Washington University - St. Louis

[heart4OT]

Anyone know much about Washington Univ.'s program in St. Louis? I'm applying there as well and wanted to find out their stats or how they choose prospective students since they don't interview. It looked like a great program with numerous opportunities.

Advice or additional info is greatly appreciated 🙂

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[kk1908]

I just got accepted but I am nervous about the cost..Is it worth the extra expense of a private school for everything that it has to offer? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[heart4OT]

How long did it take you to find out and did they call or send you a letter? They have scholarships and we can apply for loans that may help you out...it's what I was planning on doing to see how much assistance I can get. I've actually talked to a couple students that went there and they really enjoyed it and felt like the education was worth it at WashU. I felt like the opportunities along with the resources were above some of the other programs I looked at. Plus, they accept students from all over 🙂

Let me know if you heard anything about the program or how you feel about it. Do you happen to live in St. Louis or around the area? I'm not from there so it would be a new city for me.

Thanks and congrats on getting in!!

 

[OTDPhD]

I am a current student at WashU. I applied more than 16 program in nation
and got accepted from all ot the program. I decided WashU and assure the current research level and practical education is top in the nation. Since USC was struggled with recruiting faculty members and lost their historical strength in the field. I think temporarily WashU will keep its rank for a while. Boston University is also very competitive institute due to the strength of public health and allied health related laboratory. However, most of rehabilitation science program captured similar settings for research and clinical studies.

University of Washington, and University of North Carolina would be the most competitive institution since many students apply that program in states however, their education quality and program structure is not as mature as WashU is. WashU develop future trend of OT curriculum and recently they start open PhD program in occupation and participation which aims to recruit more engineering background students to add technology part in rehabilitation science research.

Sincer medical school has high rank and more than half of NIH funding comes to WashU. it as fruitful resources and faculty support for students.
And cost is always been problem. however, faculties' support and research atmosphere is worth to pay that much tuition. believe or not, the tuition is was cheaper than other program in WashU. So it would be very strong and competitive to work as an OT graduated from WashU. WashU graduates are well recognized by nationwide hospital and employers so many facilities prefer to recruit WashU graduates because they are very strong in evidence based practice and have potential to develop new program and putting more science driven knowledge and skills in the institution hope this is helpful.

 

[kk1908]

heart4OT: Thanks! I found out about 2 weeks after I applied through the mail. I think it says it can take up to six weeks to find out. Good Luck to you 🙂

OTDPHD: Thanks so much for your post. One thing Ive noticed about Wash U's Program is that it is an extra semester longer than some of the other programs I have applied to. Are there certain classes that Wash U has in their program that others do not?

 

[OTDPhD]

We have social policy and disability
and Assistive Technology courses which is not common to have many OT programs. All the courses in curriculum is based on new WHO classification ICF and those courses are designed to develop very competant OTs in research as well as clinical practice. Program was very intensive however, recently they changed a lot to reduce students pressure level.

Grand round from Neurology and any other discipline such as psychiatry and neuroscience is also helpful to update knowledge and experiences in the field. One of merit of this institution is multiple fieldwork resources more than 500 affiliation. The majory hospital such as Johns Hopkins, Mayo clinic, NYU rush institute, Kessler, etc, you may go wherever you want to go because of the strong relationship between school and medical facilities
this comes from not only the reputation of OT program in Washington University but the Medical School reputation support this.

Believe or not, if you go to OT program in certain area, you will be limited to choose where you want to conduct your fieldwork because many school has very limited affiliation or contract due to large number of OT proram in nation. However, students from Washinngton University make those opportunity many advantages and you will easy to find a job right after your Levell II fieldwork. Feel free to ask more question if you have

- OTDPhD

 

[heart4OT]

I am still in shock after I got my letter of acceptance to Wash U!! I'm overwhelmed but a bit relieved. However, now I'm nervous!

kk1908, have you already replied and sent back your form to accept the offer? It says I have 14 days...so my hubby and I are going to make our decisions this week (since we have other options). Although, this letter was pretty much the icing on the cake in helping us confirm where we need to go 🙂

OTDPhD...any advice or tips for Wash U's program? I'm wondering if there's anything that will help us prepare since you mentioned that it was pretty intense. What changes have they made that you know about to take a little pressure off the students? Thanks so much!!

 

[LCR]

Hi,
I just got accepted to Washington University for O.T. as well! I am really excited and sending in my deposit tomorrow. I was wondering if anyone knew about living around campus. Are there any dorms close to the classes or what's a good place to search for apartments? I have never been to St. Louis so I have no idea what I should even do about housing!
I was also wondering if anyone knew how big the class size usually is for the MSOT program?
Thank you 🙂

 

[kk1908]

Congrats to you both! I emailed the school a couple weeks ago and they gave my name to a student who have I have been emailing back and forth with. She said that she lived in the medical dorms for her first year which about 15 OT students lived in. The dorms are about a 10 minute walk away from our building. Majority of the students live in Central West End( the neighborhood where the school is located). As for the class size, I was told it was around 80.

Hope that helps!

 

[OTDPhD]

Students come to WashU show many different background from engineering major to political sciences etc. To prepare to start your work in WashU, I strongly recommend you to review your anatomy and kinesiology text, or neuroanatomy. WashU is one of the few OT program provide cadevar lab. You actually disect human cadevar from begining to the end. This experience will give you the same level of experiences what MD students get. Program has very intensive structure for text and lecture however, you will be comfortable as time goes by. To become a competitive student in this program, you have to catch up everything ahead and develop your own career goal will be helpful.

For example, if you are interest in ergonomic and biomechanic relavent to human occupational performance, you can apply your learning experiences to develop new program or design your own research questions. Your research mentor could be Physicians in BJC hospital or other medical department such as EMC, OT program allow you to explore as much as experiences you could get, so organization is the most important in this program. However, don't be too stressful already, you will get there
and you will like it very much.

Class size is around 60-70, they used to divide up 2 sections and your section will have the same lab in a different time. Good luck with anyone
apply to this program.

OTDPhD

 

[kk1908]

Did anyone apply to WashU's scholarships? And if you did, do you know when we find out?

 

[LCR]

I applied for the scholorship and assistantship. I asked them about the timeframe to hear but they did not really give me a straight answer when they would tell people. I'm going to visit at the end of this week so I'm hopeing to get more information! I'll let you know if I find out anything about it. 🙂

 

[heart4OT]

I applied for both as well and haven't heard anything about it either. Hopefully you'll find out something this week. Also, I visited back in Dec. but didn't get to meet any of the students...would you mind to let us know how it went?

 

[LR61910]

I just received my letter of acceptance. I also applied for the scholarships and assistantship but haven't heard anything either.

 

[heart4OT]

I found out this morning that they have a lot of applicants this year for the scholarships/assistantships, so they're hoping to let us know by late March or early April.

 

[kk1908]

Good to know thanks! Do you know how many they give out or how much the scholarships are worth? On the application it seemed like there were only a couple, but I didn't know if multiple people could receive the same scholarship or not.

 

[sloanetaylor]

@LR61910 @kk1908 and whoever else was accepted, would you mind sharing your stats? I'm looking to apply next year and trying to get an idea of averages. Thanks, y'all!

 

[Sawyer95]

I was accepted into the OTD and I am super excited!

I was offered a small scholarship with my acceptance. Hope this helps!

 

[sloanetaylor]

I was accepted into the OTD and I am super excited!

I was offered a small scholarship with my acceptance. Hope this helps!

If you would like to say, what were your stats? Thanks!!

 

[Occusational]

I was accepted into the MOT program at Washington University in St. Louis! Do you guys know why it is ranked #1? What makes this program stand out?

 

[OccTherReady]

I was accepted into the MOT program at Washington University in St. Louis! Do you guys know why it is ranked #1? What makes this program stand out?

Hey Occusational!

There's some other comments on another WUSTL thread through this forum, "Washington University in St. Louis 2017," with people who are all currently going through the process/have been accepted in this cycle (this particular thread seems to span multiple years, whereas that one is just this current cycle). A couple of the responses by edinOT, a first year student, are incredibly helpful in terms of answering the questions you just asked.

Congrats on the acceptance! Maybe we'll meet next Fall. 🙂

 

[Sawyer95]

If you would like to say, what were your stats? Thanks!!

Sure!

Major: Psychology (Honors) , Minor: Wellness
GPA: 3.88, Major GPA: 4.0
GRE: 149 quant, 156 verbal, 4.5 writing
Observation: 20 hours Home Health, 3 hours NICU, 3 hours Pediatrics, 10 hours Assisted Living

Since my observation hours are so shrimpy, I am sure some of the other stuff I have done as an undergrad helped supplement.

I have worked as a research assistant on two projects. One was a perception study with infants and I co-authored a paper with a faculty member. The other one was a NSF funded project looking at exercise interventions for older adults in rural areas. My thesis project is on faculty and students attitudes toward disability on campus.

Hope this helps!