2025 Best Physical Therapy/Therapist Schools in the Southeast Region
61Colleges in the Southeast Region
2,948Physical Therapy Degrees Awarded
Ranked #55 in popularity, physical therapy/therapist is one of the most sought-after degree programs in the nation. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 61 schools in the Southeast Region to determine which ones were the best for physical therapy/therapist students pursuing a degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 2,948 degrees in physical therapy/therapist annually.
Choosing a Great Physical Therapy/Therapist School
The physical therapy program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Physical Therapy/Therapist rankings. For our Best Overall Physical Therapy/Therapist School rankings, we roll up the results of our degree-level rankings, weighted by the number of degrees awarded at that level.
In order to find the schools that are the best fit for you, you may want to filter to one of the degree levels below.
Physical Therapy/Therapist Rankings by Degree Level
The physical therapy school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Physical Therapy/Therapist Schools in the Southeast Region.
More interested in schools in a specific area of the country? Filter this list by region or state.
To further help you make the college decision, we've developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you.
Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.
Best Schools for Physical Therapy/Therapist in the Southeast Region
Although we recommend filtering by degree level first, you can view the list below to see which schools give the educational experience for the physical therapy degree levels they offer. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
12 Top Southeast Region Schools in Physical Therapy
Duke University is a wonderful choice for students pursuing a degree in physical therapy/therapist. Duke is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Durham. A Best Colleges rank of #7 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Duke is a great university overall.
There were approximately 79 physical therapy/therapist students who graduated with this degree at Duke in the most recent year we have data available.
It's difficult to beat University of Florida if you wish to pursue a degree in physical therapy/therapist. UF is a very large public university located in the medium-sized city of Gainesville. A Best Colleges rank of #56 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means UF is a great university overall.
There were roughly 71 physical therapy/therapist students who graduated with this degree at UF in the most recent year we have data available.
It is hard to beat Medical University of South Carolina if you wish to pursue a degree in physical therapy/therapist. MUSC is a small public university located in the midsize city of Charleston.
There were roughly 63 physical therapy/therapist students who graduated with this degree at MUSC in the most recent data year.
It is difficult to beat Shenandoah University if you wish to pursue a degree in physical therapy/therapist. Located in the small city of Winchester, Shenandoah is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population. This university ranks 13th out of 57 colleges for overall quality in the state of Virginia.
There were roughly 80 physical therapy/therapist students who graduated with this degree at Shenandoah in the most recent data year.
Located in the suburb of Coral Gables, U Miami is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #175 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means U Miami is a great university overall.
There were roughly 60 physical therapy/therapist students who graduated with this degree at U Miami in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the suburb of Fort Lauderdale, NUS Florida is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population. This university ranks 14th out of 70 schools for overall quality in the state of Florida.
There were approximately 112 physical therapy/therapist students who graduated with this degree at NUS Florida in the most recent year we have data available.
Emory is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Atlanta. A Best Colleges rank of #31 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Emory is a great university overall.
There were approximately 78 physical therapy/therapist students who graduated with this degree at Emory in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the city of Nashville, Belmont is a private not-for-profit university with a moderately-sized student population. A Best Colleges rank of #237 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Belmont is a great university overall.
There were roughly 48 physical therapy/therapist students who graduated with this degree at Belmont in the most recent data year.
VCU is a very large public university located in the city of Richmond. A Best Colleges rank of #189 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means VCU is a great university overall.
There were approximately 57 physical therapy/therapist students who graduated with this degree at VCU in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the city of Chapel Hill, UNC Chapel Hill is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #38 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means UNC Chapel Hill is a great university overall.
There were approximately 29 physical therapy/therapist students who graduated with this degree at UNC Chapel Hill in the most recent data year.
UAB is a fairly large public university located in the midsize city of Birmingham. This university ranks 4th out of 42 schools for overall quality in the state of Alabama.
There were roughly 54 physical therapy/therapist students who graduated with this degree at UAB in the most recent year we have data available.
These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Physical Therapy/Therapist Schools in the Southeast Region award.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
The physical therapy program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Physical Therapy/Therapist rankings. For our Best Overall Physical Therapy/Therapist School rankings, we roll up the results of our degree-level rankings, weighted by the number of degrees awarded at that level.
