Top 5 Things Pre-Physical Therapy Students Should Focus on During Their Freshman Year 

In this post, you’ll find my advice for what Pre-PTs should focus on during their freshman year of college. Keep in mind that not all Pre-PTs follow the “traditional” route to PT school, this list is only meant to be a guide relating to the years before applying to PT school. Shift this list to your journey as you need.

1. Providing a solid foundation for their GPA

The beginning of your grade history should include general education classes that can help bolster your GPA. Harder classes should come later, so your freshman year is your chance to give your GPA cushion. Don’t panic though, if your freshman year doesn’t yield the best grades, PT schools love to see improvement across one’s entire college career. Messing up your freshman year is not detrimental; this is just an opportunity to build a solid foundation for the next few years.

2. Getting involved in extracurricular activities

PT schools love to see involvement during every step of your college career. Leadership positions are great too, but no one expects a freshman to become the president in their first year. Take this year to find what organizations or clubs really impact you and your goals. Longevity in a certain organization is the key to eventual leadership positions, so I encourage you to start early. Remember though, joining a club freshman year does not mean you have to stick with it all 4 years. It’s all about trial and error.

3. Forging strong relationships with professors

Developing strong, positive relationships with your professors is incredibly important. In a few years when it’s time to prepare your PT applications or apply for scholarships, you will want professors who know you, respect you, and support you. That way, when you ask them to speak on your character and merit as a student, they can. For that to happen though, you need to create strong relationships first. While this might be harder to achieve if you attend a large school, there are still ways you can try. Ask questions in class, go to office hours (even if you don’t need help with something, sometimes professors just enjoy the company), email them, actively pay attention in class, do research with them, or you could just simply make it a point to greet them before class. Really though, it’s just great to have good relationships with professors, especially if you have multiple classes with them. It is easiest to start your freshman year and build on those relationships in the following 3 years.

4. Learning more about Physical Therapy as a career

If your freshman year of college is immediately following high school, it is possible that your motivation for becoming a physical therapist is centered around great experiences you’ve had with other PTs. However, it is important to understand why you feel connected with the profession and feel as though it is a good fit. The only way to do this is to learn as much about the profession as possible. Find out about the day-to-day life of physical therapists in a variety of settings, learn about the diverse settings PT can occur in, research current issues in the physical therapy world, or the pros and cons of the career. There’s so much out there including blogs, websites, and the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) at your disposal. I encourage you to use them.

5. Planning how and where they will begin their observation hours

While you definitely don’t have to begin observing your freshman year, it is smart to (towards the end) begin looking for places that you are interested in observing. You’ll have to reach out to them so it’s smart to make a list of locations and their contact information. Are you interested in pediatric, orthopedic, inpatient, geriatric, sport, pelvic health, or neurologic settings? This information will also depend on the time you want to start. Beginning in the summer might mean you have to search for locations near your hometown while starting the following school year might be in a different location. Remember, you don’t need to start now, but it would be smart to start looking. 

For more insight into how I spent my freshman year of college, check out my blog post: A Pre-Physical Therapy Student’s Timeline of Undergrad

Please leave a comment! Let me know your thoughts about this list!