Physical Therapy

Bachelor's Degree

All Applicants must have a bachelor's degree. No specific field of study is required. Students are encouraged to select undergraduate majors consistent with their individual abilities and interests; however, the required courses in some majors such as biology and exercise science are more consistent with the specific DPT prerequisites. Students in other majors may have to complete more credit hours than the minimum required for graduation.

* Applicants must have an overall GPA score of 3.0 or higher to apply. Overall GPA Includes concurrent high school, undergraduate, and graduate credits.

Prerequisite Courses

IMPORTANT: Satisfactory completion with a letter grade of B or higher in all prerequisite courses are required for admission to the DPT program. All prerequisite courses must be completed before the start of the Summer I semester.

• Medical Terminology (1 to 3 credits - Must be taken from an accredited college or university)
• Statistics (3 credits)
• General Physics I (4 credits - Must include lab)
• General Physics II (4 credits - Must include lab)
• Anatomy & Physiology I (4 credits - Must include lab)
• Anatomy & Physiology II (4 credits - Must include lab)

**Exception:  Due to COVID-19, students receiving “Credit” for a prerequisite course in Spring 2020, will be eligible to apply for the DPT program in Spring 2025.

APPLYING TO THE DPT PROGRAM

Arkansas State University's DPT program subscribes to the Physical Therapist Centralized Application Service (PTCAS). Applicants for admission to the A-State DPT program MUST apply online using the PTCAS application. In addition, students must also apply online to the A-State Graduate School. Transcripts and GRE scores must be sent to both PTCAS and A-State's Graduate School (see links below).

The deadline for having a completed and verified application in PTCAS is February 1st. Applicants are encouraged to begin the application process well in advance of this deadline. You may choose to apply to the A-State graduate school once you have been accepted into the DPT program. When you do apply to the A-State graduate school, they will need separate official GRE scores and official transcripts.

Applying to PTCAS

To learn more about the PTCAS application process and to get started, please go to the https://portal.ptcas.org/. Information about the A-State Graduate School application is included as "supplemental material" on the PTCAS website. If you encounter difficulty with PTCAS, please contact their Customer Service at 617-612-2040 or ptcasinfo@ptcas.org .

Once a student has submitted an application through PTCAS, the transcript information is verified by PTCAS. This process takes time and depends both on the efficiency of PTCAS and the speed with which your schools respond to the inquiries from PTCAS. A-State will accept complete and verified applications from PTCAS until February 1st.

If PTCAS has not completed the verification process by February 1st, the application will not be considered, even if it was submitted by the February 1st deadline. Therefore, applicants are strongly encouraged to submit their applications well before the deadline to ensure that the verification process will be completed by the deadline. The DPT program requires the GRE scores for admissions.   All prerequisites must be completed at the time of graduation.

***Students must send GRE scores to PTCAS (code #4108) AND A-State Graduate School (code #6011).

The Department of Physical Therapy will notify applicants of admission status after February 1st.

Applying to the A-State Graduate School

To apply to the A-State Graduate School, simply complete the online application on their website.  You will be prompted for the program in which you wish to apply for on the application.

Go to the graduate school application >>

Transcripts/ Immunizations

Official transcripts MUST be sent to both PTCAS and A-STATE Traditional Graduate School. Please do not send transcripts to the A-STATE Physical Therapy Department unless specifically requested to. Transcripts and immunization records for A-State Traditional Graduate School should be sent to:

The Graduate School @ A-State
PO Box 60
State University, AR 72467-0060

A-State Graduate School can be contacted at 870-972-3029 or gradadmissions@astate.edu .

The application fee of $50 can be paid online (through your applicant account) or by phone to the Cashier’s Window at 870-972-3847.

A-STATE Transcripts

Students who have attended one or more of the A-State campuses (i.e. Newport, Beebe, etc.) must still request transcripts from them separately to be sent to A-State in Jonesboro. A-State campuses are independent of each other in regards to transcripts and can only be verified by the campus where the courses were actually taken. All transcripts must be official. Please consider most transcripts are sent electronically, some require the use of traditional mail (depending on your institution). 

Background Checks

Based on recent legislation in Arkansas, students will be required to complete a background check AFTER they receive conditional admission into the program. 

Arkansas State University’s College of Nursing and Health Professions works with Verified Credentials, Inc. to establish an acceptable screening procedure. The cost of the background check is between $50 and $100.

Background Checks for Students Newly Admitted into the PT Program

Students who are conditionally admitted into the PT program must submit an initial background check to complete their admission requirements into the program. Forms will be emailed to you upon admission to the program.

Technical Skills and Abilities

Prior to admittance to the A-State Physical Therapy Program, students must complete the Technical Skills and Ability form. Forms will be emailed to you upon admission to the program.

All applicants that do not qualify for rolling admissions or applying on February 1, will be evaluated using the Total Admissions Score without GRE. 

I. The GRE has three parts. (35% of Total Admissions Score)

1. Verbal Reasoning                             130 – 170 score scale (1 point increments)
2. Quantitative Reasoning                    130 – 170 score scale (1 point increments)
3. Analytical Writing                              0 – 6 score scale (0.5 point increments)

II. Overall GPA (15% of Overall Admissions Score) 

III. Last 60 GPA 

IV. Residency 

A-State Graduate                 5 points

Arkansas Resident                  3 points

Delta Resident                        2 points

(States included for Delta Residents: AR, AL, MO, IL, KY, TN, MS and LA)

Others                                     0 points

V. Spanish Proficiency          0 – 5 points based on OPI rating

Students must use the link below for additional points.

https://www.languagetesting.com/ltiapi/index/products/

• When prompted to choose a language select Spanish
• Then choose ACTFL OPI or ACTFL OPIc under the speaking column to schedule a test 

Total Admissions Score        (I + II + III + IV + V)             / 100

Our program uses a modified rolling admissions process.  Applicants who score above 80 using the evaluation criteria listed above will be offered a position in the next cohort.

Doctor of Physical Therapy

* U.S. Residents with a G.P.A. of at least 3.0 may qualify to receive in-state tuition rates

* The total estimated program expense is based on in-state tuition rates. Living expenses while on clinical education are not included in the program expenses.

* Medical and liability insurance are required throughout the entirety of the program. The cost is variable depending on the provider the student chooses.

Curriculum, degree requirements, and course descriptions can be found in the most current Graduate Bulletin.

Visit the bulletins page >>

TRANSFER STUDENTS

Students who are currently enrolled in another accredited physical therapy program may apply to the A-State DPT program using the regular admissions process. Should a transfer student be admitted into the A-State DPT program, up to 9 graduate credit hours may be used to satisfy degree requirements of the DPT which will be determined by the Admissions Committee and approved by the Department Chair and A-State Graduate School.

INTERNATIONAL APPLICANTS

The Department of Physical Therapy requires a high level of proficiency in English so that all students will be able to fully meet academic and clinical objectives as well as meet criteria for professional licensure. All *foreign-born students and nurses must take one of the following tests:

1. Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) with a score of 83 on the preferred internet-based test (iBT), 570 on the paper-based test, or 213 on the computer-based test.
2. International English Language Testing System (IELTS) with a score of at least 6.5 and a spoken band score of 7.
3. Pearson Test of English Academic (PTE) with a score of 56.

The TOEFL is available at the A-State Testing Center. When taking the exam off campus, the report code for Arkansas State University is 6011.

* The term, "foreign-born" refers to people residing in the United States who were not U.S. citizens at birth. The foreign-born population includes naturalized citizens, lawful permanent immigrants, refugees and asylees, legal non-immigrants (including those on student, work, or other temporary visas), and persons residing in the country without authorization. In contrast, the term native born refers to people residing in the United States who were U.S. citizens in one of three categories: 1) born in one of the 50 states or the District of Columbia; 2) born in United States Insular areas such as Puerto Rico or Guam; 3) born abroad to at least one U.S. citizen parent.
Students may be exempt from the English proficiency testing if the student is foreign-born but attended school in the United States since kindergarten. For the exemption, students must provide official school records showing continuous enrollment in U.S. schools since kindergarten.

English as a Second Language

Students who do not meet the required English language proficiency may enroll in A-State's English as a Second Language (ESL) program in the International Center for English. Potential physical therapy students enrolled in the ESL program must maintain an average of 85 or higher in levels 0 through 4. In the final or 5th level of the ESL program, an average of 90 or higher must be maintained.

On completion of the ESL program, the potential physical therapy student must take the internet-based Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). Upon successfully meeting the proficiency requirement, potential students are eligible to apply to the Doctor of Physical Therapy program.

See more information on International Admissions >>

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