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Dear Prospective Student,

We are pleased to know of your interest in the field of occupational therapy and in the Department of Occupational Therapy, otherwise known as the historic Boston School of Occupational Therapy (“BSOT” for short) at Tufts University.

I have recently become the Chair of the department, assuming the role from Professor Sharan Schwartzberg, who served with distinction as Chair for 21 years. I look forward to leading the department while building upon its tradition of excellence in teaching and scholarship.

One of the primary strengths of the discipline of occupational therapy is a century-long history predicated on the value of the arts and sciences for understanding and enhancing healthy and satisfying daily living. Occupational therapists have learned from experience and research that health is greater than an individual’s bodily structure and function, is inseparable from the experience of well-being, and is emergent in healthful patterns of daily living that arise in one’s home and community. By connecting mind to body, action to environment, and individual to community, the methods and aims of occupational science and occupational therapy stand at the intersection of biology, psychology, and anthropology. As a part of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Department of Occupational Therapy is ideally positioned to educate healthcare practitioners who can actively participate in and advance an interdisciplinary and collaborative paradigm of health and healthcare.

Situated in the dynamic, culturally rich community of Greater Boston and on our beautiful Tufts University campus, the Department of Occupational Therapy is a top-ranked graduate program with an abundance of resources for learning, practice, and research. We are committed to ensuring the broadest and most relevant education by encouraging our students to reason and approach practice in context and to creatively work in collaboration with clients and communities to better all our lives. I am pleased to report that BSOT has had a strong success rate for our first-time takers on the National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy (NBCOT) examination in the past three years. The statistics can be found on our Program Accreditation page. Our graduates uniformly succeed in occupational therapy and related careers, are leaders in the field, and maintain strong links with their alma mater.

We are especially proud of our faculty, who are excellent teachers and well-known scholars and researchers. They are accessible to and supportive of students and are attentive to individual learning needs. Recognizing that our students come to us from all over the nation and the world, faculty and staff are devoted to maintaining a diverse and culturally aware learning atmosphere. We offer various study abroad options at top-ranked international programs and the opportunity for students to focus on individual interests through directed studies with experts in the field.

We welcome your inquiries about our program and hope to welcome you to the Department of Occupational Therapy and the important work of occupational therapy.

Sincerely,

Linda Tickle-Degnen, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA
Professor and Chair
Department of Occupational Therapy
Director, Health Quality of Life Lab

Tufts University
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences