I wanted to work somewhere in the health care field; Physical Therapy Entrance Essay

The questions I was asked to answer was:

Describe your decision making process in choosing physical therapy as a career choice versus other health care careers.

4500 Characters or less, I currently have 3620

Heres my essay:

At an early age I knew I wanted to work somewhere in the health care field. I always loved helping people feel better. I also knew that I could interact well with other people. I felt a conviction in my heart telling me that I had to do something health care related. I began doing observations with Doctors, Dentists, Physicians Assistants, and Nurses but I didn't feel like it was my calling or something I could become passionate about. It wasn't until my second year of college that I went to observe a Physical Therapist named Howard Manuel and realized that this was where I was meant to be. I spent much time doing these observations and I would see people come in that could barely walk and after some sessions they were able to move freely without any assistance. I came to a fork in my life. I was enrolled at Andrews University under the major of Biology for Pre-Medical because I thought that this was what I wanted. I was always fond of the human body and how it worked and I figured that Biology would take my love for the human body and add on to it. However after two years in the Pre-medical program, none of my classes had even touched anything related to the human body. It was after my observations with the Physical Therapist that I found myself researching this field. I went to the admissions director for the Physical Therapy program and began asking what classes were involved in the Pre-PT program. She told me about classes like Anatomy and Physiology and Exercise Physiology and other courses that actually talked about what I really enjoyed. From then on I became passionate about Physical Therapy. I took a step back and looked at my grades. I had a 2.8 overall GPA and I knew why my grades were low. I wasn't enjoying the classes, I wasn't learning what I was passionate about. After this sudden epiphany my decision was simple. I switched my major from Pre-Med to Pre-PT. A decision I have not regretted. The classes I am taking now are pertaining to the human body something I've always loved to study even on my personal time. I enjoy learning about how the body works and how I can make it better and my grades reflect that. I saw that in this health care field I could really make a difference in peoples lives. At some point in everyone's life, an injury occurs. Whether it may be sports related, work related, or even age related, people injure themselves. Those people who suffer injuries have to be dependent on other people and this dependency causes other problems aside from the injury. They become to feel useless and depressed, but Physical Therapists help them regain that independence in their lives. However, I am not naïve to think that as a physical therapist you can help everyone regain his or her independence. There are spinal injuries, for example, that leaves the patients paralyzed and in a wheel chair. As a PT you may not be able to help that person walk, but, you can help strengthen other body part to make them a bit more independent and not completely dependent on another person. What impacted me the most was the look of gratitude on the faces of the patients. The way that the physical therapist treated his patients made them actually build a relationship with him. In some health care fields the patients comes, you treat them once, and they leave. However, the people who need physical therapy come back for sessions and over time they build trust and friendship with the physical therapist. As a physical therapist, you posses the skills to change someone's life for the better, and that's what its all about, making a difference in someone's life.

I think this should be the starting point. Because you love helping others and feel easy with interacting with people, you wanted to choose a career in a field that can fulfill those desires. So you wanted to get into the health care field where such opportunities are abundant. I think that provides a better flow.


My first attention was set on popular careers in the field such as doctors, dentists, physical assistants and nurses. However, I didn't find much passion in any of them.


When I was in my second year in College I met Mr Howard Manuel, a Physical Therapist and this was the point I found where my real passion lies.