Admission Requirements

Applications to the program are accepted one time each year. Students planning to seek admission should submit all application requirements for both the University and the MSOT program no later than September 15 preceding a spring semester admission to the program. Applications received after September 15 will be considered only if class space is available. Follow our Application Checklist to apply.

To be eligible to apply, students must have the following:

Bachelor's Degree

A completed and awarded Bachelor of Arts or Sciences degree from an accredited college or university.

Prerequisite Courses

Completed the following prerequisite courses within the last 10 years, minimum 3 semester units each, a minimum of B average in all prerequisite courses, and a minimum of C for each course. AP Courses from High School are NOT accepted.   NOTE:  Up to a maximum of two courses may be in progress at the time of application deadline but must be completed and transcripts received prior to the start of the MSOT program in Spring.  If admitted to the program, it will be done on a "conditional" basis until proof of completion of all prerequisites is received. 

  1. Human Anatomy with laboratory *
  2. Human Physiology with laboratory *
  3. Developmental Psychology (Across the Life Span) †
  4. Abnormal Personality or Abnormal Psychology
  5. Statistics
  6. Medical Terminology (Academic credit or certificate, taken from an accredited institution).
    • Note: The CSUDH OT Department offers a Medical Terminology in OT Practice Workshop that meets the Medical Terminology prerequisite requirement. Check out our Clinical Workshops for more information and to register: Clinical Workshops (5bg12w.com) 
    • For additional inquiries, email:  msotadmissions@5bg12w.com.

* Combined Human Anatomy and Human Physiology courses are acceptable as long as each are offered with Lab components, total at least 6 semester units, focus on general gross human structures, and taken from an accredited institution.

* For applicants who have completed an approved 4-unit combined Anatomy and Physiology course with lab that covers all systems but still need an additional 2 units to meet the prerequisite, the 2-unit OTR 595 Case-Based Analysis of Anatomical Structures and Functions course is offered through CSUDH's College of Continuing and Professional Education to meet both Human Anatomy and Human Physiology prerequisite requirements.   For inquiries if you qualify for this course, email: msotadmissions@5bg12w.com.  NOTE: this course is NOW OPEN for Registration.  Contact otprogram@5bg12w.com to request a Permission Number before trying to register.  

† It is also acceptable to combine two or more Development courses that focus on different life stages, e.g., a course on Childhood Development from infancy to adolescent and a course on Adulthood and Aging.

Minimum 3.0 GPA

A minimum GPA of 3.0 in bachelor’s degree and prerequisite coursework. We may be able to consider an applicant if the bachelor’s degree GPA falls slightly below the minimum grade requirement when the results of other prerequisites are taken into consideration.

Volunteer hours and verification

Completion of 80 hours of documented volunteer experience under the supervision of a licensed occupational therapist (not a physical therapist, nurse, occupational therapy assistant, etc.) and proof of volunteer hours. For multiple observation/volunteer sites, submit proof for each site.  Acceptable proof may be a timecard or a letter outlining all volunteer hours - but the timecard and/or letter must be signed by the supervising OT with the OT's name printed and credentials provided.

or

Successful completion of the department workshop: Foundations of Occupational Therapy Workshop.  For more information and registration information, go to:  http://rfb.web-sitemap.5bg12w.com/ot/curriculum/electives/.  If you have additional questions, send an email to the OT Department at otprogram@5bg12w.com.

3 letters of recommendation

  • 1 from the licensed occupational therapist who supervised the volunteer hours
  • 2 from professionals who can attest to the applicant's ability for graduate coursework and level of professionalism

GRE

At this time, the GRE is required but no minimum score must be met in order to be accepted into the program. However, due to the competitive applicant pool, the suggested benchmarks for GRE scores are the following:  4.0 Analytic Writing Score and 286 combined Quant and Verbal Scores. The GRE General Exam is accepted (not the GRE Subject Test).

Note: Please make sure to choose the correct University and Department codes for CSUDH and Occupational Therapy when submitting GRE scores.

Attendance to an MSOT Information Session

Prior to applying to the MSOT program, it is mandatory that an applicant must attend an MSOT Information Session.  After attending the Information Session, a certificate will be issued which will be required to be uploaded during the application process.  NOTE:  Attendance to an OTD Information Session is NOT accepted when applying to the MSOT program.  These are two separate programs.

Basic computer skills

Basic computer skills including word processing and file management abilities.