Baylor offers a full-time, entry-level Doctor of Physical Therapy degree (DPT) that prepares graduates to take the National Physical Therapist Examination (NPTE) and enter the field as highly competent practitioners.
Graduation from a physical therapist education program accredited by the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education (CAPTE), 1111 North Fairfax Street, Alexandria, VA 22314; Phone: (703) 706-3245; accreditation@apta.org is necessary for eligibility to sit for the licensure examination, which is required in all states.
The Doctor of Physical Therapy program, at Baylor University, is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy (CAPTE), 1111 North Fairfax Street, Alexandria, Virginia 22314; telephone: 703-706-3245; email: accreditation@apta.org; website: http://www.capteonline.org.
If needing to contact the program/institution directly, please contact Dr. Brian Young.
No. While both programs share the Baylor name and heritage, they are separate programs. For more information on the Army-Baylor program, please visit their website.
Beginning March 31, 2025, the Baylor DPT program only accepts applications from U.S. citizens and U.S. permanent residents. Please review all Baylor DPT program Admissions Requirements prior to completing your application.
For questions related to admission to the Baylor DPT program, please contact our enrollment team by email at Robbins_Grad@baylor.edu or by telephone at 254-710-4400.
There are many ways to experience Baylor DPT both virtually and in-person. The Admissions Committee hosts monthly webinars throughout the year so that prospective students can learn more about the program virtually. Events such as lab visits, facility tours and open houses take place frequently to give visitors the opportunity to experience the program and meet faculty and students in-person. Learn more and register for an upcoming event:
Please click here for a full and detailed list of admissions requirements.
Applicants must complete the Physical Therapy Centralized Application Service (PTCAS) Application. Applicants must submit official transcripts, official GRE scores, and letters of recommendation through the PTCAS system.
| Priority Deadline | June 2, 2025 |
| Final Deadline | October 1, 2025 |
| Priority Deadline | June 2, 2025 |
| Final Deadline | March 16, 2026 |
Deadlines are at 11:59PM Eastern time. Late applications will not be accepted. Applicants may submit one application per calendar year.
The Baylor DPT program will make offers of admission on a rolling basis throughout the cycle, so applicants are encouraged to apply early. Applying during the priority application window gives prospective students the earliest opportunity for application review and a greater likelihood for available seats. Please click here for more information on application deadlines and procedures.
The fee for the PTCAS Application depends on the number of schools you apply to as well as your application submission date. Please see the PTCAS website for information.
All original transcripts should be sent to PTCAS. You will be able to self-report your GRE scores on the PTCAS application, but official GRE score reports must also be sent to PTCAS. The Baylor DPT Program GRE code is 2219. After sending these items to PTCAS you will NOT need to submit them to Baylor as well.
The DPT program requires two letters of recommendation. One must be from a licensed physical therapist. The second may be from someone of the applicant's choosing (e.g., professor, physical therapist, employer/supervisor, advisor, mentor, etc.). We will not accept letters from family members, friends, clergy, or politicians.
Applicants must arrange for references to be submitted electronically through PTCAS. Each evaluator providing a reference will be contacted using the email address provided in PTCAS by the applicant
Observation hours are strongly recommended, but not required. Observation hours help applicants make an educated decision about pursuing a career in physical therapy. The Baylor DPT Admissions Committee recommends the completion of 100 observation hours, volunteer hours, or work hours with a licensed physical therapist in at least two different practice settings. Examples of practice settings include: outpatient clinics; acute care hospitals; inpatient rehabilitation facilities; skilled nursing facilities; home health care; and hospice care.
Yes. The DPT Admissions Manager will contact selected applicants and provide instructions for completing the interview process. All interviews are conducted using a web-based, video platform called Kira Talent. Applicants will record their responses to a series of interview questions and complete a timed writing sample as part of the interview. Applicants must have a computer with webcam and internet service to complete this interview. Interview submissions will be reviewed by the Admissions Committee as part of the evaluative process.
No. However, the Baylor DPT program will make offers of admission on a rolling basis so applicants are encouraged to apply early within the application cycle.
Yes. A $1500 non-refundable tuition deposit is required to guarantee your spot in the program. The entirety of this deposit will be applied to your tuition in the first semester of the program.
The DPT program is not currently requiring the COVID vaccination. However, large numbers of health care facilities are requiring a COVID vaccination and we expect that DPT students unwilling to get vaccinated will NOT be able to complete the clinical requirements necessary to complete the program. We strongly encourage vaccination for all students prior to entering the program to protect the health and safety of students and faculty during lab immersions, while minimizing the risk of delaying/disrupting education due to illness or quarantine.
Please click here for a full and detailed list of program prerequisites.
A list of courses accepted for program prerequisites can be downloaded here.
The DPT Admissions Committee may also consider requests for course substitutions on a case- by-case basis. The applicant must submit the course description and syllabus for review. This information can be emailed to Amanda Singh at Amanda_Singh@baylor.edu. The Admissions Committee will make the final decision as to whether the course substitution is accepted.
Yes. Applicants may submit an application that includes in-progress courses and still be considered by the Admissions Committee for the current admission cycle. However, it is recommended that you have no more than 3 prerequisite courses to complete when submitting your application. Additionally, if offered admission, all prerequisites must be completed prior to the program start date.
If a prerequisite course is repeated, the credit hours assigned to the course may be counted only once in fulfilling the required number of hours. The prerequisite GPA will be determined using the highest course grade achieved; however, both grades will be calculated into the cumulative GPA.
Yes. The DPT program accepts all AP courses that were counted toward a student's undergraduate degree as fulfilling prerequisite requirements. These must be documented on official transcripts.
We recommend you take general or college level coursework as opposed to introductory level courses. While we do accept introductory level coursework, the Admissions Committee looks more favorably upon general or college level courses since they better align with the level of preparation needed to succeed in the DPT program. Additionally, we recommend that your coursework be sequential. In other words, taking an Intro to Physics course followed by Physics I is not recommended; instead, we recommend applicants complete a standard sequence of Physics I and Physics II.
Baylor DPT will accept passing (P) coursework for the Spring and Summer 2020 semesters in instances where Pass/Fail grades were given due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
All prerequisite coursework is acceptable no matter when the coursework was completed. However, we strongly recommend that applicants take refresher courses (especially for Anatomy and Physiology) to fully prepare themselves for our accelerated DPT program.
Using a blended learning model, our curriculum combines the best aspects of online learning activities and interactions, hands-on laboratory sessions, and collaborative clinical education experiences into an innovative and dynamic learning experience. Through this unique hybrid educational experience, our faculty are able to deliver high-quality physical therapy preparation and instruction in a condensed timeframe, allowing graduates to confidently enter the workforce sooner.
Blended learning refers to an educational model in which the student learns through a combination of online and onsite delivery platforms. Using this format, our curriculum combines the best aspects of online learning activities and interactions, hands-on laboratory sessions, and collaborative clinical education into an innovative and dynamic professional learning experience.
Approximately 50% of the program is completed as distance education using a variety of online learning platforms, 20% is conducted as onsite hands-on lab immersion sessions, and 30% is completed as clinical education experiences. Essentially, 50% of the overall curriculum is delivered as distance education and 50% is completed as traditional face-to-face lab instruction and clinical education.
Blended learning courses consist of both online, distance learning activities and onsite, hands-on lab instruction. Generally speaking, each blended learning course in each academic trimester consists of 1-2 lab immersion sessions. These lab immersions occur in Waco, Texas in the middle of the trimester and towards the end of the trimester. Most trimesters will have two onsite immersions.
Course faculty use the Canvas Learning Management System (LMS) to create and deliver a wide variety of online teaching and learning activities. Distance learning within each course includes both asynchronous and synchronous learning activities. Asynchronous activities include recorded lectures, required and optional readings, and individual and group assignments. Synchronous live classes are held each week using the Zoom Videoconference learning platform to create an online virtual classroom. Faculty use a variety of synchronous learning activities during these class periods such as live discussions, faculty demonstrations, case studies, and group projects, to deepen student understanding and develop critical clinical reasoning skills.
All didactic courses are graded according to the scale below. Scores and grades are correlated as follows:
| Grade | Quality Points | Range |
| A | 4.00 | 90.00-100 |
| B | 3.00 | 80.00-89.99 |
| C | 2.00 | 70.00-79.99 |
| F | 0.00 | 69.99 and below |
| I | *** | Incomplete |
To graduate, students are required to achieve a final grade of either "Pass" or “C” or higher (i.e., ≥ 70%) for all didactic or clinical education courses and maintain a cumulative grade point average above 3.0.
Physical therapy is a hands-on profession that requires extensive training and practice to develop critical patient management skills. Psychomotor skills for the patient examination, intervention, and effective human interaction are taught and practiced during these onsite lab immersion sessions. In total, students spend approximately 80 days in dedicated laboratory instruction with program faculty and practicing clinicians. Each onsite lab immersion session is scheduled at a strategic time in the academic trimester to facilitate learning and skill development. Depending on the course, students also spend time in human simulation labs and cadaver labs. These lab sessions are conducted in Waco, TX. For more details on lab immersions, please see here.
Students are required to maintain an overall 3.00 GPA to successfully complete the program.
Students complete 31 weeks of full-time clinical education during the second year of the curriculum. This includes two 8-week clinical experiences and one 15-week clinical experience. In some cases, students elect to combine the final two experiences into a terminal 23-week clinical experience.
Students receive training in a variety of practice settings that represent the full range of the physical therapy profession. Through intentional placements, students will experience a minimum of two clinical practice settings, including general outpatient physical therapy practice and a second setting within the inpatient continuum of care, such as acute hospital, post-acute, rehabilitation, skilled nursing, home health, etc. Also, students generally experience a variety of specialty areas, which may include orthopedics, neurologic, pediatrics, geriatrics, sports medicine, aquatics, women's health, cardiovascular and pulmonary, and wound care.
We have vast network of clinical sites available for these experiences across the country. While we strive to keep students close to their geographical location, we factor in many other considerations when placing students into their clinical sites (e.g. professional and personal needs, specialty exposures, site availability, etc.). The optimal location to improve a student's clinical skills is always paramount when determining their clinical education placement. The Director of Clinical Education (DCE) works with each student to determine optimal clinical placement.
Baylor University's clinical education program offers standardized placements, integrated curriculum, career-focused experiences, post-professional residency preparation, and clinical instructors who often serve as adjunct faculty. These hallmarks of a strong clinical education program are magnified by the care and commitment of our extensive clinical education team. At Baylor, our team works individually with students to identify clinical education experiences. This unique approach to clinical education placement incorporates a high-level of student input along with an attentive focus toward each student's personal goals and professional aspirations.
We recognize that some students may desire to maintain some level of employment while enrolled in a DPT program. However, our students are full-time students in every sense of the term with course loads ranging from 15-19 credits per academic trimester. The academic demands and requirements of the curriculum (estimated between 45-55 hours per week), on-site lab immersions in Waco, and full-time clinical education experiences will make it very difficult for students to maintain an outside work schedule. We strongly discourage students from working during the first trimester of the program. After the first trimester, employment is still discouraged unless a student has demonstrated the ability to be academically successful. If a student decides to work at any time during the program, the hours worked must not interfere with the demands of the program and we request that students disclose employment status to the program.
Considering the accelerated nature of the curriculum, research opportunities while in the DPT program are limited. However, many of our academic and clinical faculty are among the leading researchers in physical therapy. Accordingly, our program may provide interested students with the opportunity to participate in clinical research being conducted by our academic or clinical faculty. This is particularly true of students completing a terminal internship and post-professional residency following graduation.
The Baylor University DPT program offers the DPT Light the Way Scholarship. This scholarship will provide at least one $1,000 award to a current student from each cohort, each year of the program. Selection criteria are based on alignment with Baylor DPT Values, academic status, financial need, underrepresented minority (URM) status, and an essay response. Being a member of a URM group is considered but not required to qualify for this scholarship.
The DPT program encourages students to apply for outside scholarships including but not limited to:
Student Financial Services department will help each student find the student loans that they need. Additional information related to Student Financial Service can be found here.
Please join us for one of our upcoming informational webinars. See here for schedule and registration details.
The Doctor of Physical Therapy Program at Baylor University is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education (CAPTE).
The Orthopedic Residency at Baylor University is accredited by the American Board of Physical Therapy Residency and Fellowship Education (ABPTRFE).
