General Program Description

MCPHS University has a legacy built on the pursuit of excellence in healthcare education. The Doctor of Physical Therapy Program is designed to prepare graduates for successful careers in the profession of physical therapy and who are able to recognize and meet changing health care needs. Our graduate education focuses on competent, caring, ethical quality healthcare. The program is eight consecutive semesters across three years and begins with the fall semester each year. With evidence-based clinical practice as a curricular foundation, students complete an evidence-based project as part of their graduation requirements.

Clinical Experiences
Clinical education is an essential component of the professional program. Through clinical education, students develop skills that can be acquired only in the clinical setting and, by fostering a supportive environment for the student, implement effective communication and professional behaviors with patients and health care providers. It affords the student a chance to be exposed to a variety of health care settings in order to understand the scope of the physical therapist’s roles and responsibilities, the healthcare needs of a community, as well as the variety of diagnoses/conditions that physical therapists encounter. Beginning in the first semester, students are involved with clinical education through the five integrated clinical education (ICE) courses that are dispersed throughout the first and second years of the program. These ICE courses provide an opportunity to integrate acquired classroom knowledge from concurrent courses across a variety of clinical settings, occurring on and off campus. Thirty (30) weeks of full-time clinical education experiences follow the didactic courses and begin in the third year. Full-time clinical education experiences will be varied, so that students are prepared as generalist entry-level practitioners. All three full-time clinical experiences may occur at facilities throughout the U.S. Students are responsible for travel expenses, room, board, and living expenses associated with each clinical education experience. It is expected that students will be assigned to at least one clinical experience that is out of state and will require relocating for the duration of that experience.

Faculty
There are nine full-time faculty members in the School and all hold post-professional degrees – five hold DPT degrees, three are board certified clinical specialists and three have PhD’s or the equivalent. They have a wide range of interests in clinical practice and scholarship. There are an additional fifteen adjunct clinical faculty that support the program. The faculty-to-student ratio is 1:12.

Enrollment
MCPHS University has a total enrollment of over 6500 students across its three campuses and there are about 1,300 students on the Worcester campus where the School of PT is located. The DPT program has an enrollment of approximately 40 students in each class drawn from a pool of over 450 applicants annually.

Admission
Graduate applicants must have a baccalaureate degree. For those undergraduate students who advance from the MCPHS undergraduate major of Premedical and Health Studies and have completed the physical therapy progression, enrollment in PTH courses will occur in their fourth year at MCPHS. All prerequisite course work must be completed with a B- or better grade; however a minimum overall and prerequisite GPA of 3.0 is required. Application to the program may be made prior to completion of all prerequisites, but prerequisites must be complete prior to matriculation. Prerequisite course work includes 8 semester hours each including labs in general biology, general chemistry, anatomy and physiology, and physics, 3 semester hours each in exercise physiology, calculus (preferred, pre-calculus accepted), statistics, introduction to psychology, and a behavioral sciences elective. Applicants must complete the PTCAS application (www.ptcas.org) and have a minimum of 10 hours exposure to physical therapy, which may include observation, volunteer or paid work experience. Applicants must take the Graduate Record Examination, complete the required personal statement, and submit two letters of recommendation – one professional and one academic preferred. Official TOEFL scores for applicants whose primary language is not English are required. Following application review, selected candidates will be invited for on campus interviews, which are required.

Outcomes
94 % of admitted students graduated from the program with the inaugural class.

Tuition, fees and financial aid
For students enrolled in the DPT program in the 2013-2014 academic year, the tuition was $42,400 per year. Additional fees are assessed for the first two years of the program.

Student life
The School of Physical Therapy is located on the Worcester campus of MCPHS University and is a dynamic and exciting place in New England’s second-largest city. MCPHS academic buildings in Worcester are located on Foster Street and at 10 Lincoln Square. Residential space is located in these same buildings and additional addresses within walking distance of the main campus area. Over 30,000 students attend the higher education institutions in the city so there is a focus of activity for work and play. Worcester is located an hour from Boston, Providence and the seacoast and three hours from New York City. Worcester students can enhance their experience by joining any of the student groups on campus. Service and community outreach are part of the University’s mission for community engagement and multiple programs exist as examples of implementation of this goal.