How Much Do Sports Physical Therapist Make?

Question by Nia: How much do sports physical therapist make?
Also, what’s the best college to attend to become a sports physical therapist, and what should I major in to become a sports physical therapist?

Best answer:

Answer by Donald
It varies. Likely starting salary is $ 40,000-$ 50,000. There’s more information at http://www.apta.org.

Best college to attend? You’ll have to do a bit of research on that. There are (I believe) slightly over 200 schools offering degrees in physical therapy. Not too many have a sports concentration. However, when you do your clinicals, you’ll want at least one of the sites to be a sports physical therapist practice. So make sure that the school has arrangements for residency programs at sports physical therapy sites.

Another way is to contact some of the major sports physical therapy practices and ask them whether they’re sites for physical therapist clinicals. The schools that they’re affiliated with are places to investigate.

What should you major in? It’d help to major in something having to do with biology, anatomy, or science. Physical education is another possibility. However, there are plenty of PTs who majored in liberal arts. Still, it’d help to start with something similar to a pre-med degree.

Hope that helps.

Answer by mistify
Sorry, but i have to counterpoint nearly every point in Donald’s post.

First, to clear the confusion about a “sports therapist.” There’s really no such profession: You can be a physical therapist who specializes in sports medicine or orthopedic management, or you can be an athletic trainer…which are somewhat similar careers (but are still quite different). I’ll assume you mean a physical therapist with an emphasis on sports medicine. To do this, you need a degree in physical therapy which, in the US, is now a doctorate degree (DPT). It’s typically a 7 year course of study where you complete an undergraduate degree including some basic sciences prior to entering the competitive entry graduate phase of the program. The graduate phase is typically 3 years. A handful of school offer an accelerated program that consists of 3years of pre-propfessional coursework and 3 years of professional coursework.

Your undergraduate degree doesn’t matter, but you will have to complete the PT prerequisites. Since this includes a lot of sciences, many students choose something closely related to that: kinesiology, healthcare sciences, etc.

If you wish to specialize in sports, this is something you typically do after you graduate. If, after a year of work in a sports med setting, you can apply to take a Sports Medicine Specialist board certification exam. There are also a host of residency type programs such as manual therapy and possibly some sports med residency programs…but these are not as common…at least, not at this time.

As far as college….well, if there’s a particular sport towards which you are drawn, this may require a little research. I’d study at an institution where the research in that area is being done. University of Alabama, for example does a lot with the throwing athlete. Other than that, just attending a school that has an accredited PT program is certainly sufficient.

Starting salaries for PTs is typically in the $ 60,000 range with national median salaries around $ 76,000 a year…this is certainly subject to demand and regional variations. Sports medicine PTs aren’t necessarily paid more than average.

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

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