Schools that *might* be easier to get into.

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DISCLAIMER!!! This is a cut & paste of my bookmarks from Peterson's website. So the list has schools I was considering anyways (ones in TX, VA or that offer entry OTD). Other schools may have low acceptance rates, but also list a low minimum required GPA. Or a low number of required prereqs. Or count "qualitative factors" like essay, interview and recommendations.

I posted this list partly because I want people to help me research these schools and it is too long to do by myself.



One of the threads on here suggested looking at petersons.com to see graduate school information like admissions percentages.

I went through all their OT schools in the US and looked at the statistics for percentage admitted (greater than 60%) or minimum GPA (less than 3.0), where it was relevant. Granted, a school might have a higher admissions rate because they are a top program and have a long list of pre-requisites, so people are discouraged from applying. Or schools with low minimum GPA might have a low acceptance rate because so many people with lowish GPA's apply.

I saved off a list of schools on Peterson's. Not all of those on this list fit either category, because I left in all the schools I was already considering (in Virginia and Texas), and left in some of the schools that were OT Doctorates. Plus some of the admission statistics look strange, because I'm pretty sure VCU had more than 21 applicants.

But here's the list I came up with.
University of Pittsburgh (Master's Programs in Health and Rehabilitation Sciences), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (School of Health Professions), San Antonio, Texas
University of South Alabama (Department of Occupational Therapy), Mobile, Alabama
University of Puget Sound (Occupational Therapy Program), Tacoma, Washington
University of Southern California (Graduate Programs in Occupational Therapy), Los Angeles, California
University of Southern Maine (Program in Occupational Therapy), Lewiston, Maine
University of Mississippi Medical Center (Department of Occupational Therapy), Jackson, Mississippi
Rush University (Department of Occupational Therapy), Chicago, Illinois
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (Program in Occupational Therapy), Lubbock, Texas
Springfield College (Program in Occupational Therapy), Springfield, Massachusetts,
University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (Department of Occupational Therapy), Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
University of Mary (Program in Occupational Therapy), Bismarck, North Dakota
Jefferson College of Health Sciences (Program in Occupational Therapy), Roanoke, Virginia
University of New Hampshire (Department of Occupational Therapy), Durham, New Hampshire
American International College (Program in Occupational Therapy), Springfield, Massachusetts
The University of Alabama at Birmingham (Program in Occupational Therapy), Birmingham, Alabama
Eastern Michigan University (Program in Occupational Therapy), Ypsilanti, Michigan
East Carolina University (Department of Occupational Therapy), Greenville, North Carolina
Midwestern University, Downers Grove Campus (Program in Occupational Therapy), Downers Grove, Illinois
Virginia Commonwealth University (Department of Occupational Therapy), Richmond, Virginia,
The University of Texas at El Paso (Program in Occupational Therapy), El Paso, Texas
St. Ambrose University (Program in Occupational Therapy), Davenport, Iowa
James Madison University (Program in Occupational Therapy), Harrisonburg, Virginia
Philadelphia University (Program in Occupational Therapy), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Xavier University (Occupational Therapy Program), Cincinnati, Ohio
Eastern Washington University (Department of Occupational Therapy), Cheney, Washington
Misericordia University (Program in Occupational Therapy), Dallas, Pennsylvania
Saint Louis University (Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy), St. Louis, Missouri
University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences (Division of Occupational Therapy), St. Augustine, Florida
Thomas Jefferson University (Department of Occupational Therapy), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
New York Institute of Technology (Program in Occupational Therapy), Old Westbury, New York
Washington University in St. Louis (Program in Occupational Therapy ), Saint Louis, Missouri
Shenandoah University (Division of Occupational Therapy), Winchester, Virginia
Tufts University (Department of Occupational Therapy), Medford, Massachusetts
University of Central Arkansas (Department of Occupational Therapy), Conway, Arkansas
Lenoir,Rhyne University (School of Occupational Therapy), Hickory, North Carolina
The University of Texas,Pan American (Department of Occupational Therapy), Edinburg, Texas
Colorado State University (Department of Occupational Therapy), Fort Collins, Colorado
The University of Toledo (Program in Occupational Therapy), Toledo, Ohio
Seton Hall University (Program in Occupational Therapy ), South Orange, New Jersey,
University of Illinois at Chicago (Department of Occupational Therapy), Chicago, Illinois
D'Youville College (Occupational Therapy Department), Buffalo, New York
The University of South Dakota (Department of Occupational Therapy), Vermillion, South Dakota
Winston,Salem State University (Department of Occupational Therapy), Winston,Salem, North Carolina
Sacred Heart University (Program in Occupational Therapy), Fairfield, Connecticut
The College of St. Scholastica (Department of Occupational Therapy), Duluth, Minnesota
Governors State University (Program in Occupational Therapy), University Park, Illinois
Bay Path College (Program in Occupational Therapy), Longmeadow, Massachusetts
Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center (Department of Occupational Therapy), New Orleans, Louisiana
Samuel Merritt University (Department of Occupational Therapy), Oakland, California
Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan,

There are 3 University of St. Augustines - Florida, San Diego, Austin.

Funny how the USNews #1 school, USC, is in this list.

Take Peterson's stats with a grain of salt... OT programs have become increasingly popular over the past few years, as you probably know, and as you suspected the number of applicants are outdated. I can tell you from my experience with the last cycle that Toledo is NOT easy to get into, for example. They only accept 20 students and use a specific formula so top GRE and GPA are given much priority. When you figure they're on OTCAS, they probably have well over 100 applicants - that's pretty darn selective! Widely known schools and OTCAS schools are going to be hard to get into because they're more popular so they'll have more applicants. Though this list could be a good starting point for researching schools if you don't care to focus on a location, the schools themselves are the best resources for an accurate number of applicants. Some schools will give it out right away on their websites, but those that don't are usually willing to give you that information as well as stats on their accepted students' profile - GPA, GRE, etc. if you ask! Finding the right schools to apply to takes a lot of time and effort, but don't bank on any info that doesn't come from the schools themselves, aside from the OTCAS profiles! Good luck!

I don't know how you compiled the stats for acceptance rates, but Texas Tech admitted I think 38 students and had over 300 applicants. That means they admitted less than 13% of applicants. To go to Tech you don't have to have a bachelor's degree, so that increases the number of applicants quite a bit. I am not positive but I think UTSA is pretty tough to get into as well. Anyway, just saying that those two schools would not necessarily be *easy* to get into, not sure on the others, since I focused TX schools.

Sorry to inform you but your stats are off... there is no OT school in America that admits over 60% of the applicants that apply. I believe the Peterson stats you were viewing were overall applicants who applied into the educational institution.

OT programs receive hundreds of applications each year (Midwestern U - AZ, received 800), your best bet is to go on OTcas.org and re-running your numbers.

Good luck on your 2013 application!!!

I based it on the statistics from Petersons.com.

Many of these schools *aren't* on OTCAS. And even when they are, they often don't provide the data to calculate the acceptance rates.

The whole reason I compiled and posted this list is because I wanted people to work with me to split up the list. Then we would go and do further research on the schools by asking them directly about things like people offered admission but that chose not to go there. Or dropout rate of students that enter the program.

There is one additional factor between number of students applying, and number of students actually attending. That is students who applied, were accepted, but decided not to go there. I'm guessing that there are some people who blast out applications to every school in OTCAS.

The Peterson's stats include people who "apply" while they are in a guaranteed bachelors to Master's program.

I've been debating a career switch into OT since some of you were in elementary school. It would really suck if now it was so competitive that I couldn't get in. Hoping the GRE's will help, because right now full-time work at demanding job + taking heavy courseload isn't working very well.

Originally Posted by TTUOT

I don't know how you compiled the stats for acceptance rates, but Texas Tech admitted I think 38 students and had over 300 applicants. That means they admitted less than 13% of applicants. To go to Tech you don't have to have a bachelor's degree, so that increases the number of applicants quite a bit. I am not positive but I think UTSA is pretty tough to get into as well. Anyway, just saying that those two schools would not necessarily be *easy* to get into, not sure on the others, since I focused TX schools.

It doesn't mean they admitted 13%. It means that they matriculated 13%.

The stats on Peterson say
Student Statistics: Average age 29. 258 applicants, 14% accepted, 36 enrolled.

This is a cut-n-paste of my bookmarks on Peterson's. Which includes all the Texas schools because I want to move back to Texas for family reasons. I also will have taken all the prereqs required by Tech at the end of this fall semester, and won't have to squeeze anything else in.

People have varying backgrounds and situations, and schools weigh different factors different ways. Some take GPA in last degree granted (my masters degree was a 3.8, but bachelors in a technical discipline was 2.7).

Thanks for putting together this list and sharing it with us! There's just a little thing I want to point out: Samuel Merritt should probably not be there. There were 300 or so applicants the last year alone, and I believe the average GPA is 3.4 for those that were accepted. Plus they require you to have biology AND physics (as well as about 11 other prerequisites) and it's just a lot of work for a program that's going to send you over 100K in debt (tuition only, not adding in the cost of living in costly Oakland, CA). I was going to apply there, but after realizing that I'd have to pay off $1200 a month in order to pay it all off within 10 years... yeah, no thanks.

Just my 2 cents.

The majority of this information has been the same for the last 5 years. I began looking at OT programs about 4 years ago and the stats were the same. Not to mention several programs say they had like 32 applicants, and I know for a fact the last 3 to 4 years they have had well over 100. In the past 2 years, programs have had at least 200 plus applicants.

Having said that, don't let it deter you and your goals. Many of us are career changers and older, BUT it is do-able... Find the programs you like 1st. Then find programs that fit the pre-reqs you have or feasibly can get done, match the interests and strengths you have.

Also, it takes many hours... actually a few weeks, but compiling a spreadsheet of every last school on the AOTA site is possible. I had to do it because I simply didn't know where to start. It really helped me narrow down my choices.

OTCAS is VERY expensive (like all applications are) so its a rare applicant who has applied to every last school on the list because they all require something different.

Do you really want to go to a school that is easier to get into?

That should tell you something about the school if the requirements were much more stringent.

When I was applying, that was one of the things I looked at.

If the school once only had 40 slots to fill but now is accepting 100+ students per class, that would make me raise an eyebrow.

I understand the demand has increased for OT, but one school had accepted like 120 students, 3x the number of students they accepted the previous class.

It depends on your strengths as a candidate.

There are schools who will look at my 2.7 undergraduate GPA from 20 years ago and automatically rule me out, even though I have a 3.8 in the 90 or so credit hours I've taken since then. I went to a private university ranked in the top 20 in the country. I made C's and D's in subjects like Junior Physics Lab, Assembly Language Programming, and Computational Statistics. Unfortunately, I didn't take that as a sign that I wouldn't be happy working in those fields. If you look at my grades in the Humanities/Social Sciences they were a lot better. I took those classes because I found them interesting and they were a lot easier.

There are a lot of intangibles surrounding the choice of a school. If it is in a crappy location and isn't as well-known, there will be fewer people applying. Doesn't necessarily mean that the quality of the education isn't as good.

I've been on this message board a while and have seen people posting that their school accepted most of the people who applied or had a hard time filling the slots. But they don't say what their school was.

For those of us who don't care about being 3 blocks from the beach, or in a town with lots of cultural activities, why not go to one of those schools?

Again, this list was for a starting point for research, in hopes of pointing students towards schools that are under-appreciated for some reason.

Curlyhairedgirl,
There are schools that will look at your 2.7 from many years ago. I was very much in the same boat with the cumulative GPA being under 3.0. I asked those schools if I could send in a letter of academic performance. In that I explained my grades, but majorly highlighted my age, experience and the very high GPA I carried after those bad performances in undergrad. They want to see your upward trend and you will not be entirely branded as unacceptable just because you do not have a 3.0 regardless of what their website states. Sending in this letter made a huge difference as I was accepted to schools that were very competitive to get into. Also, I do not have a stellar GRE score either. I did ask though if I could send the statement and some asked that I just send a short paragraph. Others allowed me to send the statement I prepared (1 page) and added to my file... even OTCAS schools. I simply emailed them and explained myself. Certainly there were schools out there that made me feel WORTHLESS in the process and just a number but that happens in the grad school process. It was once explained to me by a mentor/friend that the process of getting into grad school is nearly a hazing ritual where you begin to learn to jump through hoops and jump as high as you are told. She told me when I learned to accept that the process makes no sense and can be brutal I'd be much better. So true, I learned to let go of trying to make sense of where I'd get in or why I didn't get in. Focus on what you bring to a program, and those of us who graduated from college over 10 years ago bring TONS to programs!


I've been on SDN since 2007, I haven't seen many schools that "needed" to fill slots. I have seen a trend with Bay Path College that they accept most of their applicants. I also noticed D'Youville University applicants on here also received invites until they filled up their program. Even programs up in Maine get a large number of applicants, I applied up there thinking.. who wants to go to Maine?! I seriously tried every strategy I could come up with to find a school I had a better chance out. I definitely was bummed to learn that its simply just very competitive and the trick is taking what you already have and making it look really good!

Although I haven't taken the GRE yet, I expect to do well. That should help with admissions.

If schools are looking to bring people in with a wide variety of backgrounds, I have a lot of life experiences that would be rare among people who are OT students, even if I am still a white female. Where I've lived, the industries I've worked in before OT, and my own struggles with health problems.

Also, based on my work experience I've learned a lot about jumping through useless hoops and requirements when doing something for a customer. I'm surviving through my current job by the thought that I'm just doing it for another year until I go to grad school. My boss nearly had a nervous breakdown before she found another job and quit.

Originally Posted by gymnastau

The majority of this information has been the same for the last 5 years. I began looking at OT programs about 4 years ago and the stats were the same. Not to mention several programs say they had like 32 applicants, and I know for a fact the last 3 to 4 years they have had well over 100. In the past 2 years, programs have had at least 200 plus applicants.

Having said that, don't let it deter you and your goals. Many of us are career changers and older, BUT it is do-able... Find the programs you like 1st. Then find programs that fit the pre-reqs you have or feasibly can get done, match the interests and strengths you have.

Also, it takes many hours... actually a few weeks, but compiling a spreadsheet of every last school on the AOTA site is possible. I had to do it because I simply didn't know where to start. It really helped me narrow down my choices.

OTCAS is VERY expensive (like all applications are) so its a rare applicant who has applied to every last school on the list because they all require something different.

Hi, do you think you could e-mail me that spreadsheet? I've been trying really hard to gather information, and what you've done sounds like a great idea. I would truly, truly appreciate it!