General Admissions & OTCAS Graduated with a 2.5 GPA. Dream is to become an OT. Advice. Please!

[Brightlady20]

Hi. I live in Houston, TX. My dream is to become an Occupational Therapist. I have 2 years of job experience as an OT tech. I have a great recommendation letter from a registered Occupational Therapist, whom was my boss. I had a 3.3 GPA, but completely ruined it. I graduated with my B.S. in Psychology with a 2.6 GPA. ☹☹☹ I went through a lot during my last semester. Won't go into detail.It was tough finding a decent paying job, with my Psychology degree. I just got hired, and will be getting paid 35k/yr. Im only 23, and have higher expectations of myself than this. So, earning a masters degree is a MUST for me.

I keep beating myself for ruining my GPA. I had a good vision of me becoming an Occupational Therapist.
Is there anyone that was on the same situation as me ? Did you retake courses ? Did you get another bachelors degree ? Would appreciate any advice you may have to my situation. Thank you.

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[beestrng]

Hi. I live in Houston, TX. My dream is to become an Occupational Therapist. I have 2 years of job experience as an OT tech. I have a great recommendation letter from a registered Occupational Therapist, whom was my boss. I had a 3.3 GPA, but completely ruined it. I graduated with my B.S. in Psychology with a 2.6 GPA. ☹☹☹ I went through a lot during my last semester. Won't go into detail.It was tough finding a decent paying job, with my Psychology degree. I just got hired, and will be getting paid 35k/yr. Im only 23, and have higher expectations of myself than this. So, earning a masters degree is a MUST for me.

I keep beating myself for ruining my GPA. I had a good vision of me becoming an Occupational Therapist.
Is there anyone that was on the same situation as me ? Did you retake courses ? Did you get another bachelors degree ? Would appreciate any advice you may have to my situation. Thank you.

There is information on the forum on programs that look at only last 60 credits. Post bac might work for you or do COTA.

 

[dH767]

Hi. I live in Houston, TX. My dream is to become an Occupational Therapist. I have 2 years of job experience as an OT tech. I have a great recommendation letter from a registered Occupational Therapist, whom was my boss. I had a 3.3 GPA, but completely ruined it. I graduated with my B.S. in Psychology with a 2.6 GPA. ☹☹☹ I went through a lot during my last semester. Won't go into detail.It was tough finding a decent paying job, with my Psychology degree. I just got hired, and will be getting paid 35k/yr. Im only 23, and have higher expectations of myself than this. So, earning a masters degree is a MUST for me.

I keep beating myself for ruining my GPA. I had a good vision of me becoming an Occupational Therapist.
Is there anyone that was on the same situation as me ? Did you retake courses ? Did you get another bachelors degree ? Would appreciate any advice you may have to my situation. Thank you.

Hi Brightlady20. I had a sort of similar situation as you, I graduated in 2016 and am 23 also. I went through a lot during my sophomore and junior undergrad years and graduated with a 2.9 gpa. When I realized that I wanted to go to grad school and become an OT during my senior year, I really felt disappointed in myself because I knew that my gpa didn't reflect my ability to be a successful student and it would make it hard to get into any programs. What I ended up doing was taking classes at my local JC for 3 semesters. Every semester I took a full course load and got straight A's in all my courses. I also had two shadowing OT internships. I decided to apply this cycle when I built a great relationship with an OT who has been practicing for over 30 years. She boosted my confidence and assured me that I would be an amazing OT. I was truthful with her and explained my situation. She still encouraged me to apply and wrote me an amazing letter of reference. So far I have been offered an interview to my top choice next weekend and I'm pretty excited that I will have the opportunity for the program to see me in person (but now getting pretty nervous). I am not sure how things will turn out but I know that If I don't get in I will take a couple more classes at my local JC and probably retake anatomy and physiology because those are the only prerequisites that I don't have A's in. I don't think another bachelors degree is necessary and will just cost you a lot of money. Just stick to taking more classes and look at schools that look at cumulative GPA or last 60 units not just undergrad GPA. I would also suggest making sure that you do things that will help you stand out and build up your app outside of just GPA. For example I have played soccer my whole life and for the last year I have been coaching soccer for children who have special needs, which I love and relates back to the OT profession. I hope this helps and don't give up! If you want to chat more feel free to message me

 

[demuresyz]

Hi, I'm in a similar situation. I graduated with a BA in Psychology in 2015 with a 2.67 GPA. I didn't do too well, but after taking a year off after graduating to figure out what I really wanted, I decided to finally go for OT. I thought about going the OTA track, but I have a degree, so I'm risking it. I also took 3 semesters of classes at a community college like dH767 and got all A's in my prereqs and retakes. I retook all my preqreqs basically. I now raised my cumulative to a 2.8 and post bac is a 3.8 (according to OTCAS). I work at an OT office and have volunteer hours at pediatric settings. I think doing your best and working hard to make you as unique as possible will help your chance. I can only hope all this is going to be worth it because becoming an OT is my dream also. So good luck to us both!

 

[PublicHealthLover]

Hi. I live in Houston, TX. My dream is to become an Occupational Therapist. I have 2 years of job experience as an OT tech. I have a great recommendation letter from a registered Occupational Therapist, whom was my boss. I had a 3.3 GPA, but completely ruined it. I graduated with my B.S. in Psychology with a 2.6 GPA. ☹☹☹ I went through a lot during my last semester. Won't go into detail.It was tough finding a decent paying job, with my Psychology degree. I just got hired, and will be getting paid 35k/yr. Im only 23, and have higher expectations of myself than this. So, earning a masters degree is a MUST for me.

I keep beating myself for ruining my GPA. I had a good vision of me becoming an Occupational Therapist.
Is there anyone that was on the same situation as me ? Did you retake courses ? Did you get another bachelors degree ? Would appreciate any advice you may have to my situation. Thank you.

Hi guys, I am in a similar boat seeking advice as well. My cumulative GPA is 2.9 and pre-requisite GPA is 3.8. I am wondering if I should either repeat classes (i.e. General Biology, General Physics, etc.) or take more upper-level courses to raise my cumulative GPA? My county college does not offer many upper-level courses so I would have to take them at my university which means the cost would be significantly higher. Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[EbOT]

Hi. I live in Houston, TX. My dream is to become an Occupational Therapist. I have 2 years of job experience as an OT tech. I have a great recommendation letter from a registered Occupational Therapist, whom was my boss. I had a 3.3 GPA, but completely ruined it. I graduated with my B.S. in Psychology with a 2.6 GPA. ☹☹☹ I went through a lot during my last semester. Won't go into detail.It was tough finding a decent paying job, with my Psychology degree. I just got hired, and will be getting paid 35k/yr. Im only 23, and have higher expectations of myself than this. So, earning a masters degree is a MUST for me.

I keep beating myself for ruining my GPA. I had a good vision of me becoming an Occupational Therapist.
Is there anyone that was on the same situation as me ? Did you retake courses ? Did you get another bachelors degree ? Would appreciate any advice you may have to my situation. Thank you.

Hey!! I’m status are similar to yours and I am in the process of applying. I was wondering did you apply?

 

[Babybluentexas]

Hi. I live in Houston, TX. My dream is to become an Occupational Therapist. I have 2 years of job experience as an OT tech. I have a great recommendation letter from a registered Occupational Therapist, whom was my boss. I had a 3.3 GPA, but completely ruined it. I graduated with my B.S. in Psychology with a 2.6 GPA. ☹☹☹ I went through a lot during my last semester. Won't go into detail.It was tough finding a decent paying job, with my Psychology degree. I just got hired, and will be getting paid 35k/yr. Im only 23, and have higher expectations of myself than this. So, earning a masters degree is a MUST for me.

I keep beating myself for ruining my GPA. I had a good vision of me becoming an Occupational Therapist.
Is there anyone that was on the same situation as me ? Did you retake courses ? Did you get another bachelors degree ? Would appreciate any advice you may have to my situation. Thank you.

Being in OT program, and knowing how incredibly tough the first semesters work will be.. I can not stress enough to not take your science classes at just a junior college. If you can take your classes at a 4 year, you will be closer to the expectations of gross anatomy in grad school. If you can take one 4 credit at a 4 year.. you will be ahead of the curve. I say this, cause even people with cadaver dissecting experience going in, were wild eyed with the amount of things thrown at us.

My suggestion is to take the hard classes together in one semester and really rock it. You essentially do all your pre-reqs again in the first semester of OT school.. and they want you to be prepared to handle Kines, A&P, Foundations is OT, mental health and OT across the lifespan in one semester.. so take the sciences together to show your capable. (Physics or chem with A&P) I did biomechanics with A&P and firmly believe that made me a better candidate to them.