General Admissions & OTCAS Applying to OT schools this fall. What experience should I try to get in the next 6-9 months?

[whereisit96]

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Hi, I'm a student majoring in Behavior and Health. It's a preparatory major geared towards Occupational Therapy. I'm currently a junior.

My GPA right now is a 3.69. It might go down or up, not really sure. I don't foresee it dropping below a 3.6. I got Bs in anatomy and physiology, A in devleopmental psychology, A in abnormal psychology, A- in statistics.

I worked for a year as a recreational therapist at a nursing home/rehab facility.
I worked for a semester in a research lab studying the effects of bariatric surgery on gait.
I interned for a semester at an outpatient mental health facility.
I worked as a teacher for an inner-city program. I had several kids with IEPs and I had to make all my own lesson plans and curriculum.
I currently am a research assistant in an Autism Research Lab and will continue that work over the summer. I will also write a senior thesis on a topic related to cognition in ASD.

I helped prepare inner-city high schoolers for the SAT for two years.
I volunteered with my university's prison book club for a year.
I am on my school's Tae Kwon Do team.

I shadowed an OT for around 30 hours. It was just out-patient care for minor injuries like hand sprains, back pain, etc. There were also OTs at the nursing home whom I was able to observe, I guess that would average out to around 50 hours. I also shadowed an OT at the outpatient mental facility, that would be like another 20 hours, she only came in once a week.

What should I do in the next few months? Study for the GRE, obviously. But anything besides that?

 

[maddaddam]

Solid. Maybe shadow a few hours in a school/peds setting, or in non-traditional settings (burns, hippotherapy, etc.) if you want. Eventually, do prep work for your application's personal statement and for interview questions (ethics, group work dilemmas, diversity experiences, defining OT, strengths, weaknesses, etc.). Apply early and broadly!

 

[ltnguy61]

Hi, I'm a student majoring in Behavior and Health. It's a preparatory major geared towards Occupational Therapy. I'm currently a junior.

My GPA right now is a 3.69. It might go down or up, not really sure. I don't foresee it dropping below a 3.6. I got Bs in anatomy and physiology, A in devleopmental psychology, A in abnormal psychology, A- in statistics.

I worked for a year as a recreational therapist at a nursing home/rehab facility.
I worked for a semester in a research lab studying the effects of bariatric surgery on gait.
I interned for a semester at an outpatient mental health facility.
I worked as a teacher for an inner-city program. I had several kids with IEPs and I had to make all my own lesson plans and curriculum.
I currently am a research assistant in an Autism Research Lab and will continue that work over the summer. I will also write a senior thesis on a topic related to cognition in ASD.

I helped prepare inner-city high schoolers for the SAT for two years.
I volunteered with my university's prison book club for a year.
I am on my school's Tae Kwon Do team.

I shadowed an OT for around 30 hours. It was just out-patient care for minor injuries like hand sprains, back pain, etc. There were also OTs at the nursing home whom I was able to observe, I guess that would average out to around 50 hours. I also shadowed an OT at the outpatient mental facility, that would be like another 20 hours, she only came in once a week.

What should I do in the next few months? Study for the GRE, obviously. But anything besides that?

Definitely start on your personal statement and have it revised 1000 times by the time application rolls around and you can just submit everything. I really procrastinated on that then had to redo another one after getting the statement revised and realizing it was horrible!! I told myself this before applications opened and I still procrastinated.. I would also say to get some more hours as well so you can have plenty to talk about when you get interviews with schools!

 

[OT2018OT]

This looks really solid to me. I agree with the above about shadowing in a pediatric setting. I think that will round out the different type of settings you've been in. Start doing research on schools and opening a line of communication so that you can narrow down a list to where to want to apply. Study for the GRE to get stellar scores! And definitely apply early, right as the cycle opens. For schools doing rolling admissions it will mean you'll hear back earlier and it'll give you a better chance as opposed to competing for the last few seats.