i am going to the 9th grade and i want to do physical therapy what do i have to take?

While you’re in high school I would recommend as many science courses as possible, Chemistry, Physics, Biology, etc. You may not be able to test out of any of the Physical Therapy required courses in college by taking AP science classes in HS, but they will give you a good preparation for college level science.

Also, I would recommend taking high level math courses, and if possible try to take Calculus while you are in high school. Again you will probably still have to take it in college, but taking it now will help you be ready for college. PT is a difficult curriculum. Good luck!

Right now, I would concentrate on taking courses that are required for college entrance…especially if where you want to do your undergraduate and graduate work are the same place. Most of these colleges require that you take 4 years of high school English, 3 of science (usually bio, chem, and physics), 3 of math…you may or may not have a language requirement. Some schools require that if you do not take 4 years of foreign language, that you are required to take two more years in college. However, this may vary…for instance, where I went to school, BS majors were not required to take more than 2 years of high school foreign language. For me, it was not worth it for me to take 4 years of foreign language in high school (although now i wish I did).

If you are into taking AP classes, just know that you will most likely not be able to clep out of them uless you score a 5 on the AP exam…and even then, you may only clep out of 1 class. My suggestion is to take all your prerequisites at the college level, as the subsequent classes tend to be the “weed out” courses (for instance, a 5 at my alma mater would have clepped you out of chem 210…but chem 211 was also quite a challenge). We used this term to describe courses that if students did not do well in, they pretty much hurt their chances of getting into the program. My best piece of advice is to take all your math and science classes at the collegiate level (rather than trying to clep out of them in high school in AP classes) so you can get exposure to a real college level lab course…rather, try to clep out of other requirements such as English and history. Then you will be able to focus your efforts on your science and math.

Good luck.