Start here: from graduation to a first travel contract

This site is for new physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech-language pathology graduates, and new assistants, who want to know whether they can travel and how to get to a first contract. Start with the readiness checklist, then read the licensing and pay parts of the first-contract guide before you talk to any agency.

By ProTherapy Staffing, published October 25, 2026.

Who is this site for?

Readers in their final year of school, readers waiting on a board exam score, and readers in a first staff job who are weighing a move to travel. The site’s answer to whether new grads can travel is yes, with two conditions: whether a facility takes a new graduate is up to that facility, and the license comes first.

For PTs and PTAs the order is strict. The PT Compact Commission lists its first requirement for a compact privilege as: “Hold a current, valid PT or PTA license in your home state, as defined in Commission Rules.” A privilege is something you add after your first license, not a way around it.

Where should you start?

  1. Am I ready to travel? The readiness checklist covers licensure, clinical skills, finances and personal preparation, and quotes the rule behind each item that has one.
  2. Your first travel contract, part one: the licensing timeline: exam dates, when your score reaches the board, board processing, the compacts and credentialing, linked to FSBPT, NBCOT, ASHA and the compact commissions. It opens one of the site’s newer guides, in five parts.
  3. Which state should you get your first license in? How your school, home and first-contract states fit, and why the first license decides where your exam score goes.
  4. Part four: pay expectations: how to read an offer against the Travel Therapy Pay Index for the same discipline, setting and state, and why the index has no separate new-grad rate.
  5. If you don’t pass your board exam the first time: retake rules for the NPTE, the NBCOT exam and the Praxis, and what a failed exam does to a temporary license.

Once you know your exam date, the month-by-month timeline puts those steps on a calendar.

If you have read those pages and want to know which contracts would take a new graduate in your discipline, ask a ProTherapy recruiter: Find my next contract.

What on this site comes from data, and what is written?

The comparison of staff and travel pay on the home page is rendered, never typed. Its staff figure is the median annual wage for all physical therapists in the Bureau of Labor Statistics figures for May 2025, every experience level included, so it is not a new-grad figure. Its travel figure is the travel PT median weekly gross from the pinned pay index, currently October 2026, printed with its date. The student loans and mistakes pages carry their examples the same way, and the site’s checks fail any pay figure that does not trace to one of those two sources. This page and the newer guides type no pay figure at all.

The licensing facts come from data files built from official pages. The PT Compact figures on the licensure timeline page come from the network’s compact file, and the license, lifestyle and sources sections of the checklist are rendered from the compact and travel-PT files. The airport rules on the packing list are quoted from TSA, and the questions on the licensure page are answered from that page’s own sourced text. The newer guides are generated from a data file that lists every source with the date it was read.

The rest, including the settings, interview, resume and mentorship pages, is written advice: useful, but judgement rather than rule.

How do you reach a recruiter?

Use the “Find my next contract” link on this page or the form at the foot of a guide. It asks your discipline and the states you want, and a recruiter takes it from there. Tell the recruiter your exam date and whether your license has posted; no one can start you before it has, and saying so up front saves a round of questions.

ProTherapy Staffing, which publishes this site, is owned and run by licensed physical therapists. Ask any recruiter, from any agency, whether the facility on an offer takes new graduates and what orientation it gives, before you compare anything else. If you are not ready to talk, the job alerts page sends new contracts in your discipline, in one state or anywhere, by email daily or weekly, and texts only if you tick the box.

Frequently asked questions

Can I buy a PT Compact privilege before I have a license?

No. The PT Compact Commission requires a current, valid PT or PTA license in your home state before you can buy a privilege, so the first license always comes first.

Does the pay index show a new-grad rate?

No. The index publishes medians by discipline, state and setting from current postings, and its postings do not record experience level, so compare an offer with the median for the same discipline, setting and state.

What should I do first after graduation?

Work through the readiness checklist, then plan your exam date and first license with the licensing timeline and the guide to choosing your first state.

Sources

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