Prerequisites

Occupational therapy prerequisite courses are intended to prepare you for professional studies within the School of Health Sciences.

You must obtain a bachelor's degree to be eligible for our program. No preference is given to any specific field of undergraduate study. In addition to the degree, the following prerequisite coursework must be completed prior to entrance into the program. All coursework must be completed and a bachelor's or master's/graduate degree obtained by June 1 of the year you intend to begin the USD OT program.

• Applicants are allowed to have no more than two outstanding prerequisites at the completion of the fall 2020 semester for the 2020-2021 application cycle.
• A minimum of six of the nine prerequisite courses must be completed at application submission.
• A minimum of two of the three science prerequisite courses must be completed at application submission.
• When calculating prerequisite and science prerequisite GPAs, if a course has been taken twice, the highest grade will be applied to the GPA. If it is taken more than twice, the average will be calculated and applied to the GPA.
• Advanced Placement (AP) courses will be considered by the admissions committee. A minimum score of 4/5 must be met for any prerequisite coursework. An official score report must be sent to us by the application deadline to verify qualification of AP coursework. Credit must appear on the official college transcript and be equivalent to the appropriate college-level coursework in order to be considered.
• CLEP credits will be considered by the admissions committee on a case-by-case basis.
• Pass/Fail coursework will not be accepted in fulfillment of prerequisite requirements with the exception of medical terminology.
  • COVID-19 exception: While letter grades are still encouraged, a grade of pass or satisfactory will be accepted for any prerequisite coursework completed during the spring 2020 and summer 2020 terms.
• All prerequisites must be taken within 10 years of applying to the program.
• Cumulative, prerequisite and science prerequisite GPAs of 3.0 (as calculated by OTCAS) or better based on a 4.0 scale are required. Grades below a C in prerequisite coursework will not be accepted. Transcripts using a +/- grading system will be graded without acknowledgement of the +/- points. For example, grades of B+, B, and B- will all be calculated as a B for GPA purposes.
• Applicants with a GPA below 3.0 may submit their application for review. Merit of the application will be determined by reviewing grades for the most recent 64 semester hours. 

Prerequisite Courses

The list of courses and credits below are the prerequisites that all applicants must complete prior to June 1 of the year they intend to begin the USD OT program. Sample USD courses are listed for each content area.