Physical Therapy

Department of Physical Therapy
Western Michigan University
Kalamazoo MI 49008-5383 USA
(269) 387-7352

Admissions

Applying

The application deadline for the Summer II 2025 cohort is October 15, 2024.

APPLY IN PTCAS 

Additionally, all applicants must pay a $35 supplemental fee directly to WMU DPT by the above deadline.

 
Note: All applications must be in a complete or verified status no later than 11:59 p.m. ET on October 15. This includes official transcripts, all letters of recommendation, GRE scores and supplemental fees. Plan ahead to ensure that all official documents arrive to PTCAS 1-2 weeks before the October 15 deadline. Any application missing documents or transcripts as of October 16 will be considered late and will not be reviewed.

Minimum requirements

  • You must earn a bachelor's degree from an accredited institution by June 1, prior to the summer II start date of the DPT program.

  • You must complete the Altus Suite Casper Test. There are limited test dates, so be sure to schedule this ASAP. The latest Casper test date we will accept is the last test date available in September 2024. More information is below.

  • Minimum 3.0 GPA from the most recent 60 credits of coursework.
    Note: For the 2024 cohort, the average GPA was 3.58, ranging from 3.02 to 3.98.

  • Graduate Record Examination (GRE General Test; taken within five years prior to the application deadline) – Submit official scores to PTCAS using code: 4512.
    Note: For the 2024 cohort, GRE scores averaged: Verbal-150 (range 138-160), Quantitative-149 (range 134-163), Analytical Writing-4 (range 2.5-5).

  • Complete prerequisites as indicated below.

  • Three letters of recommendation:
    - One academic (professor/instructor)
    - One professional (ideally, a clinician where you worked/volunteered/shadowed)
    - One additional letter from either an academic or professional reference

  • Professional statement (i.e. PTCAS essay).

  • An interview is part of the DPT application process. It is essential that you demonstrate your knowledge of the profession during this interview. Therefore, while not required to apply to the program, it is strongly encouraged that you seek out job shadowing, or other related experiences, within the PT field prior to applying.

Prerequisites

All prerequisites must be passed with a C (2.0) or better, with an overall average of a B (3.0) or better.

Note: For the 2023-24 admission cycle, we admitted an average prerequisite GPA of 3.5, with a range of 3.1-4.0

Prerequisites include:

  • General Biology course with lab (must include the human element)
  • Human Anatomy & lab
  • Human Physiology & lab
  • General Chemistry I & lab
  • General Chemistry II & lab
  • General Physics I & lab
  • General Physics II & lab
  • Statistics
  • Two courses in behavioral sciences (psychology, sociology, anthropology, etc.)

Notes:

  • Prerequisites may be in progress at the time of application, and must be completed no later than June 1 prior to the summer II start of the DPT program.
  • All prerequisites must be completed no longer than 10 years before the application deadline.
  • Advanced Placement (AP) credit and International Baccalaureate (IB) credit will NOT be accepted in place of prerequisites.

COVID-19 impacts:

While we require letter grades fro all prerequisite courses, we understand the unique situation that COVID-19 created, specifically during the 2020 calendar year. Therefore, we will allow no more than two prerequisite courses to be completed with a "passing" or "satisfactory" grade in place of a letter grade, as long as the following criteria are met:

  1. The course(s) must have been taken in the 2020 calendar year.
  2. The grading institution's policy is a C or better to receive a "passing" or "satisfactory" grade.

Altus Suite - Comprehensive Admissions Assessments

All applicants applying to the Doctor of Physical Therapy program at Western Michigan University are required to complete Altus Suite for the 2024-25 admissions cycle.

Altus Suite is a standardized, multi-part online assessment that measures different competencies and attributes that we believe are important for successful students and graduates of our program. It complements the other tools that we use to review and evaluate applicants. We have implemented Altus Suite to further enhance fairness and objectivity in our selection process. 

  1. Access TakeAltus.com to create an account and for more information on important dates and requirements. 
  2. Register for Altus Suite for assessment code (or test code): CSP-10101.
  3. The assessment is Casper.

Altus Suite consists of three parts:

  • Casper: 100-120 minute online, open-response situational judgment test
  • Snapshot: 15-minute one-way video interview with standardized questions*
  • Duet: 15-minute value-alignment assessment*

Note: We only require the Casper test.

There are limited test dates, so please schedule ASAP. The latest Casper test date that we will accept is the last test date in September 2024.

Transfer of credits

Because of the individualized and intense nature of most DPT programs, it is not anticipated that many students would have credits to transfer into program, except under very unusual circumstances. Students should refer to the University Handbook for institutional policy on the transfer of credits, and consult with the DPT Manager of Recruitment and Outreach.

If you intend to transfer credits to the WMU DPT program,  you must submit them for approval before enrolling in the DPT program. You must provide transcripts and a course syllabus or catalog with a course description so that we can make a determination regarding the specific transfer credit request. All requests for credit transfers will be evaluated by the DPT Manager of Recruitment and Outreach and DPT Program Director on a case-by-case basis.