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Kathleen Volkman |
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Greg Karst, Ph.D. |
UNMC’s School of Allied Health Professions is one of 70 schools in the country using a new centralized online application service for its physical therapy education program.
On Friday (Aug. 1), the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) launched the Physical Therapist Centralized Application Service (PTCAS) for prospective physical therapy students and professional education programs.
The Web-based tool simplifies the application process for prospective physical therapy students and facilitates the admissions process for professional physical therapy educational programs by allowing applicants to use a single Web-based application and one set of materials to apply to multiple physical therapy programs.
“It’s very user friendly to the student,” said Kathleen Volkman, chairwoman of admissions for physical therapy education at UNMC. “This centralized service allows students to compare and contrast programs and should facilitate the application process for students.”
UNMC could receive more applicants from across the country, Volkman said, because students using PTCAS can view promotional information on all participating schools, then compare and contrast programs.
PTCAS will not determine whether an applicant has met the physical therapy program requirements or is eligible for admission. Students interested in UNMC’s physical therapy program have until Oct. 15 to apply. In the end, UNMC will select 40 students into its physical therapy program for the class entering in the fall of 2009.
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PTCAS applicants will submit a completed Web-based application that includes biographical data, colleges and universities attended, academic course history, physical therapy observation hours, a list of references, work experience, extracurricular activities, honors, professional licenses and a personal essay.
PTCAS will help applicants more easily research physical therapy program requirements and navigate the complexities of the admissions process.
“Health sciences and pre-physical therapy advisers welcome this standardized application system,” said APTA President R. Scott Ward, Ph.D. “PTCAS will help our profession track applicant pools and provide valuable data on application trends. This standardized approach will allow us to better communicate trends inter-professionally, with advisors, and with our applicants.”
Liaison International, an education information technology company in Watertown, Mass., will administer PTCAS.
“Liaison International is the same organization that our UNMC physician’s assistant program uses for centralized application services,” said Greg Karst, Ph.D., SAHP assistant dean for academic affairs. “This move by the physical therapy education program will help us toward our goal of centralizing and streamlining the admissions processes for all of the 10 educational programs in the School of Allied Health Professions.”
For more information on the service, go to www.ptcas.org.