MScOT Application Information

Application materials, instructions, and full details about admission requirements for the MScOT program can be obtained online from the Ontario Universities Application Centre, Rehabilitation Sciences Professional Program Application Service (ORPAS). Please review the ORPAS Instruction Booklet online before applying.

The online application for the Entry 2023 cycle is now closed.

General Program Information

• We offer a Master of Science in Occupational Therapy (MScOT) degree
• 24-months of full-time study (e.g. September 2023 to August 2025)
• In-person curricular scheduling from 8am-6pm on Monday-Friday
• There are approximately 1000 applicants per year
• Program offered on two campuses: University of Toronto St. George campus (downtown Toronto) and the University of Toronto Mississauga campus (City of Mississauga), with synchronous learning across both campuses
• We admit approximately 90 students to the St. George (Toronto) campus, and 40 students to the Mississauga campus

The program of study in Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy at the University of Toronto is a Master of Science in Occupational Therapy (MScOT). The vision of the MScOT curricula is to create leaders in occupational therapy.

We are dedicated to creating graduates who are innovative professionals, lifelong learners and educators, essential contributors to health through occupation, and confident and competent scientist‑practitioners who demonstrate skills in, and commitment to, research.

The MScOT will prepare you in advanced academic and professional knowledge as well as research skills for leadership in occupational therapy practice. Our emphasis is on applying theory and research evidence to clinical practice through rigorous studies in occupational therapy and research production and utilization.

As a graduate of the program, you will be eligible to write the certification examination of the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists, a requirement for registration with the College of Occupational Therapists of Ontario and other professional regulatory colleges in Canada.

You may also be eligible to practice occupational therapy elsewhere by passing the licensing requirements specific to that state or country.

Information Session

The Department of Physical Therapy and the Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy hold joint information sessions. The Occupational Therapy portion of the presentation and question & answer period will be held exclusively online via Zoom. The Physical Therapy portion of this session will be held on online via Zoom but may also have an in-person attendance option.  Prospective applicants have an opportunity to learn about the professions from faculty members and ask admission questions directly to staff.

The 2022 Information Session can be viewed here.  Check back in Fall 2023 to register for the next live information session.

University Fair Visits

Check here for any upcoming scheduled events.

Community of Support for prospective OT students

Improving representation in occupational therapy

This program offers support for undergraduates or graduate students interested in pursuing a career in occupational therapy and who identify as Black and/or Indigenous and/or 2SLGBTQ+ and/or other historically marginalized groups.

Mentorship is provided through OTEA, (Occupational Therapists for Equity Advancement). OTEA is a group of occupational therapy practitioners, faculty and students who identify as Black/Indigenous, 2SLGBTQ+, other historically marginalized groups and/or their allies.

OTEA members can support interested undergraduate or graduate students in their journey to becoming an occupational therapist in a variety of ways.  Support includes assistance with:

• reviewing application packages (e.g., curriculum vitae, personal statements);
• linking applicants with other occupational therapists whose practice areas may match the student’s interests and provide exposure to the profession of occupational therapy
• informing and facilitating connections for students with any available occupational science/therapy research opportunities;
• introduce students to relevant faculty and occupational therapy students.
• helping to connect students with volunteer opportunities in health related fields

To sign up to be matched with an OTEA mentor, please visit Mentorcity

If you already have an OT degree

This program trains entry level occupational therapists. If you are already a practicing Occupational Therapist, this program is not appropriate for you as it is not intended as “top-up” training to your existing OT degree. Current practicing Occupational Therapists may consider the masters and doctoral stream programs in the Rehabilitation Sciences Institute. If you are seeking to transfer your non-Canadian Occupational Therapy credentials/education to Canadian practice, please contact the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists, as the CAOT has an advisory service available for internationally educated Occupational Therapists.

Academic and Non-Academic Requirements

Academic Requirements

• Undergraduate degree
• Minimum of a mid-B in the final year of undergraduate degree studies
• English Language Proficiency Requirement (if applicable)

Non-Academic Requirements

To Apply:

• Canadian citizenship or permanent residency status in Canada
• Resumé
• Academic reference letter and confidential assessment form
• Professional reference letter and confidential assessment form
• 2 Written Personal Submission Responses
• Casper test (starting in the 2024 Admissions cycle)

Before starting the program:

• Health Requirements (e.g. Immunizations)
• Vulnerable Sector Screening Check

Educational Background and Life Experience

We are interested in students from a variety of educational backgrounds and life experiences. We are committed to equity and welcome diversity.

You need to be intelligent and committed, and must strive for excellence, as the program is intensive. We determine admission to the program through an evaluation of academic and non‑academic materials, with academic grades more heavily weighted.

Minimum Academic Requirements

You must have completed an appropriate bachelor’s degree, or its equivalent, from a recognized university, with a minimum mid‑B average in the final year (i.e., 5 full-course equivalents [FCEs]) before being permitted to register in the MScOT program, if offered admission.

Note: The mid‑B average is a minimum requirement; a higher GPA, based on the last 10 FCEs completed (ORPAS refers to this as your “sub-GPA”), will be required to be competitive in the admission process. The average entering GPA of successful applicants, based on the last 10 FCEs completed, is expected to range from 3.70 to 3.80 on the 4.0 ORPAS scale, as calculated by ORPAS.

If you are currently enrolled in the final year of a bachelor’s degree program, you are also eligible to apply. You must provide proof of your completed undergraduate bachelor’s degree (i.e., degree conferral) by June 30, 2023. To determine initial ranking only, we will review the last 10 FCEs completed at the university undergraduate level. This includes summer session and part‑time courses taken beyond completion of your 4‑year undergraduate degree.

If you are currently enrolled in the fourth year of a bachelor’s degree program, this calculation will start with your final fall grades (completed by December 31, 2022). Where grades must be extracted from an academic year to achieve the equivalent of 10 full courses, ORPAS will use the average of that year (e.g., your fall and winter terms, which comprise the entire second academic year), in accordance with ORPAS sub-GPA calculation guidelines.

You must complete at least 10 FCEs (or 20 half-course equivalents) at a recognized university for your application to be considered. Transfer credits from the provincial college level that have not been assigned a grade by the university issuing the degree will not count toward this total.

Grade Point Average (GPA) Calculation

We will not normally include the following courses in the GPA calculation:

• graduate-level courses,
• community and provincial college courses (even if transfer credit is granted),
• naturopathic and chiropractic medicine courses,
• internships and placements,
• activity courses (may include sports performance, music performance and fine arts studio performance),
• language translation courses,
• non-convertible grades (including “Pass”) and
• teacher education degree courses.

Other exclusions are listed on the ORPAS GPA Calculations web page, which may be updated during the application cycle.

If you repeated a course, and both the original and repeated course are within the last 20 half courses, then ORPAS will include the grades from both courses in your GPA calculation.

ORPAS uses the Undergraduate Grade Conversion Table to calculate your GPA. Review this table for details on the conversion scale used in this process.

If you are still unclear about GPA calculations, please visit the ORPAS website for a detailed explanation. Our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section also has more information on GPA calculation. Beginning in February, you will have access to your ORPAS GPA and sub-GPA calculations in the “Document Tracking” section of your application. You are responsible for reporting any potential errors or required changes to your academic record to ORPAS as soon as your subGPA is displayed and calculated by early-February (See ORPAS website).

Information on transcript submission can be found on the ORPAS Transcript Requirements website.

Any questions or concerns regarding your GPA should be communicated to ORPAS via the Secure Applicant Messaging Tool (SAM) within your application.

It is an applicant’s responsibility to ensure ORPAS has up-to-date personal and academic information at all times.

*Please note: Aside from the degree requirements outlined above, there are no specific prerequisite courses nor interviews required to apply to the program.

Non-Academic Submissions

In addition to the academic application materials and the required transcript(s), applicants are required to submit a personal statement of intent, which is a written submission online that responds to specific questions, a résumé uploaded directly to ORPAS, and two references using the “Confidential Assessment Forms” with their application to ORPAS. These additional application materials provide a more comprehensive impression of the applicant and what they would bring to this program and to the profession. It is expected that applicants have researched the profession of occupational therapy in order to make an informed career choice. Exposure to the profession of occupational therapy through paid or volunteer work, observational visits or job shadowing in various health care settings is strongly recommended.

Statement of Intent (Personal Submission Online)

You must respond (provide long-form answers) to specific questions in the Personal Submissions section of your ORPAS application.

Responses to these questions are intended to draw upon your knowledge and general understanding of the profession of occupational therapy.

While you should attribute factual information to the appropriate reference or source (e.g., citation), we are mostly interested in your individual perspective rather than a lengthy literature/research review.

Notes:

• As a matter of confidentiality, do not include real patient or client names in your responses when writing about your experiences (if applicable).
• We will not provide editing or advisory support as we are interested in your unique perspective based on your education and experience with occupational therapy.

Resume or Curriculum Vitae

• The resumé should be single‑spaced and typed in 11‑point font on 8.5″ x 11″ paper, with 1‑inch margins on all 4 edges, and must be no longer than 2 pages.
  • We do not recommend formatting outside of these parameters; we will not consider additional pages.
• Do not include:
  • a cover page; this is not necessary and will not be considered if included.
  • personal contact information (e.g., address, email), as we expect you will use all the available space to outline your experience, education and, if applicable, awards, presentations, publications, interests and skills.
  • a personal photo or confidential health information.
• Upload all resumés in an appropriate electronic file format to your ORPAS application.

References on Confidential Assessment Forms

You must submit 2 references using the Confidential Assessment Forms (electronic or paper-based) included in your ORPAS application.

If your referee is completing their Confidential Assessment Form online, request that they use their employer-based or institutional-based email address. We strongly prefer a verifiable email address related to a place of employment or association (e.g., ot.reception@utoronto.ca), rather than a free or ad-based email address.

Your referees should be individuals who can address your aptitude for studies in a health care profession.

We recommend that 1 of the 2 submissions come from a referee in academia who has evaluated your academic performance.

The second letter may also be from an academic source, though we recommend that it come from a professional source who can honestly comment on your ability to succeed in challenging environments.

Some examples of professional references include:

• volunteer supervisors,
• research supervisors,
• managers from your current volunteer or paid work role,
• occupational therapy mentors (via job shadowing),
• community leaders and
• experienced health care professionals.

Ensure your referees are familiar enough with you and your past work to comment on all the available rating categories. Their roles do not have to be related to health care or occupational therapy.

References from co-workers who do not directly supervise your work are discouraged, and references from family or friends are considered ineligible.

Your referees must submit the Confidential Assessment Form and accompanying reference letter directly to ORPAS.

We also recommend that you ask your referees to do the following:

• If they are using the online referee system, use their employer-based email address. We strongly prefer seeing verifiable institutional email addresses (e.g. sample.person@utoronto.ca) related to their place of employment rather than a free email address (e.g. @gmail, @yahoo, @hotmail)
• Letterhead for mailed letters: If your referee requests a paper hard-copy Confidential Assessment form to fill out, ask that they identify themselves with any additional comments on official institutional letterhead or stationery containing the contact information and logo of the company or institution they are representing

NOTE: While the above characteristics are not required, having a verifiable and credible set of referees is an asset to your application. Please speak to your referees in advance so they are sufficiently prepared for the online or paper-based Confidential Assessment form reference process.

Campuses

The MScOT is offered at 2 locations:

• the University of Toronto Mississauga campus in the City of Mississauga and
• the University of Toronto St. George campus in the City of Toronto.

We admit 90 students to our St. George (downtown Toronto) campus and 40 students to our Mississauga campus for September.

Lectures may be video conferenced between the St. George and Mississauga campuses. All students will have labs, mentorship and study groups at their campus site.

Campus Assignment

If offered admission to the University of Toronto’s MScOT program, you will be assigned to either the Mississauga campus or the St. George campus. We will automatically consider all University of Toronto MScOT program ORPAS applicants for both campuses.

All applicants will receive an online survey where they can indicate their campus preference. There will be 3 options presented:

• Mississauga,
• St. George (Toronto) or
• no specific campus preference.

For the current application period, we will send the online survey in early spring. If you applied for the program through ORPAS by the closing date (January 6) you will receive a link to the survey. We will note the final deadline in the survey notification email. If you are admitted to the program, campus preferences will be considered but they are not guaranteed.

Offers of admission are posted to your ORPAS application, where it will simply show whether you have a University of Toronto MScOT program offer. Your ORPAS application will not display your campus assignment. Instead, an email from the Department will state your campus assignment as either UTSG (Toronto St. George campus) or UTM (Mississauga campus).

Please review our Frequently Asked Questions section under the header “Campus Assignment” for further information about this.

Health Requirements

Although not required for this admission application, you will be required to complete the Rehabilitation Sciences Health Form after acceptance and prior to registration. These requirements must be met before you can participate in fieldwork placements, and are subject to change depending on federal, provincial or public health guidance.

Completing this form requires proof of a tuberculin test in each year of the program and up‑to‑date records of vaccinations for:

• chicken pox,
• diphtheria/tetanus,
• Hepatitis B,
• measles,
• mumps,
• polio and
• rubella.

A Canadian government-approved 2-dose vaccination for COVID-19 is also required – this may change (increase).

An additional booster vaccination based on updated public health guidance may be required while in the MScOT program. The Director of Clinical Education will provide registered students with updates to this matter as the pandemic situation evolves in the coming months.

Annual influenza vaccination is strongly recommended, as it may be required by some placement sites, including hospitals.

You must also provide up-to-date records of:

• certification in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) at the Health Care Provider (HCP) or Basic Life Support (BLS) level, and
• completion of a certified Emergency or Standard First Aid course (subject to change).

You are expected to provide information about any physical, psychological or learning difficulties that may affect your education in the program.

Police Record Checks

Many facilities also require a Police Record Check. We strongly recommend that admitted students obtain a Police Record Check or Vulnerable Sector Screening. We will provide admitted students with information on how best to obtain these verifications prior to orientation in September.

A fieldwork placement can be cancelled or delayed if you fail to obtain a clear satisfactory Police Record Check or Vulnerable Sector Screening. This may affect your graduation date.

Contact the Department’s Director of Clinical Education or Program Manager before applying if you have concerns.

Notices for All Applicants

Application to the program implies that the applicant accepts the admissions policies, procedures and methods by which applicants are selected. Applications are thoroughly reviewed as selection is limited. Registration in the program implies that the student accepts the objectives of the program, the methods by which progress to meet those objectives are evaluated, and the University of Toronto Code of Student Conduct.

Admissions policies and procedures are under constant review. Although the Department endeavours to inform prospective applicants in a timely fashion, it reserves the right to change the admission and registration requirements at any time.

Applicants from a Foreign Educational Institution (non-Canada)

We will only register admitted students in the MScOT program who are Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada; however, admitted students without one of these two statuses will be permitted to register if they fall under the international fee exemption list posted on the University’s Student Accounts website. Applicants whose education was completed outside Canada are advised to make every attempt possible to obtain official academic records, including a copy of the diploma if they have already graduated. To be considered official, academic records must be received by ORPAS directly from the originating institutions, including English language translations. Applicants should note that official documents will be required before any firm offer of admission can be made. Official English translations, done by a certified translator (either within Ontario or a translator approved by a Canadian Visa Post abroad), must also be submitted for all non-English documentation. Copies of original documents and certified translations must be submitted at the time of application to ORPAS.

English-language Proficiency Requirements

It is essential that you have a strong command of English.

If English is not your first language and you have not completed a program of study where the language of instruction and examination was English, you must complete an acceptable English-language proficiency test before an offer can be made. This is a condition of admission and must be met before the earliest date for offers of admission to this program.

This requirement must be satisfied by successfully completing an English proficiency test acceptable to the University of Toronto’s School of Graduate Studies, with minimum acceptable scores as listed therein (with the exception of the TOEFL).

We strongly recommend that you use the TOEFL with a minimum paper‑based score of 600, accompanied by the Test for Written English (TWE) with a minimum score of 5 or a minimum score of 100 on the internet‑based test.

TOEFL candidates should request that results be sent to institution code 0982. Arrange to have the English-language proficiency test scores forwarded by the examining agency directly to the University of Toronto – Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy by March 1, 2023.

We require satisfactory English-language proficiency test results before any firm offer of admission can be made. We may require an interview at the request of the Department’s Admissions Committee.

If you graduated from a university in a country where the primary language is not English but the medium of instruction and examination at your university was English, arrange for a letter to be sent directly to ORPAS from that institution confirming that the language of instruction and examination at that institution was English.

If you are currently enrolled in, or graduating from, a bilingual French-English or francophone university based in Canada, and are confident in your ability to complete the MScOT program entirely in English, you may email the Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy to request a written waiver of this testing requirement prior to the ORPAS application deadline.

Tuition and Funding

For the most comprehensive information about fees, invoices, payments, budgeting, refunds and service charges, etc., students should visit the Enrolment Services website. Tuition schedules for the MScOT program are listed under the Faculty of Medicine.

Although the deadlines are fairly similar from year-to-year, for specific deadline dates (e.g. for payment of fees or fee deferral, final registration, first assessment of interest charges, etc.) and other related information such as refund schedules, students should refer to the current School of Graduate Studies online information for Current Students.

There are a limited number of small entrance scholarships in the estimated amount of $1,000 that do not require an application (i.e. all successful applicants are automatically considered). Please note, the Ontario Graduate Scholarship (“OGS”) is NOT available for incoming MScOT students (i.e. current applicants to the MScOT program). If accepted to, and registered in, the MScOT program in September, students in Year 1 of the OT program can then apply for the Ontario Graduate Scholarship to be applied toward Year 2 of the program. Applications for an OGS from non-registered MScOT students/applicants will not be considered.

Approximate Annual Academic Fees + Incidental Fees (subject to change)

Charges for an academic program; may be assessed by course or by program.

Approximate Domestic Academic, Incidental and Ancillary Fees in 2022:

$12,481 (St. George campus) and $12,970 (Mississauga campus)

For students assigned to the Mississauga campus, fees include the “U-Pass” / MiWay transit pass, hence the slightly higher fees. MScOT students do not pay fees per individual course, but rather a program fee which covers an entire year (three terms per academic year). Fees are subject to change in 2023 and beyond. Incidental fees consist of campus and student society fees, charges for campus organizations and services.

Students must be Canadian citizens or have Canadian Permanent Resident status in order to be eligible to register in the MScOT program.

Please visit the FAQ section for answers to Frequently Asked Questions about the program and admissions.