Occupational Therapy?

Megan.mcgowan

I have OT in galway as my number one choice and would absolutely LOVE to do the course. Such a perfect mix of biology and working with people. The one thing that concerns me is its like 500 points Does anyone know of any 'backdoor' entry or any other courses I could do to get in? I dont want to go to England or abroad for it. And by doing general science it would take around 8 years to get qualified. Any help would be great!

croiadhfitz

You can get into the postgrad in O.T in U.L after doing the Social Science course in Ucc as far as I know

Salty

croiadhfitz wrote: »

You can get into the postgrad in O.T in U.L after doing the Social Science course in Ucc as far as I know

Yup this is true! I know of someone doing it. I'm kinda in the same boat with speech & language therapy. Trying to find backdoors into it!

croiadhfitz

_meehan_ wrote: »

Yup this is true! I know of someone doing it. I'm kinda in the same boat with speech & language therapy. Trying to find backdoors into it!

Can you not do speech and language through social science too? I heard you can!

Dr.Reid

I'm going into 4th year OT in Trinity atm. You do modules in anatomy, physiology, medical conditions, psychology, social policy etc meaning there are loads of undergrad courses that can get you into OT! The masters in UL is 2 years full time so you will be looking at 6 years in college but you will have two degrees. Any science/social science/psychology/health science course would be ideal. They have all the info on the UL website.

There is an Occupational Therapy Assistant course in Portobello that could probably get you in too. I don't know too much about it but it could be worth looking into.

Good Luck!!

Salty

croiadhfitz wrote: »

Can you not do speech and language through social science too? I heard you can!

I was thinking of putting it down alright! I think I could do it through arts too though. I'm sure the career guidance counsellor in school said I could, so I must clarify that now!:) I reckon an undergrad degree in English and Psychology would be a good enough foundation for it:)

mysay123

Any discipline now is accepted in the post grad courses for anything ie primary teaching, sp and lang and OT. The point of that is to get a diverse range of people onto the courses who have different backgrounds and hence a different perspective etc etc... also work experience is considered too

Salty

mysay123 wrote: »

Any discipline now is accepted in the post grad courses for anything ie primary teaching, sp and lang and OT. The point of that is to get a diverse range of people onto the courses who have different backgrounds and hence a different perspective etc etc... also work experience is considered too

Do you think it would be possible to get work experience with a sp&lang therapist? I have personal experience already due to my brother being autisic, and I did a social placement in COPE Foundation. Is this the kind of thing that's relevant?

Piriz

_meehan_ wrote: »

Do you think it would be possible to get work experience with a sp&lang therapist? I have personal experience already due to my brother being autisic, and I did a social placement in COPE Foundation. Is this the kind of thing that's relevant?

hello there,

you can get into the MSc OT & SLT conversion courses in UL with a variety of primary degrees (not just science) however, these are highly sought after courses and are difficult to obtain a place on..the experience you mention above is excellent and developing on this as much as you can before you apply would be great..but it will not set you apart..everyone who gets onto these courses has proved through their application and interview they have the relevant knowledge, experience and capability combined with the aptitude and personality. This is just to let you know its not an easy 'backdoor' to get through...but good luck with it!

MissIndo

Hey,

I'm currently studying sociology & social policy in Trinity & I'm hoping to do a post grad in OT too. Here's the relevant link about requirements for a post grad in OT in UL http://www2.ul.ie/web/WWW/Faculties/Education_%26_Health_Sciences/Departments/Occupational_Therapy/Programmes/MSc_in_Occupational_Therapy_%28Professional_Qualification%29/Entrance_Requirements

But I have been told to look into the UK unis as well- haven't researched it yet so cannot tell you which unis to look at. Best of luck with your results - the points went up for me so I didn't get OT but I love my course & we had 3rd year OT students in one of my social policy lectures in 1st year so I feel like some of what I have learnt is relevant to the post grad.

In terms of work experience join the college societies such a SVP, SUAS etc. In 1st year I volunteered with the homework (through SVP) & latter found out that that can coutn towards your experience for a post grad in OT. I also volunteered with NIID this year with their tutor programme, which is definitely more OT related than the homework club.

Best of luck with the results!!

Feu

hey sounds like you've done a good bit of research Missindo, and OT is a great course/career to pursue

but maybe just to bear in mind what Piriz said about Limerick being difficult to get into - even with a social science and a lot of volunteer work it's not a given, these courses are very oversubscribed, now more than ever, with a lot of people returning to education and retraining. I've mentioned it before, but many of those accepted to the UL course seemed to have worked as an OT assistant, and those jobs are like hens teeth!

I'm not sure when you finish your current course but, limerick will want you to have shadowed at several OT departments, so that's something you could be working on in the meantime. The NIID is a great programme to be a part of, and would definitely be looked on favourably for your application.

as for the social policy aspect we covered in as part of your course, well, lets just say it could have been more helpful. Perhaps you could pursue health policy aspects that would be related to access to healthcare etc? or mental health legislation. This would really be beneficial to you for OT

hope that helps, pm me if you need

Piriz

Feu wrote: »

hey sounds like you've done a good bit of research Missindo, and OT is a great course/career to pursue

but maybe just to bear in mind what Piriz said about Limerick being difficult to get into - even with a social science and a lot of volunteer work it's not a given, these courses are very oversubscribed, now more than ever, with a lot of people returning to education and retraining. I've mentioned it before, but many of those accepted to the UL course seemed to have worked as an OT assistant, and those jobs are like hens teeth!

I'm not sure when you finish your current course but, limerick will want you to have shadowed at several OT departments, so that's something you could be working on in the meantime. The NIID is a great programme to be a part of, and would definitely be looked on favourably for your application.

as for the social policy aspect we covered in as part of your course, well, lets just say it could have been more helpful. Perhaps you could pursue health policy aspects that would be related to access to healthcare etc? or mental health legislation. This would really be beneficial to you for OT

hope that helps, pm me if you need

this is not the case... proving that you have an understanding of OT and the aptitude is whats important.. volunteering, etc... is a good start

Feu

Piriz wrote: »

this is not the case... proving that you have an understanding of OT and the aptitude is whats important.. volunteering, etc... is a good start

thanks Piriz, apologies if this is inaccurate, but it's what i was told by the course administrator, and 3 students in the course. I'd b delighted to hear this is no longer the case, as i don't think it's necessarily the best indicator of suitability for OT.

MissIndo

Feu wrote: »

hey sounds like you've done a good bit of research Missindo, and OT is a great course/career to pursue

but maybe just to bear in mind what Piriz said about Limerick being difficult to get into - even with a social science and a lot of volunteer work it's not a given, these courses are very oversubscribed, now more than ever, with a lot of people returning to education and retraining. I've mentioned it before, but many of those accepted to the UL course seemed to have worked as an OT assistant, and those jobs are like hens teeth!

I'm not sure when you finish your current course but, limerick will want you to have shadowed at several OT departments, so that's something you could be working on in the meantime. The NIID is a great programme to be a part of, and would definitely be looked on favourably for your application.

as for the social policy aspect we covered in as part of your course, well, lets just say it could have been more helpful. Perhaps you could pursue health policy aspects that would be related to access to healthcare etc? or mental health legislation. This would really be beneficial to you for OT

hope that helps, pm me if you need

Hey thanks for all the advice! I'm heading into my 3rd year of college, which I luckily will be studying in Malta as part of Erasmus, so I may have to put the OT work experience on hold for the year as I don't know Maltese.

I have heard it is tough to get into UL which is why I have been considering looking at UK unis. I might get more job opportunities there also.

I had social policy modules on health policy, social security, crime in Irish society and 1 on housing and homelessness this year, so hopefuly some of them are relevant to OT, especially the health and homeless modules.