Physical Therapy Admission Requirements

SMU Campus Tours, Summer 2011

General campus tours of Samuel Merritt University are available during the summer on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday at 1:00 p.m. These tours are not program specific, but will give an overall experience of SMU. These walking tours last about 45 minutes and comfortable shoes should be worn. Because these tours are student led and are dependent on student schedules, advance reservation is required. RSVP using the form provided here. All tours should not be considered firm until you receive a confirmation from us. We look forward to welcoming you to campus! 

 Applying for Admission

The DPT program at Samuel Merritt University participates in the Physical Therapist Centralized Application Service (PTCAS).

Applications for each fall admission cycle are available on the PTCAS website beginning July 5th. Please be advised that applications will only be accepted through PTCAS and the deadline for applications is October 15th. As the 15th falls on a weekend this year, the PTCAS portal will be available until October 17th for the fall 2012 application cycle. Instructions for submitting an application are available on the PTCAS website, http://www.ptcas.org/.

Notifications regarding interviews (on-campus and required) are sent in late December and interviews are held in January.  

Minimum criteria for admission include:

• Completion of baccalaureate and all prerequisites, from an accredited institution, by the end of spring term before entry
• Minimum cumulative GPA: 2.80
• Minimum prerequisite GPA: 2.60
• Minimum GRE verbal score of 450 and minimum GRE quantitative score of 500. The GRE must be taken prior to the October 15^th application deadline.*(see notes below) Official score reports must be sent directly to PTCAS. Please see http://www.ets.org/ for more information on registering for the GRE; the institution code for the DPT program is 7593.
   
  
• Supplemental Essay; in addition to the standard PTCAS essay questions, we require a custom essay. The PTCAS application will automatically prompt you to respond to our custom essay once you designate Samuel Merritt University on your application. Applications without the custom essay will be considered incomplete. 
• Inpatient Experience: a minimum of forty (40) hours of volunteer or paid experience in an inpatient physical therapy setting is required. The PTCAS Physical Therapy Observation Hours Verification Form must be signed by the physical therapist who supervised you and submitted through PTCAS. This form must be completed and verified by the end of the spring term prior to entry.
• Two letters of reference; one from a professor (science or non-science) who can address your academic preparedness for a DPT program and one from a physical therapist who has supervised you in a clinical environment (inpatient or outpatient). Letters of reference are submitted through PTCAS.
• TOEFL (U.S. citizens or international students) - The need for TOEFL will be assessed based on information provided by applicants on the application for admission; if required, a score of 100 must be achieved and official score results must be provided.

Prerequisites

All prerequisites must be completed with a grade of "C-" or better by the end of Spring term before entry:

Course Repeat Policy

Overall GPA: All grades earned will be included in the overall GPA calculation. If a course is repeated, both the initial and repeat grade will be included in the overall GPA calculation.

Prerequisite GPA: Courses satisfying a prerequisite requirement may be repeated once if the initial grade earned is a C+ or below. If a prerequisite course is repeated, the new grade will be used in the prerequisite GPA calculation if available at the time of application.

Admission Statistics about all of SMU's programs are availbe on our statistics at a glance website.