Admission Vision

To produce resilient learners who reflect the diverse populations of Arizona and who will become leaders, change agents, and practice scholars.

Definitions:

 Leader: A leader is a role model who listens empathetically and promotes the development and growth of others.

Change Agent: A change agent is someone who facilitates innovation to improve the health and well-being of individuals, groups, organizations, or population.

Practice Scholar: A Practice Scholar promotes scholarly endeavors that will describe and interpret the scope of the profession, establish new knowledge, and apply this knowledge to practice.

Holistic Admission

Holistic admission moves beyond academic metrics to include applicants’ experiences, attributes, and abilities. This allows a way to assess an applicant based on their individual qualities and how these factors contribute to the alignment of the NAU OTD program’s mission and vision.

Priority Admission

Our program offers priority consideration for admission to the OTD program to graduates of the Exercise Physiology BS program at NAU. These undergraduate students who qualify for priority consideration for admission will be guaranteed an interview pending verification of required credentials during the admission process*. The OTD program will also reserve 10% of the cohort in each first-year class for NAU Exercise Physiology graduates who meet the guaranteed interview criteria and interview successfully. If there are not enough NAU Exercise Physiology graduates to fill these positions in an admission cycle, they will be released to other qualified applicants.

*Qualifying for a guaranteed interview may not result in guaranteed admission. During the interview, students must express an appropriate rationale for the profession of occupational therapy and demonstrate the interpersonal and communication skills necessary for the study and practice of occupational therapy as expected of other candidates.

Priority Admissions – Exercise Physiology Pathway brochure

Apply

The admissions cycle for entrance to the program in fall of 2023 will open on July 21, 2022.

Applying to the OTD program is a two-step process:

1) Apply to the Graduate College.

2) Apply to the OTD program through the Centralized Application Service for Occupational Therapy (OTCAS).

1. Choose Northern Arizona University as your school. Incomplete applications and applications submitted after the deadline will not be considered.  Applicants are encourage to take advantage of the academic update window to update their grades.
2. Sign up to receive updates regarding development of the program and any modifications to the university’s OTCAS application.

Prerequisites

Before entering the program, you must complete the following semester course requirements:

• 6 credits of biology OR 3 credits of biology AND 3 credits of chemistry. The biology credits must include a lab that supports human biology.
• 6 credits of human anatomy and physiology
• 3 credits of statistics, preferably in applied or bio-statistics
• 3 credits of ethics , with topics related to current health care and medicine
• 3 credits of abnormal psychology
• 6 credits above the introductory level of human development, which must encompass the entire lifespan from birth to end-of-life. This can be met with a child development course coupled with a course on aging/gerontology OR a 3-credit course encompassing the entire lifespan AND a 3-credit course on human development, such as health, cognition, social perception, personality or gender.
• 6 credits above the introductory level of sociology or social justice covering problems, development, structure and/or functions of society of the present day.

Pass/Fail Grades

The OTD program requires all prerequisite course work to be completed with a letter (A, B, C, D) or numerical (4.0, 3.0, 2.0, 1.0) grade. Prerequisite courses completed with pass/fail or credit/no credit are not accepted.

Additional application materials and requirements

• Two letters of recommendation
• One letter from a licensed occupational therapist who can attest to applicant’s potential as a graduate student and future practitioner in the following areas:

Communication skills, interpersonal relationship abilities and emerging leadership skills

• • Potential to engage in positive, caring communication interactions with individuals typically served by occupational therapy accumulated during the past two years
  • Demonstrated self-motivation and maturity to become a leading occupational therapy practitioner
  • Basic understanding and alignment with occupational therapy practice and its contribution to health care and quality of life
  • Demonstrated professional, mature presentation and demeanor across all interactions and observations
• One letter from a person in a position of authority with whom you have worked and who can attest to your ability to:

• • Complete rigorous long-term endeavors, such as one will find in graduate student studies
  • Write and communicate in a mature, responsible, inquisitive manner
  • Demonstrate self-responsibility as a learner
  • Be motivated as a learner and/or engage in learning processes
  • Collaborate or partner effectively with peers in course related activities

• A minimum of 80 total hours are required* (40 observation and 40 volunteer). Documentation supporting the completion of all hours must be uploaded to OTCAS or submitted to otadmissions@nau.edu by June 1, 2023. Hours cannot be double-counted as both experiential hours and as observation hours.
  • Observation Hours: Forty hours observing two different occupational therapists each practicing in a different type of settings with different age-groups (minimum of 20 hours in each setting). The hours may be paid or unpaid hours. Telehealth hours are acceptable.
    Possible sources of referrals of observation hours include your state occupational therapy associations, your pre-health faculty in your undergraduate degree, medical professionals, and providers of occupational therapy services, e.g., assisted living, schools and medical facilities. You are encouraged to do this no later than two months before the application deadline.
  • Volunteer Hours: Forty hours in at least two different community settings (agencies, programs, camps, etc.) serving vulnerable, disabled or disadvantaged individuals or populations that address health, rehabilitation , disability, quality of life or community issues or sustainability initiatives.

While the program does not require a specific form for documenting hours, we do require evidence of hours.  That documentation needs to be uploaded into OTCAS.

*Due to COVID-19 we have made the following accommodations :

• Alternative hours can be used in place of observation and or volunteer hours (see requirements page for more details).
• Applicants may obtain observation hours from one or multiple locations totaling in 40 as long as it meets the requirement description.
• Applicants may obtain volunteer hours from one or multiple locations totaling in 40 as long as it meets the requirement description.
• Observation hours obtained over 40 can be applied to missing volunteer hours.
• Caregiving hours may be applied to volunteer hours if they meet approval. Send these requests to otadmissions@nau.edu for review.

Information indicating experience and participation in any of the following:

• Leadership in extracurricular and community activities
• Prior education, work experience, honors, awards or service
• Extended caretaking or sibling experience for individual with a disability and/or chronic condition
• Demonstration of excellent writing and communication skills in the application narrative and throughout the admission process.

 

Interviews

The final stage of the application process is a mandatory interview. Interviews will be conducted virtually during the 2022-2023 academic year. Individuals are invited for interviews based on:

• All information submitted through OTCAS
• Completion of a separate application to the NAU Graduate School
• First round of interviews will be held virtually on Monday November 14, 2022

Applicants do not need to have all prerequisite courses completed at the time of application. If applicants are on track to have all prerequisite courses completed buy June 1 of the year of admission to the program, they will be be considered for an interview invitation.  Interview invitations will be sent via e-mail to applicants. Interviews are half-day obligations that will be held virtually.

TOEFL scores

Students who present transcripts for courses or degrees earned from non-English-speaking universities or whose official native language is not English will need to present their results from the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL).

The University requires a minimum TOEFL score of 80 on the Internet-based test, 213 on the computer-based test, or 550 on the paper-based test. The TOEFL is waived for applicants who earned a bachelor’s degree from a U.S. university. The minimum International English Language Testing System (IELTS) score is 7.0.

Criminal background check

Successful candidates must have and maintain the statutory requirements that will be needed for licensure.  While requirements vary from state to state, NAU OTD requires that students meet background requirements of the State of Arizona.  This is because of the extensive fieldwork experiential component in Arizona.

Arizona Revised Statutes states that in order to be licensed the individual must: “be of good moral character” and be eligible to legally work in the U.S. ‘Good Moral Character’ means “an applicant has not been convicted of a felony or a misdemeanor within 5 years before application and never been convicted of a felony or misdemeanor involving moral turpitude. “

Facilities to which a student may be assigned may require additional background checks.

Also, students with a criminal background should check with the National Board of Certification in Occupational Therapy before applying to the OTD program to see if they are eligible to be certified as an occupational therapist.  It is important to note that individuals with a felony conviction may not be able to sit for the national certification exam and will therefore not be credentialed.