Doctorate of Occupational Therapy

Applicants must hold a bachelor's degree or be a participant in an approved 3-2 program, and they must have completed prerequisite courses from an accredited college or university. The Program in Occupational Therapy is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education of the American Occupational Therapy Association.

The OTD is for students who want to assume a leadership position in practice, management, teaching and/or clinical research. In addition to six months of full-time fieldwork supervised by experienced clinicians, OTD students focus on their specialty area and complete the 14-week doctoral capstone for a total of 106 credit units over a three-year period. The OTD degree program is a 36-month, full-time program.

Doctoral students actively engage in leadership experiences to develop capacity as change agents in professional practice and to acquire in-depth knowledge in their practice areas. They learn to analyze the role of occupational therapy across the service delivery continuum for individuals, groups and populations and to design an occupational therapy model for a specific client population. Doctoral students develop an advanced-practice skill set as well as the ability to participate in scholarly work. They may choose from multiple concentrations such as productive aging, social participation and the environment, children and youth, work and industry, neurorehabilitation and rehabilitation science.

Graduates of either degree program will be eligible to sit for the National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy (NBCOT) examination to become practicing occupational therapists. The exam is administered by NBCOT, which is located at One Bank Street, Suite 300, Gaithersburg, MD 20878. NBCOT's phone number is 301-990-7979. For more information, visit the NBCOT website. Consult our Program in Occupational Therapy website for more information about our NBCOT Exam Results.

A felony conviction may affect a graduate's ability to sit for the NBCOT exam or to attain state licensure.

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