With the dual degree program, you’ll earn a bachelor’s degree and seamlessly advance toward your Master of Science in occupational therapy.
With a values-based educational approach to occupational therapy, Sacred Heart’s dynamic program will build your confidence to reach your goals in a fast-growing, exciting career field.
As an occupational therapist, you’ll help people return to an independent lifestyle, performing the tasks or activities that are most meaningful to them. And with SHU, you'll be on your way. Apply as an incoming freshman and you’ll secure placement in a sought-after Master of Science in Occupational Therapy (MSOT) program.
In addition to being guaranteed a place in the MSOT program–pending your successful progress as an undergraduate student–you will receive strong support from renowned, compassionate faculty in the College of Health Professions. Your academic advisor will be there to guide you through each step as you meet clear, program-specific criteria to progress into graduate studies.
Benefit from:
When you earn your Master of Science in Occupational Therapy at SHU, you will learn to address the spiritual, social, emotional, physical, and cognitive needs of your clients, and to design occupation-based interventions that enable clients to meaningfully participate in their own work, school, play, home, society, and community lives.
The OT curriculum combines active learning with clinical application utilizing a problem-based learning approach that is designed to bridge course content with practice by having students engage in the clinical reasoning process in small group tutorials led by expert faculty members.
Our superb faculty include authors, recognized scholars, advocates, and expert practitioners. Year after year, program evaluation results identify faculty excellence, availability, and relationships with students as our most outstanding outcome. Sacred Heart University graduates perform extremely well on the National Board for Certification of Occupational Therapy exam. Also visit Outcomes and Assessments.
Students apply to the dual degree program as an incoming freshman. Students applying for the Bachelor’s-MSOT dual degree program progress on a defined pathway of study to move seamlessly from their undergraduate degree to a graduate degree. Dual degree students are guaranteed a place in the Master of Science in Occupational Therapy provided they successfully progress as undergraduate students and meet the program-specific criteria to enroll in the graduate program. Dual degree students, therefore, have a space reserved for them in the graduate program beginning in their first year, with clear criteria and achievements required to progress into the graduate program.
Combined with advisement from their undergraduate academic advisor, students’ engagement with the College of Health Professions, including the Occupational Therapy Program’s Conversations that Matter series, provides strong support toward successful progression into graduate study.
Students may pursue one of two pathways to the Master of Science in Occupational Therapy program:
In the Accelerated 3+2 option, students complete three years of undergraduate coursework and two years of graduate coursework, earning both a bachelor’s degree and an MSOT degree within five years. All requirements for the bachelor’s degree are completed by the end of the third year. Students choosing the 3+2 option work closely with their undergraduate advisor to follow a specific sequence of study in their chosen undergraduate major. Students initially pursuing the 3+2 option may move to the 4+2 option by consulting with their academic advisor.
The 3+2 bachelor’s-MSOT option is available to students pursuing one of the following undergraduate majors:
In the 4+2 option, students complete the bachelor’s degree in the traditional four-year time frame and complete two years of graduate study in the MSOT program, earning both the bachelor’s degree and an MSOT degree within six years. This option is open to students in any undergraduate major with the exception of nursing and interdisciplinary studies.
Students apply to the bachelor’s-Master of Science in Occupational Therapy dual degree program by selecting the dual degree program on the Common Application. Admission to the dual degree program is competitive, with minimum criteria including:
Students admitted to the dual degree program must continue, as undergraduate students, to meet program-specific criteria to progress to enrollment in the MSOT program.
Sacred Heart University’s Graduate Occupational Therapy Program, leading to the Master of Science in Occupational Therapy (MSOT), is accredited through 2026/2027. Accreditation is 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. Visit our accreditation page for more information.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts the field of occupational therapy will grow much faster than average until at least 2032.
As an occupational therapist, you’ll help people return to an independent lifestyle, performing the tasks or activities that are most meaningful to them. Visit our Career Outlook for more information.
For additional information for prospective first-year students, contact:
Undergraduate Admissions
203-371-7880
enroll@sacredheart.edu
For additional information for current dual degree students, contact:
Graduate Admissions
203-365-7619
gradstudies@sacredheart.edu
Occupational Therapy Pediatric Lab at Sacred Heart University's Center for Healthcare Education
SHU's Master of Science in Occupational Therapy students work with clients in the simulation suite at the Center for Healthcare Education
SHU's Occupational Therapy Graduate Program Capstone Poster Presentation
Occupational Therapy Simulation Suite at Sacred Heart University's Center for Healthcare Education
SHU's Summer Stroke Program at the Center for Healthcare Education
At SHU's Center for Healthcare Education, students work in an interactive environment to learn skills necessary for Occupational Therapists.
