How to become a physical therapist

What a physical therapist does

A physical therapist treats people whose pain or limited movement holds them back after an injury, a surgery, a stroke, or a chronic condition, using exercise, stretching, hands-on therapy, and equipment like canes and walkers. Employers and the Bureau of Labor Statistics shorten the title to PT. Physiotherapist is the word used for the same job in the UK, Canada, and Australia; American state boards and job postings say physical therapist.

The PT evaluates the patient, writes the plan of care, and tracks progress against it. A physical therapist assistant, who carries out parts of that plan under the PT's direction, is a separate job with its own 2-year degree and its own license, and our PTA license guide covers that credential.

Physical therapists held 267,200 US jobs in 2024. 34% of them worked in offices of physical, occupational and speech therapists, and audiologists, and 28% in hospitals (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024 data).

How long it takes to become a physical therapist

About 7 years after high school: 4 years for a bachelor's degree, then 3 years for the Doctor of Physical Therapy. Duquesne University admits students to the DPT straight out of high school, and its curriculum runs 5.5 years. No route skips the DPT, since it is the entry-level degree for the job.

The degree you need: the Doctor of Physical Therapy

You need a Doctor of Physical Therapy from a program accredited by the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education (CAPTE), and BLS lists a doctoral or professional degree as the typical entry-level education for the occupation. State boards want a CAPTE-accredited program, and a new school in Candidate for Accreditation status counts only if the accreditation comes through. Check a school's status at capteonline.org before you pay a deposit.

Most programs want a bachelor's degree before the professional phase. The most common format is 4+3, used by 54.1% of programs in 2025: 4 undergraduate years and a 3-year professional phase (CAPTE 2025 fact sheet). The major is up to you. Each program publishes its own prerequisite course list, and Texas Tech, Sacramento State, and South Alabama all ask for anatomy and physiology, general chemistry, physics, statistics, and psychology, usually with labs and a minimum grade.

Admission is the hard part. The average program received 298 applications and enrolled 45 students in 2025, and the mean GPA of enrolled students was 3.5 (CAPTE 2025 fact sheet). Individual programs sit on both sides of that 45: Sacramento State admits 32 a year, and Pacific University's Class of 2028 has 51.

Two parts of the application differ by program, so read each page:

• The GRE. Texas Tech, Sacramento State, and South Alabama all require it, with South Alabama preferring a verbal plus quantitative score of 290 or higher. Pacific University says no GRE and won't look at scores.
• The hours. All four schools above want at least 50 hours under a licensed PT. Texas Tech wants them done before May 1 of the year you start; South Alabama wants them verified through PTCAS by the deadline; Pacific encourages 100 across several clinics.

Programs averaged about 35 weeks of full-time clinical education in 2025 out of the roughly 122 weeks total (CAPTE 2025 fact sheet).

Getting licensed

Every state licenses physical therapists, and licensure includes passing a qualifying exam (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook). That exam is the National Physical Therapy Examination, and state boards add their own requirements on top of it.

The NPTE is written by the Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy, and it is the same exam in every state. What it covers, what it costs, how renewal works, how employers verify a license, and how the PT Compact lets you practice across state lines are all in our physical therapist license guide. Some employers also ask for a current BLS or CPR card alongside the license.

Step by step: how to become a physical therapist

1. Finish high school, and take biology, chemistry, and physics while you're there. If you already know you want this, look at direct-entry programs like Duquesne's, which admit from high school.
2. Start a bachelor's degree and clear the prerequisites inside it: anatomy and physiology, chemistry, physics, biology, statistics, and psychology.
3. Keep the GPA up. 3.0 is the published floor at Texas Tech and South Alabama, and 3.5 was the mean GPA of the students who enrolled in 2025.
4. Log your observation hours with a licensed PT, 50 at minimum. A second setting gives you something to say in the interview.
5. Sit the GRE if your shortlist needs it, and check each program separately, since some have dropped it.
6. Apply through PTCAS the fall before you start. Deadlines land between September and November for a class that begins the following summer or fall.
7. Finish the DPT, clinical rotations included.
8. Apply to your state board, sit the NPTE once it approves you to test, and start applying to openings when the license is issued.

What it costs to get there

The DPT itself costs about $74,000 at a public school in state and about $130,000 at a private one, and that's the professional phase alone, with the undergraduate degree still on top. Those are the 2025-26 means for total cost of the professional program, room and board excluded (CAPTE 2025 fact sheet).

What physical therapists earn

The median wage for physical therapists was $101,020 a year, or $48.57 an hour, in May 2024 (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook). The lowest 10% earned under $74,420 and the highest 10% earned over $132,500.

Setting moves the number. Home healthcare services paid the highest median of the industries BLS breaks out, $108,110. Nursing and residential care facilities paid $105,330 and hospitals $105,140, while offices of physical, occupational and speech therapists, and audiologists paid $94,860 (May 2024). Postings in our current listings quote $36.52 to $59.55 an hour at a New York hospital and $51.00 to $77.30 at a Washington health system (MedJobList, July 2026).

Work is easy to find once you're licensed. Programs reported 99.5% of their graduates employed within 12 months in 2025 (CAPTE 2025 fact sheet), and BLS projects 11% employment growth between 2024 and 2034 with about 13,200 openings a year.

Where the job leads next

A clinical residency is one route after graduation, and BLS says residencies typically last about 1 year and add training in one specialty area of care. A fellowship in a narrower clinical area comes after that, and board specialist certification is a separate route in areas such as orthopedics, sports, and geriatrics.

Changing setting is another route. Our current listings post the same role in outpatient and inpatient settings, and one health system posts it by grade as Physical Therapist I (MedJobList, July 2026).

Where physical therapists are hiring now

Right now 451 of the active US openings we track are physical therapist roles. They come from hospital systems and outpatient rehab departments around the country, and the postings name the setting in the title: outpatient rehabilitation, outpatient orthopedics, inpatient, wound care.

Per diem and PRN shifts show up in the list, and they're a practical way to add a second setting without leaving your main job. The credential these postings name is the state license itself, and a few add a BLS or CPR card. You can see the current set on our physical therapist jobs page.