A Pre-PT’s Guide to PTCAS: Top 10 Things I wish I Knew Before Applying to PTCAS

The Physical Therapist Centralized Application Service or PTCAS can be hard to navigate for anyone, but it is a critical component of the application process. In this post, we’ll discuss the top 10 things I wish I knew before applying to PTCAS. 

1. Request your official transcript

I learned the hard way, while completing the transcript entry section of PTCAS, that your official transcript is not always the same as the unofficial one. I sent my official transcript to PTCAS but used the unofficial version that I could access from my school for free. Something told me to request the official version just in case. That was a smart decision because they were very different. Courses were named differently or had different abbreviations and my AP credit had been left off as well. When it comes to the transcript entry section, you want to make sure you don’t make any copying mistakes as this could set your application status back. Check out my blog post about the transcript entry section.

2. Be ready to recall all experiences

If you haven’t been keeping up with your college activities over the years, I would encourage you to begin. You’ll need to include your experiences (volunteering and community service), experience dates, organization participation, leadership positions, job experience, awards, scholarships, research, and licenses and certifications. That is a lot to keep up with, especially when experiences happen years before your application cycle. I decided to make an “Everything I Did In College” Excel sheet to keep up with every aspect of my undergrad experience. It was a lifesaver and I highly recommend making something similar to keep up with your experiences.

3. Include every experience

All of your experiences matter, even the ones that you might not think are important. Every time you volunteered, organizations you joined, jobs you had (especially if you can explain how beneficial they were to you), all scholarships awarded, all honors received (Dean’s List, Honors Program)…anything. The only exception to this would be an experience from high school or before. Unless you feel like the experience is essential to your application, disregard it.

4. Learn what transfers over from year to year

Some aspects of PTCAS have an expiration date of sorts. This applies to you if you, A) enter your information early before your application season starts or, B) begin your application, but decide to wait until the next year. You don’t want to spend time and energy entering all of your information, only for it to be erased after the application season is over.

Here are the things that stay (as of PTCAS 2022-2023):

• Schools Attended
• Verified Course Work
• Transcripts
• Extracurriculars
• Honors
• Work Experience
• Personal Information

Here are the things that are deleted (as of PTCAS 2022-2023):

• Reference Letters
• Observation Hours
• Essays (the prompts may change)
• Payments
• Custom Program Questions

5. Know the differences between the Supporting Information sub-sections

This was something I had issues with and had to do some outside research to understand each sub-section (what qualified as employment, volunteering, and extracurricular activities). Check out my blog post about this in my PTCAS series, please head over there for an in-depth explanation of this entire section.

6. Know that your PTCAS GPA might be different from your transcript GPA

If you had to retake any classes (either for a higher grade or due to failing) there’s a possibility that your school’s calculated GPA could be different from PTCAS. If a class on your transcript is listed as WF (withdrawn with penalty or withdrawal fail), PTCAS may calculate it as an F. PTCAS does not recognize any policies or forgiveness that schools implement, so keep this in mind.

7. You will need to include everything on your transcript

I assumed that the only relevant parts of my transcript were the ones that affected my GPA, but that is not the case. Include all AP credits, courses taken, courses dropped/withdrawn, or courses that were re-taken. You should include everything that appears on your official transcript.

8. Send your transcripts to both the schools and PTCAS (if you need to)

This is completely dependent on the PT program and each one is different. PTCAS requires your transcript, but you should check to see if your individual programs do. Personally, I had to send my transcripts to each school I applied to, as well as PTCAS.

For more information about important things to know about your programs of interest, check out my post Top 10 Things Pre-Physical Therapy Students Should Know About Their Schools of Interest.

9. Some schools have applications separate from PTCAS

While there are a lot of schools that use PTCAS as their main and only application, some schools have additional applications to be aware of. All of the schools I applied to required an additional application or supplemental questions that were sent after my PTCAS application was submitted. This additional application is typically mentioned on the school’s website so be sure to check.

10. Know about the different PT settings

This advice is more important when entering your observation hours. You will be asked to distinguish between inpatient vs. outpatient and determine what each of your observation settings fall under.

Inpatient

Typically takes place in a hospital or in a rehabilitation center where patients stay/live for an unforeseen amount of time.

• Nursing Home: a care facility for the elderly or those who cannot live on their own
• Rehabilitation Facility: a short-term care facility that aids in injury recovery and pain management
• Acute Care Facility: a long-term care facility that aids people with acute illnesses and focuses on individualized care

Outpatient

Typically takes place in a clinic or facility where patients come in for a few hours every few days or weeks.

• Physical Therapy Clinic
• Home Health
• Occupational Health: promotes health and safety within the workplace
• School
• Fitness Facility

If you are interested in learning more about PTCAS in general, check out my PTCAS Series starting with A Pre-PT’s Guide to PTCAS: Personal Information Section.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to comment below, I would love to hear your thoughts!

Best of luck to everyone applying!