There is a revolution within Occupational Therapy! By 2027 all Occupational Therapy degrees offered in the US will be entry-level Doctorates. As it stands right now, there are still a mix of Master’s and Doctorate programs available depending on which route you want to go. Furthermore, even if you end up with a Master’s degree, you will still be able to practice OT just like your doctoring counterparts. If you are curious about getting into either a Master’s or Doctorate program of Occupational Therapy, read on to learn more about what the entails.
Types of Degrees Needed to Apply to OT School
At this time, there is not one degree that you need to obtain in order to apply to OT school. This is a stark contrast from pre-med students who almost all but take microbiology. The reason being is that degree combines all the prerequisites into one degree. While a pre-OT degree may note exist (Yet!) there are other undergraduate degrees that lend themselves to the degree. Those degrees are:
- Biology
- Exercise Science
- Health Science
- Psychology
- Sociology
These degrees tend to better prepare students thinking about going into OT as well as include many of the prerequisites needed to get into a program. More on that in a minute. Ultimately, if none of these degrees interest you, you can choose your a degree of your choice and just spread the prerequisites into your degree as electives. Just make sure that your GPA is around a 3.5 or higher if you want to be competitive with your application.
What Else Do I Need to do in Order to Apply to OT School
In addition to having a four year degree, you need to take SEVERAL prerequisite courses. Those courses include:
- Medical Terminology
- Biology with lab
- Human Anatomy and Physiology with lab
- Human Development/Human Behavior
- Physics
- Kinesiology
- Abnormal Psychology/Developmental Psychology
- Statistics
- Sociology/Anthropology
If that didn’t seem like a lot, there are still a few more items to consider. You need to take the Graduate Record Exam (GRE). A GRE score of 300-315 will keep you competitive with other applicants. The lowest score you would possibly want to submit would be a 280. Anything below this and you should consider studying harder and taking the GRE again.
Lastly, you also need to have observation hours. Each school is going to ask for a different number. You should take time far in advance to see how many hours your top 10 schools are looking for. A word of advice: meeting bare minimum requirements looks just like that – a bare minimum effort. Make sure to get hundreds if not thousands of hours of observation time so that there is no question about your commitment to the degree and profession.
OK, I’ve Done All Those Things…Now What?
If you have made it this far, congratulations! You are now ready to apply to the OT programs of your choosing. By following the link provided, it will bring you to the AOTA.org website where you can look at which schools would be the best fit for you. However, there is one more final obstacle before you begin OT school…your interviews.
If your application was competitive enough, you will be invited to interview to determine if the school thinks you are a good fit for their program. This is where things can get sticky. This is what separates the wheat from the chaff. If you are confident with your interviewing skills or don’t know how to prepare, I would strongly recommend our course, “Graduate School Acceptance Academy.” In this course we break down each step needed to prepare and deliver an extremely polished interview that will knock your interviewer’s socks off and earn you a spot in the program of your choice.