General Admissions & OTCAS OTCAS GPA

[anthonyrizzo]

Hey everyone,

So I'm currently planning on applying to OT school this year once application periods open. This will be my second year applying, as I had no luck last year, unfortunately. There are a variety of reasons why I believe that I didn't get in, but one of the reasons is definitely my GPA. My undergrad GPA was just a tick below 3.1, but when OTCAS calculates it, it's about 2.95 because of a couple of C's and a D that I retook for higher grades. So my question is, am I just out of luck for most programs that use OTCAS? I find it odd that they average the two grades together when my university replaces the lower grade with the new grade. To combat the low OTCAS GPA I'm retaking a couple of prereqs to boost my prereq gpa to about a 3.4-3.5. Anybody have any ideas or advice for dealing with this? Thanks in advance!

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[proapplicant]

mine was lower too- annoying. isn't it overall gpa has to be 3.0? can the classes you're retaking bump it up? if not scratch the programs that require the 3.0 minimum. there are still a few on otcas that require a 2.7 so look at those.

 

[anthonyrizzo]

Yeah it is overall 3.0, that 2.95ish GPA is with the assumption that I get a bump from these retake classes. Currently I am looking for programs that have a 2.7 minimum and schools that don't use OTCAS (there aren't many and they're tough to find) because my GPA meets the requirement without OTCAS.

 

[PlayWithClay]

Were any of the classes you had to retake science classes? During the graduate information session for Sacred Heart University's MSOT program one of the candidates asked if retaking a class reflected badly on them as a candidate. The person from SHU asked them if it was a science class, because "if you struggled with science in undergrad, you are really going to struggle with it in grad school and that's a concern." Regardless, make sure your personal statement is compelling -- you want to stand out. Make them want to know more about you, regardless of your stats. Good luck!

 

[rbravely]

How do you put your transcripts into OTCAS?

 

[WiscoWannabeOT]

How do you put your transcripts into OTCAS?

The OTCAS instructions and FAQ pages can probably fully answer this. Did you try that yet?

 

[nOTeworthy]

How do you put your transcripts into OTCAS?

The school providing the transcript needs to mail it directly to OTCAS. There's an address and instructions available on the site.

 

[leemer]

I'm having trouble figuring out where to find my OTCAS GPA. All of my coursework was verified back in December and I received the email that my GPA would be made available back then. FAQ says to select the GPA option to the right of the screen, but I don't see anything like that. Could this be a glitch in the system or am I missing something?

 

[EsBeeOT]

I'm having trouble figuring out where to find my OTCAS GPA. All of my coursework was verified back in December and I received the email that my GPA would be made available back then. FAQ says to select the GPA option to the right of the screen, but I don't see anything like that. Could this be a glitch in the system or am I missing something?

Go to your application status then download the PDF of any program you applied to. It'll be on the last page of your academic history.

 

[Babybluentexas]

OTCAS seems to really hurt people who didn’t have stellar records all the way through school. It’s unfortunate.