2024 Best Colleges for Occupational Therapy

SUMMARY

Studying Occupational Therapy is a valuable choice and typically a critical first step for students choosing to pursue a career as an occupational therapist, a professional sports therapist, or a wall street therapist. In fact, occupational therapy is an uncommon major ranking as the 240th most popular area of study. Last academic year, there were 788 occupational therapy diplomas received. In-state tuition for occupational therapy at private schools is, on average, 3.2 times more spendy than their public rivals.

With only 41 universities having programs for this degree there might be limited options as to the institutions you can choose from. If you're looking to immerse yourself with other occupational therapy majors, consider colleges in New York which have the most undergrads admitted to occupational therapy annually. Zooming out, the top region to pursue occupational therapy is in the Mid East region with Ithaca College, Long Island University, and University at Buffalo best representing the region. Interestingly, our pick of the top conference to study occupational therapy is the Mid-American Conference with Eastern Michigan University, Western Michigan University, and University at Buffalo representing the conference. Based on our comprehensive list on the best colleges, our choice for the best college for occupational therapy is University of Southern California.

The best school might not actually be the best school for every student. There can be tons more facets to consider when choosing school. Things such as campus amenities, transportation services, and food might definitely affect one's feelings of where to go to school. At authority.org, we evaluated the pros and cons for you. If, for example, you are intrigued by which occupational therapy college has the best campus, the answer is University of Southern California. If you are primarily interested in which college is home to the best campus, then we have an entire list dedicated to that. We have carefully pored through government databases, professor reviews, student reviews, and more to evaluate each major in an unbiased and informative way. You can find our comprehensive list for the colleges with the best student life&nbsphere and, from that list, our pick of the college with the best student life for occupational therapy is University of Southern California. Are you curious why? Continue reading to discover more about Authority's top selections. Some of our decisions will probably shock you.

If price is a significant deciding factor in your decision on where to go to school, you might consider avoiding University of Southern California. University of Southern California&nbspis the most expensive college for occupational therapy, at least for out of state attendance. That being said, we have a list of the most expensive&nbspschools that could put the price tag at University of Southern California&nbspinto perspective. You could also care to know that occupational therapy is the 201st most expensive major in the nation, with an average cost of $29,800. On a broader scale, the most expensive state for occupational therapy in the country is California demonstrated with a tuition of $57,256 at University of Southern California. Even more broadly, the most expensive region for occupational therapy is unfortunately unavailable due to missing data.

Our cheapest region for occupational therapy is the Great Lakes region which is represented by Baker College with a cost of $9,720, Eastern Michigan University with a cost of $13,658, and Shawnee State University with a cost of $13,014. In better news, the most affordable school for occupational therapy is Salem State University. Authority's entire list of the most affordable schools can be explored here.

In-state learners can expect to pay in the neighborhood of $11,500 for a degree in occupational therapy. That cost inflates intensely to a median of $20,700 for the out-of-state public-school undergraduate. Our selection for the school with the best value for occupational therapy: University of Southern California. Here you can find our comprehensive list of the colleges we see as being the best value&nbspoverall. Do know, this section is predicated on the assumption that you are an out-of-state student. The value proposition changes when in-state tuition costs are considered, but as we do not know what state(s) you might qualify for in-state tuition, we are approaching this discussion through out-of-state tuition costs.

Earnings for occupational therapy majors differ widely, but two years after completing the major graduates will typically make around $61,800. While there is a lot of variation in salary; top earners can enjoy pay up to $100,800. Even right out of school, the minimum earning positions within the occupational therapy field earn $37,800, which could be worse. The top earning graduates for occupational therapy studied at University of Southern California&nbspand if you want to find the schools with all of the highest earning graduates, Authority has that too.

The general diversity of occupational therapy is near the bottom, coming in only the 10th percentile of all programs. The school with the highest composite diversity for occupational therapy is University of Southern California&nbspand here you can find our general list for the universities which have the most diversity. The overall financial diversity of the Occupational Therapy major only is in the 77th percentile compared to all other majors. Racial diversity is even lower in the 17th percentile. White undergraduates compose the largest share, 76%, of students majoring in occupational therapy. Additionally, 90% of students pursuing an occupational therapy degree are women.

The median ranking for occupational therapy professors is 3.25 stars, a rating which is 19% lower than the average score for every major; this is a subpar score. If you are curious about the most popular occupational therapy instructor in the country, consider looking up Stephen Wood at Florida Institute of Technology. It might surprise you, but the highest rated instructors of occupational therapy from student rankings are at Florida Institute of Technology. As we incorporate data other than simply rankings we find that the college with the best professors for occupational therapy is University of Southern California. One will find an explanation of our evolving ranking methodology for the best overall professors here, as well as many of the best professors in the U.S.

Finally, the hardest university to get into for occupational therapy is University of Southern California. While we think of this list more as a novelty, we have a comprehensive page for the hardest colleges to get into. That being said, we do hope you believe that considering academics through a lens mainly shaped by superlatives might cause problems. We at Authority encourage you to read our more nuanced pages on individual colleges and read some of Authority's background articles on essential details to look out for as your university search develops.