Admissions

You must apply to the University at Buffalo as an undergraduate and complete the courses in the first two years of the program, known as the pre-professional sequence. If you are a transfer student, you must be enrolled as an undergraduate student at UB and have all transfer coursework approved. All students must be enrolled as an undergraduate student at UB when applying to the program. Students must complete 8 out of 12 prerequisites and have a minimum GPA of 2.8 in prerequisite courses before applying to the professional program in January of the year they plan to begin the professional sequence. Read details about the prerequisite requirements.

Applicants to the professional program are typically required to complete 70 volunteer/observation hours prior to applying, though this has been modified for 2023 applicants due to COVID-19.

We recognize that COVID-19 has made it difficult for students to ascertain volunteer hours over the past year or so. Therefore, we are modifying our requirements to 35 hours of volunteer or observation (this includes telehealth) with an occupational therapist or occupational therapy assistant. This could have taken place at any point within the last three years (not two years), and must be signed by an OTR or COTA. 

Students are responsible for securing volunteer hours. Many find volunteer offices at hospitals, nursing homes, agencies for individuals with disabilities, public schools, or private practices to be helpful.

Students who have completed volunteer or observation hours can complete the Volunteer Experience Form, have it signed, and scan it to upload to your professional program application.

We strongly recommend students obtain as many volunteer hours or telehealth observation hours as possible before applying to the program to develop a true understanding of the profession. We understand this may not be possible during the pandemic and we have developed an online observation and volunteer hour option that utilizes videos, podcasts, and some interviews and interactions. Students who plan to apply to the BS/MS professional program in January of 2022 and are not able to find volunteer hours may complete up to 25 hours of online observation between February and November 2022. Students must then complete the remaining 10 hours in-person or via telehealth with an occupational therapy practitioner. 

If you are a transfer student, you must be enrolled as an undergraduate student at UB and have completed the prerequisites or approved equivalent coursework, and the volunteer/observation hours prior to applying to the professional sequence.

Contact the Office for Academic and Student Affairs (OASA) via sphhp-oasa@buffalo.edu or (716) 829-5000.

All students must apply to the professional program through Graduate School Application Manager by January 12, prior to the summer they expect to begin the professional program. That includes those students who are reapplying to the program.

Students must complete the prerequisite and the UB Curriculum requirements.  Students may not take prerequisite courses more than twice and may not repeat more than two prerequisite courses.

Read the step-by-step application instructions.

For questions regarding the application process contact
MaryAnn Venezia, program coordinator at (716) 829-6742 or venezia3@buffalo.edu.

For questions regarding how to complete the application, contact Jaclyn Levesque at jl388@buffalo.edu.