MOT San Jose State University

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scout200

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Has anyone heard back from SJSU that applied for Pattern II MOT? Does anyone know how many people typically apply/ how many people they accept each year?

Thanks!
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2 years ago they accepted 36 out of around 200 applications, but each year they get more and more applications. Cohort sizes used to be 40, but because of budget cuts it's down to 36.
 
I see the deadline for San Jose is February 10. Does this mean that they need to have my application packet by then or can I have it postmarked by then?
 
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I'd turn it in ASAP. They do rolling admissions and I just heard back last week.
 
My app was being reviewed by the department 3 weeks ago but I havent heard any other news. Has anyone heard back?
 
Congrats! If you decide to come here, see you in August!
 
Yellowbee said:
Congrats OTlove4life! :) When did you apply? Did you find out through email or letter?
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I got a letter in the snail mail lol. I was worried at first because it was a tiny, one page thick envelope. They said that they're going to send more stuff once I get back to them. I applied to the university in early December and to the program in mid- December.
 
Hey guys,
I was recently admitted to SJSU Pattern II, but since there is no interview day I'm feeling like I need more information about the program before I decide if it's right for me (other than cost!). It seems to me that they are short on resources, which is understandable given the budget cuts, but I'm worried about how this may affect incoming students.

Are there any current students out there who could tell me why they are glad they are attending SJSU? Strengths and weaknesses of the program? Any newly admitted students who have had the opportunity to visit and speak with current students and staff?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Oh yeah, if any new applicants are curious, these are my stats:
last 60 GPA: 3.8 something
prereq: 4.0 missing anthro, anatomy, and neuroanatomy
GRE: 160 V, 154 Q, 4.5 W
work experience: 7 years teaching gymnastics and dance, 3.5 years management of rec programs, 4 years professional dance experience
**I have to say that while I'm sure my stats were helpful, I think the real reason I made it in was because I was lucky enough to have really great LOR's. Also, my work and life experience lend themselves really, really well to OT and I spent a ton of time figuring out how to get all of that into my personal statement. What I mean is, stats help, but they don't give a show the full picture. If OT is right for you and you can make that clear through your personal statement and it's backed up by LORs, you've got a great chance!
 
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anonymous07 said:
Hey guys,
I was recently admitted to SJSU Pattern II, but since there is no interview day I'm feeling like I need more information about the program before I decide if it's right for me (other than cost!). It seems to me that they are short on resources, which is understandable given the budget cuts, but I'm worried about how this may affect incoming students.

Are there any current students out there who could tell me why they are glad they are attenging SJSU? Strengths and weaknesses of the program? Any newly admitted students who have had the opportunity to visit and speak with current students and staff?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
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Message FutureOT2013 above. He is in the program and would probably be able to answer any of your questions. I know so few students come back to these message boards after they are admitted but he seems to check in. Congrats!
 
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Has SJSU sent out all their acceptance letters? I haven't heard anything back yet which I don't think is a good sign :(
 
Does anyone know about SJSU's policy on accepting out-of-state students? Just seeing if it's worth applying next year.
 
OThopeful2 said:
Has SJSU sent out all their acceptance letters? I haven't heard anything back yet which I don't think is a good sign :(
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I read in another forum that all the spots have been filled and waiting for the students' decision. I'm assuming they will send out letters to those who did not get in within the next couple months.
 
Hey yeah I'm eagerly waiting :/ it's extremely stressful.
 
I applied early Jan. and got my acceptance a week later. I haven't heard from anyone else on student doctor about SJSU. Should I create a new thread about it for Fall 2013? Or is there already one? Maybe no one is posting about SJSU because some of the threads are for last year?
 
Hello! I recently sent my last documents out to SJSU so my application is currently being reviewed. I hope I hear back soon!!
 
OK So here's the lowdown everyone:

This year they are taking 80 students, I'm in touch with the faculty regularly and am also eagerly waiting and frankly pretty nervous as I applied in October..

For the above person who got in here's the schpeal: it is a pretty LOW BUDGET program. You're not going to get the attention and care that you would at private

-> I have a family member that's in the program and there is A LOT of GROUP PROJECTS which can really hurt you as well..I'm sure you know how group work goes.

My family member told me office hours are scant and it's really hard to get in touch with staff. ALSO they lost a page of her work which effected her score (faculty work other jobs there too)

The experience you'll get there is more RESEARCH based or academic based, it's NOT going to be as hands on as USC or Sam. Merritt for example.

Also if you want to be good at getting re-imbursed I'm not sure how well they show you how to do your charting when you come out, an important skill as a therapist.

That's my inside scoop from having a family member in the program
 
I thought USC was research based as well or that's what I've heard. What a bummer, OT is SUCH a hands on career I seriously can't understand schools that are theory based..ugh...
 
I've also heard that USC was dinged relatively recently (in the past year or couple years) for being too theoretical. And they have been working in making their program more hands on since then.
 
health I'm not worried about passing the test as much as I am being prepared to work in the field. OT's I've shadowed have said that you basically make things up as you go when you're starting out, so I would think the extra hands on experience would be really helpful. We're sort of on our own unless we have someone whose willing to mentor us. Another therapist I shadowed said that he'd have students from a certain theoretically based school come in to do their fieldwork and really had no idea what they were doing...
 
healthapples said:
I've seen the question of research/theory based vs. "hands-on" curriculum a lot on this forum, and with all due respect, I just have to ask: shouldn't NBCOT pass rates be the best indication of an OT school's ability to prepare its students?

Here is some data I pulled up about first-time NBCOT pass rates for Bay Area schools, 2009-2011 (this stat is on most sites, and is more reliable than the 2011-only data.)

Dominican: 70% (http://www.dominican.edu/academics/hns/ot/about-the-department)
Samuel Merritt: 79% (http://www.samuelmerritt.edu/occupational_therapy)
San Jose State: 78%(http://www.sjsu.edu/occupationaltherapy/docs/SJSU_OT_Certification_Examination_Results_09_to_11.pdf)

The overall pass rate for Bay Area schools seems pretty low, but my point is this: there doesn't seem to be a significant difference between research/theory based and the "hands-on" schools. Also: Dominican is a three year program that requires you to complete work during both summers, San Jose State is a two year program that gives you summers off. Also: San Jose State's tuition is a small fraction of the other two. But does it really make a difference?

At the end of the day, you still seem to have a 70-80% shot of passing the NBCOT if you're going to school in the Bay Area. Would I be more confident going to Boston U., where the first-time pass rate is something like 98%? Probably. But my life is here in California and I'm not planning on moving to the East Coast. :p

Whichever school I end up attending, I'm going to study like crazy and be super focused because I really want to be an OT in the Bay and I don't think any of the three schools is going to make that certification test a cakewalk.
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Good point, and actually Samuel Merrit's pass rate for it's last year's cohort was 91% I believe (re-read their page when you first click on OT program on their website, I believe 79% is the average over 3 years or something...)

Excited I got in :)
 
prodigiousflame said:
health I'm not worried about passing the test as much as I am being prepared to work in the field. OT's I've shadowed have said that you basically make things up as you go when you're starting out, so I would think the extra hands on experience would be really helpful. We're sort of on our own unless we have someone whose willing to mentor us. Another therapist I shadowed said that he'd have students from a certain theoretically based school come in to do their fieldwork and really had no idea what they were doing...
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I completely agree I've seen in in practice too under the OT's I've worked with...going to a more hands on school allows you to be a much better therapist...

I've met some OT's who went to SJSU don't even wear scrubs to work indicative of the academic nature of the program. OT is INCREASINGLY become a direct patient care job more than ever...of course though there are a ton of outpatient therapy regimens that don't require scrubs and a lot of therapy doesn't BUT the jobs coming out of school are going to be working with the geriatric population in Acute care centers and SNF's ...

for example the profession started with people learning how to needlepoint and what not and now therapist are doing wound care, lymphedema treatments, etc...

I got the impression more hand's on programs (or the therapists who came from them) were more up to date with where the profession is going opposed to being a little outdated.
 
For those of you who are going to SJ, do you know when we need to sign up for neuroanatomy by?
 
Yes, 2nd year applying to SJSU. I hope this time is the one! I turned in my packet in Oct 1 :p
 
Has anyone heard anything from sjsu yet besides our stamped envelope or change of online status? My status still says "complete"
 
Mine changed to Referred to Grad Dept about a week ago. In previous years, some people that applied early got a letter from the department during these days, so perhaps next week we might get an envelope in the mail :whistle:
 
My status has also changed to "referred to grad department." I haven't been tracking it religiously so I don't know when exactly it changed, but I applied online Oct 1st and my hard-copy packet arrived at the school around Oct 9th, I believe.

@alansda: Are people really hearing from SJSU as early as Oct? I'm surprised they would tell so early! The grad coordinator said that they normally begin informing by December, but that does seem quite late to me given that they're on rolling admissions. hmmm...
 
peachiepizzazz said:
@alansda: Are people really hearing from SJSU as early as Oct? I'm surprised they would tell so early! The grad coordinator said that they normally begin informing by December, but that does seem quite late to me given that they're on rolling admissions. hmmm...
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In 2011, I know a current student who was admitted to the program in Oct 27. In 2012, students in another forum were admitted in the first few days of Nov. Also worth noticing is that based on past years, the "Complete" and "Referred to Grad Dept" has no bearing on when you will receive the letter since also last year there were people that still had a "Complete" admissions status and received the letter in the mail.

Sadly, there were also people that applied first thing in October and only heard back until April :eek:
 
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Has anyone heard back yet? Does the grad coordinator usually email you personally to let you know SJSU received your application and that they will begin notifying in December about admissions? I received an email today but not sure if it's common to do so.
 
I'm a little late here but I couldn't help myself but reply to this as a student who is midway through his second Level II. I think depending on who you talk to you will get a different opinion about SJSU's program. The program could be better yes and the department does have a limited budget being a CSU, but the program is well respected and well established for 70 years and we have 5 or 6 FAOTA on faculty. The Pedretti book came from one of our professors and many current professors have contributed to it. To be honest no student can accurately compare two programs unless they have spent time going through each program, I'm sure USC's professors are very busy too with other projects. In my experience I could always reach a professor by email or phone outside of office hours with no problem, if you want an immediate response last minute then that's a personal problem. No one ever lost my paperwork, I don't think it happens a lot but people make mistakes lets not let that characterize a program's image. There was a lot of group work, I'm sure USC has a lot of group work too, my cohort there would have been 100 vs 36 at SJSU, doubt USC has the faculty womanpower to read that many theses. We have USC alum on faculty who can better evaluate and compare the two programs. As far as research vs hands on, all programs teach theories because its how we justify our work as being skilled and we need to rationalize everything we do no matter how simple it may seem to someone who is not an OT and the profession is pushing for evidence based practice, there is no problem being a little bit of both. To be honest, half the hours you spend in the program will be hands on because its 24 weeks, 5 days a week, 8 hours a day of hands on. The Level II's are where I am getting my hands on and I love it, you won't get much of it while you are on campus but even though I no longer am in the classroom, I am still in the program and still being followed by SJSU staff.

I volunteered at a few places before I made my choice and SJSU was well respected by all of the OT's I talked to beforehand and I continue to hear this now at the end of my program. I was admitted to USC and SJSU and I chose SJSU over USC, a lot of people in my cohort did. If you want to know which school best prepares their students for fieldwork, then ask fieldwork educators, the ones that evaluate students after the academic portion. I have asked my fieldwork educators which school they believe best prepares students and they all say SJSU>Dominican>Merritt (because I am in the Bay Area) and both of them have 25 and 30 years of experience and had over 40 students each. Of course there are students at SJSU who will struggle and students at other schools who will excel, I can only say that the biggest problem I hear about past students is they are too passive and do not take the initiative, educators in the working world do not like having to tell someone what to do all the time. About charting, SOAP notes are a good way to learn them at first, but each setting does it differently so however you learn it at school it is going to be different depending on where you end up. I do think its a good skeleton for the future though, just my opinion. I can say that in my two settings they like it more concise than SOAP and they do not always follow that strict format. I wrote a lot there, sorry.

MT2BanOT said:
OK So here's the lowdown everyone:

This year they are taking 80 students, I'm in touch with the faculty regularly and am also eagerly waiting and frankly pretty nervous as I applied in October..

For the above person who got in here's the schpeal: it is a pretty LOW BUDGET program. You're not going to get the attention and care that you would at private

-> I have a family member that's in the program and there is A LOT of GROUP PROJECTS which can really hurt you as well..I'm sure you know how group work goes.

My family member told me office hours are scant and it's really hard to get in touch with staff. ALSO they lost a page of her work which effected her score (faculty work other jobs there too)

The experience you'll get there is more RESEARCH based or academic based, it's NOT going to be as hands on as USC or Sam. Merritt for example.

Also if you want to be good at getting re-imbursed I'm not sure how well they show you how to do your charting when you come out, an important skill as a therapist.

That's my inside scoop from having a family member in the program
Click to expand...
 
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loveot4kids said:
Has anyone heard back yet? Does the grad coordinator usually email you personally to let you know SJSU received your application and that they will begin notifying in December about admissions? I received an email today but not sure if it's common to do so.
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Did you receive the self-addresed letter in the mail *in addition* to the e-mail you just received?
 
excited.futureOT2014 said:
Did you receive the self-addresed letter in the mail *in addition* to the e-mail you just received?
Click to expand...

I'm not the person you're asking the question to, but I only received the self-addressed letter in the mail saying that my application is complete. The only thing I got via email is an automated message stating that they're received a document from me, and that goes for every transcript they get for my file.
 
alansda said:
In 2011, I know a current student who was admitted to the program in Oct 27. In 2012, students in another forum were admitted in the first few days of Nov. Also worth noticing is that based on past years, the "Complete" and "Referred to Grad Dept" has no bearing on when you will receive the letter since also last year there were people that still had a "Complete" admissions status and received the letter in the mail.

Sadly, there were also people that applied first thing in October and only heard back until April :eek:
Click to expand...

Has anyone ever been rejected from sjsu with the "referred to grad dept" status?
 
OTRHopeful said:
Has anyone ever been rejected from sjsu with the "referred to grad dept" status?
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Yes, me :shrug:. The status changed to "Denied" about a week after receiving the letter last year.
 
alansda said:
Yes, me :shrug:. The status changed to "Denied" about a week after receiving the letter last year.
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Hmmmm... Thanks for the insight! Hopefully we all hear sooner, rather than later. The grad assistant told me we would hear in December. Even though it's a month away, it's still nervewracking. It looks like they are taking more time reviewing applications this year than in years prior.
 
OTRHopeful said:
Hmmmm... Thanks for the insight! Hopefully we all hear sooner, rather than later. The grad assistant told me we would hear in December. Even though it's a month away, it's still nervewracking. It looks like they are taking more time reviewing applications this year than in years prior.
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It is rolling admissions, they review applications between October and April and admit throughout that period also. I think the way it works is they have an idea of what a competitive applicant looks like and an applicant who clearly stands out (that is an applicant who might have a high GPA, high GRE, great letters of rec, and a good personal statement) will get offered admission relatively quickly until the class fills. Middle of the pack applicants might be set aside until Spring and remaining seats will be offered at that time. My classmates and I all got admitted in different months, some in October a week after their application was submitted and some in late March. I was a late applicant, I submitted my application in late January and got admitted by February 10th. My situation makes me believe that they do hold out for good and complete applications until the end of the application cycle, I was surprised the class hadn't filled up by the time I submitted.
 
FutureOT2013 said:
It is rolling admissions, they review applications between October and April and admit throughout that period also. I think the way it works is they have an idea of what a competitive applicant looks like and an applicant who clearly stands out (that is an applicant who might have a high GPA, high GRE, great letters of rec, and a good personal statement) will get offered admission relatively quickly until the class fills. Middle of the pack applicants might be set aside until Spring and remaining seats will be offered at that time. My classmates and I all got admitted in different months, some in October a week after their application was submitted and some in late March. I was a late applicant, I submitted my application in late January and got admitted by February 10th. My situation makes me believe that they do hold out for good and complete applications until the end of the application cycle, I was surprised the class hadn't filled up by the time I submitted.
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Indeed, that's the pattern SJSU admissions has followed for the previous years. That makes this year so special since it's already mid-Nov and not even competitive applicants have gotten a notification so far--we're told not to expect them until December :confused:
 
FutureOT2013 said:
It is rolling admissions, they review applications between October and April and admit throughout that period also. I think the way it works is they have an idea of what a competitive applicant looks like and an applicant who clearly stands out (that is an applicant who might have a high GPA, high GRE, great letters of rec, and a good personal statement) will get offered admission relatively quickly until the class fills. Middle of the pack applicants might be set aside until Spring and remaining seats will be offered at that time. My classmates and I all got admitted in different months, some in October a week after their application was submitted and some in late March. I was a late applicant, I submitted my application in late January and got admitted by February 10th. My situation makes me believe that they do hold out for good and complete applications until the end of the application cycle, I was surprised the class hadn't filled up by the time I submitted.
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If you don't mind me asking, what were your stats when you applied?
 
OTRHopeful said:
If you don't mind me asking, what were your stats when you applied?
Click to expand...

@Alan: Maybe they didn't update the SJSU OT website then because it still says rolling admissions, guess you won't know for sure until after you are in and you ask your classmates when they got admitted.

Regarding my stats, my application cycle was 3 years ago. SJSU asked for last 60 semester and my GPA was 3.6-3.7ish, a few units from undergrad 8 years ago brought it down but I had a 4.0 in prereqs, GRE was 1200 on the old scale, AWA was a 5.0. It was a career change so I explained how the life experience helped make me a more serious student in my personal statement. I asked a professor what they were looking for in the personal statement after the fact, and she said in addition to what makes you unique they were assessing your writing skill, such as one thought flowing into another thought, and the ability to be concise while still mentioning everything you needed/wanted to mention.
 
Anyone else received a phone call today? I got in! :clap::soexcited:
 
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Congrats Alan!!! That is great news. Did you also receive a letter in the mail? Any word on how many students they have already accepted? Still waiting to hear back but I just turned my app in so it may be a while...
 
alansda said:
Anyone else received a phone call today? I got in! :clap::soexcited:
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Congratulations @alansda!! Were you able to speak with her directly? I had a missed call from the grad assistant today around 11:54am, but no voicemail. I'm hoping that's good news!
 
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