paidean

For those of you who have been accepted to multiple programmes, how did/will you decide which to attend? Obviously there are personal factors that contribute to your decision, but are there are specific things you've heard about the different schools that would swing your decision one way or another? I don't feel like I have a good grasp of the reputations of the individual programmes. I am very much interested in research as well as clinical training, so I feel the most drawn to Dal, UWO, and U of A, but beyond what I've read on their websites I'm not sure how I would pick between them (unless there was a substantial difference in potential funding -- not likely!). I know that Dal is three years versus 2.5 at U of A (with thesis), but that difference is fairly negligible to me in the long run. I guess I'm just interested in hearing about your decisions and rationales for said decisions, and hopeful that I might glean some insight from your experiences.

I'm not sure about others, but I received the e-mail about activating my Western Identity on February 16th (Subject: Thank you for applying to the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Western University).

No worries! Unfortunately, I think you're looking at an additional tuition payment in the summer similar to what you pay in the winter term.

Their fee schedule for the Winter 2016 semester says the following: Canadian Total: 3,795.47 Tuition: 3,480.33 Student Union/Health/Dental: 120.69 Building & Endowment: 41.27 Univ: 153.18 For the fall semester: Total: 4,449.80 Tuition: 3,613.67 SU/Health/Dental: 641.68 Building/Endowment: 41.27 Univ: 153.18 http://www.registrar.uwo.ca/student_finances/fees_refunds/pdfs%20fee%20schedule%20/Winter%202016%20Fee%20Schedule%20Grad%20CDN.pdf http://www.registrar.uwo.ca/student_finances/fees_refunds/pdfs%20fee%20schedule%20/Fall%202015%20Fee%20Schedule%20Grad%20CDN.pdf

Same! It gives me the following error: Sorry, there is a problem The page you are trying to access is not available for your account. Error code: 2C171/1

Maybe this? It's pretty old now, though, and much of the information has since changed. https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-child-studies/sites/ca.centre-for-child-studies/files/uploads/files/university_survey_2008_speech.pdf

These numbers are from 2007, so program sizes may have changed since then (the only one I'm sure of is UBC, which increased to 36 over the past year): Dalhousie 23 McGill 27 Alberta 44 UBC 36 Toronto 45 Western 30

Yeah, unfortunately the lack of standardization in grading across the country (and even within the same university sometimes), makes a standardized GPA assessment system such as ORPAS really hard to make fair for everyone. I remember feeling angry at the system the first time I applied, but I guess I've come to accept that it's just the way it is. In my programme, the grading scheme was A- = 90, A = 94, A+ = 97, all of which would earn an A+ at many universities. Unfortunately my transcript shows converted letter grades and not percentages, so I just have to suck it up and take all of those 3.7s and 3.9s that other students would receive 4.0s for! Fortunately, I took a few levelling courses at another university that uses the typical Ontario scheme where A+ = 90, so that helps a little at least.

Can confirm this! I applied two years ago, and received a letter saying I was waitlisted on March 31st. Classmates received their acceptances at the same time. Dal's decision came a few days later in the first week of April (I think around the 4th). Come to think of it, all of the decisions (well, rejections and wait lists anyway ) came within 4-5 days that year around the beginning of April. Maybe the extended deadline has something to do with their new application system (which I think is so awesome). Everything was mailed/couriered to the Department previously, which I would imagine involved at least a little more work on the administrative side of things before the applications could be reviewed? Or maybe they will just be a little later this year. It's all a big mystery from the outside.

You're totally right that a B (= 3.0 at UofT) is the technical minimum, but they state elsewhere on their website that successful candidates typically have an average of at least A- over their last 10 full credits. That's not to say that outstanding candidates won't get admitted with a B average, because they certainly do sometimes! "Because there are many applications for a small number of places, the admission process is highly competitive. Although the minimal requirement for applying to our program requires an average mid-B, successful applicants typically have an A- average or higher in their last two years of study (i.e., 10 full credits). Each application is reviewed independently by the members of the Admission and Awards Committee and is ranked relative to the other applications." http://www.slp.utoronto.ca/admissions/how-to-apply/

I just have to say that your GRE scores are amazing! When I took the GRE a few years back, I sort of let it slide while I was working full-time and it snuck up on me. I hadn't studied, but because it was already paid for (with no prayer for a refund) I figured -- what the heck -- it could be a test run if nothing else. I ended up not doing awful, but your scores put mine to shame! Congrats on your academic achievements in general! I don't think you'll have to worry about your minimal volunteer experience at all.

Hi! I'm sorry I can't offer any information about Athabasca/UofT, but I did Physiology 1000X/Y as an online/distance course through Dalhousie. In case it's of any use to you or others, I'll post a little review of the course. The coursework involved 10 online "labs", 6 assignments, and 4 exams. Labs (12%): For most labs we had at most two weeks and at least one week to complete the activities. They were done through the PhysioEx 9.0 platform (online) and involved formulaic activities: overview, pre-test, lab activity, post-test, then a lab quiz on the course website. The activities basically just involved following instructions for clicking things on screen, answering 1 or 2 true/false or multiple choice questions, writing down a few numbers/observations, and then answering 10-15 multiple choice/short answer questions on the course website. Although easy, they did take me a few hours to complete each time. Assignments (12%): Consisted of 35-40 multiple choice questions that could be answered open book. We generally had the whole "block" (1-2 months) to finish them. You could only submit the assignments once, but they weren't timed so you could go in and out of the assignment and change your answers as many times as you liked until the deadline or until you submitted. Easy to get 100% just by reading the chapters. Exams (18%/20%/20%/18%): Two hours and 90 multiple-choice questions. Questions were definitely a bit trickier than those on assignments, but the correct answer was usually apparent if you had done the readings and a bit of studying. Knowing the gist of a topic wasn't enough for most of these -- you really had to know or be able to deduce quite specific answers. The class mean on the exams was ~ 73-75%. I actually found the content quite interesting, which surprised me! In spite of a bad experience taking intro biology many, many years ago, I really got into the material of this course and loved it. There was a bit of overlap of material that I had previously learned, but only in the nervous system chapters (I had already taken a few neuroanatomy/biopsych courses). Admittedly, I often let studying for the course slide until the last minute because I was more focussed on brick-and-mortar classes, but with minimal studying I was able to achieve an A in the course. I would highly recommend following the study schedule provided by the prof, no matter what course you end up taking -- it will make life that much easier, and you will end up doing so much better in the end. With a bit more consistent studying an A+ would certainly be easily attained in the course. Good luck!

I found this slightly frustrating too, xjmi. The university where I completed my undergrad uses a 4.3 scale, however, an A- is 90%, A 94%, and A+ 97%. I did some courses at another university after graduating where an A- was above 80%, an A above 85%, and an A+ above 90%. I couldn't believe how lax the grading was. Yet both schools were assigned to the same scale (7) in the ORPAS conversion, and because my alma mater uses a 4.3 scale, my GPA was also lower than I was used to seeing. I understand that it's just how the system works and no system is perfect, but when I consider that any alpha grade from A- to A+ in my undergraduate program is technically equivalent to the percentage grade of an A+ at UofT and many other schools, it makes me regret not looking into these things before starting my undergrad!

Congrats, kk!

Congrats on your acceptance to the PhD programme at McGill, PsycD! That's a huge achievement! I was wondering if that might be the case, as I had only seen PhD programme entries on the results page. It's reading week for students at McGill this week, so I suspect the admissions committee will be finalising decisions for the M.Sc.A and sending out the first round of acceptances by mid-month. Only a few days away, kk -- Try to enjoy the time that you have now! Worrying about acceptances now can't change your application or the outcome of the committee's decision, so just relax and enjoy each day as much as you can! In the grand scheme, knowing today vs. two weeks from now won't be of a whole lot of importance. Decisions will be made when they are made, and worrying about it does nothing but ruin each moment from now until then!