General Admissions & OTCAS OTD Application Competitiveness

Started by abbygoble
This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Get help with your application

Use all the free resources available to you from SDN: articles, guides, expert advising, forums discussions, and school research.

abbygoble

New Member
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Hey y’all, I’m currently an incoming undergraduate psychology senior at GCU planning to apply to AZ OTD Programs in a couple of months when they open for the 2027-28 cycle. I want to provide a bit about where I’m at and hear any feedback from you all on how I can improve my application!

Here’s the stats:
-3.83 cumulative GPA, I got a B in A&P I, A in stats, A in all the other prerequisites (although A&P II, Microbiology, and Medical Terms have yet to be taken).
-145 shadowing hours across three outpatient settings (I’m having trouble with inpatient and home health and the majority of my hours are from a hand therapy clinic). I have benefited tremendously from my time in that outpatient hand therapy clinic but I’m wondering if the lack of diversity will negatively affect me at all. I should have over 200 by the time of application.
-1.5 years of caregiving experience via home health, respite, and hab services.
-I do have some published research experience, I contributed to a lit review that was published in a journal which I’m hoping will help things.
-I have a bit of hospice volunteering experience but not a ton, I had much more volunteering experience in high school. For example, I was on the Arizona Governor’s Youth Commission on the mental health workgroup during that time and plan to talk about those wonderful experiences.
-I’m a life leader on campus which basically means I lead a Bible study.

I also have the gift of getting so many lovely letters of recommendation from one of my clients’ family members, a professor, and the OTD I’ve been shadowing. I have talked with my grad school admissions counselors but would love to identify any feedback and/or areas for improvement that you may have! I’d love to strengthen it in any way I can.