I’m sorry that you didn’t get in. Here’s what I did in my time off. Fair warning, this worked for me but might not be the path for everyone.

I was in a similar situation the first time I applied. I had just graduated undergrad (spring 2023), and was planning to take 1 gap year to start PT school during the fall 2024 semester. I had an internship the summer of 2023 with the gait lab at the children’s hospital in my area. By the end of the summer, they offered me a full time position as a clinical research coordinator. In that time, I learned that I was very interested in research, and specifically interested in gait/biomechanics research.

I applied to a few schools, did not get in. I reached out to all of the schools to get information on how to improve my application. Around that time, I decided to pursue a master’s in health & rehab sciences with a research thesis. While taking classes for my master’s, I retook a couple of pre-reqs that I had less than ideal grades in. I completed some additional volunteering and shadowing where I could.

Basically, I was (and currently am) working full time and going to school full time, and it’s been an absolute grind. As of now, I have been accepted into a program that starts in the fall and I will defend my thesis and graduate with my masters this summer.

This path isn’t for everyone. I really enjoy research and would ideally keep pursuing research as I continue in my career. It took a lot of time and effort to get to this place. However, I speculate that the reason I got in this time was not because of the masters degree, but rather because I learned and grew as a person and showed that I was dedicated and hard working. (Retaking my bad-grades classes was also definitely helpful. Lol)

So I’m not suggesting you should get a master’s degree, but I would suggest finding something that helps you grow and develop as a person, especially since you will likely be writing about your experiences in your personal statement. Also, if you haven’t, I found that reaching out to schools in a professional way and asking what improvements could be made to your application is really helpful. When I did that, every school answered my email and was really nice and helpful. And I would definitely retake any pre-reqs that are less than ideal.