Quick answer: ACOTE-accredited programs run hybrid. Occupational therapists earn a median $100,330 per year, or $48.24 per hour (BLS OEWS, May 2025). The credential runs through a ACOTE-accredited master’s or doctoral degree in occupational therapy.
Occupational Therapy at a Glance
Measure
Value
Median annual wage
$100,330
Median hourly wage
$48.24
Employed nationally
162,450
Bottom 10 percent
$71,690
Top 10 percent
$131,950
Middle half
$82,510 to $116,670
Projected change, 2024-34
13.8%
Annual openings
about 10,200
Wage and employment figures: BLS OEWS, May 2025. Growth and openings: BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34.
What Do Online Occupational Therapy Degree Programs Actually Look Like?
ACOTE-accredited programs run hybrid. Theory, activity analysis and practice-model coursework can be delivered online, while hands-on labs and the two extended fieldwork placements are in person and full time. The fieldwork is the part that fixes the calendar, not the lectures.
Where This Sits on the Ladder
This is the licensed tier above credentials many readers already hold. The rungs run:
Occupational therapy aide - no license, supports setup and logistics
Occupational therapist - ACOTE-accredited master’s or doctorate, licensed, evaluates and designs the intervention
For scale, occupational therapy assistants show a median of $72,300 against $100,330 for occupational therapists (BLS OEWS, May 2025).
How Fast Is the Field Growing?
Employment is projected to change by 13.8% between 2024 and 2034, with roughly 10,200 openings a year (BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34). Openings come from growth and from replacing people who leave the occupation, which is why the annual figure can look large relative to the percentage.
Why ACOTE Accreditation Decides the Outcome
ACOTE, the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education, accredits the programs, and graduating from an ACOTE-accredited program is what makes a candidate eligible for the NBCOT certification examination. State licensure is built on top of that certification, so the accreditation decision governs everything downstream.
Separately from programmatic accreditation, the institution itself should hold accreditation from a recognized institutional accreditor. Credit transfer between institutions is decided by the receiving school and genuinely varies, so get any transfer evaluation in writing before enrolling.
What Does the Job Involve Day to Day?
Occupational therapists work on the tasks that make up a person’s day: dressing, cooking, writing, returning to a job after an injury, managing a classroom with a sensory disorder. The evaluation and the intervention plan belong to the therapist; the assistant delivers much of the treatment. Settings run across hospitals, schools, skilled nursing, home health and outpatient clinics.
Where Do Occupational therapists Earn the Most?
State
Median annual wage
Employment
California
$124,510
13,810
Oregon
$112,310
1,170
Nevada
$110,520
1,080
District of Columbia
$109,170
540
Washington
$107,670
3,340
Highest-paying states, BLS OEWS, May 2025. Cost of living is not held constant, so a higher median does not automatically mean more disposable income.
Licensing and Credentialing
The national framework is the constant: a ACOTE-accredited program, then the NBCOT certification examination administered through NBCOT. What sits on top of that framework is set jurisdiction by jurisdiction, and this site does not hold a sourced dataset of per-state rules, so confirm the specifics with your state occupational therapy licensing board before enrolling.
What You Will Study
Coursework covers anatomy and neuroscience, human development across the lifespan, occupational performance analysis, assessment and intervention across physical, cognitive and psychosocial practice areas, plus research methods. Activity analysis - breaking an ordinary task into its component demands and matching those to a patient’s capacities - is the distinctive skill and the thing that separates occupational therapy from adjacent professions. Two levels of fieldwork follow, the second full time and extended.
Cost, Time and Whether It Pays
This site does not publish tuition figures, because there is no sourced dataset behind them and the number varies enormously by institution and residency. What can be stated is the wage structure the degree leads into. The middle half of occupational therapists earn between $82,510 and $116,670, with the bottom 10 percent at $71,690 and the top 10 percent at $131,950 (BLS OEWS, May 2025). The gap between the 25th and 75th percentile is the honest range to plan against - not the median alone, and not the top figure.
Against the tier below, occupational therapy assistants show a median of $72,300. The difference is what the additional education is buying, and it should be weighed against the years out of full-time earnings that the program requires.
How to Choose a Program
Check ACOTE accreditation status directly, and pay attention to whether a program is accredited or holds candidacy status, because the two are not the same for graduates timing their exam. Ask how Level II fieldwork placements are assigned and whether they may require relocation. Programs report NBCOT examination pass rates, and NBCOT publishes program-level data, which is worth comparing against the program’s own claims.
Where the Jobs Are
State
Employment
Median annual wage
California
13,810
$124,510
Texas
13,400
$106,140
New York
11,690
$96,390
Florida
10,650
$99,360
Illinois
7,710
$99,700
Largest employing states, BLS OEWS, May 2025. Employment concentration and pay do not track each other, which is why the highest-paying states above are not the same list. State and metro pages linked below carry the full distribution.
What to Weigh Before Committing
The main obstacle is Level II fieldwork. It is full time, extended, usually unpaid, and may require relocating for a placement, which is a substantial planning problem for anyone with dependents or a mortgage. Entry has also moved to the graduate level, so this is a multi-year commitment rather than a credential upgrade. What makes the arithmetic work is the destination: strong projected growth, a median well above the assistant tier, and practice settings varied enough that a career can be redirected without retraining, from paediatrics to hand therapy to school systems to home health.
Questions to Ask an Admissions Office
Ask these before an application fee, and get the answers in writing rather than over the phone:
Is the program currently with accreditation from ACOTE, and has its status changed in the last three years? Verify the answer against ACOTE directly rather than the program’s own page.
Who arranges the required in-person hours, the program or the student, and what happens if no site is available in my cohort year?
What is the published first-time pass rate for the NBCOT certification examination, and for which graduating class?
Which prior coursework or credentials transfer in, and will you evaluate my transcript in writing before I enroll? Transfer is decided by the receiving institution and genuinely varies.
What is the total time to completion for someone in my situation, including prerequisites, and how many students in the last cohort finished on that schedule?
Colleges Offering This Degree
How we rank schools – graduation rate, graduate earnings, cost and retention.
Advertising plays no part.
This page lists 10 schools, closest group first, then ordered by
BOC Score with the highest at the top.
10 of them carry a score.
LOCAL RANK
Location / proximity to this page
Defines the local group
Graduation rate how often students finish
30%
Median earnings, 10 years after entry whether it paid off
25%
Average net price what students actually pay after aid; lower ranks higher
20%
Retention rate how many come back for year two
15%
Fully online availability whether you can study while working
10%
Scores come from IPEDS (2024) and the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard.
Earnings are for all graduates of a school, not one program, so treat them as a signal
about the institution rather than about this subject.
Sponsored listings are paid placements and are labelled as such; they are separate from
this ranking and never change it. Read the full methodology.
Can you earn an occupational therapy degree online?
Partly. ACOTE-accredited programs deliver much of the didactic content online in hybrid formats, but laboratory work and both Level I and Level II fieldwork placements happen in person and full time. There is no accredited fully online route to licensure.
How much do occupational therapists make?
The national median annual wage for occupational therapists is $100,330, or $48.24 per hour (BLS OEWS, May 2025). The bottom 10 percent earn $71,690 or less and the top 10 percent earn $131,950 or more, across 162,450 occupational therapists nationally.
What is the difference between an OTA and an OT?
An occupational therapy assistant holds an ACOTE-accredited associate degree and delivers treatment, at a median of $72,300 (BLS OEWS, May 2025). An occupational therapist holds an ACOTE-accredited master's or doctorate, performs the evaluation and designs the intervention, at a median of $100,330.
Is there an OTA to OT bridge?
Some ACOTE-accredited programs run bridge tracks designed for licensed assistants, which recognize clinical experience in admissions and sequencing. They still require the full graduate curriculum and both fieldwork levels. Credit recognition is decided by the receiving institution and varies.
How do I get licensed as an occupational therapist?
Graduate from an ACOTE-accredited program, pass the NBCOT certification examination, then apply to your state board. Requirements beyond that are set state by state, so confirm the specifics with your state occupational therapy licensing board.
Is occupational therapy a growing field?
Employment of occupational therapists is projected to change by 13.8% from 2024 to 2034, with about 10,200 openings per year (BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34), which is faster than most healthcare occupations BLS tracks.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025, SOC 29-1122 Occupational Therapists.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections program, 2024-34.
About this guide: Researched and written by the TradeCareerPath Editorial Team. Our editorial team researches and sources every trade school and career guide using federal labor and education data, including BLS OEWS and Employment Projections, DOL apprenticeship records, IPEDS, College Scorecard, and state licensing boards. We follow the editorial standards documented at /editorial-policy/.
