Graduate studies in Occupational Therapy prepare students for a professional career focused on helping people achieve skills and utilize resources to live independent and meaningful lives.

The Master of Science in Occupational Therapy degree is a full-time Cohort Program. Students within a specific cohort matriculate together and are expected to take the same courses every semester as well as complete the requirements of the program at the same time. MSOT students are assigned to specific sections and are given their class schedule by the department. One cohort of 66-70 students is admitted per year, which starts every spring semester.

THE MSOT PROGRAM MISSION and OBJECTIVES

The mission of the CSUDH MS in Occupational Therapy Program is to prepare entry-level clinical practitioners with the knowledge, skills, and understanding necessary to practice in traditional as well as emerging occupational therapy roles with an excellent foundation for later specialization and lifelong learning.

The Master of Science in Occupational Therapy Program has been planned with enthusiasm to help prepare students for a professional career focused on helping people achieve skills and utilize resources to live independent and meaningful lives. The program is structured towards producing client-centered therapists with enhanced critical thinking abilities. It aims to produce professionals, who can research, develop, implement, and evaluate procedures utilizing a high degree of independent judgment and to consult where appropriate with other members of the healthcare team.

The objectives of the MSOT Program are to prepare therapists who:

- demonstrate entry-level knowledge of the basic and clinical sciences and skills essential to practice occupational therapy; 

- use knowledge of how humans construct meaning and seek adaptation through occupation across the lifespan; 

- demonstrate mastery of entry-level professional clinical skills specific to all areas identified in the Practice Frameworks for Occupational Therapy; 

- serve the needs of diverse and underserved populations with demonstrated sensitivity to psychosocial identity and cultural and ethnic heritage; 

- implement occupational therapy services that maintain health and wellness and remediate dysfunction; 

- apply principles and constructs of ethics to individual, institutional and societal problems and demonstrate competence in developing appropriate resolutions to these problems; 

- identify researchable problems, advocate for and participate in research, and incorporate findings into clinical practice; 

- provide scholarly contributions to the knowledge base of the profession through written and oral communication; 

- relate theory with practice and use research evidence to think critically about or adapt new and existing practice environments based on population needs and research evidence; 

- participate in advocacy and educational roles with patients and their families, students, and others in community and clinical settings; 

- serve as practitioners and leaders who can influence practice, education, and policy development; 

- assume leadership roles at the local, state, national and international levels in occupational therapy and in health professions. 

- achieve success in Fieldwork settings, the national board examination and become licensed to practice occupational therapy.