FAQs
The program is 24 months and begins only in the fall semester in late August. The program consists of six trimesters including summers. The first four trimesters are academic and the last two trimesters consist of two, 12-week, FTE supervised clinical fieldwork. Visit the curriculum page for details.
The program is only offered full time with classes scheduled during the day and evenings. It is our experience that students do best if they work a maximum of ten hours per week while in the program. Most students find that jobs with flexible schedules make it easier to manage time and academic demands.
Faculty pursue continued development in evidence-based, engaged, team-based, and digital pedagogies, which they have implemented throughout the curriculum. These pedagogies include problem-based Learning (PBL) team-based learning, and digital pedagogies.
The faculty has taken leadership among the College of Health Professions’ programs in its collaboration with Physical Therapy, Speech-Language Pathology, Physician Assistant Studies, Athletic Training, Exercise Science, Health Science and Healthcare Informatics, the College of Nursing, and the Social Work Program, to involve students in interprofessional education activities.
The faculty are committed to the mission of creating an intimate and engaging culture. We do this through modifying faculty-student ratios specifically to teaching/learning strategies used in each course, regular student advisement, mentored small group work, and faculty availability outside the classroom. Year after year, since the program’s founding in 2000, students’ program evaluations give faculty the highest ratings in the areas of faculty “enthusiasm”, “knowledge and expertise”, “passion”, and “willingness to help outside the classroom”.
Observation, shadowing, or volunteer work in health care with exposure to occupational therapy is recommended. You want to see enough occupational therapists at work in different settings to know that occupational therapy is the right career choice for you. The written essay on the online application asks you to reflect on your experience. You need enough experience to offer a depth and breadth of perspective in your reflection. Documented hours of these experiences are not required.
On April 4, 2019, AOTA’s Representative Assembly determined that occupational therapists may enter the profession at the master’s or doctoral level. Sacred Heart University’s Graduate Occupational Therapy students will be eligible to sit for the NBCOT certification exam and obtain state licensure and will not be required to obtain a doctoral degree to practice.
Since the number of credits each semester is highly varied, the University calculated the total cost of the program and divided it over the course of the six trimesters of the program. Tuition is paid in equal payments each trimester regardless of the number of credits taken. This allows for better financial planning and allows students to obtain two and one half years of financial aid for the two-year program. View the tuition and fees page for more information on the program estimated costs.
Sacred Heart University’s Graduate Occupational Therapy Program leading to the Master of Science in Occupational Therapy (MSOT) is fully accredited through 2026/2027 under “The Standards for an Accredited Educational Therapy Program for the Occupational Therapist - 2018” by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE) of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA), located at 6116 Executive Boulevard, Suite 200, North Bethesda, MD 20852-4929. ACOTE’s telephone number c/o AOTA is (301) 652-AOTA and its Web address is www.acoteonline.org.
The program is responsible for complying with all ACOTE accreditation standards and policies and interacting with ACOTE with integrity and honesty. The program will inform ACOTE of all major changes in curriculum, site locations, online/onsite formats, and the program director in a timely manner. The program will honestly and accurately represent the program and its ACOTE accreditation status in all its publications and web page available to the public.
Visit our accreditation webpage for more information.
The program has a 100% NBCOT pass rate. Learn more about the program’s outcomes and assessments including NBCOT pass rates.
Yes. Highly qualified applicants will be invited for an interview, which is required for admission. The interview consists of multi-mini interviews and a group PBL experience. Since the program heavily uses PBL, team-based, and small group pedagogies, these interview formats provide both the applicant and the admission’s committee with information as to how well the applicant’s learning and interaction style might fit with the program’s pedagogies.
The interview begins with faculty and staff introductions followed by a program overview. Applicants are then given the opportunity to ask questions about the program, admissions, and admission decision process. The Problem-Based Learning (PBL) experience follows, which consists of applicants assigned into small PBL groups with two faculty. Each PBL group is given a case and the group discusses and identifies the critical issues and concerns inherent in the case. The faculty do not facilitate the group but take notes and complete the scoring rubric.
The one-on-one interview follows the PBL experience. The faculty developed standard interview questions that each applicant will have an opportunity to answer. The interview will take approximately 15 minutes.
While applicants are waiting their turn for the one-on-one interview, they will have the opportunity to speak with a Graduate Assistant of the program to get a student’s perspective and have their questions answered. The entire process takes about three hours. Since this is a graduate program, we ask that friends and family not be present during any part of the interview process.
We expect applicants to maintain confidentiality of the process and not share the questions or the PBL case with other potential applicants. Scoring rubrics are applied to both the interview and PBL experience, so it is to the applicant’s advantage not to share this information.
The admissions committee considers multiple criteria in making its admission decisions: cumulative GPA, prerequisite GPA, prerequisite science GPA, essay, interview and PBL interview experience. Scoring rubrics are applied to the online essay, interview and PBL interview experience. All scores are totaled then ordered from highest to lowest. The admissions committee makes offers of admission to the top-scoring applicants.
Graduate Admissions
203-371-7884
gradstudies@sacredheart.edu