Entry-Level Master’s (MA)
of Occupational Therapy
Please note
Current entry-level master’s degree students will complete the master’s program as outlined in the USC Catalogue, and upon completion, have the option to pursue the post-professional OTD degree. The entry-level master’s program admitted its last class in June 2021.
Please note: The Entry-Level Master’s program admitted its last class in 2021. This webpage is only for informational and retrospective reference.
The Entry-Level Master of Arts program is designed for students with bachelor’s degrees in fields other than occupational therapy. If you are already a certified or board-eligible occupational therapist, please see information about our Post-Professional Master’s degree program.
In your two years of study, you will complete three practice immersions in Adult Physical Rehabilitation, Mental Health, and Pediatrics to graduate as a general practitioner of occupational therapy. In addition, the elective options offered in the second year are taught by leaders in diverse practice areas and provide you with in-depth education in six potential specialty focus areas.
Following the successful completion of foundational courses, you will begin your rotations through practice immersion courses meant to develop mastery through immersion: OT 501 Adult Physical Rehabilitation, OT 502 Mental Health, and OT 503 Pediatrics. The entire class of students is divided into three cohorts. Over three semesters, each cohort rotates through one practice immersion course per semester in the above mentioned practice areas.
Each of these 8-unit intensive courses combines lecture and experiential learning laboratories, along with corresponding weekly Level I fieldwork. You engage in fieldwork one day a week for a ten week period, with one week of full-time fieldwork during the fourth or fifth week. Each immersion course allows you to focus on one area of practice at a time, and concurrent fieldwork provides the opportunity for you to immediately integrate classroom learning with practical application. You develop competence in the knowledge and skills required for evaluation and intervention in each practice setting. We believe these practice immersions provide key elements necessary for you to attain mastery in a particular domain.
Read the Course Descriptions of the practice immersions.
Children and Youth
USC has a long history of leadership in pediatric occupational therapy. Faculty members have expertise in sensory integration, family-centered and culturally sensitive care, early intervention and school based practice, programming for at-risk youth, and policy development. One of our key strengths is in the area of sensory integration, the approach founded by Dr. A. Jean Ayres, who was a distinguished professor in our program. Moreover, through our relationships with leading pediatric clinical sites, we offer outstanding opportunities for you to refine the advanced practice skills you need to meet the needs of families who have children with a variety of disabilities.
Health and Wellness (Life Design)
We conceive of all occupational therapists as life designers. Just as architects build homes, occupational therapists build lives to maximize health, productivity and happiness. Life design involves creating a good match between a person and their environment to maximize overall wellbeing. One aspect of life design that was developed at USC is Lifestyle Redesign®, an innovative occupational therapy approach to prevention. Tested for its effectiveness in the landmark USC Well Elderly Study, the largest occupational therapy clinical trial ever conducted, Lifestyle Redesign® has proven to slow declines normally associated with aging and to improve health in the elderly. Currently, Division faculty members are taking the lead in adapting Lifestyle Redesign® to address major public health problems such as diabetes, heart disease, obesity and cancer.
Mental Health
Our Division is dedicated to expanding and refining mental health occupational therapy practice. The faculty members who teach our mental health curriculum have extensive practice experience in providing occupation-centered services in this field. In furthering occupational therapy practice in mental health, we have developed innovative programs to address community reintegration and post-traumatic stress disorder in redeployed veterans, to reduce family violence, and to enable at-risk youth to overcome daily challenges and lead productive lives. In addition, we offer a variety of other opportunities for clinical experience in a broad range of mental health community settings as part of the educational experience in this specialty area.
Work and Industry
Work and Industry constitutes a growing market for occupational therapy employment. Occupational therapists are becoming specialists in ergonomics, healthy office design, green workplace innovation, and workplace health and wellness. As part of your program of study, you may enroll in related clinical experiences through the Occupational Therapy Faculty Practice, take coursework in hand therapy or ergonomics, or take relevant courses offered in other schools at USC.
Rehabilitation, Participation and Disability
Occupational science has much to offer rehabilitation science and provides interventions that help people living with physical disabilities to engage more fully in life. Master clinicians with nationally recognized expertise in a variety of areas of practice including delivery of occupation-centered treatment, Neuro-Developmental Treatment™ (NDT), technology, ergonomics, dysphagia, and hand therapy teach the physical disabilities electives. You will have laboratory experiences in a state-of-the-art facility that includes a complete kitchen, dining room, bedroom and bathroom area with an array of adaptive equipment and environmental modifications. If you are particularly interested in rehabilitation science, you can take electives in motor learning, biomedical engineering or universal design in other schools at USC.
Productive Aging
USC has one of the premier programs for developing innovative interventions in gerontological occupational therapy. Known for the USC Well Elderly Studies funded by the National Institutes of Health, our research has paved the way in showing that preventive occupational therapy slows decline and improves health in the elderly. If you want to customize your course of study to emphasize productive aging, you may wish to take Division-based electives such as Lifestyle Redesign® along with coursework in the USC Davis School of Gerontology. If your interests are technological or environment focused, you may wish to take coursework in urban design at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy or in universal design at the USC School of Architecture.
The two-year core curriculum includes three practice immersions in Adult Physical Rehabilitation, Mental Health, and Pediatrics, as well as elective options. Courses focus on the basic professional content required for academic program accreditation by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education® (ACOTE)*. Topics include medical sciences, occupational development and performance, and the various areas of practice. Hands-on experience is introduced early in the program in order to support you in honing basic technical skills and integrating this practice with theory. In the second year of the program, you will begin to tailor your electives to support a specialty focus of your choice.
First-Year Coursework
In the first year, you learn the fundamentals of professional practice as well as the powerful relationship of occupations to health. You will complete two of the required practice immersions in addition to core courses focusing on content spanning all areas of occupational therapy practice, such as:
- Behavioral neuroscience
- Research and evidence-based practice
- Clinical reasoning
- Therapeutic use of self
- Communication skills for effective practice
Second-Year Coursework
In the second year, you complete a final practice immersion and develop a community-based occupational therapy project utilizing the research and clinical skills gleaned from coursework. In the final semester, you will participate in an advanced seminar in occupational science, and complete a two-week externship designed to enhance your communication and leadership skills. You also benefit from an individually tailored plan of elective coursework.
Electives
The electives you select are the building blocks for your preparation in a specialty area. To fulfill your elective units, you can take courses offered by the Division or by USC’s other professional schools, or you can design your own elective course.
Division Electives include:
- OT 500abc: Clinical Problems in Occupational Therapy
- OT 560 (4 units): Contemporary Issues in School-Based Practice
- OT 562 (4 units): Advanced Hand Rehabilitation and Certification (PAMs)
- OT 563 (2 units): Occupational Therapy in Primary Health Care Environments
- OT 564 (4 units): Sensory Processing and Sensory Integration
- OT 565 (4 units): Sensory Integration Interventions
- OT 566 (2 units): Healthcare Communication with Spanish-Speaking Clients
- OT 567 (4 units): Contemporary Issues in Occupational Therapy in Early Intervention
- OT 568 (4 units): Sensory Processing and Sensory Integration: Special Topics
- OT 571 (4 units): Assistive Technology
- OT 572 (4 units): Ergonomics
- OT 573 (4 units): Hand Rehabilitation
- OT 574 (4 units): Enhancing Motor Control for Occupation
- OT 575 (2 units): Dysphagia Across the Lifespan: Pediatrics through Geriatrics
- OT 577 (2 units): Seminar in Occupational Therapy
- OT 578 (4 units): Therapeutic Communication: Facilitating Change in Clients
- OT 579 (4 units): Occupational Therapy in Adult-Neurorehabilitation
- OT 583 (4 units): Current Applications of Lifestyle Redesign
- OT 586 (1-2 units, max 6): Clinical Internship with Seminar
- OT 590 (1-12 units): Directed Research
- OT 594abz (2-2-0 units): Master’s Thesis
- OT 599 (2-4 units, max 8): Special Topics
- OT 699 (2 units): Building Innovative Technologies that Promote Health and Occupational Engagement
Other USC School Electives (500-level courses and above)
Occupational therapy elective coursework may be combined with up to four units from another school within USC, such as the:
- USC Marshall School of Business
- USC Davis School of Gerontology
- USC Sol Price School of Public Policy
- USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
You will begin specialization and create your own individualized professional pathway through the combination of elective courses that you choose, allowing you to jump-start your career in your occupational therapy practice area of choice.
For example, a student interested in pursuing a career as an occupational therapist specializing in pediatrics might take the following combination of elective courses:
- OT 560: School-based Practice
- OT 564: Sensory Integration
- OT 575: Dysphagia Across the Lifespan: Pediatrics through Geriatrics
OT 560 provides in-depth learning experiences for practice in school settings while OT 564 provides a comprehensive overview of one of the most prevalent intervention theories used in pediatric therapy and OT 575 provides assessment and intervention training to help patients who may be struggling with atypical swallowing.
How you choose to design your pathway will be based on your own practice and research interests as they develop through your experiences in fieldwork and in the foundational core courses of the program.
Fieldwork
USC offers fieldwork placements at more than 850 sites, in 39 states and five countries. Level I fieldwork is embedded in each of the practice immersion courses (OT 501: Adult Physical Rehabilitation, OT 502: Mental Health, OT: 503 Pediatrics) and occurs one full day per week for ten weeks and a full-time week during the fourth or fifth week of the experience. Level II fieldwork consists of two 12 week full-time experiences in distinctly different practice areas, and is typically completed during two 12 week summer sessions (after the first spring semester and after the second spring semester). If you do not engage in Level II fieldwork following the first year of the professional program, you will complete two Level II experiences sequentially during the second year of the program, typically summer and fall semesters. Fieldwork provides invaluable hands-on experience in the key practice areas of occupational therapy. Our team of academic fieldwork coordinators will work with you to find a placement that corresponds with your interests and desired geographic location. Level II fieldwork is required for the master’s degree at USC and is also required to apply for eligibility to take the NBCOT examination.
Comprehensive Exam or Master’s Thesis Option
During the second year of the program, you are given the choice of whether to pursue the master’s thesis option or the comprehensive examination option.
Comprehensive Examination Option
Most students will choose the comprehensive exam option. The comprehensive examination is given at the end of the fall and spring semesters each year and enables you to choose three elective courses (at least two from within the division). A minimum of 80 units, including fieldwork units, is required to graduate with this option.
*If you fail the comprehensive exam, you may take it a second time. If you fail the exam a second time, you will be terminated from the program.
Master’s Thesis Option
The thesis option provides an opportunity to conduct and report on an original piece of research. Thesis work typically begins either during the spring, summer or fall semester of your second year and usually requires an additional one or two semesters. This option requires four units of electives, either in the department or outside the department, and two or more semesters of OT 594 (Thesis) for 2 units each semester. A minimum of 76 units, including fieldwork units, is required for you to graduate under this option.
Requirements for Graduation
In order to graduate with a Master of Arts degree in Occupational Therapy on the comprehensive examination track, you must have completed:
- 68 units of required OT coursework
- 8 units of OT electives
- 4 units of electives from either in or outside the Division
- GPA of 3.0 or better (both applied and overall)
- The comprehensive examination with a passing score
In order to graduate with a Master of Arts degree in Occupational Therapy on the thesis track, you must have completed:
- 68 units of required OT coursework
- 4 units of electives from either in or outside the Division
- At least 4 units of thesis coursework
- GPA of 3.0 or better (both applied and overall)
- A master’s thesis accepted by both your committee and the thesis editor of the graduate school
Graduation
Upon successful completion of all courses and either passing the comprehensive examination or having your thesis accepted by The Graduate School, you will be awarded the Master of Arts (MA) degree. Comprehensive Exam Option students usually will have met all requirements for graduation in August of their second year following completion of their second fieldwork. Thesis option students typically take an extra semester or two to complete their thesis.
Becoming a Registered and Licensed Occupational Therapist
Once you have successfully completed all professional coursework including the required number of fieldwork hours, you are eligible to sit for the professional examination offered by the National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy® (NBCOT). You should visit nbcot.org for specific information on the examination process. A felony conviction may affect your ability to sit for the NBCOT certification examination or attain state licensure. You must pass this examination to earn the designation “Occupational Therapist, Registered” (OTR) and, after ensuring compliance with various state licensing regulations, you can begin practice as an occupational therapist.
* The Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education® can be contacted at: ACOTE, c/o Accreditation Department, American Occupational Therapy Association®, 6116 Executive Boulevard, Suite 200, North Bethesda, MD 20852-4929, (301) 652-6611 x2914, acoteonline.org
WASC Accreditation
USC has been accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), one of six regional accrediting organizations recognized by the U.S. Department of Education, since 1949. View the student learning outcomes (PDF) for our academic programs.
The following provides an overview of the two years of study for the Entry-Level Master of Arts program in Occupational Therapy.
* Courses are subject to change.
Click image to enlarge
Download a PDF version of the USC Entry-Level Master’s program course sequence
First-Year Course Overview
Read Course Descriptions here. The first year begins with 4 summer courses, for 8 units. Two of the 3 immersion courses and 6 additional core courses are completed for 36 units, 18 units in the fall and 18 units in the spring. During the following summer, you undertake the first of two level 2 fieldwork experiences. By the end of the second summer you will have completed 46 units.
Summer Session 1
Summer session begins in mid-June and continues for eight weeks.
- OT 440 (2 units): Foundations: Kinesiology
- OT 441 (2 units): Foundations: Neuroscience
- OT 405 (2 units): Foundations: Occupation
- OT 406 (2 units): Foundations: Creativity, Craft and Activity Analysis
Fall Semester 1
Fall semester generally begins in late August and continues for 16 weeks.
- Practice Immersion Course (ONE of the following 8-unit immersions with corresponding Level I fieldwork):
- OT 501: Adult Physical Rehabilitation
- OT 502: Mental Health
- OT 503: Pediatrics
- OT 511 (2 units): Therapeutic Use of Self
- OT 515 (4 units): Neuroscience of Behavior
- OT 518 (4 units): Quantitative Research for Evidence-Based Practice
AND:
Spring Semester 1
Spring semester begins in January and continues for 16 weeks.
- Practice Immersion Course (ONE of the following 8-unit immersions with corresponding Level I fieldwork):
- OT 501: Adult Physical Rehabilitation
- OT 502: Mental Health
- OT 503: Pediatrics
- OT 521 (3 units): Clinical Reasoning
- OT 523 (3 units): Communication Skills for Effective Practice
- OT 525 (4 units): Qualitative Research for Evidence-Based Practice
AND:
Summer Session 2
Summer session begins in mid-May and continues for 12 weeks.
- OT 586 (2 units): Clinical Internship with Seminar
Second-Year Course Overview
The second year consists of the third and final immersion and 5 core courses for 20 units. The thesis option requires an additional 4 units of electives and 2 semesters of thesis units. The comprehensive exam option requires an additional 12 units of electives, at least 8 of which must be from the Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy. Upon completion of the second fieldwork, if you are pursuing the thesis option you will have completed a total of 76 units and if you are pursuing the comprehensive exam option you will have completed a total of 80 units. NOTE: the actual sequence of the core courses may vary from year to year, but all 5 courses will be offered during fall and spring semesters.
(Comprehensive Exam Option)
Fall Semester 2
Fall semester generally begins in late August and continues for 16 weeks.
- Practice Immersion Course (ONE of the following 8-unit immersions with corresponding Level I fieldwork):
- OT 501: Adult Physical Rehabilitation
- OT 502: Mental Health
- OT 503: Pediatrics
- OT 534 (2 units): Health Promotion and Wellness
- OT 537 (4 units): Occupation-Centered Programs for the Community
- OT 538 (2 units): Current Issues in Practice: Adulthood & Aging
AND:
Spring Semester 2
Spring semester begins in January and continues for 16 weeks.
- OT 540 (2 units): Leadership Capstone
- OT 545 (2 units): Advanced Seminar in Occupational Science
- Elective courses (12 units)
- Comprehensive exam taken at end of semester
Summer Session 3
Summer session beings in mid-May and continues for 12 weeks.
- OT 586 (2 units): Clinical Internship with Seminar
(Thesis Option)
Fall Semester 2
Fall semester generally begins in late August and continues for 16 weeks.
- Practice Immersion Course (ONE of the following along with 8 units of corresponding Level I fieldwork):
- OT 501: Adult Physical Rehabilitation
- OT 502: Mental Health
- OT 503: Pediatrics
- OT 534 (2 units): Health Promotion and Wellness
- OT 537 (4 units): Occupation-Centered Programs for the Community
- OT 538 (2 units): Current Issues in Practice: Adulthood & Aging
AND:
Spring Semester 2
Spring semester begins in January and continues for 16 weeks.
- OT 540 (2 units): Leadership Capstone
- OT 545 (2 units): Advanced Seminar in Occupational Science
- Elective courses (12 units)
- OT 594a (2 units): Thesis
Summer Session 3
Summer session beings in mid-May and continues for 12 weeks.
- OT 586 (2 units): Clinical Internship with Seminar
Fall Semester 3 (and Spring Semester 3 as necessary)
Fall semester generally begins in late August and continues for 16 weeks
- OT 594a (2 units): Thesis
- OT 594z: Thesis (If necessary, each semester until thesis is completed)
USC Chan recognizes that the composition of occupational therapists nationwide is not sufficiently representative of the diversity of the healthcare consumers whom the profession serves. Consequently, we strive to recruit superior applicants for all of our academic programs from diverse populations and to provide financial packages that will make it possible for promising students from underserved populations to attend USC Chan. Read more about diversity, access, and equity at USC Chan and our Diversity Mentorship Program.
A Day in the Life of an Entry-Level Master of Arts Student
Contact Us
For more information about becoming an occupational therapist in our Entry-Level Doctorate of Occupational Therapy (OTD) program, contact the USC Chan Admissions Team.
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