Hey guys, what was your major when you apply to OT School, and what would you considered the "must have" classes if you are not a science major. Thanks!
What Your Major When You Applied To A OT Program
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I have a bachelors degree in human development and family studies. You need to take biology, chem (depending on which school to apply to), biomechanics (usually a kinesiology course), A&P I and II. And a lot of psych courses.
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I have a BS in Health, Psy. Ed. & Exercise Science so I pretty much had my prereqs done... but it was the recency requirement for some of the schools that had me taking some classes over
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I'm graduating with a B.A. in psychology next month. I really liked my choice of psych because I got to be involved in trauma rehab research as an undergrad and my major courses fulfilled many of the pre-reqs. I still took A&P and Bio which I also enjoyed but I think psych gives me a different perspective that I want to bring to OT. It really just depends on your personal interests and what your college can offer you in terms of research opportunities and specific classes and professors. As long as you complete your pre-reqs, you can really go with any major. I have a friend applying to OT schools who is a business major, but also took her pre-reqs.
I had a double major in psychology and studio art. (Fulfilled two majors... not an interdisciplinary major.) I graduated over 10 years ago and OT was not on my radar at the time.
As it turns out, this seems to be a great background for OT. I also managed to do most of the OT prereqs, since most OT prereqs are psych classes (including stats.) And I'm really glad that I did the psych courses at my small liberal arts college, rather than majoring in something else and taking the psych classes elsewhere later, since our psych dept. was great. Classes were all discussion-based and largely based on original journal articles rather than textbooks. I think I better learned how to think critically and analytically within the psychology field than I would have in a large lecture-based class, plus we had labs and a practicum where I got to work with psychiatric patients. As far as prereqs went, I only later needed to take Adult Development, and A&P I/II. I'd say you should take a general bio class while in college, because it gives you a necessary foundation for A&P (although if necessary you could read up on it before A&P.) And if A&P is offered (which is often not the case at liberal arts colleges), you could take those while still in college, too. Then you'd be pretty much set.
That said, as another commenter posted, people picking a major with an eye towards later studying OT should look at what's strong at their particular college.
As it turns out, this seems to be a great background for OT. I also managed to do most of the OT prereqs, since most OT prereqs are psych classes (including stats.) And I'm really glad that I did the psych courses at my small liberal arts college, rather than majoring in something else and taking the psych classes elsewhere later, since our psych dept. was great. Classes were all discussion-based and largely based on original journal articles rather than textbooks. I think I better learned how to think critically and analytically within the psychology field than I would have in a large lecture-based class, plus we had labs and a practicum where I got to work with psychiatric patients. As far as prereqs went, I only later needed to take Adult Development, and A&P I/II. I'd say you should take a general bio class while in college, because it gives you a necessary foundation for A&P (although if necessary you could read up on it before A&P.) And if A&P is offered (which is often not the case at liberal arts colleges), you could take those while still in college, too. Then you'd be pretty much set.
That said, as another commenter posted, people picking a major with an eye towards later studying OT should look at what's strong at their particular college.
