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PTCAS offers simplicity in the application process for both physical therapist programs and for prospective physical therapist students.  There are also benefits for pre-health career advisors and counselors, as well as benefits to the physical therapy profession. 

PTCAS is open to all Doctor of Physical Therapy education programs holding one of the following accreditation statuses with the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education (CAPTE):

  • Accreditation
  • Probationary Accreditation
  • Candidate for Accreditation
  • Applicant for Candidacy
  • Developing

To participate, the program must anticipate matriculating a cohort by January of the year following the close of the current application cycle, pending achieving Candidate for Accreditation status from CAPTE.

Considering Becoming a Participating Program?

Benefits for PTCAS Participating Programs

The education programs participating in a CAS can use the service to:

  • Significantly decrease the administrative burden on admissions committees and staff by reducing data entry and filing responsibilities.
  • Promote the program to a broader spectrum of prospective applicants in order to recruit a qualified applicant pool that is diverse in terms of race, ethnicity, background, and geographic location.
  • More effectively compete with other health profession programs that utilize a centralized application service including, but not limited to allopathic medicine, osteopathic medicine, dentistry, dental hygiene, veterinary medicine, nursing, pharmacy, physician assistants, occupational therapy, and podiatry.
  • More effectively promote physical therapy careers to pre-health profession advisors. Advisors are accustomed to centralized services and find it helpful in advising applicants who wish to apply to multiple programs.
  • Reduce the expense of developing and maintaining a paper or web-based application process at the program level.
  • More easily contact prospective applicants before their applications are processed in order to send recruitment and/or supplemental application information and increase the program's acceptance yield.
  • Capture more comprehensive applicant data in which to make admission decisions.
  • Analyze local application trends against peer and national data in order to develop more effective recruitment strategies.
  • Contribute to and access a rich database of applicant data that could eventually eliminate the need for surveys on student data.
  • Use CAS generated GPAs to eliminate the time-consuming grade conversion and GPA process at the local level.
  • Check the real-time status of an applicant's file, transcripts, and references online at any point in the application cycle.
  • Export applicant data from the free web-based admissions software into a local student information system or database.

Before deciding if PTCAS participation is right for your program, it is important to understand more about how a centralized application service (CAS) works, and the many features and benefits available to participating programs. To familiarize yourself with the features, functions, and processes of a CAS, including the benefits available to programs and their applicants, we recommend completing the 30-minute, self-paced, on-demand course -  Centralized Application Services: Your Admissions Management Solution.

For individuals who will be involved in the CAS implementation and need to learn how WebAdMIT can help improve the admissions process, we also recommend completion of the 45-minute, self-paced, on-demand course – Best Practices in Implementing a Centralized Application Service – inclusive of a toolkit designed to help programs new to CAS with the implementation process.

If your program is ready to participate in PTCAS, the first step is to complete the non-binding participation agreement for the application cycle you are seeking to join PTCAS by downloading the form from below and returning it to PTCAS once completed.

Once this form has been received, you will receive an official welcome packet containing important information on the next steps in the onboarding process, training resources, and access information to begin setting up your program profile.

If you have any questions regarding PTCAS participation, or would like to set up a demo of the PTCAS application platform, please reach out to us at ptcas@apta.org.

What PTCAS Offers

Improve Efficiency by Following a Standardized Approach to Admissions

To improve the efficiency of admissions through a more unified process, the the American Council of Academic Physical Therapy (ACAPT), a component of APTA, has provided a set of admission traffic rules for both Doctor of Physical Therapy education programs and applicants.

While all programs and applicants are expected to abide by these rules, they are not a product of APTA or PTCAS, and neither can comment on or enforce them. Programs with questions or comments on the ACAPT Admissions Traffic Rules are advised to contact ACAPT directly at acapt@acapt.org.

Access the ACAPT Traffic Rules

Interviews and Assessments

PTCAS has partnered with Kira Talent to offer asynchronous video interview and written assessments as a part of the PTCAS application. Programs opting take utilize this service can take advantage of the negotiated flat rate per applicant, whether they include the assessment at the time of application as a part of the application process or assess selected applicants after initial review.

For more information on the Kira Talent platform, negotiated cost per applicant, and integration into PTCAS, or to set up a demo of Kira for your program, please visit the Kira Talent CAS Integration website.

PTCAS Provides Criminal Background Checks

PTCAS facilitates a centralized background check process for accepted applicants through Certiphi Screening Inc. Each program participating in PTCAS is eligible to use the centralized criminal background check process and take advantage of the negotiated flat rate of $77.75 per background check, paid directly by the applicant to Certiphi. There is no cost to the program to participate in this optional service. Programs interested in learning more about the PTCAS centralized criminal background check process can explore the additional information below, or reach out to PTCAS staff at ptcas@apta.org with additional questions or to begin the signup process.

How it works.

If a program participates in this service, when they denote a status of ‘Offer Made’ or ‘Offer Accepted’ for an applicant in WebAdMIT, PTCAS will then automatically send that applicant’s information to Certiphi Screening to begin the background check process. The applicant will receive an email from Certiphi letting them know they have been conditionally accepted to one or more PTCAS programs that utilize this process, but will not reveal the name of the program.

Applicants will then have access to enter their information into Certiphi’s system directly. The background check is typically completed within one week of the applicant providing their information and authorization to Certiphi.

Once the report is complete, Certiphi will allow the applicant to review their results before they are released to their PTCAS program(s) that requested the report. Applicants will have ten calendar days to verify the accuracy of the report before it is made available to the appropriate PTCAS program(s). If an applicant does not review the report within the allotted time, Certiphi will release the report to the program(s) on the eleventh day.

Neither APTA nor PTCAS will receive or hold personal information provided to or gathered by Certiphi. APTA may receive deidentified aggregated data from Certiphi, upon request, for research and statistical purposes only.

The process.

Below is a description of checks conducted by Certiphi. The results of the background search do not include juvenile records.

  • Social Security Number: A search of credit report header data to help confirm the applicant’s identifying information such as name, aliases, current and prior address(es) and residence(s), and Social Security Number.
  • County Criminal Records: A direct search of county courthouse records for any felony or misdemeanor criminal history. All records are researched to help ensure positive identification.
  • Statewide Criminal Records: A search conducted through statewide criminal records repositories or court systems for any felony or misdemeanor criminal history.
  • Federal Criminal Records: A direct search of federal courthouse records for any felony or misdemeanor criminal history.
  • National Criminal Database: An instant, multijurisdictional private database search covering more than 194 million criminal records collected from across the country. All database “hits” are verified directly through the source of information to ensure that records reported are current.
  • National Sexual Offender Database: A search of a national private database that contains sex offender data collected from across the United States.
  • US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General List of Excluded Individuals/Entities: A search of this federal agency database that provides information about parties excluded from participation in the Medicare, Medicaid, and all federal health care programs.
  • Dishonorable Discharge from the Armed Forces: Military records are verified either through telephone interviews with the applicant’s former commander or by obtaining the applicant’s DD-214 form. Verification generally includes applicant’s name, service number, rank, dates of service, awards and decorations, and place of entrance and separation.
  • Sanctions Base Screening: A search covering sanctions and disciplinary and administrative actions taken by hundreds of federal and state health care regulatory authorities, including FDA, NIH, GSA, OFAC, terrorist watch lists, and more.

Provide Key Data and Analytics

APTA has partnered with Liaison International, our vendor for PTCAS, to offer participating programs access to Analytics by Liaison, a suite of enhanced reporting and data analysis tools, to help use the data available in WebAdMIT in a more meaningful way. Analytics by Liaison gives programs a secure and robust way to explore their multi-year CAS applicant data via visual representations and dashboards, enabling them to use data-driven insights to help spot trends and shape their incoming cohorts.

Participating programs have access to Analytics by Liaison at no cost. To learn more about Analytics by Liaison, visit the Analytics Quick Start Guide.  

PTCAS Program Deadlines and Dates

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