How Do You Go From Being a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant to Having a Masters in OT?

Question by Joe Larkin: How do you go from being a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant to having a Masters in OT?
I want to go to school to become a COTA (Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant) but I do eventually want to go to school and get my Masters Degree in OT. But for almost all Graduate programs for OT you need some kind of Bachelors Degree. So how can I obtain my bachelors degree in OT? Thank you!!!

Best answer:

Answer by jannsody
There are no longer any bachelor’s degree programs in OT. However, there may be combination a bachelor’s/master’s degree program for OT.

Those interested in getting a master’s in OT can get a bachelor’s degree in another major such as psychology, biology, therapeutic recreation (“recreational therapy”) or other such field. One’s gpa (grade point average) in both pre-req classes and overall gpa will be crucial to possibly getting accepted into a master’s degree OT program. Just an fyi that a doctorate is not usually mandatory (or for physical therapy) unless wanting to perform research or teach at the university level.

Before taking pre-req courses for OTA (or OT), please job shadow/observe in the various departments that administer OT, including physical rehabilitation hospitals that treat patients with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), spinal cord injury/paralysis, stroke (“brain attack”) which is a type of brain injury, other neurological disorders, hip/shoulder/knee replacements, amputated limbs or such – pediatric hospitals – nursing homes/long-term care facilities or such.

The “aota” has a listing of accredited programs: http://www.aota.org

Just an fyi that for both OT and OTA, the student must get a passing score for the clinical fieldwork placements while receiving feedback (“constructive criticism”) from the clinical supervisor while having an actual patient caseload.

With regard to schooling, please do *avoid* those private For-profit schools such as devry, ITT tech, strayer, U of P, capella, argosy, grand canyon, brown Mackie, keiser, Sanford brown, Everest, concorde career and others. Their course credits usually do NOT transfer to other schools, even if the for-profit school is regionally accredited as opposed to only nationally accredited.

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