Coursework & Fieldwork Help for a curious student?

[VintageWine]

I'm currently finishing up my A.A. and I've already started doing research on OT school and all that comes along with it but I have a few questions that I hope you guys can help clear up for me.

-I know that any kind of Bachelor's degree can be accepted (and that obviously having a Bachelor's in a related discipline like Psychology or Biology can give you an upperhand in terms of having less pre-reqs to complete) but I was just wondering whether the kind of Bachelor's you have would affect your acceptance. For example,if you have a Bachelor's in something unrelated to the disciplines I mentioned above,but still had a solid GPA, got the required grades for your pre-reqs, good GRE score, good letters of recommendation,etc., would you have just a good a chance of getting accepted as someone who had a Bachelor's in a related discipline?

-I know you get to pick where you do your Fieldwork (well at least in most of the programs I've been researching) but I was wondering what kind of Fieldwork (inpatient, clinic, etc.) worked best for anyone who has already completed it. Is there a certain kind of Fieldwork that is less stressful than others? Is it true that some Fieldwork is "easier" than others?

-Going back on Fieldwork again, one of my biggest concerns with choosing to pursue a program like this is spending money on the classes (taking out student loans) and being dismissed from Fieldwork as I've seen a few people discuss on this forum. Although I know some schools will either let you have a leave of absence and then return to the program or advise you to withdraw so it could look better should you wish to apply to other programs in the future. So I just wanted to know what are some of the biggest issues you face in Fieldwork and some tips on how to best avoid being dismissed. I've heard horror stories of people having particularly sadistic CI's and getting dismissed over seemingly minor things. Sorry if this question seem random/dumb but I just want to have some idea of what I'll be getting into before I even start to consider investing my time and money into it.

-A&P/Lab is a pre-req for one of the main programs I'm interested in but I checked the curriculum list of the program and A&P isn't on it. Does this I'll only have to take A&P + lab once or could it just have a different name on the curriculum? I know that most schools require it as a pre-req and include it again on the curriculum but are all schools like this?

I apologize if these questions seem arbitrary or dumb but as I said before I've only been researching OT and OT programs recently. Any kind of help would be very much appreciated.

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[KEot]

I can't answer all of these questions but I can give my opinion on a few.

Most programs don't care what your major is. As long as you have a decent overall GPA, have completed all of the prereqs and have received good grades for those then you should be fine. Actually, some programs brag about how they have students in their program with various unique undergrad majors!

I haven't completed my fieldworks but frankly I wouldn't worry about that quite yet. I would take one step at a time!

The A And P question is something you should probably address with the specific school you are talking about. I would send them a quick email with the questions you have since all programs are different.

 

[c2902]

Any Bachelors degree is technically fine, as long as you take the prereqs the school wants, which doesn't have to be part of your program. However, since you are still in an Associates' program, it would probably save you time and money to choose a major that will cover most, if not all of the prereqs so you don't have to take extra classes. If you need to take any after the fact, do it at your local community college; schools will accept these, and it saves money. You should also look at bridge BS to MS programs, since you haven't completed a Bachelors yet. There are a few out there.

Every program has a different way of determining how you get your fieldwork assignments; not all schools allow you to pick. Coordinating the fieldwork placements of 30+ students is a difficult job and your fieldwork coordinator will not be able to please everyone all of the time. We were allowed to give input as to where we would like, and even name specific places, for both Level I and II. I got lucky and got things that I wanted, but that was not the case with all of my classmates, some of whom got placements they didn't want. There is no way to say that any one setting is "harder" than another, because it all depends on your personal interests, your working style, how intelligent you are (honestly; in terms of how much you retain from coursework and whether you can apply it), and then what the setting itself is like and what your CI is like. For example, not everyone is comfortable with children, which can make a Peds rotation difficult for them. For me, my longstanding interest has been Peds, so having a Level II Peds rotation was not a problem for me.

Regarding dismissal from fieldwork, I think that more often than not, the people who post here are not telling the whole story; a few have admitted that they flat out could not handle the academic rigor and fell behind. But for those who are crying innocence, even if they truly did nothing wrong, they should have been in contact with their fieldwork coordinator at the very first sign of struggle. Our fieldwork coordinator said that two of the big reasons people fail are for continuous issues with safety (not one-time fluke things - accidents happen, even to seasoned OTs), and "personality conflicts", meaning, they didn't get along with their CI. If it's a case of the latter, if it's a Level I, then you have two choices, to either just put on a smile and get the hours done (since it's only 48 hours), or contact your coordinator about it. Honestly, unless it's truly terrible, if you have a lackluster Level I CI, just get through it. Trying to get another site can be challenging from what I can tell. You can repeat a Level I once. If it's a Level II, you should be having weekly meetings with your CI to discuss your progress, so that there aren't any surprises at Midterm. I have not had issues with my fieldwork thus far, but seeing all of the posts on here did freak me out a bit before I started my program. Now I'm about to start my last Level II in less than two weeks (I'm at a school system, so I'm starting later), and everything has been great!

The Anatomy class is probably just called something else - ours was called Occupation and Movement, and it was Anatomy with a cadaver lab, but Anatomy in OT school focuses more on functional movement. You won't have another dedicated Physiology course in OT school, but the prereq prepares you for having a whole course in Neuro, as well as understanding systems like the visual and vestibular systems which are involved in many of the things we treat.