Prospective Students

Admission is highly selective and enrollment in the PT program is limited to 34 students each year with over 500 students who apply. To be eligible to apply, students must earn a bachelor's degree by the end of Spring prior to starting the program in Fall.  Students completing their degrees completed in the summer prior to starting the program must wait until the following year to apply.  Please carefully review the admission requirements and deadlines.  Please review this webpage periodically for admission requirement changes. 

Late and incomplete applications will be not considered.

Fresno State DPT program only interviews up to 150 applicants, therefore, meeting the minimum admission requirements does NOT guarantee an applicant an interview.  

The Fresno State Department of Physical Therapy offers various types of advising to meet the needs of prospective students. 

Prior to participating in an advising session, please review the Application Instructions and Timeline, Requirements and Prerequisite Courses and Frequently Asked Questions links on this website.

Undergraduates at Fresno State are encouraged to attend an advising session in the Physical Therapy Department after they seek advising at the College of Health and Human Services Advising (ACDC) advising office in McLane Hall Room 194 or their respective college advising office. Post-baccalaureate students should contact the Physical Therapy Department directly after thoroughly reviewing the website. 

For DPT Program Advising, review our Advising Page, HERE

International students cannot be admitted to the Doctor of Physical Therapy program (DPT) prior to coming to the United States for several reasons: 1) the application for the DPT program requires completion of 9 prerequisite courses (with a C or above) to be taken at a U.S. institution, 2) the required 100 contact hours with a licensed physical therapist must be in the United States (20 hours must be in-patient hours), and 3) the applicant must be available in the Spring Semester prior to Fall Semester admission for an interview on our campus.

If you would like to pursue applying to the graduate program in Physical Therapy at Fresno State, we recommend you first come to the United States and verify your bachelor's degree through our International Services on campus. If the bachelor's degree is from an accredited university and accepted for Fresno State, you could then enroll in a community college or 4-year university to complete the prerequisites. In addition, you must complete a minimum of 100 observation hours (20 hours must be in-patient hours) under the supervision of a licensed physical therapist in the United States, complete your GRE, complete an application packet through PTCAS, a national online application service, in fall semester to apply the following fall semester and participate in an interview on campus with the faculty during the spring semester. Students are notified of acceptance in spring semester to start the DPT program the following fall semester. There is no guarantee of admission to the graduate Physical Therapy degree program.

Or, an international student pursuing the graduate program in Physical Therapy, could enroll at Fresno State as an undergraduate student in a specific program. A student can receive a bachelor's degree (B.S. or B.A.) in any major as long as he/she has also completed the 9 prerequisites listed on our website to be considered for admission. You would still be required to complete a minimum of 100 observation hours (20 hours must be in-patient hours) under the supervision of a licensed physical therapist in the United States, complete the GRE, complete an application packet through PTCAS, a national online application service, in fall semester to apply the following fall semester and participate in an interview on campus with the faculty during the spring semester. Students are notified of acceptance in spring semester to start the DPT program the following fall semester. There is no guarantee of admission to the graduate Physical Therapy degree program.

The graduate program is NOT a post-professional program for currently practicing professionals. If you are already a physical therapist, having graduated from a PT program outside of the United States, our program would duplicate much of your Physical Therapy education. The type of program you are looking for would be a Post-professional Education program. You may obtain information about those programs from the American Physical Therapy Association (1111 North Fairfax, Alexandria, VA 22314) or from their website at www.apta.org.