OTCAS Personal Statement

[rcludo]

I'm sorry if this a redundant post, but I didn't see a (recent) thread devoted to this. My question is fairly simple: is there a specific prompt for the personal statement? From what I've gathered, they're supposed to fall within the umbrella of explaining why your past experience and personal qualities make you good for OT, and what you want to do with it. Then I saw this on the VCU website (referring to the PS submitted through OTCAS):

A personal statement that describes:
- why you are selecting OT as a career
- how a master's degree in OT relates to your immediate and long-term professional goals
- how your personal, educational, and professional background will help you achieve your goals
- description of the minimum of 60 hours of OT observation in at least two settings - one adult and one with children. (You will need facility name, address, OT full name, email address, phone number, type of experience, setting and start and end dates.)

Most of that is what I had expected, but it concerns me because mine only briefly mentions my shadowing experience. That made me wonder if OTCAS has a prompt that specifically asks about shadowing experience, or something else that I might have missed. I'm so impatient for the new cycle to open so I can see everything first-hand...!

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[mlc54]

When I applied to VCU this past application cycle, they followed the OTCAS prompt and just wanted you to enter "Submitted via OTCAS" into the space where you submit your essay on THEIR graduate school application page. This was the prompt for OTCAS this past application cycle:

Your Personal Essay should address why you selected OT as a career and how an Occupational Therapy degree relates to your immediate and long-term professional goals. Describe how your personal, educational, and professional background will help you achieve your goals. The personal essay is an important part of your application for admission and provides you with an opportunity for you to clearly and effectively express your ideas.

Do NOT personalize your essay for a particular degree institution.You can NOT make any edits to your Personal Essay after you have e-submitted your completed application to OTCAS.

You are encouraged to compose your essay in a text-only word processor (e.g., Notepad), review your essay for errors, then cut and paste the final version into the text box above. Click the Save button and then return to the Personal Essay to review the formatting of your text. You are limited to approximately 1 page (7500 characters, including spaces). Some formatting characters used in programs like Word (angled quotes, accents, special characters) will not display properly. Take care to review your final text and to make the necessary corrections to the format.

I would imagine that the prompt will not change during the next cycle (if it changes at all). I didn't mention my shadowing experience at all in my personal statement and I was accepted to a few different programs (including VCU if you're determined to be accepted there 🙂 ).

Hope that helps! Let me know if you have any more questions! 😀

 

[rcludo]

That helps a ton! Thank you 🙂

 

[BHSUStudent]

The OTCAS PS is supposed to be a general statement that is not specific to any school.