Application Procedure

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.

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.

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.

• 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.

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.

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.

Casper is an online, open-response situational judgment test (SJT). It asks what you would do in a tough situation, and more importantly, why. This helps determine behavioral tendencies of applicants pursuing people-centered professions.

2025 Admission Casper Test Dates

• July 21, 2024, 4pm
• August 8, 2024, 8pm
• August 29, 2024, 8pm
• September 12, 2024, 8pm
• October 3, 2024, 8pm
• October 10, 2024, 8pm
• October 16, 2024, 8pm
• November 7, 2024, 8pm
• December 5, 2024, 8pm