FAQ

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.

The deadline for submitting all required application materials through PTCAS is October 3, 2022 at 12:00 midnight EST. This includes all official transcripts, GRE scores and letters of recommendation. 

The Baylor DPT program will make offers of admission on a rolling basis so applicants are encouraged to apply early within the application cycle.

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

Yes. The Admissions Committee will select and invite the most qualified applicants for an interview. All interviews are conducted using a web-based, video platform called Kira Talent. Applicants record their responses to a series of interview questions for review by the Admissions Committee. Additionally, applicants will complete a timed writing sample and various assessments investigating non-cognitive skills and strengths. Applicants must have a computer with webcam and internet service to complete this interview.

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 admissions requirements.

Baylor offers a full-time, entry-level Doctor of Physical Therapy degree (DPT). The program curriculum is completed in 2 years and consists of 126 credits across six academic semesters, which includes 31 weeks of clinical practice.

For questions related to admission to the program, please contact the DPT Admissions Manager, Ms. Amanda Singh, by email at amanda_singh@baylor.edu or by telephone at (254) 710-8066.

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. Kendra Gagnon, Department Chair, at kendra_gagnon@baylor.edu.

No. While both programs share the Baylor name and heritage, they are separate programs. For more information on the Army-Baylor program please see their website: https://www.baylor.edu/graduate/pt/.

Please click here for a full and detailed list of program prerequisites.

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.

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.

We can accept international students with many types of visas including H, L, R, F, J (but not B ). International students will be required to submit a World Education Services report along with international transcripts to PTCAS for all coursework completed outside the US. For all applicants for whom English is not their first language or those who have completed a degree and pre-requisite courses in a foreign country, demonstration of English language proficiency is required through completion of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) exam.

Program accreditation standards require the professional curriculum to consist of at least 90 semester credit hours and to be completed in no less than 6 semesters. The clinical education component of the curriculum must include a minimum of 30 weeks of full-time clinical education experiences.

Our curriculum consists of 126 semester credits and is completed in 6 consecutive academic semesters. The program length includes 66 weeks of didactic instruction and 31 weeks of clinical education for a total of 97 weeks of instruction. Accordingly, the instructional time provided by this program is the equivalent of three (3) academic years. Our accelerated curriculum contains all of the elements required of DPT education but uses a blended learning model to improve the efficiency of its delivery.

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.

Based on our 126-credit program, 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 academic semester consists of two minimesters to allow proper sequencing of didactic courses. Students will begin each minimester with approximately 6-8 weeks of online learning to establish a knowledge base within each content area. Psychomotor skill development and refinement is accomplished during onsite lab immersions conducted in Dallas, TX during the final 1-2 weeks of each minimester. Therefore, lab immersion sessions are held twice each semester and last between 6 to 14 days, depending on the content. 

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 include both asynchronous and synchronous learning activities. Asynchronous activities such as recorded lectures, required and optional readings, and individual and group assignments, provide students with considerable flexibility in creating and managing their weekly schedule. Synchronous live classes are held each week using the WebEx 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. For a first-hand view of life as a Baylor DPT student, see here. Examples of our synchronous and asynchronous learning activities can also be found here.

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 semester 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 with a flexible blended-learning format. However, our students are full-time students in every sense of the term with course loads ranging from 16-24 credits per academic semester. The academic demands of this accelerated curriculum and the travel requirements for onsite lab immersions and clinical education will make employment virtually impossible for the majority of students. In fact, working more than a few hours per week would almost surely negatively affect your academic performance and is strongly discouraged.

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.

There are no scholarships available for the DPT program from Baylor University; however, our 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.