USC Chan Doctorate of OT Program: Innovation, Leadership, and a Holistic Path to Occupational Therapy [Episode 623]

This episode of Admissions Straight Talk covers what it takes to get accepted into the top-ranked Entry-Level Doctorate of Occupational Therapy (OTD) program at the USC Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy. Host Dr. Valerie Wherley speaks with Dr. Amber Bennett, associate professor of clinical occupational therapy at USC Chan, to break down how the occupational therapy (OT) field has shifted and what makes the school’s top-ranked curriculum stand out. This episode is especially valuable for OT school applicants seeking a competitive edge in the graduate admissions process.

Dr. Bennett highlights the division’s historic commitment to clinical innovation, its extensive experiential learning partnerships, and the vast professional power of the global USC Trojan alumni network. Listeners will discover how the unique 14-week doctoral capstone allows students to complete their final year remotely while translating cutting-edge clinical research into direct healthcare advocacy and community action.

For future applicants, Dr. Bennett delivers essential, hands-on strategies for mastering the program-specific prompts within the Occupational Therapist Centralized Application Service (OTCAS) application portal. Listeners will gain concrete insights into how to build a highly structured and reflective personal narrative, how to strategically select recommenders who can share character-driven examples, and how the USC Chan admissions committee evaluates applicants using a holistic review framework.

00:00 Introducing Dr. Amber Bennett, Associate Professor at USC Chan
00:39 The Evolution of Occupational Therapy and the Shift to the OTD Program
04:19 Why USC Chan Is the Nation’s Top-Ranked OT Program
08:39 Hands-On Learning, Fieldwork, and Student Experiences
12:15 Where Occupational Therapists Work: Traditional and Emerging Career Paths
14:44 Inside USC Chan’s 14-Week Doctoral Capstone
17:34 Application Essays: How to Answer USC Chan’s Prompts Effectively
20:05 What Makes a Competitive OTD Application?
24:13 Overcoming Imposter Syndrome and Final Advice for Applicants

Related Resources:

• Dr. Amber Bennett bio 
• USC Chan Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy
• USC Chan Entry-Level Doctorate of Occupational Therapy (OTD) degree program
• Extracurricular Activities Can Help You Get Accepted to Graduate Therapy Programs

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Transcript

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And welcome to the podcast.

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Thank you so much.

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I'm excited to here.

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Great.

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We will jump right into today's first question.

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Occupational therapy was introduced at USC as a baccalaureate program in the fall of 1942,
and you now have an entry-level doctorate of occupational therapy.

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I was hoping you could start today by hearing about the educational shift that has taken
place in the field of occupational therapy over time.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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So um occupational therapy has evolved over time and it's evolved in response to the
changing healthcare needs of society.

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So back when USC began offering OT education in 1942, and fun fact, we're the oldest OT
program in the nation.

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Um, this was a time when the profession was still relatively young.

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And focused mainly on rehabilitation for injured military service members because it was
World War II.

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Also, individuals recovering from illness, individuals with physical disabilities.

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So that was more the focus of our early profession.

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And then over the decades, the scope of OT has expanded significantly.

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So now we are working not only in hospitals and rehab settings, but we're also in schools.

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We're also in community mental health or in primary care, we're in pediatrics or in aging
services.

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We're doing things like ergonomics, assistive technology, we do lifestyle redesign, which
I'll talk about in bit, and population health.

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So there's a lot that we're doing now to increasingly emphasize prevention, to emphasize
health promotion, to collaborate interprofessionally, to be leaders, to use evidence-based

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practice and advocacy.

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Um, so all of this has grown as the complexity of healthcare practice in general has
grown.

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And so our occupational therapists need to be doing more, right?

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So that transition from a bachelor's degree to a master's degree, and now the entry-level
clinical doctorate, it's reflecting the increasing depth of knowledge that OTs need and

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the leadership skills that are needed to meet the healthcare challenges that we have
today.

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and so kind of along with that, the entry-level OTD, it prepares students to be then not
only exceptional clinicians, but also innovators and scholars and advocates and systems

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thinkers and all of these things that they need to be in order to help shape the future of
delivering healthcare.

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but at the core, our philosophy hasn't changed, right?

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The philosophy of the profession has stayed the same since 1942.

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That we've always been centered on helping people.

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participate in the activities that give their lives meaning and give their lives purpose.

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And what's just changed is the breadth of settings in which we're doing the work and the
level of preparation that's required to address these increasingly complex needs that

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individuals have and that society has.

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Mm-hmm.

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Well, that's great.

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based on how you just described it, it's no wonder that the shift in the educational
curriculum needed to keep up with the demands and the scope of practice and the the

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breadth of the work that OTs are needed for at this time.

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And we'll get into a little bit more of

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The typical and maybe unique places that OTs work in an upcoming question.

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But right now, the USC Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy was
ranked the nation's number one occupational therapy educational program according to the

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2025 Best Graduate Schools compiled by US News World Report.

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Congratulations.

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I was wondering if you could share what are three cornerstone pieces of your program that
you believe contributed to such a strong ranking on this list.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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Um, so to we have a number of strengths, but to to think of three, um, I'll start first by
talking about the longstanding commitment that we have to innovation and to leadership in

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the profession.

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So as a whole, we have historically helped shape the direction of occupational therapy,
both nationally and internationally.

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I mentioned having a lot of firsts, right?

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A first being the first program, uh a lot of

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First master's degree, first PhD.

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We established the occupational science area of rural field, actually.

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It's an academic discipline that we created in the 1980s here at USC.

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We also created aerosensory integration and lifestyle redesign, which are new approaches
to practice that are now being practiced in this case of sensory integration globally,

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right?

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So these are really expanding.

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ah And our faculty are continuing to lead and be the leaders, creating influential
research, creating practice innovation in all areas, right?

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So not just any particular area, but across the board.

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And we really emphasize preparing our students to be leaders and innovators as well.

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So that I would say is the number one thing.

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Another cornerstone is we have really an extraordinary breadth.

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And depth of experiential learning opportunities available for our students.

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We're a very large enterprise.

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Our own faculty are providing OT services at 10 different USC clinical sites.

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So our students can get involved there.

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And those sites are, in addition to the more than 800 sites where our students can do
field work across the country and internationally.

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So a lot of uh opportunity there.

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We have 15 research labs, so that's a lot.

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And so getting exposure to research if there's an interest is very, very easy for our
students.

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We also have many community-based partnerships.

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So for example, we created the USC Peace Garden, and that Peace Garden provides education
and programming to connect people in inner city Los Angeles, where we're located.

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To connect them with nature and to promote environmental sustainability.

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So it's one example of many.

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And then a third thing that is definitely outstanding is the strength of our professional
community.

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We have a very collaborative culture.

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So faculty and clinicians and alumni community partners, they are all invested in the
growth of our students as both professionals and future leaders in the field.

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So there's a really strong sense of connection, a shared purpose.

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Everybody knows everyone.

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And we have an entire team also dedicated to student support and success.

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So speaking of support, that's on the boots on the ground in our hallways, you know, doing
things to support students every day.

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So once you're here, you know, you're a member of the USC Trojan family for life.

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And we have a very diverse network of OT students and alums located all over the USA, all
over the world.

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And with at USC, it's all about Trojans helping Trojans, Trojans hiring Trojans.

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And so that network stays active throughout your entire career and is a massive source of
career advancement for our.

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Graduates, their students.

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Mm-hmm.

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That that's great.

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I just talked to a different program director of a PT program in the Midwest who also
highlighted their alumni network as one of their strengths of their program, talking about

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their alumni become preceptors, their alumni become managers of new graduates, and their
alumni are international.

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So they're global health providers who

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you know, supervise global health internships and that that networking just becomes richer
and richer and richer year after year.

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And it was something that I really hadn't considered until he brought up that point.

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And and it's I like to hear that you're bringing up that point as well.

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Yes, absolutely.

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It's it's really important.

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Absolutely.

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so next question.

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We talk often on this podcast about students wanting less didactic learning sitting in the
classroom and more opportunities for applied hands-on learning, which is something you

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just touched on.

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I certainly see that your program has embraced that philosophy, but I'm hoping that you
can dive into that point a little bit deeper and talk about that here.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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so those students, you know, you touched on this, they want to understand how knowledge
translates into practice.

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So in occupational therapy as a clinical practice, experiential learning is essential
because our profession is all about that.

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It's fundamentally about relationships and about solving problems in real time.

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Um, so being able to practice those things as a student is important.

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So there's a few examples I have of different things we've done.

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So we have early and continuous fieldwork exposure.

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So fieldwork in our program starts in the second semester and it continues through the end
of the three-year program.

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And we've retained our in-person level one fieldwork, which is something that's becoming
more unique as many OT programs adopt a virtual level one fieldwork education.

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So keeping that all in person is important, starting early, continuing through the end.

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Also in the classroom, we use simulation and we use case-based learning a lot of the time.

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We have standardized patients come in, and standardized patients are paid actors.

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And these paid actors represent various conditions, and students have to actually work
with them.

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So they have to interact with them, they have to transfer them from a bed to a wheelchair,
for example.

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So they're learning hands-on with real people.

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ah And then we use the flipped classroom model, we use team-based learning.

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And these are approaches where you may watch a lecture, for example, or do learning
activities before you come to class.

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So that when you're in class, the focus is on hands-on application and it's on discussion
and processing and learning with your instructors and with your classmates.

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So we do quite a bit of that.

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We have um interprofessional collaboration opportunities.

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So we do an IPE day, for example, an interprofessional education day.

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And that's where students from medicine and nursing and pharmacy, PTOT, and others, they
all come together to work on case studies and really understand the different approaches

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that each discipline takes towards a particular case.

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And then we have a bunch of student organizations that are out there organizing community
engagement opportunities, service learning experiences.

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And then we also fund students to attend advocacy events and state and national OT
professional conferences.

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So we call these leadership awards because we feel those are very much leadership
activities.

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So yeah, those are that's some of the things we do.

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And I'm sure that's just some.

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And what's striking me as somebody who was a faculty member for quite a while is it seems
as if the myriad of opportunities you just mentioned would engage many different types of

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learners.

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So visual learners, auditory learners, active engaged, applied learners, maybe more quiet
learners, but it seems like you have thought about engaging

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all different types of learners in many different types of ways.

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Yes, that's a really good point.

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Yeah, and a great benefit of using this more hands-on learning approach.

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Yeah, yeah.

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Okay, the next question is more of a general education knowledge question for our
listeners who may or may not know.

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Where are some quote unquote typical places that OT graduates work?

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And where are some places OT graduates work that listeners may be less familiar with?

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Yeah, um so traditionally people tend to think of occupational therapists as working
primarily in hospitals or maybe private clinics, perhaps in schools.

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home health might be an area that people are familiar with where we go into homes and help
people um get back to their daily activities and their home environment.

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Also skilled nursing and assisted living I'd say is probably another area working with
older.

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Folks that people are more familiar with.

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However, we are really everywhere.

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I guess is a way to summarize it.

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We our skills can be applied in many different settings.

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So for example, community centers is one.

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So we have people out in community centers creating programming and interventions for
various groups.

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We have OTs out in psychiatric hospitals working in that acute psychiatric setting.

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We have people out in prisons and primarily providing programs for at-risk youth in that
setting.

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And we're more and more in the corporate world doing a number of different things.

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So we have an alum, for example, that does ergonomic assessments for Google.

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We have another alum who's the director of accessibility for SoFi Stadium, which is a big
stadium here in Los Angeles.

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We have people out in health and wellness.

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We have people doing executive coaching and doing career counseling.

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So there's again a number of places that we can apply our skills in the corporate setting,
and that and that's increasing all the time.

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And it's increasing all the time, primarily because of students who are identifying
different areas where our skills can apply and creating opportunities for themselves.

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And in addition to that, OTs can go into business for themselves.

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They can open a private practice.

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So that's something available to people that are and get graduating from occupational
therapy degrees, either master's or doctorate.

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And then also universities, right?

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University medical centers, university research centers, working as a professor like I do
in an academic program.

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So these are additional areas that might not come top of mind, but where we can apply our
skills.

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Wow, that's so much more far reaching than I think many people realize.

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so thank you for sharing that.

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My next question is, can you tell me more about the 14-week doctoral capstone experience?

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Yes, yeah.

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So the 14-week doctoral capstone is one of the signature features of any entry-level OTD
program.

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And that's going to provide students with an in-depth mentored experience at the end of
the program that allows them to synthesize everything they've learned the whole three

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years while developing advanced skills in a focused area of interest.

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So in our program, for example, they spend 14 weeks in a location where they've already
completed a level two field rotation.

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And our program allows not just the capstone, but the entire third year of the program to
be completed remotely from any location.

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So for example, we have students in Denmark, we have students in Hawaii right now.

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Um, or they could go home or go somewhere where you know they want to establish themselves
in the future, so they have flexibility in that entire third year.

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but the the 14 weeks is the you know capstone experience itself.

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Um and that is an individualized experience where students are immersing themselves in
knowledge mobilization, is what how we like to refer to it, which is putting research into

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action for the benefit of their clients.

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So that's the the focus of what they're doing.

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And then the process begins a well before the 14 week starts.

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So our students are starting nine months prior to that, learning about different project
types they might do, exploring the context of their site and those implications,

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conducting a literature review, doing a needs assessment, developing a project plan.

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So they're they're working for a long time before they start.

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And then during the 14 weeks, the students work.

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Very closely with their faculty mentors and their site partners on some kind of
substantial project or initiative.

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So it could include a number of number of different things.

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They're very diverse, but it could be developing a new program, it could be evaluating an
existing program, they could be implementing some kind of evidence-based intervention.

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They could be creating resources or educational materials.

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They could be doing a needs assessment, they could be spearheading quality improvements.

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So there's a

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bunch of different things that they do based on their interests, based on the site's needs
and opportunities.

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They also participate in an evaluation.

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So they're evaluating their process, they're evaluating the client outcomes, and they
compile everything they've accomplished into a portfolio in a presentation.

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So ultimately the idea of this doctoral capstone experience is to help students transition
from learners to professionals, right, who are prepared not only to deliver

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clinical service but also to contribute to the future of the profession in some way.

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I see.

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Yeah, I see.

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Okay, that makes a lot of sense.

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The next question is important for any of our listeners who are planning to apply to your
program or thinking about applying to your program.

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It's a little bit of a longer question, so listeners hang in there.

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Interested applicants can submit their application through OTCA the OTCAS portal.

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USC has program-specific questions on OTCAS.

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Which read in part, this is a quote, in order to demonstrate your commitment to the
profession of occupational therapy, please address these two central questions in your

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essay.

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Number one, describe past experiences that have influenced your interests and goals
specific to occupational therapy.

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And number two, reflect on why you are choosing to enter the occupational therapy
profession.

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So the question posed to you today, Dr.

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Bennett, is: what is your advice to applicants on how to best approach these questions?

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Hey, thank you.

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Yeah, long, long question.

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relatively shorter answer though for this one.

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Um, because really what we're focusing on, what the advice we give is to answer the
prompt, right?

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To answer that prompt, right?

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We are asking specific questions here, we want to see specific responses to those
questions.

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And so we use rubrics to evaluate if all the all the points that we are asking for were.

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addressed in the essay.

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And so really like making sure you hit all the points asked in those questions is the
number one tip that we give.

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And then in addition to that, of course, making sure that you produce a well-written
essay, you know, that the structure makes sense, you know, thinking back to those early

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college classes, right, where and where you had to learn about how to structure an essay.

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So an introduction, supporting paragraph, conclusions,

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uh make sure that it makes sense.

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have other people read it and they can give you feedback on whether they understand what
you're trying to convey.

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And lots of proofreading, of course, making sure your grammar is good, making sure
spelling is good.

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And then as far as content, it's really this these questions are really about your
journey.

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And your journey is what we are interested in.

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And we want to know how you got to this point of wanting to be an occupational therapist.

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It does not have to be some extraordinary unique in the world story, right?

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Um we just want you to share your story and to state it well.

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That's what we're looking for.

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Okay, great.

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Great advice.

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Listeners, if you're interested, that was a little bit of an inside scoop.

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So we thank you for that.

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Coming up to our final question, it's the same question I ask all deans and program
directors who share time on this podcast with us.

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And that question is what are you looking for in a competitive application to your
program?

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Yeah, so we get that question a lot.

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and I'll I'll start by explaining our admissions process.

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So we do have a holistic admissions process.

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Um so that means we're looking not just at cognitive traits, which are things like grades
and GPA and test scores, but we're also looking at non-cognitive traits, right?

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So the other aspects of an individual that make them who they are.

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And so we're looking at four components of the application when we review it.

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We're looking at the personal statement.

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We're looking at the OTCAS statements, that's what we call them, but they're two short
answer questions.

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We're looking at the letters of recommendation, and we're looking at cumulative GPA.

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So a strong application maximizes all four of those components.

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Okay, so really thinking about the things you can influence.

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Typically, cumulative GPA is not something you can influence at the point of application.

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So thinking about the other three components which are written.

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Right.

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So thinking about being having very thoughtful and thorough written components of your
application.

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I talked about tips already for the personal statement to share that journey.

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to really address those short answer statement prompts, those OT cast statements.

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They are short responses, but putting as much time and effort into those as you did to the
longer essay was would be what we'd recommend.

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And then letters of recommendation.

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So being careful about who you select as your recommender, making sure that they are
people who really know you well.

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Because someone who knows you well can

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write a a better letter because they have personal examples that they can use.

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And we recommend that you ask them to use personal examples.

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So when is a time, think of some times I demonstrated some of the qualities that align
with a good occupational therapist or a good graduate student.

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So there are a number of things that that could cross you know any sort of job that

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could apply to an example.

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Like for for like say you ask your your manager, former manager at Baskin Robbins, right,
to write your letter a recommendation and you provide, say, here's a list of things that

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make up a good good occupational therapist, right?

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Like patients and teamwork and those sort of things.

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And can you write in this letter a few examples of when you saw me demonstrate those
things?

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So, you know, a time when when they

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Dealt with a difficult client, for example, could be would be great, you know, wonderful
example for a letter of recommendation.

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So really thinking about the influence that they can have over letters of recommendation.

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And then actually being asked, more often we are asked what makes a strong applicant
instead of a strong application.

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And so we really like to steer people sort of a and and say,

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We don't have a particular strong applicant profile, right?

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OT is a holistic profession.

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So we are valuing applicants from all backgrounds with a diversity of experiences, a
diversity of strengths, because that's what creates practitioners who will go out and be

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better able to represent and serve the needs of their communities.

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So we don't have an at strong applicant profile.

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We would come one and come all.

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Right.

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Right.

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Well, that is very helpful, both application points, cognitive and non-cognitive, and
applicant points.

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I think that's helpful for all listeners who are interested in your program.

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Maybe some listeners are thinking that your program is not attainable because it's too
competitive.

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It's the top ranked program right now.

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And maybe they're thinking it's

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Um, out of their reach, what parting words would you give to applicants who might be
thinking that way?

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yes, we we do get that, actually get that feeling a lot.

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and that imposter syndrome is something that I would say nearly all of my colleagues or
all that you know, or all of them that I've talked to you about, we feel it then, we feel

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it now.

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Um and we I encourage you to overcome that, right?

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And to reach for your goals.

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because like I just said, we value people from all different experiences and all different
backgrounds and we want and need you and it's more that the f your future clients want and

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need you because you will represent them and you will understand their needs and you'll be
able to make this profession better.

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Right, great advice, great advice.

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Well, that's the time that we have.

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And Dr.

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Bennett, I would like to thank you for your time and all of the wonderful information you
gave us about your program.

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And we will link in our show notes a link to your program for any listeners who would like
more information.

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and again, thank you for your time today.

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Thank you for having

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me.

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Thank you for listening.

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If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to share, rate, and subscribe to the podcast.

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We'll be back soon with more conversations to help you get accepted.