertaining to student loans, and what you can do to avoid them as much as possible, be sure to check out my article Borrowed Future: A Valuable Podcast Series for DPT Students In the US for Financial Insight on Student Loans

Key point 4: Patients don’t care which PT school you went to – they care about if you’re invested in their well-being and if you can help them get out of pain and/or regain function. As long as they know that you have a license and have passed the same national board exam that all other PT students must pass, where you went to school doesn’t matter to them.

Key point 5: A DPT degree in the US is bloody expensive. Sometimes you just need to get in SOMEWHERE, and so you don’t have a choice for where to attend. But, if you have the choice between multiple schools, consider the option that leaves you with the least student debt possible.

Key point 6: Don’t freak out if you didn’t get into your dream school and now need to attend “another” school. Attending a different school won’t leave you any worse off in terms of what you’ll learn or what future employers may think.

I will elaborate on all of these points below, so be sure to keep on reading!

If you need more information on a breakdown of the number of PT schools by state within the US

Before we dive into the article, I thought I’d mention that if you’re looking for more information as to how many PT schools there are within the US, which states have the most PT schools, and which have the least, be sure to check out my article Which States in the US have the Most PT Schools?

Why the topic of where you attend PT school is an important one

A DPT degree in the US is astronomically expensive and many students are under the belief that paying more to attend a prestigious school will leave them better off than those who don’t. Racking up as little student debt as possible should be a primary goal for any candidate student.

Lastly, some PT candidates erroneously think that if they don’t get into their dream school or top few choices that going to a “lesser” school will reflect poorly on their resume or somehow hamper their future career opportunities. This is certainly not the case, and I will do my best within this article to make it clear as to why.

Key point 1: Where your diploma is printed has no bearing on how good or successful of a PT you will be.

Please don’t fall for the trap that your future employability as a PT will be either limited or enhanced based solely on which institution you attend (key point 2 will further elaborate as to why).

Your success as a PT is NOT dictated by where your diploma is printed ( i.e. which school you graduated from). Your success is dictated by how hard you’re willing to work, network, and continually pursue further knowledge and understanding towards all areas within your specialty after you graduate and pass your board exam(s).

You can graduate from a prestigious school and if you’re not willing to put in your time towards continued learning and development after graduating, you wont be anything special to an employer who interviews a graduate from a school they haven’t heard of. This is because any potential employer will understand that PT school is designed to simply get you to the starting line.

If you graduate PT school and pass your board exam, a potential employer will know that you’re smart. And that’s what they EXPECT to see. What they WANT to see in addition to having a license is hunger. And any employer will take a hungry student with passion and work ethic from some “unknown” school over a student from a prestigious school who hasn’t shown any evident hunger since graduation.

Bottom line: It’s your work ethic hunger and willingness to continually learn that will impress employers and turn heads, not the school that you graduated from.

Key point 2: The DPT curriculum is standardized across the US for all schools since your institution is CAPTE accredited.

Understanding that the CAPTE (The Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education) has a mandated curriculum across all schools is an important fact to know.

CAPTE is an agency that is recognized across the US in its accreditation process for PT Schools. According to their website, CAPTE is recognized by both the US Department of education along with the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. Essentially, all schools that want to be recognized with the status of being qualified for entry-level education programs for PT’s within the US need to be CAPTE accredited.

Any CAPTE accredited PT program within the United States has a standard baseline of courses that need to be covered, with the end result being you passing the NPTE board exam. This means that a standard curriculum of material must be covered, regardless of which PT school you attend.

While there will be unique differences in some courses (such as electives offered), and who your professors are, etc., the vast majority of the curricula you will cover will be of the same topics and areas of practice as the next PT school in the US.

Yes, there are always some exceptions to certain extents, but the NPTE board exam covers the same topics and materials for students across the US, and your school’s job is to prepare you to be able to pass the NPTE exam.

Think of it this way: The job of the institution you attend and its PT program is to essentially make sure all the students get to the starting line of the race (graduating & passing the NPTE in order to enter practice) – the actual race you run is what happens after you graduate, which is the point at which you can pursue continuing education and enhance your skill sets on your own terms.

Remember: If you want to excel as a PT, the real learning begins AFTER school

In my personal opinion, PT school trains you up good enough not to hurt anyone. That’s a bit of a tongue in cheek remark, but what I’m trying to say is that the real learning begins after school, and is up to you as a new grad to make it happen.

This is not a slight against the school – they have a large amount material that the CAPTE mandates be taught, and essentially very little time to do it. As a result, you get spread pretty thin in your PT abilities in school due the breadth of material you need to be taught and shown.

As a result, if you want to excel in your clinical practice and career, it comes down to how hungry you are to now make a name for yourself as you begin to master your area of practice. Everyone graduates with the same base-level PT courses/education, regardless of which school you attend.

Key point 3: Student loans can be absolutely crippling to pay back if you’re not careful.

The average price of program tuition for a DPT student in the US at a public PT school is about $75,000. At a private school, it goes up to around $100,000.

Now, if every PT school teaches you the same material in order to pass the same board exam, but some schools can cost $25,000 more than others, then does it really make financial sense to go to the more expensive school?Now, every student’s financial situation heading into PT school will be different, which must be acknowledged. Some have help from parents or other means to fully cash-flow their entire tuition (i.e. paying cash for every semester without the need to take out loans).

Other students won’t have a single dollar’s worth of help from others. And, many students will fall somewhere in-between on the spectrum of non-loan financial assistance (I fell in-between on the spectrum).

Regardless of whether you attend a public or private PT school, neither of them are cheap options. And if you graduate north of the 65k marker for student loans, you’re looking at making monthly loan repayments around $700 per month for around ten years! And with an interest rate of around 6%, you’ll be paying back over $10k just in interest if you make the minimum payment every month.

This type of debt can seriously delay your future, and delaying your future even further just to go to a “prestigious” school won’t offer a better return on your investment. To learn all about the student loan crisis in America, along with what yo can do to minimize student loan debt, be sure to check out my article Borrowed Future: A Valuable Podcast Series for DPT Students In the US for Financial Insight on Student Loans.

The fact is that you’re not free when you owe someone or some entity money.

Then of course on top of tuition fees you have to factor in expenses involved with school, such as transportation, food, required materials and potentially rent if you move out of state or away from home.

The best ways to save money throughout PT school are to:

• Stay in-state (you’ll have lower tuition rates as an in-state student)
• Live at home (if possible)
• Apply for scholarships every day like it’s your job
• Live the broke-student lifestyle while you’re in school so that you don’t have to live it for the next decade after you’ve graduated.

The bottom line: If finances or location are of no concern to you, go wherever you’d like for school. But if finances are a concern, try to stay in-state and live at home (if this is an option for you). The difference these factors can make in tuition fees and loans can be substantial.

Key point 4: Your patients couldn’t care less what school you went to. They care about if you’re invested in their well-being and if you can get them out of pain and/or regain function

You could be a student who graduated from a very “prestigious” PT school with a 4.0 GPA, but if you can’t show compassion to your patients and can’t get them out of pain and/or help them regain function, then your GPA and school status serve no function. Not to mention, you won’t have a long or successful career as a PT.

Conversely, you could graduate from a school not all that well-known and with an average GPA, but if you’re able to show your patients that you care about them and can get them out of pain and/or regain function, you will begin to develop a truly successful career as a PT.

Bottom line: Your patient results will determine your success, not the school you attended. Additionally, your patient results will be largely determined by you willingness to keep learning, growing and pushing yourself after you’ve graduated from PT school.

Key point 5: Sometimes you just need to get in SOMEWHERE, and so you don’t have a choice for where to attend.

I’m not naive enough to think that everyone who applies to PT school can go to the most inexpensive school possible. Sometimes applicants apply to multiple schools but only get accepted into one. And sometimes it just so happens that the school you got accepted to is not the cheapest one.

Hopefully all the schools you wind up applying to are the least expensive options for you. But maybe you live in a state like Wyoming, Alaska or Hawaii in which there are no PT schools. You’ll have no choice but to be an out-of-state student and won’t be able to live at home while attending in order to save money.

Celebrate the fact that you got accepted, especially if you have your heart fully set on becoming a PT. Just be aware that you’ll need to be extra diligent when attending school in order to keep your debt to an absolute minimum.

From there on out, all the same rules are still in effect: Work hard in school, and remember that graduation is the point at which you’ve reached the starting line for now beginning to separate yourself from other new grads, regardless of which schools they all went to.

Key point 6: Don’t stress if you didn’t get accepted to your dream school and now must go “somewhere else”

Sometimes PT applicants get bummed out and even freaked out when they didn’t get accepted into their “dream” school, largely because they fear that going to a “lesser” school will somehow tarnish their career profile.

What will tarnish your career profile is thinking that you’re going to instantly be better than other PT graduates from other schools just because you went to a more prestigious school (i.e. went to a school that costs a lot more). Now, a PT grad from a prestigious school certainly has the potential to become better than other PT graduates, but only with the willingness to continually hone in and perfect their craft over the next number of years throughout clinical practicing and continuing education.

If you had your eyes set on a more prestigious/expensive PT school and now need to go to a “lesser” school, consider it a blessing in disguise.

Remember, once PT students pass the NPTE, they’re all now at the same starting line for their career. PT school just brings everyone to that same particular starting line.

What about what potential employers might think?

Theoretically, your potential employers will themselves be physical therapists, which means they will understand the same points I’m making within this article.

Since my days of being a PT student, I’ve always asked professors and fellow clinicians on their thoughts about the subject matter within this blog post. My professors in the US, my clinical instructors (CI’s) on my clinical rotations (some were in the US, some were in Canada) and my current team I currently work with here in Canada all echo a universal theme: Just graduate in good-standing from somewhere and as long as you keep your passion to work hard, you will be just fine.

You’re likely to be hired by a therapist or team of therapists who have walked this same road you currently find yourself on. And chances are some of these individuals are likely still paying back their student loans to this day. One of my CI’s during one of my rotations was still paying his back well after 10 years of being in clinical practice.

Concluding remarks

Don’t fall for the lie that the success of your PT career is dependent upon which school you go to, because it isn’t. Your success is determined by the combination of how passionate you are to continually grow both personally and professionally while retaining the ability to show empathy and compassion for the patients you treat. The better you can alleviate or eliminate pain while restarting function within those whom you treat, the better your career will be, both by reputation as well as financially.

PT schools across the US are mandated to teach the same academic curriculum in order to prepare every student – regardless of which school they attend – to write the same national board exam in order to obtain licensure within the US to practice as a PT. Essentially, PT school is designed to get students to the starting line. 

The race you choose to run after graduation is the one that will determine whether or not you end up where you want in regards to clinical practice.

There are many great options that you can (and should) take when determining which PT school you should attend, and these decisions can save you thousands upon thousands of dollars in debt when it comes to making the right choice. If you can, attend a public institution rather than a private one as this alone can save you tens of thousands of dollars. Stay in-state and live at home if you have the option to do so.

Your future is up to you, and it’s much easier to craft the future you dream of when you aren’t crippled by student loan debt simply because you were under the belief that attending a more “prestigious” institution would immediately open up more doors than a lesser-known school.

Get into school, preferably a less-expensive one, live the tight-budget student lifestyle, graduate, and work your butt off thereafter. If you do this, you’ll run a race that outpaces other new grads, and you’ll have much less student loan debt weighing you down as you do so.

No, it doesn’t matter which PT school in the US that you attended, as long as it is CAPTE accredited, go with the cheapest option possible. What matters is what comes afterwards. And what comes afterwards is hard work and a resulting career that will stand out from the others. Oh, and a future that is more rewarding, less debt-ridden and yours for the taking.

Be smart and grind hard. You got this.