What to Expect

To be a good occupational therapy student, you should have a creative mind and an accepting attitude towards all people. These students learn to help people strengthen their bodies, often after an injury.

Erin Elwell, who studied OT at Boston University, used to want to be a psychologist -- until she worked in a pediatric psychiatric hospital. "Psychologists weren't hands-on enough," she says. "OT was more proactive...it offers a huge arena of people with varying needs to work with."

So, after earning a bachelor's degree in psychology, Elwell changed her focus to OT.

Sven Hartman says his occupational therapy program was more self-directed than he had in mind.

"I found the program less structured, with more emphasis on my own ability to learn what I thought I needed," he says.

A typical day for Hartman began with "a problem-based tutorial class from 9 to 11:30 a.m., for which I prepared the previous afternoon." After lunch, Hartman usually attended a skills lab session and then met for about an hour with a group to work on a presentation or project.

Hartman's hard work continued into the evening hours. He spent about two hours per night on homework.

How to Prepare

"You have to have respect for people who are different than you," says Elwell. She feels volunteer work is an important part of developing that respect.

She also says that classes such as psychology, writing and English, biology, anatomy, sociology and social studies can benefit anyone thinking about going into OT.

Elwell recommends students considering going into occupational therapy "go shadow an OT for a day. It's a big investment of time."

Hartman recommends that high school students get volunteer experience. He has previous experience volunteering in aquatic therapy with disabled people. He also recommends taking high school courses like biology, English and social studies.

Before deciding on OT as the career for you, Hartman suggests students really look at the profession. "Find a niche area you are interested in early on and focus, not all, but more attention on that area than on others. It is a very diverse field, and some of what you learn about may not interest you."