OTCAS Letter of Recommendation: Guide and Sample

OTCAS Letter of Recommendation: Guide and Sample

OTCAS requires each applicant to request at least 3 and at most 5 evaluations, and extra letters go to programs directly. You complete yours in Liaison Letters after an email from support@otcas.myliaison.com. Once submitted, the applicant cannot remove or replace it.

Our view: if you are the occupational therapist among those three to five writers, write about one moment where the applicant adapted an activity so a client could do it, not about how many hours they logged. Professors can vouch for coursework. You are the writer who can show the applicant understands occupation, and GradPilot's health professions letter rubric checks for exactly that: "Whether your observed evidence supports readiness for the candidate's intended professional education."

Every OTCAS and Liaison Letters help page quoted below was checked on November 7, 2026. None of them states a cycle year.

The OTCAS evaluation rules

Source: OTCAS Evaluations.

Two facts change what your letter has to carry:

• OTCAS does not check observation hours. Its hours page says "OTCAS does not verify the information entered here" and sends applicants to each program for any documentation rules (OTCAS Observation Hours). PTCAS, by contrast, can route hours to the supervising PT for verification, as the PTCAS reference letter guide explains. In OTCAS, an OT's letter may be the only first-hand account of what the applicant did on site.
• The applicant sees your contact details. Liaison: "applicants can view your contact information and any information you add to the Profile page (i.e., phone number, email, etc.) in their full application PDF." Put only the contact details you want shared.

What the OTCAS form asks

OTCAS's help page says evaluators "may complete assessments such as writing essays, completing Likert scales, and/or uploading letters." It does not publish the questions or the rating criteria, and we found no OTCAS question set on any page we could load, so none is quoted here. The Liaison Letters form can include five parts (Complete a Recommendation): Relationship questions, an Essay box, Likert Criteria with an information icon per item, the "Recommendation Concerning Admission drop-down", and "one document" upload. The PTCAS guide walks through each part with Liaison's file rules.

Our recommendation: make the Relationship answers specific. Write your credential, the setting, the client population and how often you saw the applicant there. "OTR/L, skilled nursing facility, weekly for eight months" lets a reader weigh everything that follows.

Which story to tell

Pick the story by what you saw, in this order:

1. The applicant changed an activity so a client could take part. Best case. Describe the client's barrier, what the applicant noticed, what they proposed, who approved it, and what the client did next.
2. The applicant asked you why you made a clinical choice, then used the answer. Good case. It shows the applicant learning occupational reasoning from you.
3. The applicant only observed. Write about the questions they asked and what they did differently on a later visit. Do not credit them with treatment they did not give.

The countercase: if you met the applicant for a single shadowing day, an incident-based letter will be thin whatever you do. A professor or employer who knows them over months may serve the file better, and you can say so when you reply to the request.

Constructed sample from an OTR

Constructed example, written by us, not a real evaluation letter. Context (invented): an OT in a skilled nursing facility has worked alongside an activities aide for eight months.

The weak paragraph:

Tessa has shadowed me for more than 100 hours and has a strong interest in occupational therapy. She is compassionate with residents and works well with our team.

The revised letter (215 words):

To the Admissions Committee:

I am an occupational therapist at Birchwood Care Center, a 120-bed skilled nursing facility. Tessa Vukovic has worked here as an activities aide since March 2026, and I see her on the rehab unit most weekdays.

In June, Tessa noticed that a resident recovering from a stroke had stopped coming to the gardening group she runs. She asked him why. He told her he could not hold a pot steady with one hand. Tessa came to me with two ideas: moving the group to the raised bed and clamping the pots to the table edge. I agreed to try both and showed her how to position him. He has attended every week since. The treatment plan stayed mine. What Tessa added was the reason he had stopped coming, which none of my sessions with him had turned up.

She also asks why. After watching me grade a dressing task for a resident with low vision, she asked why I changed the lighting before the clothing. The next week she rearranged the craft table lighting on her own.

In four years I have worked with six activities aides, and Tessa's questions are the ones that sound most like an occupational therapist's. I recommend her strongly for occupational therapy education.

Alicia Romero, OTR/L

What the revision adds: a credential and a setting, one adaptation with the resident's barrier and result, a second incident showing she learns from the therapist, a scope line ("The treatment plan stayed mine"), and a comparison with a stated group.

Questions about OTCAS evaluations

How many OTCAS letters can an applicant send?

Three to five through OTCAS. Any more go "directly to your programs."

Can I edit an OTCAS evaluation after submitting?

Only if Liaison shows an Edit button: "If available, you can edit completed recommendations by clicking Edit," then you "must resubmit" (Edit Completed Recommendations).

The Requested By date has passed. Is it too late?

Not necessarily. Liaison says the date "may or may not be the same date as the actual deadline. If the due date has passed, submit your recommendation and contact the applicant to confirm deadline dates." (Liaison Letters FAQ)

Should the letter mention the applicant's personal statement?

No. The applicant's OTCAS personal statement is their document. Your letter adds what only you saw.

Get a free review of the letter

Get a free Quick Review of your recommendation letter against GradPilot's general health professions evaluation letter rubric (no OTCAS-specific version exists). It reads whether your letter ties what you saw to occupational therapy rather than to health care in general, whether each claim has an incident behind it, and whether any comparison names its group. The recommendation letter review page covers other letter types.

Applicants can check their own essay against the OTCAS personal statement rubric; the OT shadowing guide covers how they should log the hours you watched.

More health recommender guides:

• PTCAS reference letter guide: the full Liaison form walkthrough and the hours verification request.
• PharmCAS letter from a pharmacist: a 4-evaluation cap and committee letters.
• OptomCAS letter from an optometrist: when one letter may be the whole clinical case.
• All medical and health school essay guides.

Sources

Retrieved November 7, 2026. The Liaison help pages state no cycle year.

• OTCAS (Liaison), Evaluations: 3 minimum, 5 maximum, extras direct to programs, who submits, program requirements, cannot be removed or replaced, sender address.
• OTCAS (Liaison), Observation Hours: OTCAS does not verify hours.
• Liaison Letters, Complete a Recommendation: form sections and contact-detail visibility.
• Liaison Letters, Edit Completed Recommendations: editing after submission.
• Liaison Letters, Frequently Asked Questions: the Requested By date.