What is the fastst way to become a physical therapist?

Question

What is the fastst way to become a physical therapist?

Answer 1

Get a bachelors degree in sports medicine or something and then a masters in physical therapy. A master's degree is the minimum education required to be a physical therapist.

Answer 2

Go to a 2 year college and get your associates and then get a job in your field that might help with tuition reimbursement and if you want continue on until you get your masters

Answer 3

To become a Physical Therapist, you must get a Master's Degree (4 years of undergraduate school plus 2 years of graduate school). All PTs must receive a graduate degree from an accredited physical therapist program before taking the national licensure examination that allows them to practice. The majority of programs offer the doctor of physical therapy (DPT) degree.

Physical therapist assistants (PTAs) provide physical therapy services under the direction and supervision of a physical therapist. PTAs help people of all ages who have medical problems, or other health-related conditions that limit their ability to move and perform functional activities in their daily lives. PTAs work in a variety of settings including hospitals, private practices, outpatient clinics, home health, nursing homes, schools, sports facilities, and more. PTAs must complete a 2-year associate's degree and are licensed, certified, or registered in most states.

Answer 4

Getting your associates as a PTA is definetely NOT the way to go; if fact, this track will only add an extra two years onto your trek since no credit is given for PTA courses towards the PT degree.

As the other two posters noted, a six year program is the fastest way to complete this which is usually in a 3/3 paradigm (3 years undergrad, 1 undergrad profesional, 2 two graduate professional).  In fact, there are some direct admit program (such as St. Louis University) that admit you at the freshman level, but results in a DPT in 6 years.

The only other way to chop time off of this is to take a lot of AP courses in high school and clep out of a lot of the math, science and gen eds (but it's generally not recommended to clep out of too much) as well as take summer school.