General Admissions & OTCAS OTCAS confusion

[KateRhae]

I started an OTCAS last summer after getting my first letter of rec from an OT. I didn't pay for it, I was just keeping it in order to keep track of the work I've been doing over the last year. I tried to sign in after this cycle and my account was apparently deleted. I

Is there anyway to get it back?

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[katahdin]

Unfortunately no. You'll have to have it sent in again. Two years ago when I first tried to submit applications I had all 3 of my LORs in, all 4 transcripts, everything, I even submitted it but they said the payment didn't go through on their end. I emailed them bank statements showing that it had been taken out of my account and I still lost everything. I called twice to make sure. If they don't have a payment they don't keep anything. They also lose track of documents regularly. Make sure you call and check on everything if it hasn't shown up as received within a month of when it was supposed to arrive (send everything in super early). One of my references had to submit her letter 3 times before they said it was recieved. Another had to do it twice and said that the OTCAS representatives were incredibly condescending and rude to her. It's already a big favor to ask as they don't just send in their letter but also fill out OTCAS' form, but if your reference gets verbally abused when they call for help with a disorganized complicated system, I almost felt like it was too much to ask for someone to subject themselves to that.

I'm sorry, OTCAS frustrations drove me to tears several times. I think getting through that process alone is a testament to how strong your desire to be an OT is.

 

[KateRhae]

Thank you for all the info! It is really disappointing how something that is supposed to make our lives easier ends up being so unorganized and frustrating. Not applying for another year so hopefully my reference doesn't mind sending it in so far in the future lol.

 

[c2902]

I believe that regardless, they don't keep your information from cycle to cycle, even if you paid to have the application sent. So if you applied one year and didn't get in anywhere, you'd have to redo EVERYTHING the next year (thankfully, I did not have to do this, but have seen lots of people on here say that's what happened to them). And yeah, OTCAS is kind of a pain; when they verified my application, they actually messed up a bunch of my information that I had in fact entered correctly (they recategorized a bunch of my coursework incorrectly - 100% their error, not mine), so I had to call them and have them fix everything.

 

[futureOTsj]

I believe that regardless, they don't keep your information from cycle to cycle, even if you paid to have the application sent. So if you applied one year and didn't get in anywhere, you'd have to redo EVERYTHING the next year (thankfully, I did not have to do this, but have seen lots of people on here say that's what happened to them). And yeah, OTCAS is kind of a pain; when they verified my application, they actually messed up a bunch of my information that I had in fact entered correctly (they recategorized a bunch of my coursework incorrectly - 100% their error, not mine), so I had to call them and have them fix everything.

Did you get into a program through OTCAS? I'm currently applying through OTCAS and I'm still waiting on LOR. I plan on submitting late August/ early September. Do you think this is too late? And how early did you apply and how did you know they messed up on your app. Sorry for all the questions..

 

[katahdin]

If you do submit your application successfully and payment goes through, and they don't have a "technical" error or find a way to blame you, they will keep your transcripts, essay, all the courses you manually typed in (rough), and pretty much everything but your LORs. I luckily won't have to go through the process again, but I checked anyway and they did have all that info from last cycle of applications where they were successfully submitted.

 

[c2902]

Did you get into a program through OTCAS? I'm currently applying through OTCAS and I'm still waiting on LOR. I plan on submitting late August/ early September. Do you think this is too late? And how early did you apply and how did you know they messed up on your app. Sorry for all the questions..

Yes, I did get into a program via OTCAS. I submitted late; I'm a career-changer, did all of my prereqs and everything in the span of a year and a half, and didn't want to wait until the following fall, so I wanted to get as much of my prereq coursework on there as I could to better my chances, since I was taking the rest of my courses that fall semester. It took them the full 31 days to "verify" my application. When I received notice that my application was verified, I went to review it and noticed they had changed some of the information. I called them and was on the phone with them for a long time, but since it was their inexplicable error, they were at least nice about it. August/September isn't too late, I don't believe. LORs take as long as it takes for the person writing them to submit them, so I would give the people you asked a "deadline" of sorts, well before you plan to submit, so that it gets in on time, as they will not start the verification process until every single document has been received (transcripts, etc).