magfish

ROSI is down for maintenance Friday's from 6-10. Doesn't mean anything.

I got into Lakehead's HBSW yesterday! Not a masters but it's a post-degree program so I figured it was cool to post here. Anyone else get into the Thunder Bay campus? Everyone on the social work thread seems to have gotten into Orillia, would be awesome to chat to anyone else who heard from TBay!

How clinical a program is is definitely worth considering if you have an idea of what you want to do after you graduate! Didn't realize how important it was till I started looking into programs. Not to say you won't be able to do certain things if your degree is more / less clinical, but if my degree is training me for future work then I want to be trained in stuff that matters to me. Thanks so much! It was a really exciting surprise. It's not my first choice (quite far away from my family & partner, I would have to turn down my summer job) but it's nice to know I've gotten in somewhere at least, and it would be awesome to get my BSW in 12 months. I'm currently finishing up my undergrad in history with a minor in gender studies and a certificate in sexual diversity at Queen's! History is going to be one of the problems with my application, it's not technically a 'social science' but it's in the 'humanities' category, which means I'm worried it won't be seen as relevant or related enough. But I made sure to talk about it in my application and how I take courses in social history and have supplemented my learning with gender studies courses as well. If you're worried about your first degree I would look into trying to take a related class or two (an online intro to social work class maybe).

Thanks for the kind words everyone! I'm still holding out for U of T and hoping to hear back from St. Thomas as well, but this is all really reassuring to hear. I know how competitive the program is and I was worried that I was going to be hugely disadvantaged because my degree is in history - it's not even a "social science", its "humanities", so I was worried that the seemingly unrelatedness of it would disadvantage me. Even though Lakehead isn't my first choice it's making me think I have a slightly better shot than I thought I did. I definitely would not love the winters. Living in Kingston the winters are already worse than I'm used to in Toronto and I hate winter so so much, but it would only be for a year. I could handle it. It's also awesome to hear about the community in Thunder Bay and the opportunities - I admit while the small program really appeals to me I was a bit worried about that but it sounds like that isn't going to be a big issue. Good luck to any of you still waiting to hear!!

I got into Lakehead Thunder Bay (anyone else?)! Heart is pounding and I am doing some combination of crying and laughing and feeling hysterical. Even though the HBSW is not my first choice (I don't really want to live that far away, and it starts in July so I would have to cut my summer job short and turn down explore if I got that opportunity this summer) it is so so so relieving to actually be admitted somewhere. It makes me feel like I have a chance at the other programs and it is just so nice to know that I will actually be doing something next year. I finally feel like this is an achievable goal. Congrats to everyone else who got in and good luck to everyone still waiting on acceptances!!

Out of all of my programs - U of T's two year master is my first choice. I could live at home, spend more time with my partner (U of T law), and I like the research components. Of the BSWs, St. Thomas is my current first choice - though that may change. Although it's 15 months and a little annoying (Sept 15 - Dec 16, couldn't apply directly to an MSW - but a forced 8 month break may be nice), I like a lot of things about it. I'd rather be out East than in Thunder Bay. Plus I love St. Thomas's structural/post structuralist, less clinical and more social "justice" based approaches. Ideally I want to go into community organising / activism, I'd love to work with LGBTQ youth or victims of domestic violence / sexual assault. I feel like I am in the minority of not wanting to do exclusively clinical work (I have some experience doing intake at a foodbank, I like it but don't see myself doing it every year for the rest of my life) but I still think social work is where I most want to be!

No. This has been answered at least a dozen times before, multiple in the past few days. If you search back through the forum for ROSI you'll find the answer on how to get your student number & sign in.

Nothing for me yet on ROSI. Still choosing to believe that this is not the end. It's not the end till I have the rejection in my hands. Congrats to everyone who heard today!!

I'm applying for both BSW & MSW programs this time around. I see you're in Canada too, hello! I chose to apply to BSWs as well as MSWs because I know I have lower chances of getting into the MSWs without more work experience, and because my degree is in history & gender studies. There are a few options if you don't want to do a whole 'nother degree again - I applied for the two one-year programs I could find (Lakehead in Thunder Bay [though they offer it at their Orillia campus too!] and St. Thomas in Fredericton New Brunswick). There are also two-year and three-year BSWs out there. Off the top of my head: York is two years, I believe UBCs is two years, Dalhousie is three. So lots of options if you don't want to do a whole separate degree but go into the "post-degree" direction. @adacot - most of the programs in Canada seem to want a BSW or at least two years full-time experience (1700 - 3000+ hours!!) which I don't think is necessarily the same in the states?

There's definitely a lot of information in this post that I agree with, but I think just to clarify: not being able to move somewhere like rural Alberta to start a respite care business does not mean that those of us who can't do it don't "want it badly enough". Frankly, the cost of moving and cost of living somewhere rural (especially if you head up far north!) would be highly prohibitive for me, whereas if I stay in school I can (hopefully) live at home or in cheap student accommodations and continue to receive government loans plus the CPP I only get if I'm a student. Tuition is expensive, yes, but taking on OSAP is still better imho than a line of credit to do work somewhere I don't want to be in a field I ultimately don't want to end up in (and will probably make less doing than working at a restaurant + tips). I think, for me personally, taking more courses would actually be a big boost to my application because I'm currently in history and want to show that my skills are transferable to sociology / psychology / anthropology / other "related" fields (and getting to take an online intro to social work course would be awesome!). Plus, my grades are alright but I'm not anything amazing, if I could supplement these grades with some better ones that would help for schools like U of T where academics / research seem to be a focus. Also, I think I would (personally) rather work somewhere unrelated for a year (I'll probably end up at the restaurant my cousin works at, hopefully supplementing with march break camps / closer related things on a short term basis) and volunteering somewhere that IS related to my interests (a non-profit with a focus on domestic violence survivors or a shelter that works with LGBTQ youth, for example) than working a job in a place I don't want to be far away from my support system (who I am already struggling being ~3 hours away from) doing something that ultimately I don't want to be doing. Not trying to discount what you said - you presented a lot of awesome ideas and I think if I don't get in anywhere you've given me stuff to think about in terms of creative ways to find work experience with no related degree - but just to give another perspective of at least where I'm coming from with my "plan b" (which would really end up being more of a plan "f" based on how many schools I applied to) being unrelated work w/ related volunteer experience & academic work.

I knew it wasn't worth building up my hope that we'd hear anything by today but it's still such a let down checking ROSI & my OUAC and seeing nothing. For those commenting on plan b's: if I don't get into any of the programs I applied to, I'll probably take the year off to work. Unfortunately, I can't actually get my summer job if I'm not still in school, so I think I would also (and to improve application chances) take a few online courses through somewhere like Athabasca or my own school's distance studies program. More in sociology / maybe a psych and it looks like Athabasca has a social work course, so I'd probably take those and then try and get a job close-ish to the field and make some money.

Well, it's 10 to six and no rosi updates now. I'm going to shut off for the weekend and try to just think happy thoughts. Stay strong everyone - Monday brings a new day & new hope!!

I'm gonna be totally honest, I have stopped checking my SGS. I am so so terrified it'll be 'decision made' and my ROSI will still be blank which I think is as good a sign as any that its a rejection, and at the very least ROSI is haven't heard or accepted, it isn't the same finality of rejection. Does that make sense? Ahhh this is driving me crazy.

I am pretty sure if it ever does change I'm going to have a heart attack. Or faint or something. Yikes. I totally agree about the supportive community!! I've had a couple people think I'm stupid for coming on these forums but honestly, I don't know anyone else applying to this type of program and it is so reassuring to have a group of us to stress with and be excited for. Thanks for keeping me mostly sane, y'all!

4:10 and still no ROSI change. I knew getting my hopes up that Friday would be a day of acceptances was silly, but ugh. Thank god I've got an insanely busy and distracting weekend planned! Everyone remember to practice some self-care these next few days - this is so stressful but we all deserve to take some time for ourselves if we can.

Nothing on my ROSI either. At this point I just want it to be 6 because that's when the weekend will start in my mind and I can ignore* all of this anxiety and stress until Monday. * only refresh the pages twice a day instead of twice an hour

I will say, I totally expected/figured there'd be more acceptances but having it more or less confirmed is a nice feeling. Plus the got my transcript from last semester this morning so I am feeling a lot more relieved about my application over all. Alright, March, hurry up and end so this torture can be over! (Also this degree that no longer matters to me, also this never-ending winter.)

Thanks for getting in touch with Sonya! I wasn't expecting to hear till April but was hoping it would be a little earlier. Fingers crossed it'll be next week or the week after - though it sounds like we won't find out till we get the letters? Then again, I imagine they'd put it up on OUAC too?? Good luck everyone!

Gah I kind of hope it's not Friday!! I work Fridays 2-6 and then rosi shuts down from 6-10, and I work at a coffee shop so I can't actually be checking much. Maybe I'll go to the bathroom around 5 and check from there, though the bathroom is in the back of the building and has terrible internet. :s But yes, if I can check in the afternoon I will and will try and keep you all updated. Trying not to get my hopes up for Friday though; we have no confirmation that's the case but wouldn't it be great if it was! If more people get accepted this Friday I'll be more inclined to believe it, which would be nice since I won't have to stress all next week again. (Won't have to... probably still will.) One thing I'm actually kind of hopeful about is that those of you who get into U of T will turn down offers at other places (like Lakehead) which may increase my chances if I don't get into U of T. Silver linings...?

Yes, definitely meant to write BSW - hope the rest of my post made that clear enough.

I have no idea what school you're even talking about right now - U of T does not have an MSW program, and if Laurier does I don't know much about it. And that may be true for that specific schools program, but I know for a fact there are 1 & 2 year BSW programs that are post-degree specifically, aka, they only accept people who are post bachelor's in another field, and then do an accelerated social work degree. Does that make sense? Just, again, something to look into if everything goes wrong and you do decide to go through the process again.

I'm not sure where you heard that but I literally haven't heard that from anyone else. From all of my understanding, the post-degree BSW's are designed for people who realized they wanted to do a BSW, but had already finished (any other 'related') degree and thus didn't want to do 3-4 more years of school. I'm just saying, I know you're upset and you definitely have the right to be - it's such a stressful upsetting place to be in for all of us. But 1) you still may get into U of T or Laurier, they have sent out some acceptances but nothing I have heard says they've sent out all of them yet (which would also be silly because no programs really accept like that anyways) and 2) I would do more research into the post degree BSWs and which ones are geared towards people with 4 year degrees, since, yeah, I never heard anything about that whole 3 vs 4 year thing and frankly it seems kind of redundant and strange. Why offer a post-degree program if you really meant it as an honours style "post general degree" program?? Good luck with everything!

I don't think it's that vague. I think it's pretty clear that between the period of mid-March and mid-April they will be continuing to send out applications. Granted, I have no idea how it works for social work but I know that U of T's law school has multiple rounds / waves of admissions - though I don't know how they arrange who gets in on what wave. I was coming to report the same email from Angela - I asked about sending a transcript and she gave me the above response and then said I could if I wanted to, though didn't say if it would impact my thing or not. I have to hope if all the decisions had been made already she would have just said no don't bother (but who knows) so I'm couriering them another transcript so they have my last semester marks (which includes my research methods course). Basically: I am just as anxious and nervous as everyone but I am forcing myself to believe that there is no way they have sent out all the acceptances and until mid-April there is absolutely no reason to think that no news is bad news. Who knows why some people have been accepted and some haven't yet, but again, I think we have at least a month to go before we all decide we're not in. Good luck to everyone stressing along with me!! I think I'd feel better if I knew my other programs were going to start sending things out soon. I have a much better shot I think at my one year BSWs but those I won't know till end of March/early April, so this U of T thing is even worse because nothing else is progressing anywhere else yet. Ugh. TOO MUCH STRESS.

Same boat about you guys! It's all ups and downs here. Up: reference told me I definitely deserved a place in grad school. Down: realized I never sent in an updated transcript so they don't even HAVE my research methods course mark so I've emailed Angela about if it's too late to do that. Gahhhh I am on an EMOTIONAL ROLLERCOASTER and I just want to get off, even if I don't get in.

Totally in the same boat as you. It's frustrating because I'm so done with my program and it's hard to motivate myself to write an essay about the spanish civil war when I know it isn't related at all to what I want to do. But I know my marks will matter if I get a conditional acceptance / if I have to reapply next year, but it's just.... Ugh I have no idea. Senioritis combined with my friends who have all gotten into their programs of choice and are all excited and I'm just waiting and wondering... I have no answer for you to be honest. I'm trying to force myself through on the knowledge that I DO still need to do well if everything goes to shit with this application process, and I'm trying to use essays / work to put the thought of whats coming out of my mind.... doesn't mean I don't still check this site / my application portals multiple times a day! Seriously good luck though, and if you come up with any good motivational strategies let me know. ><