SwagMaster

I had a similar academic background as you! I did my BA in SDS (2016) and then did the BSW (2017), both at Waterloo. I'm currently doing my MSW at UofT. You definitely have higher grades and more experience than I did when I got in, which hopefully means good things for you. I feel like what really helped my application were my solid references and academic research experience. When I was doing my research of MSW programs, all the schools I came across that had statistics on this had a higher acceptance rate for Advanced Standing programs versus 2-year programs.

Could you email them to let them know?

5 full-credit courses will typically be 10 courses. Under this system, a 4-year degree requires 20 credits. So 5 credits will be 25% of the courses required for a 4 year degree. Another way to look at is is that a 0.5 credit course has around 3 contact hours per week over a term of 4 months. A 1 credit course has around 3 contact hours per week over 2 terms (8 months).

So far I've secured my 2 PAS interviews, and I have a third interview from one of the competitive practicums. My first interview is tomorrow actually! I've still seen good practicums trickle onto PAS every now and then. What's your ideal practicum look like?

CONGRATS! That is such great news! Welcome to the program. We're in the midst of getting practicum interviews. Glad you could join us at this exciting time :)

I received admission to the MPH in mid-March. I had about a month to respond, and I responded sometime around the deadline. I turned down the offer so that I could do my Masters of Social Work at UofT.

It definitely sounds like you're on the right track, and I agree that the additional experience will help your application tremendously. I've previously applied to graduate schools and got rejected across the board, so don't give up!

Hi there, I got into UofT health promo this year although I declined my offer. Here are my two cents. I'm sure you've looked at the program's website before, and there is a particular part of the website that answers the question: How do we assess applications to the MPH Program in Social and Behavioural Health Sciences (Health Promotion)? I read this part a million times and made sure work on my application according to this answer. You have a very strong GPA and your references come from reputable sources, which is great! However, my suggestion is to look beyond who is writing your letter, and focus more on what they are writing. Yes, having a reputable person write your reference letter is great, but is not enough to make your entire application great. My two references were not nearly as "reputable" or well-known as yours. Mine came from a fairly new assistant professor at my undergrad institution and my former supervisor (with no experience in public health) when I worked in a social services organization. I have a great relationship with both of them, and they both assured me that they gave me glowing recommendations. I also want to draw your attention to the line on the program website that says, "experience with marginalized populations and social justice issues within health care settings is given considerable weight." I've been working as a social worker for 1.5 years and with the knowledge that they want people who work with marginalized populations, I really milked this point hard on my resume and letter of intent. In your gap year, I encourage you to volunteer or find work working with marginalized people. Then, find a way to relate these experiences back to social determinants of health, health inequities, social justice issues, health interventions, public health policy, evidence based-practice in health, etc., and talk about this in your letter of intent. There really are no easy tricks into getting the program. It's really just about figuring out exactly what they want, and do everything you can to present yourself from that angle. This was very long, but I hope this helps.

Meanwhile in parts of Ontario, we are still waiting for the snow to melt from this week's ice storm LOL

I only applied to one public health program this year, which was the UofT MPH Health Promo. I will be declining the offer though.

@sheisgreat There are also many research-based MSc programs in public health. So that's another option for people interested in public health research.

After you accept an offer, you always have the option to drop out. But if you pay non-refundable fees, you just likely won't be able to get that money back.

I did a BA, then straight into a post grad BSW. I tried to get into an MSW right after my BSW, but didn't get in anywhere. From my BSW class, the only people who got into an MSW right away were those who had full time work experience before their BSW, or had a related college diploma before their undergraduate degree. I worked for a year, and I will be returning to school to do my MSW this September. Was it difficult to get a job with a BSW? Well let me put it this way, I don't think that it's ever easy to get your first job. I live in the GTA, and I applied for every job that I sort-of qualified to do in the GTA, for about 2 months. After 2 months, I managed to find a related full-time permanent position. I consider myself very fortunate though. I was among the first among my peers to get a position -- not because I'm an outstanding social worker in any way, but mostly because my girlfriend is incredibly talented at everything and taught me everything about how to land a job. Some of my former classmates took positions at their practicum organization (which I could have done but didn't want to), some went back to working where they worked before their BSW, some are in multiple part-time positions, some found completely new full-time positions (like me), and some are still unemployed. So in summary, I would say that getting a job with a BSW is not easy, and can be sometimes difficult -- really depends on your experience and how well you can sell yourself.

http://socialwork.utoronto.ca/admissions/admissions-faqs/ You can defer. Don't know how the process works though.

No problem! Also wanted to add that from experience, getting a job with just a BSW was tough! For every job that I qualified for there were 2 or 3 job postings that required an MSW. Definitely easier with an MSW!

Just repeating what the school says... They say that your intended (for 2 year) or selected (for advanced standing) field of study doesn't play a factor in your chances of getting in. They increase the number of sections for the more popular options so that there is enough room in each class. Source: Angela at last year's information session.

If I were in your position, I would take the MSW in a heartbeat! This is such a great opportunity you have been given! I'm honestly quite confused about what this person is talking about. By that logic, if organizations don't think MSW grads are ready to work in the field, then these organizations certainly won't think that BSW grads are ready to work in the field. You may not get your perfect dream job right out of school, but very few people do. No matter what you graduate with, BSW then MSW or just MSW, the degree will get your foot in the industry. It's how you build your career that will determine where you end up working.

@Nervousme Those are some great ideas! I think it's important to self-reflect and identify the weakest part of your application. You won't gain as much by making the strongest part of your application better, but you gain a lot by making the weakest part of your application better (cause y'know... diminishing marginal returns! haha) Just wanted to mention that for some people who are struggling with getting relevant experience, a BSW can certainly help with that too. You'll get 1 year of relevant social work experience, and it's not uncommon to get hired by your BSW placement after graduation. Also, BSW programs won't require you to need as much experience to get into the program -- usually just enough to show that you're committed to becoming a social worker.

Yes I do! I tend to use those two terms interchangably, but you're right, officially its called research methods.

This is an interesting change. Do you mind passing on any information on this legislation I'm interested in reading more about it. Thanks!

It's quite rare to get into your MSW directly from undergrad, but there's so much you can do to improve your application. Here are just a few ideas for anyone to improve their chances at the UofT program that I've picked up throughout the years: - Get more related experience (obviously). UofT really cares about the number of hours (as opposed to the number of months/years), so you should really try to get more direct experience where you can, paid or unpaid. - boost your stats mark if it's low. At the information session, they kept pushing that no one got in the past couple years with a stats mark under a B. They recommended retaking it if you need to. (Angela typically mentions Athabasca university, as you can do it online) - College programs. There are lots that you can try. They seem to really like people who have done a SSW diploma (and i think that some have a placement as well?). - Research experience. UofT's program is very research oriented -- you can tell just by reading the course descriptions. In past forums, people often talked about how much UofT values research experience (related to SW or not!). I often find some organizations around my community that are recruiting research volunteers. - BSW. This makes it way easier to get into an MSW afterwards. I did mine at uWaterloo (Renison). The 10-month program is not online actually. To get in, you need 10 prerequisite courses or equivalent, most (if not all) can be taken online. It can be a bit of a gamble, because you need to pay and take the prereq courses for a chance to get in. I can speak more to this if you have more questions. - References. People so often neglect the importance of references, but they are so so SO important and you should take them seriously. At the last information session, Angela said that we would be surprised by the number of reference letters they get that are not positive! Here's my tip: When asking for a reference, always ask if they have the time to write you a positive reference. Better to know then than to submit it in your application. - Do more research about what kind of applicant they are looking for and what the program values. This point is really about program fit, and how you can convey that to the admissions committee. For example, UofT values research, so one tip I got from a previous student was to mention what research topics interest you, or say that you would want to do the thesis under the supervision of professor X. Another example is to look at the course description and explain why this program's courses interest you because of your previous experiences. I hope I didn't forget anything, but this is the list I had in my head when preparing for my applications. I hope this helps you!

A lot of people are talking about Angela's vague response of "All decisions will be mailed out by the end of the week" I actually had a similar conversation with Angela about this when I spoke to her in person at one of the information sessions last year. What she told me is that the only OFFICIAL source of your decision is the letter mailed out by the school of graduate studies. And due to that, there is a really limited amount of information that the can give you until that letter is sent. (Don't want to step on the toes of the school of graduate studies.) Since the acorn status is "unofficial" she can't officially tell you about why you do or do not see "Invited". She also told me that all letters for each program are typically all sent out at once, unless they choose to make an exception for whatever reason. So whether or not the "Invited" statuses are updated in multiple batch jobs, the letters typically are sent out in one go. Of course this is all subject to change. Hope this helps.

The advanced standing results for UofT came out in February. The ones coming out now are for the 2 year.

Hi, There are several screenshots of it on page 11 of this forum. If it doesn't say "Invited" you won't see anything at all. The "invited" is typically also visible on mobile devices. Hope this helps.

The email I got didn't go into the details of when you have to accept by. I'm guessing for that information I would have to wait for the package in the mail. Other programs give you around 4 weeks, so I would guess that it's similar to that.