General Admissions & OTCAS Occupational Therapy

[Flipchick312]

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What is a good amount of volunteer hours for OTschool? As of now I have 78hrs in a assisted living nursinghome/homecare , 48hours with a Hand Therapist, 7 hours at the Childrens Hospital and 10hours at a pediatric setting. I am hoping to get into Stockton which requires 60hrs and Setan Hall. I notice a lot of students would have like 300hrs ! And some would have like 100 and still get in. What are my chances? Should I try different places?

 

[mandaboo34]

I submitted my application in July and had about 160 volunteer hours and I also work as a physical therapy / chiropractic aide.
I think the most important part of the hours is observing many different settings which it seems that you have already done. 100 hours is probably great if your other stats are up to par, but if you have the time try to get in as many hours as you can.
Good luck!

 

[sb0106]

You are fine! Most schools only look to see that you satisfy the requirements (ex: 40 hrs, 2 settings) and don't look any more favorably on those who have completed 400 hrs than those who have done 75

 

[Kidamnesiac]

From what I know: it's more important where you did the hours than how many you have. I did 6 settings (a few were fairly creative, like hippotherapy), but only about 50 hours.

 

[sb0106]

From what I know: it's more important where you did the hours than how many you have. I did 6 settings (a few were fairly creative, like hippotherapy), but only about 50 hours.

So you did 6 settings total for 50 hours total? Did you get in anywhere or are you applying this time around?

 

[Kidamnesiac]

I got into a pretty well-regarded program, so it's definitely possible!

 

[bmacOT]

Are the hours required to be completed by the time of the application submission, or before beginning the program if accepted?

 

[RedHeadOT]

The answer to your question depends on the school. Some schools prefer a wide variety of settings, whereas others prefer more depth in each setting. The number of hours of observation your currently have seems fine, because you have a good variety of settings and a good amount of time in a few of them. I had 108 hours of observation total split between 3 settings and I did not have any problems with admissions to OT school.

Also, I don't know how you are keeping track of your hours of observation, but I made a video a while back showing how I recorded my hours of observation if you are interested.