The applicant must hold a baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university within the United States in a field other than physical therapy. Acceptance will be based on the student's academic ability and aptitude for a career as a physical therapist. The candidate is expected to satisfy the following requirements:

• PTCAS application must be complete and verified by PTCAS, by November 1, 2024.
• Have a minimum 3.0 (A=4.0) for the following grade point averages: 1) cumulative, 2) prerequisite, and 3) last 60 semester hours.
• The UAB Doctor of Physical Therapy Program recognizes students across many institutions were offered the pass/fail option due to the circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 altered education experience. An applicant’s choice of pass/fail for a prerequisite or other course will not negatively affect the application. UAB DPT admissions follows the PTCAS policy: for “pass” classes, the student receives credit for the course, but that course is not factored into their GPA. For “fail” classes, the student does not get credit for the class, and the class factors into their GPA as a failed class. Students are encouraged to make decisions that work best for their situation. Please see the PTCAS website for additional information.
• 75% of prerequisite courses (i.e., 38 credits of prerequisite courses) must be completed by the end of the fall semester of the year of application. For example, applicants submitting their application by November 1, 2024, must have 75% of prerequisite courses completed by the end of the fall of 2024.
• The applicant must have a grade of C or better in all prerequisite courses.
• Complete a required minimum of at least 20 hours of shadowing with a licensed physical therapist. Shadowing hours need to be verifiable by PTCAS. There is no required form for recording shadowing hours. Record the name, date/s worked, and contact information of the physical therapist with whom you shadowed, as well as the name and address of the facility at which you shadowed. This information must be uploaded into your PTCAS application.
• Submit three letters of recommendation to PTCAS. UAB will only accept letters of recommendation from PTCAS. The requirements for the letters of recommendation has changed for the 2024-2025 admissions cycle. Three letters are required and the fourth letter is optional.
  Once you have saved an electronic reference, an email request will automatically be sent to the referrer on your behalf. Please advise your referrer to look for this email in their inbox, as well as their spam or junk-mail folder, as emails do occasionally get filtered out. Please note: All references submitted within this section of your application are program specific. If you choose to remove this program from your application, please understand your letters will be deleted along with the program.
• Letter 1: Written by a professor that can attest to your academic ability in the classroom. A professor that has taught you in a college course.
• Letters 2: Written by a licensed Physical Therapist with whom the applicant has shadowed/observed.
• Letter 3: Written by an individual with whom the applicant had interaction in a professional setting. The individual must be able to assess the applicant’s qualities as defined in the PTCAS recommendation form (e.g. Critical Thinking, Empathy, Ethics, Interpersonal Skills, Leadership, Oral Communication, Professional Behaviors, Response to Criticism, Responsibility, Stress Management, Team Skills, Time Management, Written Communication). The program recommends that this letter be completed by a licensed physical therapist, however, this is not a requirement.
• Letter 4: OPTIONAL and can be written by anyone.
• The UAB DPT Program will not require the GRE in the 2024-2025 admissions cycle. If you have taken the GRE, you may submit your test scores using school code 7801. Not submitting a GRE score will not negatively impact your application and the program will not consider GRE in decisions. If you are taking the GRE, take the general GRE test that includes three different sections: analytical writing, quantitative, and verbal.

Our admissions committee makes decisions based on needs of the program and the current impact of COVID on our applicants. They always strive to put our applicant's current situation into consideration. As the pandemic continues to impact our country we will respond accordingly. Therefore, there are some changes that may be made during the admissions cycle. All changes will be posted on our website as soon as they are made.

Course requirements are listed in semester credit hours.

Arts and Humanities

• English Composition - EH 101, 102 (6 hours).

Social and Behavioral Sciences

• Psychology (6 hours).

Natural Sciences and Mathematics

• Anatomy* - BY 115 or BMD 310 (4 hours) (listed as Biology / Biological Science in PTCAS)
• Physiology* (Human or Mammalian) - BY 116 (4 hours)
• Biology* - BY 123 (Biology I) and BY 124 (Biology II) (8 hours)
• Chemistry* for science majors, with labs - CH 115/116 lab, CH 117/118 lab (8 hours)
• Medical Terminology - AHS 350 or HCM 350 (1-3 hours)
• Physics* - PH 201/201L lab** (4 hours), PH 202/202L lab** (4 hours) (total 8 hours) or PH 221/221L lab** (4 hours), PH 222/222L lab** (4 hours) (total 8 hours)
• Precalculus with Trigonometry - MA 106 (3 hours)
• Statistics (must be taken in Math, Psychology, Sociology or Educational Psychology) - MA 180, PY 216, SOC 410, PUH 250 or EPR 214 (3-4 hours)

*For these prerequisite courses, credit older than ten years from the application deadline must be validated by examination or other appropriate mechanism.

**The physics course sequence must be designed for science majors and include laboratory sessions. A minimum of 8 semester hours is required. The following topics must be studied: mechanics, heat, electricity and magnetism, wave motion and sound, and light.

It is strongly recommended that applicants take the following courses: practical reasoning or logic course, biomechanics or kinesiology and upper level biology (physiology).

To determine how your courses from other institutions equate to our prerequisites, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and provide the following details — the name of the Institution from which you took the course, include the city and state of the institution, the semester you took the course, the course number, the course syllabus, and include a transcript (unofficial is fine). If you have not taken the course yet, please reach out to that institution’s department and request the most current syllabus they can provide for that course. We will provide UAB equivalency. It may take up to two weeks to get a response.

Fundamental tasks, behaviors, and abilities necessary to successfully complete the academic and clinical requirements of the program and to satisfy licensure/certification requirements, are outlined here. Students requesting disability accommodations must do so by filing a disability accommodation request in writing with the UAB Disability Support Services Office.

Students who are accepted into the UAB Doctor of Physical Therapy program must:

• Complete the UAB Graduate School application and include the graduate school fee.
• Complete the UAB medical history questionnaire and physical.
• Provide proof of required immunizations, and receive satisfactory screening by the UAB Medical Center Student Health Service.
• The UAB Doctor of Physical Therapy program will submit all transcripts that were submitted through PTCAS to the Graduate School; however, you will be responsible for sending any transcripts that were either not submitted or do not show degree awarded.
• Complete a criminal background check and drug screen before the first semester as specified by the Department of Physical Therapy.
• State law regulates the practice of Physical Therapy. Therefore, applicants are encouraged to review the non-academic eligibility requirements for licensure to practice physical therapy upon completion of the program. These may be obtained from each individual state's Board of Licensure for Physical Therapy.