Prescreening Admissions Criteria and Academic Success in Baccalaureate-Certificate Program in Physical Therapy

Conducted was a 3-year retrospective analysis of admissions to a 15-month baccalaureate-certificate program in Physical Therapy. Applicants were screened according to specific criteria scaled on ordinal and nominal scales. The “prescreening” and “total applicant” scores were significantly higher for those admitted to the program than those not admitted, even though 20% of those admitted had less than the predefined critical score. Averaged over a three-year period, there was a moderately positive, statistically significant correlation between both the prescreening and total applicant scores with academic grade point average (GPA), but no correlation with clinical performance. All of the students passed the professional licensing examination, ranking in the 80th and 96th percentile (1985 and 1986, respectively). Ninety-three percent of the students admitted completed the program successfully. The five students who withdrew met the prescreening criteria but had limited exposure to the field of physical therapy and minimal academic coursework in the sciences. This analysis confirmed an association between prescreening criteria heavily biased byGPAwith program completion, academicGPA,and successful performance on the professional licensure examination. The screening process was very time consuming, yet it narrowed the applicant pool only 40%. The Admissions Committee recommended expansion of the preliminary screening criteria to facilitate equity and enhance selectivity.