UofT2015

Hey @tnt92, I believe they gave about 6 weeks. My acceptance letter was dated April 1st and I received it in the mail on April 7 (it fell during the Easter long weekend i.e. no mail Friday and Monday). It may have been around the 3rd week of May. I've personally really enjoyed the 2 year program, similar to what others have said the first term was the hardest and had the most assignments that felt clumped together. As well as wishingonuoft I did my Bachelors in Psychology and minored in Gender Studies but I took a gap year between programs. I'm finding the concepts very similar between psychology and social work although social work tends to look at systemic pieces as well. I've found there to be a lot more reading as it is a graduate level program but many professors adopt a "harm reduction approach" i.e. there are 5 assigned readings, make sure to read at least one. After the first term courses became significantly easier. I would even recommend taking one or two courses over the summer to lighten the load for year 2 given that you're also in placement 3 days/week. I did this and I find that's it has really reduced my stress level. As wishingonuoft has said the placement system is horrible. I was not as lucky as them and I did not get matched multiple times. Given the number of students vs. placements there is no guarantee for a hospital placement even as an advanced standing student. I believe there are about 250 of us total (combined 2nd year and advanced standing) competing for placements and hospitals in general tend to be the most popular. UofT does tend to like research and in my cohort everyone who was accepted had at least an A- in research. The website says that you should have at least a mid-B in all courses but depending on how competitive the cohort is the higher your marks are the better. I know some people have upgraded courses through Athabasca if they are trying to make themselves a more competitive applicant. I know this isn't in response to me but I would just add in that the advanced standing program is fairly intense as they are taking 4 courses plus 3 days practicum in the fall and 3 courses plus 3 days practicum in the winter. Many that I know chose to do summer courses to lighten their load. Many of my friends and I have found that placement itself is very exhausting emotionally and it's a long day and we don't really complete schoolwork at night, generally that's what weekends are for. And I say that having taken 2 classes and placement each term in my second year so I can't personally imagine taking 3 or 4 although many people have. It really depends on your own limits and how much you can take on. Many placements are located downtown, or within one token use on TTC (so anywhere between Etobicoke and Scarborough) for the most part, however some are in other cities (Oshawa, Markham, Peterborough for example). I don't remember there being any government placements and neither do the 2 people I'm currently sitting with but there are placements at TCDSB and TDSB however they prefer that you have use of a car as you're frequently going between multiple schools in a day.

I had about a year of experience but most people I know didn't unless they completed a thesis for their bachelors

Hi all, I'm currently finishing up the 2nd year of the 2 year program at U of T and will be graduating in June. Please let me know if you have any questions and I'll do my best to answer them!

So as far as I am aware OGS and OSAP are two entirely separate entities. OGS is not income dependent you just have to write a research proposal, and interestingly enough it doesn't even matter if you follow through on it. They just want to see your idea. OSAP is still a funding process that you can go through and I know for at least U of T if you qualify for OSAP there are many needs-based grants that you can qualify for once in the program.

I speak in this forum as a member of UofT FIFSW Class of 2017. It's clear that Ye has his opinions and they are unlikely to change. I think this forum would be better served getting back to its original purpose of helping one another as it was used during my application cycle. Yes, applications are in now but that doesn't mean you can't provide encouraging words to one another. My other recommendation would be to ignore Ye and not engage as many have found his posts inflammatory. Obviously you all can make your own decisions but this forum has gotten a bit out of hand.

Just my 2 cents on funding for UofT...I'm currently a student in their 2 year MSW program. Upfront UofT does not offer funding, however there is a Policy on Student Financial Support. Many students are reliant on OSAP and when OSAP is filled out it gets reported to UofT and then they calculate if there is any additional need through which a bursary called UTAPS is used. If you qualify for the full amount of OSAP you get about half of the tuition costs through UTAPS (this year around $5700 was given). FIFSW also has a scholarship process that you apply for in October, find out if you get funding in December and the money is dispersed in January. These are a mix of merit-based and needs-based awards. I believe the faculty does their best to give everyone who applied something. With all that being said, there is a lot of money UofT is providing, it just doesn't seem like it because it's not offered upon acceptance into the program. Below is the link to the Financial Policy if anyone is interested! http://www.governingcouncil.utoronto.ca/Assets/Governing+Council+Digital+Assets/Policies/PDF/ppapr301998.pdf

How weird! I went and got mine on May 6th, they didn't say a thing...I guess it just depends on who's working that day

I received my acceptance package from U of T in the mail today! So happy to finally know what I'll be doing in the fall! And it's an added bonus to get accepted to my #1. Still waiting to hear from York though.

New poster here, I don't know why I didn't think of checking these forums earlier. Not Laurier specific, but I'm wondering if all programs are sending out acceptances/rejections based on application date