The Admissions Process in Occupational Therapy Education: Investigating Academic and Non-academic Metrics in the Applicant Selection Process

Abstract

The overall goal for any admissions process is to analyze criteria and identify the prospective students that have the highest potential for success in the program’s curriculum and in the field as a practicing clinician. The purpose of this study was to examine common academic and non-academic criteria utilized in occupational therapy (OT) admission processes and determine what criteria are used by programs with 100% student pass ratings on their National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy (NBCOT) exam following completion of an OT program. Admissions criteria components and NBCOT pass rates were collected from the top 107 OT programs, as reported by US News and World Report, using publicly available websites for each program and the NBCOT webpage. Descriptive statistics were recorded regarding the frequency of utilizing various admissions criteria. Chi-square tests were utilized to examine the relationship between each admissions criteria component and the NBCOT pass rate. Admissions criteria frequently utilized by the top OT programs included a bachelor’s degree prior to matriculation (90.99% programs), minimum undergraduate GPA (55.86%), personal statement (90.09%), letters of recommendation (97.30%), observation hours (74.77%), and an interview (61.26%). Few programs required applicants to submit a minimum math/science GPA (11.71%) or a writing sample (40.54%). Results did not reveal a statistically significant difference between analyzed criteria groups. It is likely that NBCOT pass rates are impacted by other factors that were not publicly available or included in this study.

Keywords

• occupational therapy
• admissions criteria
• holistic
• non-academic measures
• academic measures