ANNOUNCEMENT
November 1, 2009
Contact: Monica Mehigan
617-612-2034

Liaison International partners with The American Occupational Therapy Association to provide a Centralized Application Service

Watertown, MA – OTCAS will provide a full-service Web-based application and admissions process for prospective occupational therapy program applicants. We anticipate that the OTCAS will begin accepting applications in August, 2010 for the 2011 entering class.

OTCAS is a convenient and efficient process that allows applicants to apply to multiple schools using a single Web-based application. It also provides a centralized venue to review available programs and degree options. Applicants using OTCAS will have access to comprehensive online checklists and instructions to help them easily navigate through the process.

There is no fee for OT education programs to participate in OTCAS. Those that do will have secure online access to track the progress of their prospective students and view application details in real-time. The programs will receive verified and standardized applicant information for easier review (letters of recommendation, test scores, transcripts). Other professional programs have found that participating in a CAS led to exposure to a larger applicant pool, including a greater number from minority populations. OTCAS will provide program-specific nation- and profession-wide statistical reports on applicants.

OTCAS benefits the occupational therapy profession as well by providing accurate data to identify workforce trends and inform public policy decisions. The comprehensive data set acquired from having a central entry point into occupational therapy programs will assist with developing workforce projections, identifying employment patterns, and tailoring recruitment strategies to reach under-represented populations. In addition, the OTCAS service will provide health profession advisors with feedback on admissions trends and standards for the profession, which will help advisors steer bright, qualified students into occupational therapy programs.

Currently, 79 occupational therapy academic programs are in educational institutions which participate in a centralized application service with another discipline. Consequently, many OT programs are well-positioned to readily adopt this service. We hope you will consider taking advantage of this new AOTA opportunity.

For more information about The American Occupational Therapy Association, visit http://www.aota.org or contact Neil Harvison directly at nharvison@aota.org.

For more information about Liaison International, visit http://www.liaison-intl.com.