psychgradstudent

Dr. Ben Kuo - University of Windsor

Hey I'm in a clinical psychology program, and I will be very honest in saying that it's hard to be a super productive researcher in such a program because we take many more classes than students in a research-only program, and we also have to do approximately 2 days of clinical work/week. That's not to say that it can't be done, but you definitely have to want to make the time for it. The supervisor plays a huge role in this. Some supervisors area all about research, and so they'll push you to get your research out and provide you with data/opportunities to get involved in their own research, whereas others acknowledge that some students just want to be clinicians and understand that the masters thesis and dissertations are just something you have to do to graduate. My supervisor is research oriented, and I really like it, because I'd like to keep my options open post graduation. Also, I'm not sure if you're Canadian or American, but in Canada a good research record goes a long way in terms of getting scholarships, so it's really helpful to have someone who helps you and encourages you to publish and present.

I think one's perspective of Windsor really depends on where he/she is coming from. I'm from Toronto, and so I found Windsor, extremely small (e.g, only one major mall - that is slowly improving) but at the same time, I absolutely love the lack of traffic. It's a city where you would want to have a car, and you can get around super easily. There are some nice gems like the riverside and the restaurants, but it's definitely got a small town feel to me. On the contrary, there's a girl in my program who comes from a small town in Ontario, and she thinks Windsor is amazing because it has all the big box stores she was not able to access in her hometown, so it's all about your reference point.

Hey I don't know much about OISE, but I can speak to the Windsor program. The child track takes almost the exact same courses as the adult track, with the exception of adult assessment, and the mandatory 8 month therapy placement at the on campus clinic. Child students take more classes overall than the adult students, so we also take developmental psychopathology, advanced research methods and developmental theory, survey of child therapies, child assessment, and child/adolescent therapy. There are students in the child program with an interest in adolescents/emerging adults specifically, and they just tend to opt for some child practicum placements and some adult ones as opposed to doing all child placements. - if you have any other questions let me know

Hey That happened to me in 2012. I had emailed the prof indicating that I was really interested in coming, and then somehow all of a sudden got an offer.... I generally find Ryerson's process quite shady, and from what I've heard from others they seem to jerk a lot of people around. I was declined, then interviewed, then declined again, then made an offer, and then i decided to decline them...