Admission to the Program

A listing of prerequisites.

See the list of comparative courses from Utah schools.

If your school is not listed, or you are unsure, you can send the course description in your school's catalog to the OT Program advisor to check.

You will need a general physics class and if there is a lab connected with it you should take the lab too. Make sure that the class covers mechanics, kinematics and motion. This class should have a minimum of Trigonometry as the math prerequisite.

Yes and no. There are certain classes that need to be completed by the time you apply to the program. All prerequisites need to be finished by the end of Spring Semester. You will have an opportunity on your application to submit a plan showing how you will complete all the courses by the end of Spring Semester.

If you are accepted into the program and have not finished your prerequisites, you will be dropped and another candidate will fill your spot. You will then have to reapply with no special consideration for acceptance the following year.

Because Occupational Therapy is such a diverse field, there is no specific major in which you have to graduate. Historically, OT's have come from a variety of disciplines including but not limited to: The Behavioral Sciences, the Social Sciences, Health Education, the Physical Sciences, Engineering and Fine Art. No matter what your major, you need to fulfill the OT prerequisites.

A good contact person to help you decide on a major would be one of the student advisors on campus or the College of Health Coordinator of Student Services 801-585-5764.

Yes, you must have a minimum of 50 hours working with an occupational therapist. You must also be involved with two different sites. One of the sites need only be 8 hours (these hours count toward the 50 hours). You must show documentation of those hours as part of your application.

Students taking OC TH 3000 Introduction to Occupational Therapy (through the U of U, Division of Occupational Therapy) with a B grade or better, will be able to waive 25 of the 50 hours and will then be required to have contact with one setting other than the class. Students completing an Introduction to OT course at another institution and receive a grade of B or better may waive 15 hours and only need one additional site.

There are a number of reasons. The first, and most obvious, is that to make an informed career choice you need to know what professionals in that type of work actually do. No book learning, in terms of understanding what someone does, can substitute for actually observing and talking to someone already in the field.

Another reason is that the more experiences you can get working with an Occupational Therapist, the more experiences you will have to refer back to when different ideas are discussed in class and the easier it will be to remember the information because of association.

The minimum 50 hours need to be directly with an occupational therapy practitioner, unless there is no OT in your area (You must request a waiver--prior to the admission date-- from the OT department if there is no OT in your area). Valuable experience can be gained working with people who have disabilities or in clinic settings and will be of benefit once you are accepted to the program. Those hours should be listed. For admissions purposes however, a minimum of 50 hours needs to be with OT practitioners.

No, you are an occupational therapy practitioner. The hour requirement will be waived automatically.

You will need to take the general exam assessment. For more information about the GRE call (510) 654-1200. It is your responsibility to take the GRE early enough that your scores are received by the OT department by the application deadline.

At this time, there is no minimum set for the GRE score. However, we look favorably upon students with a score of 3.5 or higher on the analytical writing component of the test. Your score will be looked at as just one of the pieces of information we combine during the application review process. If you take the GRE more than once, we will accept your highest test scores.

Information sessions will be scheduled on a monthly basis. Please contact the program at 801-585-9135 for currently scheduled sessions or click here for a listing.

The current student advisor for the Occupational Therapy program is Kelly Brown.

The admissions process will be conducted once a year. No waiting list will be maintained from year to year. We do maintain an alternate list of qualified candidates to allow for student attrition. The alternate list remains in place until the class is seated in the fall. If a student was not admitted and wishes to apply the following year, the student may request to reopen his or her application file. Application files will be held for 1 year

The first deadline you will want to remember is December 1, of the year previous to the year you are applying to the program.  This is for application to the Graduate School if you already have a Bachelor's degree or an application to the University of Utah if you are transferring from another school without a Bachelor's degree. The application materials that you will submit to the Occupational Therapy Program will be due January 15 of the year in which you plan to start the program.  For example, if a student plans on starting the OT program in Fall of 2012, the student will apply to the university by December 1, 2011 either as a graduate student or as a transfer student.  Then the student will apply to the OT program by January 15, 2012.

None of it! (Just seeing if you are awake!) There is no one "most important part" to the application. All the parts of the application will be important. We will be looking at the combination of all the parts of the application. Occupational Therapists are usually a pretty diverse group of people and we expect that our applicant pool will also reflect that diversity.

There is a policy in place for transferring between programs. Transfer Program Request.

All students must complete the prerequisite courses. Many of the courses may have been part of your COTA program. Another thing to understand is what degree you earned with your OTA program. Did you earn an Associate of Science (AS) or an Associate of Applied Science (AAS)? If you earned an AS degree, the general education requirements will most likely be cleared. Then you will only need to complete the bachelor degree requirements. If the degree you received was an AAS, you will need to complete all the general education as well as bachelor degree requirements because the University of Utah does not transfer AAS degrees. This is for students who plan to start the MOT program without having completed a bachelor degree. If you are a COTA and have a bachelor degree, you will apply to the graduate school.

A good place to begin the transfer is at University College Advising. You can contact an advisor at 801-581-8146.