2024 Best Colleges for Physical Therapy

SUMMARY

A degree in Physical Therapy is a valuable choice and naturally an essential first step for scholars endeavoring to enter a career as a pediatric physical therapist, a physical therapist, or an outpatient physical therapist. Interestingly, physical therapy is a ​unique degree coming in at the 302nd most popular major. Last year alone, there were 385 physical therapy graduates. In-state tuition for physical therapy at private schools is, on average, 6.1 times more spendy than their public peers.

With only 28 colleges having programs for physical therapy you may have limited options as to the institutions which will have a degree program for you. If you're looking to surround yourself with other physical therapy undergrads, look at schools in Massachusetts which have more undergraduates admitted to physical therapy than any other state. More generally, the best region to major in physical therapy is in the Mid East region with Ithaca College, Duquesne University, and Saint Francis University best representing the region. Interestingly, our selection for the best conference to major in physical therapy is the Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association with Ithaca College representing the conference. On that topic, our choice for the best college for physical therapy is Northeastern University. You might also want to check out our list of best colleges.

The 'best' school is not necessarily the best school for every student. There are tons of facets to consider when deciding on institution. Features like campus amenities, transportation services, and food would refashion your choice on which college to attend. Here at Authority, we've examined the pros and cons for you. If, as an example, you are interested in which physical therapy college boasts the top campus, the answer is Northeastern University. If, for example, you are very interested in which school boasts the best campus, then we have a whole page dedicated to that. We have carefully pored through government databases, student reviews, professor reviews, and more so we can compare every U.S. major in an unbiased and informative way. Here you can explore our well researched list for the universities with the best student life&nbspand, from that list, our pick of the school with the best student life for physical therapy is Duquesne University. Curious why? Keep reading to learn more about Authority's top recommendations. Many of our conclusions will probably surprise you.

If expense is a primary factor in your choice of where you attend school, you might consider avoiding Northeastern University. Northeastern University&nbspappears to be the most expensive college for physical therapy, at least regarding out of state students. That being said, we have an entire list of the most expensive&nbspuniversities that could put the price tag at Northeastern University&nbspinto perspective. For more context, you may care to know that physical therapy is the 106th most expensive major in the nation, with an average cost of $38,800. To zoom out a little, the most costly state for physical therapy nationally is Massachusetts with costs at the main two colleges Northeastern University and Springfield College of $52,420 and $38,030 respectively. Even more broadly, the most expensive region for physical therapy is the New England region which is best demonstrated with Northeastern University with a cost of $52,420, and Springfield College with a cost of $38,030.

Our cheapest region for physical therapy is the Southwest region which is represented by Oklahoma Baptist University with a cost of $26,584. In better news, the most affordable college for physical therapy is Georgia Southern University. Our entire list of the most affordable schools can be found here.

In-state attendees can expect to pay about $6,500 for a degree in physical therapy. That price increases significantly to an average of $17,500 for an out-of-state public-school student. Our choice for the college constituting the best value for physical therapy: Northeastern University. On this page you can see our comprehensive list about the schools we believe to be the best value&nbspoverall. That being said, this section is predicated on being an out-of-state student. A discussion of value changes when in-state tuition is considered, but we do not know where you live (and are not trying to collect that kind of data).

Earnings for physical therapy students can cover a wide range, but two years after finishing the degree students will often make around $57,100. There can be a lot of variation in salary; highest paid earners can rake in up to $91,300. Straight out of college, the minimum earning positions within the physical therapy field make $35,000, which could be worse. The highest earning grads from physical therapy come from Northeastern University&nbspand if you want to find the colleges with all of the highest earning graduates, Authority has that too.

The overall diversity of physical therapy is subpar, being in only the 24th percentile of all programs. The university with the most composite diversity for physical therapy is Andrews University&nbspand here you can find our general list of the universities which have the most diversity. The overall financial diversity of the Physical Therapy major only is in the 6th percentile of all majors. Racial diversity is actually above financial diversity, in the 21st percentile. White collegians compose the largest proportion, 75%, of those studying physical therapy. Additionally, 69% of undergrads pursuing a physical therapy major are women.

The median ranking of physical therapy professors is 3.5 stars, a rating that is 12% below the average score across every major; this is a subpar score. If you are looking for the most popular physical therapy instructor in the nation, take a look at Evan Hansen from Brigham Young University-Idaho. This might be shocking, but the best rated professors for physical therapy by student are found at University of California-Davis. As we including information beyond just rankings we find that the college with the overall best professors for physical therapy is Northeastern University. One will find an explanation of our ever evolving ranking methodology of the best overall professors here, along with some of the top examples of professors in the U.S.

Finally, the hardest university to get into for physical therapy is Northeastern University. While we think of this list more as a novelty, we do have a general page of the hardest colleges to get into. That being said, we do hope you believe that considering the education process with a lens mainly informed by superlatives can cause problems. We hope you read our other pages on different schools and explore a couple of our background 'blog posts' on essential things to think about as you progress with your college search.