General Admissions & OTCAS Question about hard science in OT

[geronamo26]

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Why aren't chemistry and physics courses required prerequisites for occupational therapy school? Aren't they necessary classes for ergonomics, motion of the body etc?

 

[beestrng]

Physics 1 is required at my school.

I took Physics 2, and gen chems too.

Depending on your school, biomechanics class will deal with that if they have it. You will have a bit of physics that relate to gait etc. Nothing useful though.

Could not relate chemistry to anything I am doing in OT school.

 

[MasterOf.Science.]

Physics 1 is required at my school.

I took Physics 2, and gen chems too.

Depending on your school, biomechanics class will deal with that if they have it. You will have a bit of physics that relate to gait etc. Nothing useful though.

Could not relate chemistry to anything I am doing in OT school.

So, would my plan to take a general chemistry course over this summer not be useful?
I figured I would take some extra science classes before I started. Which ones would you recommend?

 

[c2902]

So, would my plan to take a general chemistry course over this summer not be useful?
I figured I would take some extra science classes before I started. Which ones would you recommend?

There's no need to take chemistry unless it was a prerequisite a school required, and I don't think it's a common one - when I applied, none of the schools I looked at required it, and honestly, I don't think it's necessary for what we do as practitioners. Physics makes a bit more sense, in terms of understanding biomechanics later, but not all schools require it as a prerequisite. If you are already accepted into a program, you won't be "behind" if you don't take extra courses beyond the prerequisites your program required. I would use this summer to relax and enjoy yourself!

 

[kgprospot]

I'm not in OT school yet, but I was a chem major for my undergrad! I needed chem and physics for some programs. I find an understanding of chemistry to be useful for understanding physiology (a prereq for many programs). Some stuff just makes super sense to me because of my chem background. But, I wouldn't pay extra for a chem class if you don't need it. And like others have said, you don't use chem in OT school. I can't comment about physics.

 

[Bokonomy]

I'm not in OT school yet, but I was a chem major for my undergrad! I needed chem and physics for some programs. I find an understanding of chemistry to be useful for understanding physiology (a prereq for many programs). Some stuff just makes super sense to me because of my chem background. But, I wouldn't pay extra for a chem class if you don't need it. And like others have said, you don't use chem in OT school. I can't comment about physics.

To add to what you said, I'd bet neuroscience would be more relevant than chem, and has some overlap. Some OT schools seem to put little emphasis on neuroscience, which is a real shame.

 

[beestrng]

Neuroscience class (if your school has one) will concentrate on function. So taking a neuroscience class in ug probably wont help much.

 

[beestrng]

So, would my plan to take a general chemistry course over this summer not be useful?
I figured I would take some extra science classes before I started. Which ones would you recommend?

I would not take any science classes.

Depending on your OT school, the science classes will be much harder than any of the standard science classes you have in ug.

If you cant help yourself, memorize what innervates muscles, pick up an Intro to OT book read and try to understand the OTPF in detail.

By all means take chem if you want to learn about chemistry or any other class.

 

[Bokonomy]

Neuroscience class (if your school has one) will concentrate on function. So taking a neuroscience class in ug probably wont help much.

In my behavioral neuroscience class, we spend the 1st half of the semester doing structure stuff in lab, with more functional stuff in lecture (neurotransmitters, different pathways and how that relates to behavior/disorders, etc.)