Physical Therapy

Physical therapy programmes train the people who restore movement after injury, surgery, stroke or long illness — assessing what a body can do, designing the exercise and manual treatment that widens it, and coaching a patient through the months of work that actually produces the change. Florida teaches it at two levels that work side by side in the same clinic: a two-year assistant degree and a three-year clinical doctorate.

The degrees this program covers

Two credentials, one practice act, and the gap between them is bigger than the names suggest. The ASSOCIATE degree makes you a PHYSICAL THERAPIST ASSISTANT: 17 Florida public institutions, 267 graduates in the 2023 federal award year, and a licence to deliver treatment under a physical therapist's supervision. The DOCTOR OF PHYSICAL THERAPY is the entry credential for the therapist who evaluates and writes the plan of care: 7 Florida public institutions and 350 graduates. ⚠⚠ Florida produces MORE therapists than assistants, which is unusual and worth knowing if you assumed the assistant route was the common one. ⚠⚠⚠ And the associate degree is NOT advanced standing toward the doctorate — a PTA who wants to become a PT completes a bachelor's degree and then applies to a DPT programme like any other candidate. Choose the level deliberately; do not treat the assistant degree as a first instalment.

Careers this program leads to

Each one sets out the courses along the way, the licence or certification at the end, and the sources behind it.

Athletic Trainer

⚠⚠⚠ A master's-entry, state-licensed clinical profession paying $62,520 — less than a licensed practical nurse earns on a certificate ($64,400), and less than every associate-degree clinical route on this site except paramedic. ⚠⚠ The profession moved to master's entry in 2022: CAATE states that after the fall 2022 term, baccalaureate degree programmes will no longer enrol students. ⚠ Florida's statute has not caught up and still reads as though a bachelor's is enough.

Fitness Professional and Exercise Physiologist

⚠⚠⚠ The entry-level education for this occupation is a HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA, and it has about 68,000 openings a year — one of the largest figures on this site. What the job requires is a CERTIFICATION, not a degree. ⚠⚠ So a Florida student in a kinesiology degree needs an answer to a direct question: what is the degree for? There are three good ones — clinical exercise physiology ($59,460, +13%), graduate school in a health profession, or management — and this page is organised around them.

Physical Therapist Assistant

Physical therapist assistants deliver the treatment a physical therapist has planned — guiding exercise, applying manual therapy and modalities, measuring what has changed, and keeping a discouraged patient working through the months that recovery actually takes. ⚠ A median of $68,380 on a two-year associate degree, with federal growth projected at 17% over 2025–35. ⚠⚠ Check which wage figure you are reading: the federal page covers assistants AND aides together, and an aide earns half as much and needs no degree. ⚠⚠⚠ Florida licenses this work under Chapter 486, and there are two examinations.

Careers that name this program, but not as a route

Occupational Therapy Assistant

⚠ Not a route — separate licences, separate accreditation, no transfer between the assistant credentials. ⚠⚠ Named because it is the choice every applicant is really making, and the comparison is counter-intuitive: physical therapy is at 17 Florida institutions against 4, but its assistant role pays $68,380 against $72,300 and grows 17% against 21%.

Speech-Language Pathologist

⚠ Not a route. Named for the structural comparison: both are graduate-entry therapy professions with a licensed assistant tier below them. ⚠⚠ The difference is access — physical therapy's assistant route is a two-year associate degree at 17 institutions, where this one needs a bachelor's plus specified coursework.

Programs similar to this one

Neighbouring fields that share much of the same coursework, and often the same employers. ⚠ Read these before you commit to a major — which doors a neighbouring degree keeps open is the part no catalog tells you, and it is far cheaper to change now than later.

Radiologic Technology 23 Florida schools

⚠ The comparison worth running, because the two-year programmes look alike from outside and the days do not. Radiography is procedural and largely scheduled; a PTA spends the day coaching people through effort, repetition and discouragement. ⚠⚠ Radiography also pays more at entry ($80,110 against $68,380) on the same two years, so if the money is the deciding factor it points the other way.

Nursing 78 Florida schools

⚠ Named because both are at most of the same colleges and both are limited-access, but the work is unalike: nursing manages a patient's whole condition on a shift, physical therapy works one problem across weeks or months with the same person. ⚠⚠ Nursing is far more widely taught — 78 Florida institutions against 17 — so for many students it is simply the one that exists nearby.

Respiratory Therapy 18 Florida schools

The other therapy programme in the same colleges. ⚠ Respiratory therapy is acute and unpredictable, largely inside the hospital, and pays more at entry ($82,280 against $68,380); physical therapy is longitudinal and mostly outpatient. ⚠⚠ The hours differ as much as the work — respiratory laboratories staff nights and weekends, outpatient physical therapy usually does not.

Occupational Therapy 8 Florida schools

⚠⚠ The sibling profession, and the comparison every applicant should run. Physical therapy is far more widely taught in Florida — 17 assistant programmes against 4, and 7 doctoral programmes against 4 — so it is much easier to find nearby. ⚠ But the occupational therapy assistant pays more ($72,300 against $68,380) and grows faster (21% against 17%). Movement against function is the real difference; availability against pay is the practical one.

Athletic Training 8 Florida schools

⚠⚠ The closest relative and the comparison worth making before committing to a master's. A physical therapist assistant reaches $68,380 on an ASSOCIATE degree — above the athletic trainer's $62,520 on a master's — and Florida teaches it at 24 institutions against 8 here. ⚠ Different work and different settings, but a student choosing on rehabilitation interest alone should see both numbers.

Communication Sciences and Disorders 7 Florida schools

⚠ The comparison worth making across the therapy professions: both are graduate-entry, both are small and competitive in Florida, and both have a licensed ASSISTANT tier reachable from a shorter credential. ⚠⚠ Physical therapy's assistant route is a two-year associate degree at 17 institutions; speech-language pathology's requires a bachelor's plus specified coursework.

Kinesiology, Exercise Science and Sport Management 16 Florida schools

⚠⚠⚠ Where a large share of exercise science students are actually heading, whether or not the department frames it that way. ⚠ The prerequisite that decides it is anatomy and physiology BY NUMBER: DPT programmes name the BSC2085C/BSC2086C sequence, and the APK2100C/APK2105C version taught in kinesiology departments is not reliably accepted.

Florida public institutions offering this program

24 institutions awarded a credential in this field in 2023, at these levels: Associate, Certificate (12 weeks-1 year), Doctorate (professional practice). A school appears here if it awards anything in the field, however limited its offering — a technical college teaching only practical nursing has a nursing program. Listed alphabetically, not ranked.

Atlantic Technical College

Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Broward College

Associate

College of Central Florida

Associate

Daytona State College

Associate

Eastern Florida State College

Associate

Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University

Doctorate (professional practice)

Florida Gateway College

Associate

Florida Gulf Coast University

Doctorate (professional practice)

Florida International University

Doctorate (professional practice)

Florida State College at Jacksonville

Associate

Gulf Coast State College

Associate

Indian River State College

Associate

Miami Dade College

Associate

Northwest Florida State College

Associate

Pensacola State College

Associate

Polk State College

Associate

Santa Fe College

Associate

Seminole State College of Florida

Associate

St Petersburg College

Associate

State College of Florida-Manatee-Sarasota

Associate

University of Central Florida

Doctorate (professional practice)

University of Florida

Doctorate (professional practice)

University of North Florida

Doctorate (professional practice)

University of South Florida

Doctorate (professional practice)

Source: federal IPEDS completions data for 2023, first majors only — the most recent year published. ⚠ It records what was awarded, which is strong evidence of what is offered, but a program launched since 2023 will not appear here. Check the institution’s own catalog before applying.

Updated 21 September 2026. ⚠ Program pages describe a field of study, not one school’s degree — always read the catalog of the institution you are applying to.