South College offers a full-time, entry-level or first professional Doctor of Occupational Therapy degree (OTD). The Doctor of Occupational Therapy program requires completion of 30 courses (135 total quarter credit hours), which can be completed full-time in 8 consecutive quarters. The program curriculum is completed in 2 years.

Please refer to each program’s homepage for accreditation clarification. Be sure to check each program individually as they are all accredited separately.

South College seeks to make available all online programs/courses to residents of Tennessee and other states, and to allow completion of required clinical or practical experiences in those states. We work through the State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement (SARA) process and with states directly to ensure that when authorization or licensure is necessary, required approvals are secured (such as California, where South College is approved as an Out-of-State Registered Institution). Tennessee is a member of SARA, and South College is an approved SARA institution. As such, we adhere to a set of national standards for interstate offering of post-secondary distance education courses and programs. SARA also covers all interstate placements in clinical or practical situations among SARA member states, no matter the nature of the main program. All states are SARA members except for California. While we do monitor the laws in each state, authorization of distance education is a dynamic environment, and prospective students should check this site often for updates. It is the student’s responsibility to understand current circumstances or special requirements in their state of residence. Please review the document available here for the current information for authorization information.

Our program design consists of an accelerated two-year OTD curriculum that is delivered in a hybrid or blended learning format. The curriculum is delivered in 8 academic quarters.

Both Atlanta and Knoxville have one cohort a year that begins in late June.

An academic year for programs offered in semester or quarter credit hours must include at least 30 weeks of instructional time. Our program includes 60 weeks of didactic instruction and 24 weeks of fieldwork education, and 14 weeks of capstone experience for a total of 98 weeks of instruction. Accordingly, the instructional time provided by this program is the equivalent of three (3) academic years. Our curriculum contains all the required elements but uses a hybrid/blended learning model and an academic quarter system to improve the efficiency of its delivery.

Blended learning refers to an educational model in which the student learns through a combination of online and onsite delivery platforms. Using this format, our curriculum will combine the best aspects of online learning activities and interactions, hands-on laboratory sessions, and collaborative fieldwork education into an innovative and dynamic professional learning experience.

Based on our 135-quarter credit program, 51% (69 credits) are completed using various online learning platforms, 13% (18 credits) are conducted as onsite lab immersions, 24% (32 credits) are completed as fieldwork education experiences and the capstone experience 12% (16 credits). Essentially, 51% of the overall curriculum is delivered online, and 49% is completed as traditional face-to-face lab, fieldwork education, and capstone instruction.

Blended learning courses consist of both online, distance learning activities and onsite, hands-on lab instruction. Students will begin each academic quarter with at least 8 weeks of online learning to establish a knowledge base within each content area. Psychomotor skill development and refinement is accomplished during onsite lab immersions conducted at your “home campus”. These lab immersions are held between weeks 7-11 of each quarter and range in duration from 5 to 10 consecutive days, depending on the content. Students complete the 12-week academic quarter with additional online learning activities and required student assessments (e.g., final examinations).

Online didactic education is provided using the Canvas Learning Management System (LMS). Course faculty use the Canvas platform to create and deliver a wide variety of online teaching and learning activities. The majority of course work is conducted asynchronously, providing students with flexibility in creating their weekly schedule. Asynchronous learning activities include recorded lectures, required and optional readings, online forum discussions, and individual and group assignments. Classes are held each week using Zoom as an online virtual classroom. Faculty will use a variety of synchronous learning activities during these class periods, such as live discussions, faculty demonstrations, case studies, and group projects, to deepen student understanding and develop critical clinical reasoning skills.

All applicants must hold a bachelor’s degree or higher in any field of study from a regionally accredited institution in the United States or from foreign institutions pending submission of a foreign transcript from World Education Services. Students may apply to the program prior to completing their bachelor’s degree; however, enrollment in the program will not be allowed until the bachelor’s degree is awarded.

Applicants must achieve a minimum cumulative and prerequisite GPA of 3.00 on a 4.00 scale to be considered for admission. If the cumulative GPA is less than 3.00 on a 4.00 scale, an applicant may still be eligible for admission if a cumulative GPA of 3.00 or greater has been achieved over the last 60 semester or 90 quarter hour credits of coursework prior to applying for admission to the program.

We do recommend at least 40 hours of paid work or volunteer experience in occupational therapy (at least 2 practice areas) under the direct supervision of a licensed therapist to adequately expose the applicant to the profession of occupational therapy and affirm their desire to pursue a career in the field. Examples of different settings can include hospital-based settings, outpatient clinics, pediatrics, rehabilitation, industrial rehab, pelvic health, aquatic therapy, hippotherapy, or telehealth.

Prerequisite Courses:
• Human Anatomy & Physiology Lecture and Lab I (6 quarter hours/4 semester hours)
• Human Anatomy & Physiology Lecture and Lab II (6 quarter hours/4 semester hours)
• Statistics (4.5 quarter hours/3 semester hours)
• Two (2) English (9 quarter hours/6 semester hours)
• Communications (4.5 quarter hours/3 semester hours)
• General Psychology (4.5 quarter hours/3 semester hours)
• Human Growth & Development/Lifespan Development/Developmental Psychology (4.5 quarter hours/3 semester hours)
• Abnormal Psychology (4.5 quarter hours/3 semester hours)
• Medical Terminology (3 quarter hours/2 semester hours)
• Sociology or Social/Behavioral Science (4.5 quarter hours/3 semester hours) Grades below “C” in prerequisite courses will not be accepted. Pass/Fail courses are not accepted.

Yes, these courses do require a laboratory component to fulfill prerequisite requirements.

The OTD Admissions Committee may consider requests for course substitutions on a case-by-case basis. The applicant must compile and submit as much information about the course as possible (e.g., course description, syllabus, detailed outline of topics covered, etc.). This information can be emailed to the admissions officer at the campus to which you are applying. The Admissions Committee makes the final decision as to whether the course substitution is accepted.

Yes. Applicants may submit an application that includes in-progress courses and still be considered by the Admissions Committee for the current admission cycle. Additionally, if admitted, all prerequisites must be completed prior to entering the program.

If a prerequisite course is repeated, the credit hours assigned to the course may be counted only once in fulfilling the required number of hours. The prerequisite GPA will be determined using the highest course grade achieved; however, both grades will be calculated into the cumulative GPA.

Yes. The OTD program accepts all AP courses that were counted toward a student’s undergraduate degree as fulfilling prerequisite requirements.

No, all letter-graded prerequisite coursework is acceptable, no matter when the coursework was completed. However, we strongly recommend that applicants take refresher courses as needed to fully prepare themselves for our accelerated OTD program.

The best way to get your questions answered promptly is to contact the admissions officer at your campus of interest:

• Atlanta – Travis Bertke: tbertke@south.edu 470-322-2889 and Admissions Director: Dr. Gerri Marini: ghealymarini@south.edu 470-322-1184
• Knoxville – Dr. Barb Pappenfus: bpappenfus@south.edu 865-251-1716 and Admissions Director: Dr. Cathleen Johnson: cjohnson6@south.edu 865-223-6297

Completion of the Occupational Therapy Centralized Application Service (OTCAS) Application and the South College OTD Supplemental Application are both required when applying to the program. Your application materials are not complete until both have been received, along with other requirements.

The South College Doctor of Occupational Therapy application opens in July each year. It is strongly encouraged that all applicants thoroughly review the instructions for applying to OTCAS as available for download through the OTCAS website before attempting to apply to the South College Doctor of Occupational Therapy Programs.

Each South College OTD program has a separate supplemental application, and a separate supplemental application must be submitted to each program to which you are applying. A link to the application can be found on each program’s OTCAS application page.

Please refer to our OTCAS program profile pages for the most up-to-date deadlines. Both applications and all supporting materials must be submitted by the deadline for your application to be reviewed by the Admissions Committee. The South College OTD program will make offers of admission on a rolling basis, so applicants are encouraged to apply early within the application cycle.

The fee for the OTCAS application depends on the number of schools you apply to as well as your application submission date. Please see the OTCAS website for information specific to the OTCAS fee schedule. The fee for the South College OTD Supplemental Application is $60. This fee can be submitted online when completing the supplemental application.

All official transcripts should be sent to OTCAS.

OTD program requires two letters of recommendation. One letter must be from a licensed Occupational therapist. The second letter may be from someone of the applicant’s choice (e.g., professor, Occupational therapist, employer/supervisor, advisor, mentor, etc.). Letters from family members, friends, clergy, or politicians will not be accepted.

Yes. You will be asked to provide a standard essay on your OTCAS Application. You may also provide a personal statement on your academic record within the OTCAS Application.

Yes. The Admissions Committee will select and invite the most qualified applicants for an interview. Web-based interviews will be conducted so that travel to campus is not required. Applicants must have access to a computer with internet, webcam, and microphone capabilities for the interview process.

Applicants will be notified about the status of their applications on an ongoing basis.

Yes. A $1500 non-refundable tuition deposit is required to guarantee your spot in the program class as offered. * The entirety of this deposit will be applied to your tuition in the first quarter of the program.

Yes. Coursework can be completed through any regionally accredited institution.

Yes. If they are completed through a regionally accredited institution and satisfy content, credit hours, and lab requirements, online coursework can be acceptable in fulfilling prerequisite requirements.

No. The South College OTD program does not grant advanced placement, credit for experiential learning, or transfer credits from other occupational therapy programs or institutions. All courses within the professional didactic and fieldwork curriculum are required and must be completed in sequence to successfully complete the program.

South College is a private institution and does not have a residency requirement. Geographic location does not influence acceptance. The program’s blended learning format allows students to reside in states across the country while completing the OTD program. Tuition is the same for all students regardless of residency. Due to the way that our program is classified according to the Student and Exchange Visitor Program of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, our students are not eligible for educational visas. Accordingly, we are only able to admit applicants who are either U.S. citizens or permanent residents.

A maximum of one hundred (100) students will be accepted for each class.

Students are required to maintain an overall 3.00 GPA to successfully complete the program.

Students complete 24 weeks of full-time fieldwork education during the second year of the curriculum, which is in quarters 6 and 7.

Students receive exposure to a variety of practice settings that demonstrate the breadth, depth, and continuum of occupational therapy practice. To the maximum extent possible, students are exposed to a minimum of two clinical practice settings (i.e., inpatient rehabilitation, acute care, outpatient clinics, community-based mental health, schools, skilled nursing, home health, etc.). Also, students are generally exposed to a minimum of two specialty practice areas.

We have a vast network of fieldwork sites available for these experiences across the country. While we strive to keep students close to their geographical location, we factor in many other considerations when placing students into their clinical sites (e.g. professional and personal needs, specialty exposures, site availability, etc.). The optimal location to improve a student’s clinical skills is always paramount when determining their fieldwork education placement. The Academic Fieldwork Coordinator works with each student to determine optimal clinical placement.

Fieldwork education plays a vital role in professional preparation. It serves to foster professional reasoning and reflective practice, instill the values and beliefs that support ethical conduct, and cultivate professionalism and competence in fulfilling career responsibilities. Most students fol-low our typical fieldwork education plan that includes three level 1 fieldwork experiences for up to 40 hours. Level I fieldwork may be fulfilled through various instructional methods, including virtual and simulated environments, interactions with standardized patients, faculty practice, fac-ulty-led site visits, and supervision by a fieldwork educator within a practice setting. Additional-ly, students are participating in coursework during level 1 clinical rotations that reinforce each student’s fieldwork education, which helps them to immediately apply this knowledge to clinical experience, and allows the lead faculty to integrate student learning experiences into synchronous class time to enrich discussion and case-based learning. There are two 12-week fieldwork experi-ences, both of which occur in the final year of the program. Because many of our students are participating in similar settings for each clinical experience, we are able to tightly integrate di-dactic and fieldwork education into a structured and sequenced curricular plan. For the final clin-ical rotations, students are placed at clinical sites with experienced fieldwork educators/clinical faculty to improve the quality of the learning experience. These experienced clinicians exemplify professional growth and set the stage for our students to become competent entry-level generalist occupational therapists. Our model allows us to “bring the classroom into the clinic and the clinic into the classroom.”

Occupational therapy is a hands-on profession that requires extensive training and practice to develop critical patient management skills. Psychomotor skills for the patient examination, intervention, and effective human interaction are taught and practiced during these onsite lab immersion sessions. In total, students spend approximately 50 days or 400 hours in dedicated laboratory instruction with program faculty and practicing clinicians. Each onsite lab immersion session is scheduled at a strategic time in the academic quarter to facilitate learning and skill development. Lab sessions are conducted on or near the respective campus of enrollment.

Travel to the respective campus you are enrolled in is required for orientation prior to initiating the program, onsite lab immersions during the first five academic quarters, and for a final program debriefing and graduation following completion of the program.

Considering that the delivery of the curriculum of the program occurs through a blended-learning format, we recognize that some students may desire to maintain some level of employment while enrolled. However, our students are full-time students in every sense of the term with course loads ranging from 14 to 18 credits per academic quarter. The academic demands of this accelerated curriculum and the travel requirements for onsite lab immersions and fieldwork education will make employment virtually impossible for many students. In fact, working more than a few hours per week is projected to negatively affect your academic performance and is strongly discouraged.

As part of the didactic program of study, students engage in research in preparation for their capstone project. Many of our academic and fieldwork faculty participate in research/scholarly activities. Our program provides the opportunity for interested students to participate in research conducted by academic or fieldwork faculty.