APPLICATION PROCESS Application Deadlines

APPLICATION PROCESS

This page is intended to assist you in knowing how to apply to our program - including important

dates and processes.

Application Deadlines

Please pay close attention to Loma Linda University (LLU) DPT deadlines, as failing to submit

your application through the Physical Therapy Centralized Application Service (PTCAS) by

these dates can be problematic.

DPT Recommended Deadline – September 1

The DPT department strongly encourages you to submit your application by September 1

PTCAS will open early in July giving you plenty of time to complete your application and

submit it. Please note that to submit your application you do not need to have all of your course

work completed, nor have your transcripts, letters of recommendation, or observation hours

received by PTCAS. To submit your application you will have to complete all the sections, pay

the fee, and click submit. Submitting your application by September 1

will place you in a sub-

group that will receive preference to those who submit after September 1

DPT Priority Deadline – October 1:

Applicants who submit their application by October 1

will be in our priority group. Applicants

who submit their application between September 2

and October 1

will be in the second group

to be reviewed by the Admissions Committee. Our Admissions Committee generally will fill

most, if not all of our class with those who apply by our recommended and priority deadline.

Final Deadline – November 1:

The DPT department will not accept any applications after November 1.

Secondary Application:

You will have two weeks to complete your secondary application upon receiving it from

LLU. For example, if you receive the email from LLU inviting you to complete your secondary

application on August 11

you will have two weeks to complete your application from August

. Our application process will officially end on December 30

. What this means is we will

not be accepting any secondary applications after December 30

. Therefore, if you submitted

your application on September 15

, but there has been a hold up with your transcripts and you

do not receive your secondary application until December 22

, you will only have until

December 30

to complete your secondary application. At the same time, if there is a hold up

with your transcripts and PTCAS does not mail your application to LLU until January 5

, you

have missed the secondary application deadline and will not be considered for admissions. We

strongly recommend that you submit your application early, in July, and check your PTCAS

portal weekly to ensure they have received all your transcripts and have mailed your application

to the schools you have applied to.

*Please note for the program beginning in June 2018 and beyond our Priority Deadline will

be September 1

and our Final Deadline will be November 1

Application Process

To begin the process with LLU, you will first need to submit an application through

www.ptcas.org. PTCAS is where you will send your letters of recommendation, observations

hours, and all of your college transcripts that are from a regionally accredited school. As stated

earlier, you can submit your application while you are waiting for your transcripts, letters of

recommendation, and observations hours to be received.

When filling out your PTCAS application we recommend that you have a set of transcripts in

front of you. There will be a “coursework” section where you will need to enter every class that

you have taken, the amount of units, which term you completed the class in, and the grade you

received. PTCAS will then use your official transcripts to verify this information.

Once your have submitted your application through PTCAS you will be coded as “received”.

PTCAS will need your transcripts to verify your application. It is important that you request an

official transcript be sent from each college you have attended directly to PTCAS. Transcripts

can hold up your application from being verified, so it is important to request your transcripts

early. PTCAS will not evaluate and verify your application until an official transcript has been

received from each school you have attended. To be considered “official transcripts” they must

be sent directly from each school to PTCAS. After your application has been “verified” PTCAS

will mail your application to LLU.

Each year we have individuals who submitted their application to PTCAS in a timely manner,

but then transcripts were never received by PTCAS and so their application was not verified and

sent to Loma Linda University. We strongly recommend that you log in to PTCAS on a regular

basis and monitor the receipt of your transcripts by PTCAS. If they are not receiving a transcript

from a particular school, be sure to follow up until a transcript is received.

LLU will email you a link for the secondary application 2-5 business from when we receive your

application from PTCAS. You will have two weeks to complete the secondary application. There are

no fees associated with the secondary application. You are not an official LLU applicant until your

secondary application has been received.

Transcripts

All transcripts will need to be sent to PTCAS. You will want to make sure that PTCAS does

indeed receive your transcripts. Do not assume that just because you requested your transcripts

to be sent, that PTCAS did receive them. Sometimes transcripts get lost in the mail and it would

be prudent to follow up and see that all your transcripts have been received.

LLU will not need official transcripts to be sent in directly to LLU unless you have been

accepted.

Letters of Recommendation

We require a total of three letters of recommendation. It does not matter who writes your letters

of recommendation except that we will not accept them from family members. We recommend

that you select three individuals that between the three of them, can give a well-rounded picture

of who you are. There will be a section on PTCAS where you can enter your recommenders

email address and PTCAS will forward a form for them to fill out and email back to PTCAS.

When you are filling out the secondary application, you do not need to list the same names that

you have already listed on PTCAS. It is appropriate to state “See PTCAS.”

Observation Hours

A total of 80 observation hours will need to be completed before the program begins in June; 20

hours in an in-patient setting, 20 hours in an out-patient setting, and the remaining 40 hours may

be completed in a setting of your choice. You may have your hours verified through PTCAS by

entering the physical therapist’s email address on your PTCAS application. A minimum of 40

observation hours must be completed at the time of application (starting for the class beginning

June 2018).

Prerequisites

For the entering class of June 2018 and beyond, science prerequisites can not be more than 10

years old at the time of application.

Applicants can not have more than 3 science prerequisites lacking at the time of application and

the Anatomy and Physiology sequence can not be one of the lacking prerequisites. Anatomy and

Physiology the complete sequence must be completed at the time of application. This will begin

for the entering class of June 2018.

Biology

As part of our science prerequisites, we require applicants to have two additional Biology

classes. Our department recommends applicants take the following classes:

o Gross/Advanced Anatomy

o Cell Biology

o Exercise Physiology (the only non-Biology class that will count as an additional

Biology)

Updates

Applicants must meet our minimum GPA at the time of application. Classes completed during

the fall term may not be taken into consideration when calculating an applicant’s GPA. We will,

however, count any classes you have completed during the summer term. Your summer grades

need to be emailed to Heather Hebron-Roybal ([email protected]) no later than September 26

be included in the Admissions GPA calculations.

Grades

To be considered competitive for our DPT program one will need a 3.6 GPA across the board

(science, non-science, and overall) and in the past several years our accepted students have

averaged a 3.7 GPA. Applicants need to be at a competitive level at the time of application. Fall

term grades may not be used for calculating the GPA.

Retaking a Course

If you retake a course we will count the most recent grade, up to two retakes (your third time

taking a class). If you received a “C” in General Chemistry I and retake the class now receiving

an “A”, we will drop the “C” and count the “A”.

If for some reason you do not do well the second time or third time you take the class and take

the class for a fourth time, we will count the grade you received on your third attempt.

Interviews

The DPT department will interview about 200 applicants with the Committee granting interviews

solely based on GPA. During the transcript evaluation process we will prescreen every

applicant. You must have a 3.4 prescreened science GPA to be moved on to the next round. The

DPT department reserves the right to deny any applicant who has a prescreened GPA lower than

3.4 at the time the application is reviewed. If you have a 3.4 prescreened science GPA or higher

your file will be sent to our Admissions office to have an official evaluation completed. Your

GPA on the official evaluation will be the deciding factor on who will receive an interview. If

you are granted an interview the Committee will take into consideration your work experience,

volunteer hours, mission service, grades, communication style, and letters of recommendation.

Interviews can be with one or two faculty members and will last about 30 minutes. We will have

first and second year students here to speak with you about the program and to take you on a tour

of the campus. Interviews may begin as early as September or October, but are not guaranteed to

begin until December. Interview invites will be sent out through email.

Decisions

The Committee will award the first round of acceptance during the third week of November.

The second and final round of acceptance will be awarded in the third week of January.

Applicants will be notified as whether they have been accepted, denied, or placed on our

alternate list through both email and physical mail.

Review of Application Process

1. Apply early to www.ptcas.org (shortly after July 1)

2. Request official transcripts be sent to PTCAS

3. Monitor receipt of official transcripts by PTCAS

4. PTCAS will verify your application and send it to all the schools you applied to

5. Expect an email from LLU within one week after your PTCAS application has been sent

to us that will include the link to the secondary application

6. Submit your secondary application within two weeks of receiving the email

7. Interviews granted in September through December

8. Admissions granted in November and January

9. Feel free to contact us at any time if you have questions on the process – you are not

bothering us - that is what we are here for. Heather Hebron-Roybal ([email protected]),

Larry Chinnock ([email protected])