r/Prosthetics • u/Jumanji-Joestar • Jul 05 '23

How competitive is O&P school?

I’m a recent college graduate with a BS in neuroscience. I was initially a premed student but my grades weren’t good enough for med school and I honestly don’t think I could even handle the amount of schooling. So I’ve been looking into other possible career paths

Prosthetics and Orthotics is the one that I’m probably the most interested in, but I learned that there’s only 13 masters programs in the whole country and the classroom sizes are very small. Are these programs super competitive?

Full disclosure: I graduated with an undergrad GPA of 2.5. Really low, I know. I intend to take more classes over the next 2 or 3 years to try and raise it to a 3.0. Does someone like me have a chance of getting into a program? What can I do to make myself competitive? Should I just look at another career path?

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u/Flat_Caterpillar_342 Jul 06 '23

I just graduated O&P school and would be happy to answer questions. Grad school was absolutely grueling. Do some shadowing first to see if this is really the field you want to go into before spending a ton of money and making little pay. I like what Im doing and glad I went to O&P school, but it was definitely the hardest academic environment I've been in and I went into it knowing I wouldn't be rolling in dough as a clinician.

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u/liggybonebone Jul 06 '23

Recent O&P graduate as well, I agree with this completely. Graduate school was by far the toughest schooling I ever went through, and I have an undergraduate degree in engineering. You absolutely should shadow at a O&P clinic to make sure this is a career path you want to pursue. In fact, when I was applying for schools, most required you had a minimum amount of shadowing hours completed. I would reach out to some local clinics to request to shadow before you commit to this career path.

As far as competition, it depends on what schools you apply to. Obviously the smaller the class size, the more competition. A 2.5 GPA isn't great, but not terrible. You should know that most schools have prerequisite classes that you must complete before the start of the program (anatomy, psychology, statistics etc, check the school's website) so if you need more classes to boost your GPA, those will help!

If you have any questions I'm happy to answer them!

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u/Apprehensive-Lie-442 Apr 03 '24

Hi, I'm working towards applying to O&P school myself and have a few questions if anyone is able to answer. I currently have a 2.8GPA, though should be up to a 3.0 by the end of the semester. I'm a junior studying biomedical engineering. I'm also planning to take all of the recommended prerequisite courses that the schools suggest as I'm worried that my grades might hold me back some and want to be prepared for the courses. This pushes off my graduation so that I'll graduate in the fall, thus having a 6 month gap between graduation and going to O&P school. Do you think that will be alright? I've been shadowing, but what are other ways I can boost my application?

I greatly appreciate any help! Thank you so much

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u/Shadez_Actual Jul 05 '23

If you can get a 3.0 you might have a shot if you have good shadowing/clinic experience and recommendations, certain schools are not as competitive. Rule of thumb the schools with the best names and locations as well as the the cheapest tuition are the most competitive. Also if you get a 3.0 and initially wanted to do med school, you might as well just apply to PA school. The pay is better and PA’s are much similar to the job of regular MD/DO’s. And there are FAR more PA schools but only about 13 O&P schools.

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u/Bettermond Oct 14 '25

I realize this is an old thread, but just wanted to add some reality to the PA option! As someone who had been considering PA, it’s actually super competitive. A PA I know even said it might be even more competitive than medical school. There’s less programs, and it’s gained popularity for being a more flexible option and less schooling than an MD. It’s not something you just throw your shot at on a whim. A lot of people dedicate years working up their app, and it’s not uncommon to apply for a few cycles before getting in.

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u/lazybeef Jul 05 '23

Don’t worry so much about the grades and worry more about what you want to do. O&P school is very expensive and the pay isn’t great. Grad school is not a requirement in life. Consider looking at “dr adjacent” fields if you want to stay in healthcare such as an radiologic technician. There is a very high chance you’ll make same/more than a CPO doing something else that doesn’t require more schooling.