Career Development Plan

• Complete your Handshake profile. This will help you find jobs, internships, volunteer work, and other opportunities to build your resume and make you more marketable.
• Develop a resume and make an appointment with Career Services to review. Once it is completed, upload your resume into your Handshake profile. 
• Look at the career options listed on "What Can I Do With This Major?" This link will provide you some examples of what you can do with certain degrees.
• Join a student organization. This will help you become involved on campus and looks great on a resume.
• Start building and maintaining your career portfolio in Handshake and the Reflection portfolio.

Post-Study Work visa or permit, allowing international students on F-1 visas to work in the US after completing their studies, typically through Optional Practical Training (OPT).

Eligibility:
To be eligible for OPT, students must have been enrolled full-time in a US educational institution for at least one academic year and be seeking work related to their major.

Duration:
Students can apply for up to 12 months of OPT, either before they finish their studies (pre-completion) or after graduation (post-completion).

STEM OPT:
Students in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields can apply for an extended OPT period of up to 24 months.

Admission Requirements

• In order to be eligible for application to the Occupational Therapy Doctorate program, applicants must meet the following minimal requirements:
• Within 1 semester of completing a Baccalaureate degree from an accredited University or College if you do not already have a bachelor’s degree.
• Application to AState graduate school.
• All transcripts submitted to the AState graduate school.
• Program prerequisites with a minimum grade of “B” required in all Applicants must have a minimum of 20 prerequisite credit hours completed at the time of application on February 1.
• A prerequisite GPA of 3.0 or higher on a 4.0 scale.
• A cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher on a 4.0 scale of all college work attempted.
• 30 hours of documented community service. 20 hours must be in a single location.
• 3 pre-professional recommendations (must use admission packet forms).
• English proficiency requirements, if foreign born (see application p. 6).
• Applicants scoring 70 or higher on the admission application will receive automatic consideration by the admissions committee.
• Scores between 65 and 70 will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis for admission.
• Scores below 65 will not be considered for admission.
• Any incomplete application will not be considered for admission.

English Proficiency Requirements
The Department of Occupational Therapy requires a high level of proficiency in English so that all students will be able to fully meet academic and clinical objectives as well as meet criteria for professional licensure.  All *foreign-born students must take one of the following tests:

• Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) with a score of 83 on the preferred internet-based test (iBT), 570 on the paper-based test, or 213 on the computer-based test.
• International English Language Testing System (IELTS) with a score of at least 6.5 and a spoken band score of 7.
• Pearson Test of English Academic (PTE) with a score of 56.
• The TOEFL is available at the A-STATE Testing Center. When taking the exam off campus, the report code for Arkansas State University is 6011.