How to ask the admission staff if your courses satisfy the OT school prerequisites
Although each OT school has its own set of unique prerequisites, in order to give you an idea of what the OT schools prerequisites are, I categorized all the courses I seen in OTCAS into MUST, OPTIONAL and BOOSTER course. If you take all of the courses listed and earn a grade of B+ or above, you can apply to every OT school in the US. However, you do not need to take all of these courses, you just need to satisfy the prerequisites of the school that you are applying to.
Physiology with Lab OR Anatomy & Physiology I and Anatomy & Physiology II
Introduction to Sociology
Cultural Anthropology
Abnormal/Clinical Psychology: Clinical and Abnormal Psychology are the same courses.
Lifespan Human developmental psychology: Some schools would only require childhood developmental psychology.
However, I would go for lifespan developmental psychology because most schools require this course.
Statistics: No business statistics. Intro to stats or preferably psychological statistics will do.
Technical Writing: Classes such as Reading, Composition, and Research or Analysis, Research, and Documentation.
This course is required by VCU, EWU and TJU, so this course is highly recommended if you want to go top-tier OT schools.
Human Growth and Development: If you have this prerequisite, ask the staff to make sure if it is a biology or a psychology course.
Research Methods: This is not statistics, but another course about research. (I only see this requirement for Utica College. )
Bioethics: It does not have to be related to medicine: I took mine based on foods.
Craft course: Ceramics, sculpture, woodworking, knitting, quilting, sewing, jewelry making.
Math course: Schools, such as ATSU and University of Kansas Medical Center, require math courses, such as pre-calculus. However, I prefer calculus or more challenging math courses, in order to make sure that I satisfied the requirement.
Humanities: Art, history, philosophy, religion, language, theater arts. Schools, such as Columbia, required this kind of requirement.
Public Speaking: Great class to get your recommender.
General Psychology
Medical Terminology:Schools, such as EWU, USC, University of Florida, require this course
Computer Competency: The OT school that needs this requirement is
Kinesiology or Exercise Science
Chemistry
Physics
Biology
Neuroscience with/without lab
Take this class online and you will probably understand everything that your OTs did. Also, if you take this class and use the concepts in your interview, you will sound super smart to your interviewers.
If you have any questions about the requirement, such as:
You can always ask the admission staff, but always remember to attach the brief review and the syllabus of the course!
Dear Title and Last name of your interviewer:
Hi, this is Your Name. I am interested in applying to The Name of the OT School for MSOT or OTD, and
I wonder if my course, Your Course satisfy the OT School Prerequisite:
List out the brief review of the course,
Thank you in advance,
Your Name
(Make sure you attach the syllabus of the course)
Dear staff of the UNC OS/OT:
Hi! This is ME from UC Berkeley.
I have a question about the Master of Science in Occupational Therapy program: Will any of these classes below fulfill the Mode of Reasoning prerequisite?
Bioethics and Society -- Environmental Science, Policy And Management (ESPM) 162 [4 units]
Course Format: Three hours of lecture and one hour of discussion per week.
Description: Exploration of the ethical dilemmas arising from recent advances in the biological sciences:
genetic engineering, sociobiology, health care delivery, behavior modification, patients' rights, social or private control of research.
Methods for Research in Psychological Sciences [3 units]
Description:
Lecture and computer lab course on advanced data analysis techniques used by researchers in psychology.
The course will cover programming techniques in R and data analysis methods that include modeling, multivariate statistics,
and data reduction and visualization techniques. The following topics will be covered: generalized linear model (includes logistic regression),
discriminant analysis (includes multivariate ANOVA), principal component analysis, and factor analysis.
The attached files are the syllabus for each course.
Thank you,
ME.