Doctorate in Occupational Therapy

Duquesne University's Occupational Therapy program prepares students to be skilled and compassionate practitioners, improving lives through meaningful interventions. Occupational therapists are trained to address physical, cognitive, psychosocial, sensory-perceptual, and other aspects of performance. Occupational therapy interventions can be designed to develop skills, prevent illness and promote health and wellness. Interventions can also rehabilitate when an illness, injury or disease results in impairment, disability, activity limitation, or a restriction in a person's ability to participate in their daily occupations. Occupational therapists work with people of all ages and ability levels in many settings. Occupational therapy services may be provided in individual or group sessions, or on a broader scale at the system or population level. Collectively, our teaching philosophy emphasizes active and transformative learning experiences. Community engaged learning and a wide array of excellent clinical fieldwork and doctoral experiential placements are standard teaching practices in our program and students know that they will be expected to immediately transform classroom learning into practice competencies. Our programs equip graduates who exhibit competencies as a generalist as well as in depth knowledge and skills to lead in practice and professional settings.

Admission into the Occupational Therapy program at the freshman level is highly-competitive and will require the following to be considered for admission: a minimum GPA of at least a 3.0; a composite math and verbal SAT score of at least 1,170; or a composite ACT score of at least 24 (admitted freshman usually have test scores higher than the minimum); a minimum of seven units of math and science; evidence of extracurricular activity during high school; knowledge of the profession.