ACAPT’s Task Force on Best Practices in DPT Admissions and Retention is seeking input from all DPT programs on admissions practices. Program directors received a survey link from ACAPT on Monday, June 23rd via email. To ensure the most accurate data is reported, we are asking Program Directors to please forward the survey to the person overseeing the admissions process for the Doctor of Physical Therapy program at the institution. Consideration of your responses will be paramount in the Task Force final report and recommendations for best practices in DPT admissions.
All survey responses will be completely confidential. To protect the institution's privacy, all data will be anonymized and aggregated by ACAPT before analysis. Any findings shared publicly or published will not include any identifying information.
In the months following the survey’s closure, ACAPT members will have access to the survey results, including the Task Force’s final report with recommendations for best practices in DPT admissions. The Task Force will also present the data and recommendations at CSM 2026.
The APTA Academy of Education created an Admissions Network within the Academic Faculty SIG. To sign up as a member of the admissions network, visit this link.
Watch their recorded events:
Understanding and Addressing Barriers Faced By Underrepresented Applicants (passcode: 6Hu?udH6) by Nicole Tombers, PT, DPT
Interviews Part II: Synchronous Interviews (passcode: 4aW.bRWQ) by Isabelle Porter (Montgomery County Community College), Anastasia Kyvelidou (Creighton University), Patrick Pabian (University of Kentucky), Megan Eikenberry (Midwestern University), and Samantha Mundell (University of Central Florida)
Frequently-asked-questions:
NOTE: ACAPT encourages institutions to acknowledge applicant efforts and mastery of course content by not penalizing applicants in the admissions process who have repeated courses and accepting an applicant’s highest grade achieved for a given course.
These common core prerequisites (approved by ACAPT membership in 2012) help provide more flexibility & encourage more access to DPT schools for underrepresented minority (URM) students.
Two courses in biological sciences (not botany) Two courses in general chemistry with lab Two courses in general physics with lab One course in psychology One course in statisticsAnatomy & physiology
One course in anatomy with lab AND one course in physiology with lab (or)A two-course sequence in anatomy and physiology, each with lab
Published articles
Other resources
Through the former Educational Leadership Partnership (ELP), ACAPT, APTA and the APTA Academy of Education, created fact sheets for institutions to provide financial information on DPT and PTA programs in a consistent manner so that student and prospective students can more easily compare costs between schools.
See the Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) Program Financial Fact Sheet 2020-2021 here. We encourage all PT programs to post the completed fact sheets on their academic programs' websites.
In 2018, ACAPT members approved the Alternate Approval Pathway (AAP) developed by the Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy (FSBPT) to help ease the administrative burden during the initial processes of students entering the PT community.
Under AAP:
Contact FSBPT if your jurisdiction is interested in opting into AAP.
Prerequisite courses - approved by ACAPT membership in 2012
ACAPT Institutional Profile Survey results including prerequisite courses
PTCAS comparison of course prerequisites by program
Full story
ACAPT welcomes ideas & solutions to help meet the needs of DPT programs. Submit your suggestions for continuing education, professional development, guidelines, tools, best practices and more.
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The American Council of Academic Physical Therapy (ACAPT) is a component of the American Physical Therapy Association
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