smpalesh

LP3 - Unfortunately Laurier doesn't allow monitoring online. They will email you to let you know that your application is complete. I submitted mine for the advanced standing on December 1 (cutting it close lol) and I received an email on December 11 saying my application was received and is complete. Now all we can do is wait until February. I applied last year as well and was waitlisted. The dates can vary but last year people got acceptance emails somewhere around February 21st. The rejections are done by snail mail, not sure why. Most people received rejections by the 23rd. Since I had not received either I was confused but on February 26th I received an email offering me a spot on the wait list. So it's going to be at least a couple more months.

Be careful with going over the word limit. The admission committee wants to see that you can express yourself articulately while also being succinct. For example, Laurier will not read past the word count that was called for. I would say don't go over by more than 20 at the very most. Everyone has the same word count to express what they want to express and going to far over the count may negatively affect your application.

As an "older" student (35 yrs old, married, 3 kids) I will tell you that the name brand of your college in the future will be a LOT less important than the amount of debt you're carrying. I have a lot of debt from school, my husband's school and other things and it really negatively affects the quality of our life. It takes a lot longer to pay down debt than you think. I don't know about either of those schools but it sounds like the one that will lead to virtually no debt is a good school so I would definitely go with that.

Why are you applying now if you don't want to go until 2016? Why would you just not apply in 2016? I don't know how it is in the US but in Canada we are not allowed to defer acceptances unless there is a really, really good reason.

How are you planning to handle social work at a graduate level when you couldn't at an ungraduated level? I don't mean to be rude, but social work is about a LOT more than showing up on time and doing your assignments. There is no proof that anyone screwed you over, maybe they didn't think you were suitable for the social work profession. I highly doubt someone would fail field education without a good reason.

You are not going to hear from a university BEFORE the deadline. The deadline means people can keep submitting applications up until that date. And it is also not uncommon to not hear anything for months. A deadline may be December 8 but admission offers may not go out until March for example. This process is not a fun one, you just have to be patient.

purplegrey - Mine NEVER changed to Decision Made even when I was accepted. I know a lot of people who had that happen too. It will say under review for months, until near the time when decisions go out. At that point it MIGHT change to decision made but it might not. I kept checking mine for a month after I knew I was accepted and it never updated. UofT does all their notifications by snail mail so even if it did change closer to the date it wouldn't say what the decision was, just that one was made. When it is decision time you will either get a small white envelope (rejection or waitlist) or a big envelope with a bunch of info in it (acceptance). Since you are applying to the 2 year program you won't hear anything from UofT or Laurier (I don't know about other schools) until April.

LP3 - One of my references had problems with the reference forms. It wouldn't let her submit them. I emailed them multiple times and finally they let her submit to them by email. I would email them if I were you bc they changed the system this year and I think there are some bugs. Don't feel bad about nagging your references either, I sure did!

So I did decide to take the advice of those here and rework my previous personal statement for Laurier. I rewrote portions of it and updated others but it was definitely a lot less stress to not have to start from scratch. I got everything compiled and submitted by noon so now all I have to do is wait....for 2.5 months... I am happy that I already know I am accepted at UofT but I would really rather go to school close to home so I am really hoping that I get accepted Laurier. I hope everyone still working on applications gets everything done with a minimal amount of stress!

Rox - I don't know about York but I know that UofT does not place as much weight on experience in regards to hours. I also know they do place a good deal of weight on the written statement. When I applied last year I had an A- average and about 2500 hours of experience. I made sure to write a really good written statement and focused on tying my interests with areas that the program covers. I was accepted (have deferred to next fall due to health issues) so it is possible to get accepted without years of experience. Oh, all of my experience was volunteer and my BSW practicum, I have no paid experience.

I am stressing so badly right now. I am applying for the advanced standing at Laurier and the due date is TOMORROW. I have not finished my personal statement yet. 2 weeks ago I had to go to where my family lives because my dad had a heart attack and we weren't sure if he was going to make it. He had heart surgery early last week and thankfully is home now but I just got home on the weekend and my brain is all scattered! Obviously I was not in the mindset to be working on it. So I basically have a couple of hours tomorrow (bc my brain shuts down this late at night) and have to drive to hand it in (I only live 15 minutes away) by 3pm-ish. Nothing like cutting it close! I am seriously considering just reworking my personal statement from last year (I applied and was waitlisted) but I know that is probably not a good idea. I don't know if I am going to get this done in time

Personally I think it sounds like you are overreacting. I have been in much more heated discussions than that in classes. You need to develop a thicker skin than that in social work because people are going to have very differing opinions.

Anyone applying to Laurier Advanced Standing? The December 1st deadline is coming fast and I am officially procrastinating on writing my written statement. For family reasons (I have a special needs son who has been doing well) I would really rather be in my hometown instead of commuting to UofT so I am really hoping I get into Laurier. I am concerned that my resume will be the nail in my coffin because it shows I graduated from my BSW at the end of June and I have done NOTHING since then. Well, nothing that a university cares about. I haven't worked and deferred going to UofT so my resume ends in June and now it's November. So I am concerned that that will ruin my chances. Only good thing is l only had an 83% average last year when I applied and I was only a couple of months into my placement for my BSW. Now I have an 87% average and I have a 10 month placement under my belt (I also have 5 years as a crisis line volunteer). I was waitlisted last year so here's hoping! This board is way slower than last year! Come on people, obsess with me! LOL

Jennbe - It totally depends on the school and also on whether you are applying for the 2 year or the advanced standing (already have BSW). I know for the advanced standing Laurier notifies in the last 2 weeks of February and UofT notifies the first couple weeks of March. Last year I heard from Laurier that I was on the waitlist on February 23 and I heard I was accepted to UofT on March 5. For the 2 year programs for those schools they are usually sometime in April. Other schools may have different timeframes. One thing I do know about Laurier is that this past cycle they notified the accepted people by email, then the rejected people got letters by snail mail, and it was a day after those letters came that I heard about being waitlisted. For UofT it was done by snail mail and if you are accepted you get a thick packet.

I am trying to finish my Laurier application and I am having trouble getting an academic reference because I've been out of school since spring. The first professor I asked said yes but said she can't get it in before Dec 1 so that is useless. This was a lot easier last year when I was still in school and could just ask a current professor. I have two professional references so I just need the academic and the deadline is 25 days away!

soapaddict - Yes, you can be rejected to grad school if your grades are too low, that's just the way it is. There has to be standards for graduate level work. If your average was on the cusp you may still have a chance if you have lots of experience but it will depend on the school. Some schools will automatically reject applications with a low GPA as a first round of weeding through applications.

blh22 - Another thing that I did was to look through the list of professors and see if there were any who had specific interest in my main area of interest. My specialization is Social Justice and Diversity and my specific area of interest is sexual assault and domestic violence in immigrant and refugee communities. When I looked through the professors I found one who had listed interest in both those areas so I made sure to mention how excited I was to have the opportunity to study under professor X as our areas of interest mesh well (I worded it more intelligently than that!). Just a little tip to show you're doing your research and focusing specifically on their program. The absolute worst thing is to just tweak your personal statements for each school. Write an entire new one for each school you are applying to or it will show that you are not completely focused on that specific school.

soapaddict - every MSW program I know does require a research course. I know for sure UofT does, as well as Laurier. Depending on your stream at UofT you might be required to take more than one (for example, the Social Justice and Diversity Stream has the basic research course and then a research course specific to social justice).

wnsk86 - I talked about my personal situation in a number of areas. If all you wrote was personal experience that would likely not be a good thing because they are wanting to know your suitability for the profession, but I wrote about being a student with a disability as well as my difficulties raising a child with special needs and how those areas have directly influenced my desire to go into the field of social work. I spent a long time on my written statement, making sure it said exactly what I intended for it to say, and I did end up getting in (I've deferred until next fall).

soapaddict - The advanced standing isn't condensed, it is only for people who already have a BSW. The two year option is for those coming straight out of undergrad studies and is 2 years because the first year is the foundational year and then the 2nd year is the same as the advanced standing year. For example at UofT the 2nd year of the 2 yr program and the advanced standing students have the same classes

LP3 - I was planning on commuting. I had everything in place but then my health failed and I had to opt out 2 weeks before the semester started. I had worked my schedule that I only had to go for classes 1 day a week and I was planning on taking the GO train. I also opted out of their practicum matching system and worked with their practicum office to find a placement in Kitchener. They say that is hard to do and discourage it but I know 3 people that did it for this year and we all found practicum in our area, it just took a little work. So all in all I would have only have been in Toronto 1 day a week. I am already accepted for the 2015 school year at UofT because they deferred my acceptance due to my health issues. I am applying to Laurier anyways because I figured I might as well try and I am also looking into other options. Likely, I will probably be at UofT next year (hopefully with some of you as classmates!) in the Social Justice and Diversity stream.

Does anyone know if Dalhousie distance MSW ever makes exceptions for the experience part of the application? I am interested in applying but I do not have full-time experience after my BSW. I have a child with special needs and my path got a bit derailed so all I have is 5 years of volunteer experience and 1 year practicum from my BSW. I don't want to waste time applying if is mandatory to have the 2 years work experience after the BSW.

Laurier is insanely hard to get into. I am not going to lie. I applied for the advanced standing last year and was waitlisted. I got into UofT (but had to defer). They only accept 28 students so it is very competitive. You also need to have at LEAST 3 years of experience, and they don't make exceptions for that. I am applying again this year because I would like to stay local if I can, but I am not holding out too much hope.

Thought I would start a new thread for the upcoming application cycle! Short intro about me: My name is Shawna, I graduated with my BSW in June of 2014. I applied to both Laurier and UofT for the Fall 2014 cycle and I was waitlisted to Laurier and accepted to UofT. Unfortunately due to personal reasons I was not able to attend UofT this year but thankfully they were very accommodating about deferring my acceptance to Fall 2015. So my current status is that I am already accepted to UofT for the advanced standing MSW for Fall 2015. I have also decided to re-apply to Laurier and hope my waitlist turns to an acceptance this time because I have children and ideally I would rather be close to home for my MSW.

I am burnt out as well. I did my undergrad over 6 years part-time and then just graduated with my BSW which I did full-time from September 2013-June 2014. I have kids as well so there is really no break time and while I am happy I was accepted and know that I need the MSW to get a good job in my area of interest I am SO not looking forward to another year of school. I feel like I need months to recover from the stress! No tips on how to handle it from me because I have no idea!