General Admissions & OTCAS Please Help - Question About Experiences Section on OTCAS

[silverwolf]

Hey guys,

I graduated with my bachelor's degree three years ago. Before I decided on OT, I spent some time volunteering at other places. I have 100+ hours doing secretarial work at an independent pharmacy (three years ago), 100+ hours volunteering at an outpatient PT clinic (three years ago), and 400+ working as a PT aide (started last year). These are in addition to my work experience (unrelated field) and OT volunteering/observation hours. I will be listing the more recent non-OT experiences, but do you guys think I should list the really old ones too? I don't want there to be too many non-OT experiences, and I also don't want to come across as indecisive. On the other hand, listing them all may help show that I observed multiple professions before settling on OT.

Thanks for any feedback!

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[CAOT]

I have wondered "how far back" to go too. Since I'll be applying straight from undergrad, I'm listing everything (that's relevant) during my college years. I am not listing anything from high school, even though I did some PT shadowing during hs.
I know this doesn't answer your question, but it's sort of where I drew the natural dividing line in my case.

 

[Chanandler Bong]

I was a post-bac and had a lot of varied experience. I got my degree in 2010 and got accepted to OT school this year. The oldest thing I listed was from 2006, a cashiering job that I held for three and a half years while I finished my BA.

I listed five retail jobs in all. Maybe I wouldn't have if I'd been able to get a job in a hospital or clinic, but no one would hire me for those things. I also listed two leadership/volunteer experiences that had nothing to do with healthcare.

I put down all of those things because they helped tell the story I wanted to tell. If I hadn't mentioned them, it might have seemed weird that I wasn't always taking courses full-time as a post-bac. I omitted things that did not serve the story I wanted to tell.

If you had a pretty direct path, it might make sense to leave some of the irrelevant things, just to illustrate life experience and well roundedness.