B.A. or B.S. in Allied Health

The Allied Health major at Otterbein University has been designed to expose students to the wide variety of options for study and career opportunities in the health care arena. We have two options for study within this major. Both the BS and BA degrees prepare students in the areas of human movement, human movement dysfunction, evidence-based medicine, and exercise response.

The Bachelor of Science in Allied Health is a course of study that is designed to give students a background deeply rooted within the sciences. This degree is best suited to prepare students for entry into graduate schools in physical therapy, occupational therapy and physician assisting and contains coursework to meet the prerequisites of most graduate programs in health-related fields.

Undergraduate students interested a career in Athletic Training will enroll at Otterbein as an Allied Health (BS) undergraduate major with a Pre-Athletic Training Concentration (available starting in Fall 2020). This allows for all Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education (CAATE) required pre-requisite and foundational knowledge courses to be completed before formally applying for admission to the Master of Science in Athletic Training  program.

All of the courses listed below are required for formal application in the MSAT program. Please note that all these courses are included in the Bachelor of Science in Allied Health with pre-athletic training concentration (Layout can be seen below).

Required pre-requisites courses for admittance into the MSAT include:

  • Biology
  • Chemistry
  • Physics
  • Psychology
  • Anatomy and Physiology

Required foundation courses for admittance into the MSAT include:

  • Statistics
  • Epidemiology
  • Kinesiology
  • Exercise Physiology
  • Nutrition
  • Public Health

All other foundation knowledge-based courses will be offered and infused with the graduate level courses.

The Bachelor of Arts degree in Allied Health allows students greater flexibility within their schedule to explore other areas of graduate study or career paths that do not require such a strict science curriculum. Potential paths beyond the undergraduate career for students completing the BA in Allied Health would be graduate study in the areas of nutrition and dietetics, applied behavioral analysis, exercise science, or recreational therapy, just to name a few.

Program Contact:

Dr Shelley Payne
Allied Health Majors

Dr Joan Rocks
Allied Health Pre-Athletic Training Concentration

Earn Your Master’s Degree at Otterbein

If you wish to continue your education after you earn your bachelor’s degree, Otterbein now offers a Master of Science in Allied Health degree. See The Graduate School’s site for more information.

Practical Experience & Internship Experience

Both the BS and BA in Allied Health include observational experiences within a healthcare field of the student’s choice as early as their first year. This allows students to do early career exploration and gain a greater appreciation for the connection between their course content and future career.

Additionally students may elect to gain further practical experience by electing to complete an internship as a part of their Allied Health degree. Otterbein is well positioned geographically to allow our students to complete internships in a wide variety of settings. It’s all about location, location, location. Columbus, the capital city of Ohio, and its surrounding communities offer many opportunities for you to gain access to a wide variety of work settings including government, corporations, commercial, recreational, and public and private agencies. Students work with faculty to individually select an internship site that best meets their future career goals. The internship allows our students to get to know practitioners in the field that increase their professional network immediately. Many of these internship supervisors are also critical in writing letters of recommendation to graduate schools and for employment options as well.

Research Experience

Increasingly it is important for students to gain undergraduate research experience. Students learn and work with faculty in our Biomechanics Institute throughout their Allied Health curriculum. The Allied Health curriculum focuses on the use and application of evidence-based medicine principles throughout the student’s entire academic experience. This allows students the opportunity to develop an undergraduate research topic individually with a faculty mentor and complete the research project as a capstone to their Allied Health degree.

Graduate School and Employment

The Allied Health major has had a terrific acceptance rate of our students who have applied to PT, OT and PA graduate schools. Our students apply and are accepted at a wide variety of graduate schools within and outside of Ohio. Our goal as Allied Health faculty at Otterbein University is to get to know our students individually and to help identify their future goals. Throughout one-on-one interactions and quality advising, we strive to get to know you as a person and understand your future goals. We will work with you to craft the Otterbein experience that will best prepare you to achieve those goals.

Careers

Professions include, but are not limited to:

  • Physical therapy
  • Occupational therapy
  • Physician assistant
  • Cardiac rehabilitation
  • Exercise science
  • Exercise rehabilitation
  • Applied Behavioral Analysis
  • Health Care Administration

Resources

Student Learning Outcomes University Learning Goals (KMERI*)
1. Students will engage in career exploration. Engaged
2. Students will develop skills necessary to participate in evidence-based practice. Multi-literate
3. Students will be able to articulate the qualities associated with professionalism. Responsible
4. Students will develop skills as a self-directed learner to better prepare them as life-long learners. Inquisitive
5. Students will develop skills to allow them to convey their thoughts and ideas in both a written and oral format. Multi-literate
6. Students will demonstrate content mastery of knowledge related to human movement, human movement & human function and the body’s response to intervention. Knowledgeable

*NOTE: KMERI refers to Otterbein's learning goals. It stands for Knowledgeable, Multi-literate, Engaged, Responsible, and Inquisitive. To learn more about KMERI, visit our University Learning Goals page.

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