Doctor of Physical Therapy

Physical Therapy is the treatment of physical dysfunction or injury by use of therapeutic exercise and the application of modalities, intended to restore or facilitate normal function or development. Visit the American Physical Therapy Association (www.apta.org) for more information about Physical Therapy.

The job outlook for physical therapists is good and is projected to remain strong in the foreseeable future. Graduates of Old Dominion University's DPT program are highly sought-after by local health care employers.

This depends on the quality of your application and the number of applications that are received each year. The number of applications varies each year. In the last ten application cycles, we have had between 250 to 600 applicants.

A minimum 3.0 GPA is needed to apply, although successful applicants have a higher GPA. The average GPA for overall course work for the last class admitted was 3.6.

Starting in the October 2026 application cycle, we will not require GREs for our application process. If you have already taken them, you may list your general GRE score (V, Q, Analytical) in a text box (no score will be assigned).

You will need 3 references. One MUST be from a physical therapist. Other references can be health care professionals who have observed you in a patient care environment, college instructors, employers, coaches, or other individuals that can address the qualities listed on the recommendation form. 

Applications are due October 1st. We will begin notifying students of their acceptance status by December with everyone notified of their status by the end of February which may include an option to be placed on a wait list if a seat becomes available.  

We have monthly Q & A sessions for prospective students and a large Information Session/Open House each August. Some of the sessions are via Zoom if you are unable to make it to campus.  This is a great opportunity to ask questions to a faculty member(s) and DPT student(s), tour our new building (Zoom sessions will include a video tour), and learn more about applying to ODU DPT via PTCAS or with our guaranteed entry application. To see the dates/times for the sessions and sign up, please visit the Information Sessions Calendar to RSVP. Once you RSVP, information details will be sent to you including the Zoom invite if it is a remote session.

Please email admissions at dptadmissions@odu.edu with any questions.  It is recommended that you include a contact number in addition to your email address in case an admissions committee member needs to speak with you.

Yes. Re-applicants are welcome and are often stronger candidates the second year. You will need to reapply through PTCAS. Be sure to include in your application that you are a repeat applicant and highlight what you have done to strengthen your application from the previous cycle.

You will need to complete a bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited institution in order to be eligible for our DPT program. You will also need to complete all prerequisite courses as listed below:

No, but it must be possible for you to complete your bachelor's degree and all course work before the start date of the program (last week in May). Applicants may have 1-2 prerequisite course grades missing at the time of application with course completion no later than the spring semester. Students lacking more than 12 semester hours of prerequisite courses by the end of the fall semester of the year prior to intended entry are not considered strong applicants due to the missing coursework. It is strongly recommended that anatomy and physiology courses are completed at the time of application.

This course is recommended, but not required as a prerequisite for the DPT degree. This course is offered at most four-year colleges that offer degrees in Health and Physical Education and/or Sports Medicine. Old Dominion University offers this course through the Human Movement Sciences department (EXSC 417). The course may also be titled "Biomechanics" or "Applied Anatomy and Kinesiology." Norfolk State University also offers biomechanics/kinesiology.

Whether to repeat courses depends on your overall record. In general, repeating coursework will not have a significant impact on your overall GPA. If your grades are strong overall but you had a bad semester and earned a C in a key class such as Anatomy, Physiology or Physics, then re-taking that class could be beneficial to strengthen your application. If you are unsure, contact us for advisement.

There are many good reasons students graduating from a four-year institution take some courses at a community college. However, an academic record with science course work completed at a four-year institution will be perceived as being more rigorous, especially if the student's university offers the science courses but the student chose to go to a community college.

Yes. If you feel that there were extenuating circumstances, it might be worthwhile for you to attach a brief letter to your application explaining your situation which resulted in low grades during part of your academic career.

PTCAS will average repeated course grades. 

Your undergraduate degree may have been completed at any time. Anatomy and physiology course work must have been completed within the last five years, while the rest of the prerequisite courses must have been completed within the last 10 years. If this affects you, we recommend that you contact the Program to set up an advising appointment to determine your specific situation.

ODU's DPT program requires a total of 40 volunteer hours. The hours can be paid or volunteer. These hours MUST be completed in at least TWO (2) distinctly different PT clinics or settings (treating different patient populations). Volunteer hours must be under the supervision of a licensed physical therapist.

No. The program at Old Dominion University is designed for a full-time student to be continuously enrolled for 3 years.

Students are introduced to clinical environments and populations early in the Program. The first year includes structured "clinics" with standardized patients at Eastern Virginia Medical School. A standardized patient is a healthy individual who is trained to portray signs and symptoms of a patient. The "clinics" are recorded, and students receive both written and verbal feedback on their clinical performance. The first full-time clinical experience occurs in the summer of the first year and is for eight weeks. This first-time experience is in an outpatient environment and to maximize the student's application and integration of learning from the first year in the classroom. During the second academic year, students evaluate and treat community volunteers with neurological disorders as well as standardized patients from Eastern Virginia Medical School. At the conclusion of the second year (the third summer of the Program), students spend twelve weeks in full-time clinical practice. The final third year spring semester affords the student fourteen more weeks of full-time clinical education prior to graduation.

We place students in many facilities throughout the Hampton Roads region as well as all over the Commonwealth of Virginia. We also have many clinical partners with sites in the southeastern region and a few more distant sites in Utah, Oregon, Arizona, and even Alaska and Hawaii. Students should budget and plan for at least one full-time clinical education experience to be out of the area or out of state.

The Program strongly suggests students have a vehicle for traveling to clinical sites during full-time clinical education experiences and other community-based learning opportunities.

The Director of Clinical Education (DCE) is responsible for placing all students in full-time clinical experiences. Each spring, the DCE recruits slots from our clinical partners for students to have experiences in the following calendar year. In the summer or early fall, the DCE assigns students to the offered slots based on student goals and interests, faculty input, and clinical faculty or clinical site considerations. All ODU DPT students are required to successfully complete 3 full-time experiences with at least 1 outpatient experience and 1 inpatient experience (acute care or post-acute rehab). Students can also have learning opportunities in specialty practice areas during their intermediate or final experiences.

Special features of the DPT program at ODU include:

• Emphasis on active learning and clinical problem-solving
• Class sizes of 48 with multiple instructors (core faculty, adjunct faculty, PhD students) for each lab
• Use of Standardized Patients to fine-tune clinical skills and patient-therapist relationships before engaging in clinical practice
• Integrated full-time clinical experiences to guide your professional development throughout the program
• Lab sessions with community volunteers for students to have direct interaction with patients/clients
• Local community service-learning activities with older adults, migrant farm workers, or other underserved members of the local area
• International interprofessional service-learning opportunity through a spring break study abroad trip (limited enrollment)
• The ODU Faschini Wallach Center for Restorative Therapies, our on-campus outpatient clinic, provides learning opportunities through full-time clinical experiences for our students as well as volunteer/observation hours for individuals applying to rehabilitation sciences programs.
• Our School of Rehabilitation Sciences offers a Ph.D. program in Kinesiology and Rehabilitation, and Ph.D. students who are already licensed physical therapists  may assist in teaching PT classes

In the final fall semester, students complete a topics course to explore specialty practice areas. The course coordinator curates a diverse list of learning opportunities and assigns students to an area of interest. Previous topics have included pediatrics, vestibular rehab, sports rehab, advanced manual therapy, advanced neuro rehab, pelvic health, and PT education. Students can also have learning opportunities in specialty practice areas during their intermediate or final clinical education experiences.

Yes. All states require that physical therapists be licensed in order to practice. Students must graduate from an accredited physical therapy school in order to be eligible to sit for the licensure examination.

Yes, there is. The National Physical Therapy Examination (NPTE) is used by all states and is administered at various computer testing locations. For more information on the NPTE; click HERE (National Exam (NPTE) | FSBPT) 

The mean score for ODU graduates is above the state and national averages. The first-time pass rate is generally 95 to 97%, with an overall pass rate of 100%.