If you’re considering Physical Therapy school, have applied, or have been recently accepted and find yourself wondering what life in PT school may be like, then fear not! This blog post has you covered for some of the most commonly asked questions regarding this subject.

While physical therapy school can be quite a different experience from one individual to the next, there are some good general answers that can be applied to various questions when it comes to the PT school experience. This article will cover answers to these questions.

Having gone through the PT school experience myself, and having spent the last half-decade of my life hanging around various physical therapy students and physical therapists, I feel that there are some easily generalizable answers that can be given for commonly asked questions.

That being said, keep in mind that life circumstances and characteristics of every PT student will create a unique lens through which each student views their experience regarding this matter. The answers that I give pertaining to these questions are written in a generalizable context and will hopefully give you a decent, brief answer for each query.

I have given answers to these commonly asked questions further below within this article, so be sure to keep on reading!

The quick overview of commonly asked questions about PT school

• Do you stay busy in PT school? If so, how busy?
• Is PT school like undergraduate studies?
• Is the material covered in PT school hard?
• Is PT school stressful? If it is, how can I make it less stressful?
• What courses do you take in PT school?
• Do you have time to work a job while in PT school?
• How do I begin preparing for PT school?
• Do you get paid for your clinical rotations?
• What are clinical rotations like?
• How do I prepare for clinical rotations?
• Does it actually matter which PT school I attend?

Do you stay busy in PT school? If so, how busy?

We might as well start off with the question that is likely to be the most universally agreed upon answer within this post. The answer is a resounding “yes”. Whether students find PT school hard, or they find it easy, they (and everyone in between) will likely attest that you will stay very busy as a PT student. School can be easy but still keep you busy. Same if it’s hard.

While some semesters are busier than others, even during the lighter semesters you’ll have lectures, labs, written exams, practical exams, assignments and have to study. This means you will indeed find your free time to be precious. Remember: you can’t just hope to scrape by with your courses. It can be easy to get dismissed from the program if you don’t keep your grades up, and if you struggle in your initial classes, the classes that follow will likely only become even more challenging.

What this all means for you: Whether you’re an all-star student or someone who has to grind extra hard to stay afloat with your academics, if you’re headed into PT school (or have just started), be prepared to stay busy. It’s part of the game you’re playing when singing up for PT school.

With that being said, there’s some great things you can do to help yourself out when it comes to making life a bit easier on yourself despite how busy you’re likely to stay.For starters, getting the most out of your study time can help to decrease the sense of how busy you’re staying. For that, check out my blog post: Six Study Tips for PT Students That Work for ANY PT Course.

It’s not all doom and gloom when it comes to the busyness of school. As long as you’re making smart use of your time through good time management skills, you’ll more than likely stay on top of things. Just be smart with your time and you’ll come out on top.

Is PT school like undergraduate studies?

This question perhaps has the greatest variability for an answer in terms of it being the least non-universally agreed upon answer. Some students consider it to be a lot like their undergraduate studies, albeit it a busier version. Others find it to be different due to the academic demands and the volume, speed and complexity at which information is covered.

Here is the biggest way in which PT school is absolutely different from undergraduate studies: Unlike undergraduate studies where you write a bunch of final exams for each course and then can largely forget the material forever, you can’t do this in PT school.

The reason being is that when you finish your courses and take each respective final exam, you need to realize that you will need to recall a high level of information for each one of those courses when it comes time to write the National Physical Therapy Exam (NPTE) for licensure after graduating from your program.

This not only means that you need to have a good grasp on the material in order to pass each course, but also to pass the national board exam as well. This is something that simply does not happen with your undergraduate studies.

Is the material covered in PT school hard?

With great variability for this answer, the shortest and most universal answer is that while not every student finds the material overly challenging (but many do), most students will attest that the material becomes more challenging due to the pace at which one must learn and master the content as new content is quickly given to build upon thereafter.

There’s also a largely universal answer in that the two most challenging courses are gross anatomy and clinical neuroscience. Both the courses present large volumes of material in relatively short timeframes, also while taking additional courses simultaneously.

To learn more about the unique demands of these two courses, I’ve written a blog post detailing all sorts of additional information. To check it out, click on the link to my blog post, What Are the Hardest Courses for Students in PT School?

Is PT school stressful? If it is, how can I make it less stressful?

The vast majority of students who have successfully managed to make it through PT school and into clinical practice would likely tell you that PT school will likely be stressful at one point or another, if not on a semi-regular or regular basis.

The key to this is understanding that PT school can become stressful for a number of different reasons other than just the academic portion itself. There are gnarly amounts of stress that can arise from financial loans/general financial situations, academic situations AND/OR situations outside of school. That last point is key – just because you’re in PT school doesn’t mean life outside of school stops.

The good news? There’s some great ways you can help yourself out and take care of stress before it arises or to nip it in the bud before it gets out of control. If you’re curious for the details pertaining to this, head on over to my blog post: How PT Students Can Manage and Reduce Stress in School.

What courses do you take in PT school?

There’s a variety of courses that you’re going to have to go through when it comes to PT school. The vast majority of coursework (and their subsequent material) are standardized across the US for all PT schools. This is done in order to ensure that PT students are presented with the curricula and experience that they need in order to be ready for the National Physical Therapy Examination (known as the NPTE), which is the national board exam required for a physical therapist within the United States to obtain licensure and begin clinical practice.

If you’d like a solid break down of the courses that you’ll take in PT school, along with the material and topics that they tend to cover, you can read my in-depth blog post that I’ve written pertaining to this exact topic: What Courses do DPT Students in the US Take in PT School?

Do you have time to work a job while in PT school?

When it comes to working a part-time job outside of school hours, it can be a tough decision for individuals to make. There’s no one universal answer to this question since it depends on a myriad of unique factors pertaining to your own individual circumstances.

The good news is that I’ve written an extensive blog post in which I give you a bunch of insight and questions to ask yourself in order to help make the decision that’s best for YOU! To read the article, check it out here: How to Know if You Should Work a Job While in School.

In the article, I really attempt to break down ways in which you can gain confidence in knowing that you’re making the best decision possible for whether to work or not, as well as ways in which you can leverage your work situation should you choose to go ahead with working some hours outside of school.

How do I begin preparing for PT school?

If you’ve been accepted into PT school and are wondering what you can (or should) do in order to get yourself ready for school, I commend you for having the ambition to wanting to get a jump start on things. That ambition will serve you well throughout your time in school and make life easier as a result.

While I won’t go into large details with where or how you may want to consider beginning to get ready for the program, I’ll quickly mention that your best first steps are to start studying your anatomy, coming up with a financial budget and start to track down and stockpile all sorts of academic resources that you can come back to when needed later on down the road.

If you want more preparation tips and additional insight for each tip, check out my blog post: How to Prepare for PT School: Five Smart Steps to Take. It will serve as a great stating point for helping you understand some good initial steps to take for getting prepared. They’re by no means the only steps to take, but will help you get started with the important things.

Do you get paid for your clinical rotations?

Applicants and potential students often want to know if PT students get paid when on their clinical rotations. For those that may not know, clinical rotations are a requirement of PT school, for which students complete a specified number of hours and weeks throughout different physical therapy clinics. While the exact requirements can vary from school to school, students typically spend over 30 weeks working full-time throughout their collective sum of rotations.

While there are currently talks within the profession for moving to a model of students receiving compensation for their clinical hours, students within the US are currently not paid for their rotations. To rub salt on that wound, students actually have to pay tuition fees in order to partake in these rotations.

So, you’re likely to instead hear professors and other professionals give the answer “you’ll paid in work experience.” Whether or not you like that answer or is up to you.

It’s worth quickly noting that there may be the occasional clinic that will offer you financial compensation, however this is not very common and your institution may revoke that clinic from being eligible to take you as an intern student if they become aware of this (this happened to one of the students in my cohort when I was in PT school).

What are clinical rotations like?

Schools often have a few key differences from one to the next in terms of how clinical rotations are implemented. Some schools save all rotations until the final year of PT school, by which point these students have covered approximately 95% of all their didactic curricula for the program.

Other schools break up clinical rotations between the second and third year of school, so that some rotations are performed before a certain amount of didactic curricula is actually covered. You will need to check with your institution as to which method your school uses.

With the combined length of rotations usually around 35 weeks, some schools split rotations rather evenly across the board, with each rotation being around 8 or 9 weeks. My School (D’Youville) split our four rotations into 6-weeks, 8-weeks, 8-weeks and 12-weeks. Some schools have a rotation that can last up to 16-weeks in length, so it ultimately depends on the institution you attend in regards to how the rotations are split up.

Some rotations might be enjoyable, others might not be

For the actual rotations, the experiences can vary depending on the type of student you are and the type of placements you wind up working. They’ll likely be challenging in one capacity or another. The variability in this really depends on the characteristics of the student as much as the clinical placement itself.

Some clinical environments may not be your preferred setting (you’ll be required to do both inpatient and outpatient settings), and some clinics or clinical instructors may have different ways of running a clinic and/or treating patients than what you may be familiar with or even agree with. This is where professional tongue-biting comes in, provided that there’s nothing illegal occurring.

Conversely, you may very well have clinical placements that you fall in love with and fit right in with. This is pretty common, and certainly seems to make the placement go by rather quickly when this occurs. Again, it all just really depends on the features of the student and the clinic.

How do I prepare for clinical rotations?

When the time comes to step foot into your first clinical placement, you want to make sure that you get off to a great start, know what to expect and how to maximize all aspects of each and every one of your clincal experiences. It’s important to know that some clinicals will likely be more enjoyable than others. Some students love each and every one of their placements, but many have one or two that they don’t enjoy as much.

There’s a few keys to keep in mind when preparing for clinicals. For starters, remember that clinicals are a marathon, not a sprint (especially if your school has you do them all consecutively in your final year). Hard work is also part of game, along with remembering that your job is ultimately to learn, not to impress others with what you know.

The bottom line: If you play your cards right with proper preparation, you can enjoy your clinicals a lot more, get more out of each one and even walk away with job offers when all is said and done. If you want to learn how to make this all happen, it’s listed in my blog post: Five Hot Tips for Crushing Your Clinical Placements in PT School.

Does it actually matter which PT school I attend?

Nope. Not at all. While some may disagree, in the grand scheme of things, it simply doesn’t matter. I have written a very extensive blog post on this, so if you want to know all the details as to why it’s a faulty belief to think that one PT school will better prepare you or leave you in a better situation than another, check it out here: Does it Really Matter Which PT School in the US You Attend?

Here’s the quick answer you need to know: All PT schools within the US are CAPTE-accredited, and therefore teach the exact same curriculum since the end goal of the program is to have their students be able to successfully pass the National Physical Therapy Examination (NPTE) for licensure.

With all students writing the same exam regardless of the PT institution they attended, and all institutions being CAPTE-accredited, your objective should be attending a school that will be the least expensive option possible. If money is no issue to you, then by all means go to whichever school you’d like. For the rest of the students (i.e. the vast majority), minimizing student loans and not being a slave to debt should take priority over which school you choose.

Concluding remarks

While there are plenty of questions that individuals may have towards life in PT school, the questions within this article tend to be some of the more common ones that are asked around online in various forums on the internet, or in person by hopeful students.

It’s important to remember that by nature we’re all going to have different experiences and perceptions of all things pertaining to life within PT school. Nonetheless, I’m confident that the answers given to the questions within this article would be supported by the majority of PT students when considering them to be “generally agreed upon answers”.

Aside from the generalized answers provided within this article and the numerous other blog post links you can click on for further specific information, it’s worth finding other physical therapists and physical therapy students (either in person or online) that you can reach out to for further information regarding all facets of the PT school experience.