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By admin, October 30, 2009 5:03 pm

Physical Therapy: Going back to school at 39 years old.?

Ok, So 2nd Q. I’m 39 years old. I’m a licensed massage therapist in NYC and would like to go to school for PT. I don’t have my undergrad degree. I have a 1.5925 GPA with 33 hrs that are passing out of 54 hours from when I tried to get my undergrad at UT Texas in Austin in 95. My undergrad major was deaf education. So now I have been an LMT for the past 4 years, since 2001. Have 1500 hours of massage training from Swedish Institue in NYC and Austin Massage school in TX combined. Reason to go back to school is to get a secure job that will give job security and health benefits in the work force. Questions: Should I go back to school when it will take me about 7-9 years for this degree, I’ll be 50. Should I just continue in massage knowing well I won’t be able to do this in my later years? What do I need to do to start the process in going back to school? I’m in NYC and looking at the San Francisco (UCSF/SFSU) or Texas State in San Marcos. All feed back would be appreciated.

First of all, you are never to old to go back to school. It really has everything to do with motivation. If you have the desire, then do it. If not, dont waste your time because you wont do well. You will have to do it for yourself and to be totally truthful with you, you have to do it for internal reasons not external ones like money. External reasons for behavior do not, in most cases, have long term success rates. Things that relate to your value system and desires are more stable and tend to remain the same.

To answer you other question about how to get back into school. Personally what I would do is talk to some local physical therapists and ask them where they went to school and if there are any local programs available. Also ask them for requirements needed to get into the program. I’ll be honest with you, a 1.59 GPA is not going to cut it in any program. (Not saying this to put you down by the way) Hopefully with age and maturity you’ll do better than that. Most older student do do better after going back to school by the way… they have different standards, needs and values.

Good luck with you,
Daniel

Cupping with Anita Shannon, Advanced Continuing Education