General Program Description

Northeastern university is a freshman entry program in a 3 + 3 curriculum format. Students graduate with a DPT after 6 years. Cooperative education is an integral part of the program. Through cooperative education, students have 1.0 years of paid pre-clinical work experience. The program also admits students with a baccalaureate degree into the post baccalaureate program. These students graduate with a DPT in 4 years that includes 6 months of cooperative education. The Mission of the Department of Physical Therapy is to serve the profession of Physical Therapy, the university, and local and global society. The cornerstone of our program is experiential learning, which includes cooperative education, simulated patient interactions, service learning, clinical research, and international humanitarian opportunities. Through this unique, multifaceted approach to learning we: • Educate skilled, autonomous, doctors of physical therapy who embrace evidence-based practice, are culturally competent and are equipped to work in a complex global health care environment • Promote professionalism, humanistic values, resourcefulness and innovation, and commitment to life-long learning • Advance scholarship in areas related to physical therapist education and clinical practice to meet the changing needs of a global and technologically advancing world.

Clinical Experiences
Students complete three clinical experiences during the program, one 8 week and two 14 week. All are full-time, 36 hours per week. Clinical experiences are offered in a wide range of geographic areas, clinical specialty areas, and clinical settings. Students are encouraged to select from a wide variety of clinical settings, including inpatient acute care, outpatient orthopedic physical therapy, and specialty areas that could include neurological rehabilitation, geriatrics/extended care, chest physical therapy, pediatrics, cardiac rehabilitation, and others. The program also offers the opportunity to complete clinical experiences and coursework towards certification in early intervention.

Faculty
There are 25 full-time and 65 part-time faculty. Of the full-time faculty 90% hold post-professional doctoral degrees, eleven are certified as clinical specialists, two are fellows of Manual Therapy, two hold specialty certifications in other areas (Lymphedema and Assistive Technology) and fourteen are engaged in clinical practice. Over the last year faculty have averaged thirty-nine peer-reviewed articles and have had thirteen articles accepted or published. There have been seventy presentations at national and international conferences. Faculty have had four books or chapters published, thirty-seven papers and proposals submitted for presentations but not accepted or published and four other scholarly reviewed and disseminated. The faculty to student ratio in the professional portion of the program is 1:13.

Enrollment
Northeastern University has a total of over 14,000 students enrolled full-time with a new freshman enrollment goal of 2,800. Each year the physical therapy program enrolls approximately 65-75 freshmen students. The post baccalaureate program enrolls approximately 25-35 students each year.

Admission
Gaining admission to the physical therapy program is competitive. The Admission Committee seeks to offer admission to the most talented students in the applicant pools. The committee considers a number of factors for freshman admission including quality of courses taken before admission, grades earned, school rank, if available, SAT I scores, recommendations, essays, extra-curricular activities, and interest in the profession of physical therapy. The most competitive PT applicants have completed 4 years each of English and Mathematics, 3-4 years of Social Studies, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics, and 2-3 years of Foreign Language. Students may transfer into the program in the freshman and sophomore years with admission based upon academic achievement and availability of space. Admission into the graduate program is also competitive requiring pre-requisites of anatomy, physiology, chemistry, exercise physiology, English, mathematics, statistics, psychology and developmental psychology, recommendations, essays and interest in the profession.

Outcomes
93% of admitted students graduate from the program (3-year average).

Tuition, fees and financial aid
The upper class tuition for 2014-2015 is $42,534.00 (2 semesters). Rooms at the university residence including meal plan is $14,050 annually depending on the meal plan selected. Approximately 75% of all freshmen receive financial aid. Graduate housing is available for graduate students.

Student life
A wide range of on and off-campus housing is available. Physical therapy students often participate in either intercollegiate or intramural athletics as well as the many clubs and student activities offered on campus. Northeastern University is located in the Back Bay section of Boston and offers numerous cultural, entertainments, and sports facilities. Northeastern University is served by subway, bus, and commuter rail lines and is 40 minutes by public transportation from Logan Airport. Northeastern is within a half-hour walk of four major medical centers and numerous other health care facilities.