Occupational Therapy

FACT (the First-Year Admission Criteria Track)

FACT is a criterion-based early admission program for the graduate Occupational Therapy Program. The program is available for first-year students at The College of St. Scholastica. First-year students who declare their intent to pursue a Master's (M.S.) Degree in Occupational Therapy will be guaranteed admission to the program after three* years of undergraduate work, if they meet the plan criteria. (*Please note: First-year students starting in 2012 will be under a 4+2 1/2 program.)

FACT criteria:

1. Register as a FACT student with the Graduate Admissions office by the end of the first year (deadline for application is May 1st.) [From a Graduate Studies web page, select Apply Now, then Apply for FACT, create an account, and graduate application. Fill in the required information. Select the program: OT First Year Admissions Tract (FACT) and submit your application.] The first 16 qualified applicants will be accepted into the FACT program.  
2. Complete all prerequisite courses for the Occupational Therapy Entry Level Master's Program.
3. Maintain an overall and a prerequisite grade point average of 3.0 with a grade of 2.7 or better in all prerequisite courses. 
4. Obtain a minimum grade of 3.0 on the first year English composition course.
5. Attend FACT advising session each semester.

Benefits to the FACT applicant include guaranteed admission into the graduate Occupational Therapy Program, continuous access and interaction with an Occupational Therapy Program faculty member, and exemption from the application interview.

First-year students who have enough credits (when they arrive at college) to make them sophomores (or higher) may apply as early FACT applicants only if there are less than 20 (or 16, 2012+) FACT applicants in the class with whom they apply.

Students who do not meet the criteria will be removed from the guaranteed FACT admission track, but may still apply to the graduate Occupational Therapy Program through the standard application process.

In the fall of the senior year, students submit the completed OTCAS (Occupational Therapy Centralized Admission System) application. The OTCAS submission includes:

• Official score from the current (not revised) GRE general test. Record your GRE score on the OTCAS application. Submit official documentation of your score to the Graduate Admissions Office at The College of St. Scholastica.


• Documentation of a minimum of two 20 hour observations, at each of two different sites with two distinctly different client populations, completed within two years prior to application, for a minimum of 40 hours of observation. Experiences must be in a setting that allows the student to observe the work of a registered occupational therapist or occupational therapy assistant. Students are required to document the clinical observation for each of the occupational therapy experiences through OTCAS. Completed hours at a facility must be verified by a supervisor's signature. An applicant may choose to observe at more than two facilities. Additional observation hours should be documented within the OTCAS application. Applicants should retain the verification of the observation hours for their personal records. The OT Admission's Committee may ask an applicant to produced verification of the experience.

• Three letters of reference. Each letter should be from someone who is sufficiently familiar with the applicant to be able to speak to the applicant's qualification for success in graduate school and offer behavioral examples to support he applicant. It is recommended to have one of the two letters of recommendation from an occupational therapist or occupational therapy assistant. Students should also consider an employer, professor, or volunteer coordinator/supervisor. Directions for submitting letters of reference are available through the OTCAS web site. 

*Phone numbers for FACT are (218)723-6285, 1-866-478-9277 and 1-877-287-8731.