Best Occupational Therapist programs in Tennessee, ranked by enrollment
Assess, plan, and organize rehabilitative programs that help build or restore vocational, homemaking, and daily living skills, as well as general independence, to persons with disabilities or developmental delays.
8 schools in Tennessee run programs that feed this job, graduating 281 people a year. The job pays a median of $97,700 in Tennessee across about 2,490 jobs (BLS OEWS May 2025).
Fields of study in Tennessee that lead to this job
Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level. Numbers are graduates per year in this state.
1 programs in Tennessee that lead to this job
Ranked by graduates per year in Tennessee (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are national College Scorecard figures reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. Each program also links to its own Tennessee page.
| # | Program | Graduates / yr | Share of pipeline | Schools | Grad earnings (1 yr) | Median debt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CIP 51.2306In Tennessee → | 281 | 100.0% | 8 | $35,966 | $26,323 |
Top 8 schools in Tennessee
Ranked by graduates per year into this job. Graduate earnings are reported for 0 of the 8 schools in this state.
| # | School | Graduates / yr | Top feeder program | Grad earnings (1 yr) | Grad rate | Net price | Acceptance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Belmont University Nashville, TN Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 86 | Occupational Therapy/Therapist | — | 71% | $29,246 | 95% |
| 2 | Lincoln Memorial University Harrogate, TN Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 42 | Occupational Therapy/Therapist | — | 50% | $18,981 | 63% |
| 3 | Tennessee Wesleyan University Athens, TN Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 32 | Occupational Therapy/Therapist | — | 48% | $14,614 | 69% |
| 4 | Milligan University Milligan, TN Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 28 | Occupational Therapy/Therapist | — | 63% | $19,143 | 72% |
| 5 | Tennessee State University Nashville, TN Public · 1 feeder programs | 28 | Occupational Therapy/Therapist | — | 34% | — | 70% |
| 6 | The University of Tennessee Health Science Center Memphis, TN Public · 1 feeder programs | 28 | Occupational Therapy/Therapist | — | — | — | — |
| 7 | The University of Tennessee - Chattanooga Chattanooga, TN Public · 1 feeder programs | 21 | Occupational Therapy/Therapist | — | 50% | — | 81% |
| 8 | East Tennessee State University Johnson City, TN Public · 1 feeder programs | 16 | Occupational Therapy/Therapist | — | 53% | — | 86% |
All 8 schools in Tennessee
Every school in Tennessee with a program that feeds this job, ordered by graduates per year. Earnings are shown for the ranked schools above; open a school profile for the rest.
| School | City | Control | Graduates / yr | Feeder programs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belmont University | Nashville | Private not-for-profit | 86 | 1 |
| Lincoln Memorial University | Harrogate | Private not-for-profit | 42 | 1 |
| Tennessee Wesleyan University | Athens | Private not-for-profit | 32 | 1 |
| Milligan University | Milligan | Private not-for-profit | 28 | 1 |
| Tennessee State University | Nashville | Public | 28 | 1 |
| The University of Tennessee Health Science Center | Memphis | Public | 28 | 1 |
| The University of Tennessee - Chattanooga | Chattanooga | Public | 21 | 1 |
| East Tennessee State University | Johnson City | Public | 16 | 1 |
What occupational therapists earn in Tennessee
What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.
U.S. median $100,330. Tennessee pays below the national figure.
1.00× means the state has its expected share of these jobs.
Metro areas in Tennessee
Job outlook
Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.
Growth and openings are national. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish employment projections at state level, so these figures describe the occupation across the whole U.S., not this state alone.
How to get in
The full skills, tools, and day-to-day breakdown lives on the national Occupational Therapists page.
How to become a Occupational Therapist
Job zone 5 of 5 · SVP 8.0 and above- Typical entry education
- Master's degree
Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).
Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.
Employees may need some on-the-job training, but most of these occupations assume that the person will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.
Top skills
The same job in other states
Where else this occupation employs the most people, and what it pays there.
Related careers in Tennessee
Every major mapped to this job
The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.
All 1 majors mapped to Occupational Therapists1 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
- 51.2306Occupational Therapy/Therapist
Common questions
Answers for people weighing occupational therapists programs in Tennessee.
What degree do you need to become an Occupational Therapist?+
Master's degree is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Occupational Therapy/Therapist, which awarded 281 degrees in Tennessee in 2024-25, 100.0% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.
Which college majors lead to becoming an Occupational Therapist?+
The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 1 programs to this occupation. The largest are Rehabilitation and Therapeutic Professions. Together they graduate about 281 people a year in Tennessee.
How much do occupational therapists earn in Tennessee?+
The median is $97,700 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). That is 2.6% below the U.S. median of $100,330. This is pay for people already working in the occupation, not the same thing as graduate earnings one year after finishing a degree.
Is demand for occupational therapists growing?+
BLS projects a +13.8% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, much faster than average, with roughly 10,200 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.
How many schools offer programs for this career in Tennessee?+
8 institutions in Tennessee reported graduates from at least one of the 1 programs that feed this occupation in IPEDS 2024-25. Rankings on this page use graduates per year, because the federal data publishes no enrollment count by program.
What other job titles do occupational therapists work under?+
Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Occupational Therapist (OT), Certified Hand Therapist (CHT), Visually Impaired Teacher (TVI), Vision Rehabilitation Therapist (VRT), Registered Occupational Therapist (OTR), Pediatric Occupational Therapist (Pediatric OT) among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 29-1122.
About the data on this page
Rankings use IPEDS completions 2024–25, degrees awarded per year. That is the closest federal measure of how many people a program puts into a career, because no federal dataset publishes enrollment by program. Wages and employment come from BLS OEWS May 2025, growth and openings from BLS Employment Projections 2024-34, and which majors lead to which jobs from the NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. Occupation descriptions, tasks, skills and tools are O*NET 30.3 (CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA).
BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics
May 2025Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.
BLS Employment Projections
2024–34Projected growth, annual openings and typical entry-level education.
IPEDS Completions
2024-25 (provisional)Graduates per year by program and institution — the ranking metric.
College Scorecard, Field of Study
2020-21 cohortsMedian graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.
Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes
latest availableGraduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.
NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk
CIP 2020 / SOC 2018Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.
O*NET Database 30.3
30.3Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.
Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA
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