Sharbar

It's really so dependent on who the POI's first choice candidate decides to do. Typically, faculty will submit two names (sometimes three) as a shortlist, and their first choice gets the offer fo admission. If the candidate decides to accept an offer from a different school and rejects the offer in question, then the alternate (the waitlisted individual) will get admitted. Sometimes, towards the end of the application cycle, if not all the spots are filled in the program, a POI may decide to admit their first choice as well as their alternate. This happened in my lab! So, things CAN happen fairly quickly, but it can also be a little while before you have your final answer. 
 
I know people who have been accepted in both instances (CGS-M and for OGS). If you're able to secure your own external funding, there is a small chance you could get accepted even if you were initially rejected! Always worth letting your POI know  
 
Thank you for clarifying! Breathed a small sigh of relief that I wasn't misinformed and in turn, misinforming other people! 

It really depends on what you want to end up doing in terms of clinical practice. Like the others have said, in terms of providing psychotherapy, there may not be huge differences. HOWEVER, if you wanted to do any formal assessment/diagnostic work in your clinical work, you would have to be a C.Psych which means you need to have graduated from a clinical psychology program. Counselling psychologists are not permitted to do any assessment/diagnostic work (unless it's in school psych and you're working with children and doing assessment/diagnosis around learning disabilities and such). Diagnosis of DSM disorders is regulated in Canada and only clinical psychologists and medical doctors are permitted to do this. 
There may also be differences in your mode of training. As the others have said, clinical psychology tends to focus on psychopathology. Counselling psychology tends to deal with systems theories and focus on that more so than psychopathology. Accordingly, training in a clinical psychology program may equip you better to work with most clinical populations than counselling psychology programs (which trend to be geared towards working with more problems in adjustments/daily living/relationships). 
Yes, research fit is important, but you should also give serious consideration to what your ultimate goal is, because the two degrees, though similar, will get you different end results and opportunities. 

It really depends on what you want to end up doing in terms of clinical practice. Like the others have said, in terms of providing psychotherapy, there may not be huge differences. HOWEVER, if you wanted to do any formal assessment/diagnostic work in your clinical work, you would have to be a C.Psych which means you need to have graduated from a clinical psychology program. Counselling psychologists are not permitted to do any assessment/diagnostic work (unless it's in school psych and you're working with children and doing assessment/diagnosis around learning disabilities and such). Diagnosis of DSM disorders is regulated in Canada and only clinical psychologists and medical doctors are permitted to do this. 
There may also be differences in your mode of training. As the others have said, clinical psychology tends to focus on psychopathology. Counselling psychology tends to deal with systems theories and focus on that more so than psychopathology. Accordingly, training in a clinical psychology program may equip you better to work with most clinical populations than counselling psychology programs (which trend to be geared towards working with more problems in adjustments/daily living/relationships). 
Yes, research fit is important, but you should also give serious consideration to what your ultimate goal is, because the two degrees, though similar, will get you different end results and opportunities. 

Have confidence in where your training has gotten you thus far. Everybody in the program will feel similarly to how you feel regardless of their previous training (if they don't feel it now, they will feel it shortly after the program starts). I was in a similar boat as you (I started my program last year) - I'm definitely older with a course-based master's in counselling and a few years of working first in research, then as a psychotherapist. 
The POIs have gone through so many cycles of interviews and offers that they generally have a good sense of who will succeed and who won't. If you've been accepted, then clearly, they see potential in you! This is especially true if you've been accepted into multiple programs. Don't settle for a counselling degree unless you feel like clinical work is all you want to be doing with no assessments/diagnoses; that was the most limiting thing for me as a psychotherapist and the reason why I wanted to pursue more schooling even though, technically, I already had a career. You'll kick yourself later for settling later. 
Lots of people have children while they're in their training. It's a long training process and most programs are understanding of the fact that LIFE GOES ON OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL!!! In fact, I know several people in my program who not only have a child, but have multiple children under the age of 5. You make it work! 
Re POI, I'm not sure what your criteria for having chosen the POI you did as your #1, but again, it's a long program and you should prioritize fit in terms of personality as well as research. I also know people whose dissertation defences have been delayed because of interpersonal issues with their advisors. Remember, this is the person who will guide your professional and educational development for the next FIVE YEARS minimum (not including residency in PhD6). They could be the most brilliant and accomplished of them all, but if they don't give you adequate support, then it'll only be challenging for you. 
I know that was a bit long winded, but hope this helped! feel free to DM me if you want to chat further  and congratulations!

I’m so sorry to hear that  it certainly doesn’t look like it’s an issue with a lacklustre  CV for you - you have quite a bit of experience. like what the others had said, emailing POIs ahead of time (I emailed mid September) asking if they’ll be taking on students, briefly describing your research interest and experience would be a big help. I also attached a copy of my CV in that initial email for their convenience. With the profs that did get back to me with, I also inquired about their future directions for research to show my level of interest.
I’ve also been told that for certain programs, it doesn’t look good if you list too many POIs in your application as it may show a lack of focus (unless they’re doing similar research. I say this cautiously because listing only one would be riskier, and all the POIs I contacted recommended listing more than one (though i was accepted into a school where I only listed one POI against her recommendation).
if you know anyone in programs already, it may not be a bad idea to ask them for a copy of their SOP to get a better idea of what successful applications look like, and also have them read over yours when you’re done.
It’s possible that it was a matter of fit re research interests for you and your POIs. I’ve been told from a previous cycle’s POI that there was just someone else who was marginally a better fit than I was - so it’s very cohort (of your application cycle) dependent as well. 
Lastly, I’m not sure where you’re applying to, but have you considered broadening your net? If you’re gung ho about getting in as your only goal, then this may be something to seriously consider if you haven’t done so already. A lot of people apply  only to ‘it’ schools (ie York, Ryerson, Victoria, UBC) primarily becaise of its location, larger programs etc. I think given that there are so few clinical psychology programs in the country, every program will be fairly competitive but the ‘it’ schools definitely have more competition than some of the other schools in the county (ie prairie or maritime schools). A lot of the current grad students I had spoken to in the past have said something to the effect of “if X was teaching in the Yukon, I would’ve gone there”.  POIs and admissions committees have been through so many cycles that they’re pretty good at picking up on whether the applicant is sincere and serious about them vs only applying for the location, convenience, etc (this is certainly not to imply you are not sincere or serious about applying!!)
sorry about the essay of response here. Hope this helps!

Just received email from POI that I’ve been recommended for admission and I’ll be receiving an official offer in the mail shortly
this group seriously kept me sane through my insane anxiety. Thank you all ? 

Just received email from POI that I’ve been recommended for admission and I’ll be receiving an official offer in the mail shortly
this group seriously kept me sane through my insane anxiety. Thank you all ? 

Just received email from POI that I’ve been recommended for admission and I’ll be receiving an official offer in the mail shortly
this group seriously kept me sane through my insane anxiety. Thank you all ? 

Just received email from POI that I’ve been recommended for admission and I’ll be receiving an official offer in the mail shortly
this group seriously kept me sane through my insane anxiety. Thank you all ? 

Just received email from POI that I’ve been recommended for admission and I’ll be receiving an official offer in the mail shortly
this group seriously kept me sane through my insane anxiety. Thank you all ? 

It depends on the school, and where you rank in your POIs choices. I interviewed with Guelph and UVic last week and received offers from both this week immediately following the faculty admission meetings. However, I know sometimes UVic profs will take a week or two to make their first-round offers, and you may not hear back for longer if you are the second choice and the first-choice student hasn't responded to their offer yet. 

I heard back from one within 3 days, another within a week, one within 2 weeks, another within a month, and another ghosted me entirely, lol. 
Basically, theres no set rule but really depends on where your poi is on the priority list for acceptances- most wont email you with a yes until its been confirmed by the university that its a go. They may not answer until theyre done interviews etc either. Be patient, even though its hard! 

Even if you end up redoing a Masters, you should take a look at whether some of your previous courses from your earlier degree can supplement the curriculum that is required for the newer Masters. Sometimes there are overlapping courses in counselling/clinical and it might not be unreasonable to take a couple less courses! After all, you have a Masters, so why not see if some of it can help with the next one?

Thanks so much, @Sharbar - same to you! I really admire your dedication. 

Honestly, I've been out of grad school for ages and it's very exciting to be back in the hunt! I know I would have regretted not trying again   Good luck to everyone waiting. 

I decided to do the whole thing because the training for counselling vs clinical psych is a bit different (plus my masters was course based) so I personally didn’t feel the counselling training equipped me well enough research and clinical practice (re assessments) at the PhD level. 
I imagine it might be slightly different for those who hold a thesis based masters. 
@+ve regard wish you the best! 

I also have a masters (though not in clinical - in counselling) and all programs have made it clear that they would prefer to admit me at the masters level. I think most programs work this way except for one program out east (I think it’s UNB) that does direct entry into PhD. On the rare instance they may accept you directly into the PhD but I don’t think this happens too frequently. 
If your masters is in clinical I don’t know what that would mean. It might be possible to go into PhD but it’s also possible that they may ask why you decided not to move on to the PhD since most, of not all, clinical psych programs in Canada aren’t masters terminal programs.
hope this helps and good luck!!!

how i feel working in research w/ 190832 things to do as the rejections start to pour in

Good luck!!!

I would hold off on emailing because it isn’t likely to help your chances. You already demonstrated that you’re interested by sending thank you emails, and you obviously came across well if you got to the second stage of interviews. 
I know it’s hard, but academia is full of (anxiety-inducing) waiting and you don’t want to seem impatient. Just try to wait it out and hopefully you’ll have good news soon  

Hey! I came in for an interview at a separate university the other day and was asked a number of research/ethical/clinical questions. I think you can expect questions like "what interpersonal/ethical challenges have you experienced when dealing with clients and how did you resolve that?" "from a clinical perspective, what do you think is your strongest point?" "if you bump into a client at party, should you say hi to him/her? what possible consequences do you think might arise from this situation?" 
for a lot of these "clinical" questions, it's hard to get a straight wrong answer. A lot of them are justifiable through reasoning, you just have to show that you are capable of thinking ahead and considering the potential consequences that come out of your responses. the professor interviewing me also said that he uses these questions to see how well i respond to feedback- while i was answering them, he was throwing me a lot of other "but what if this happens" statements. I suppose he was just checking to see if i was able to incorporate his input and change my answer accordingly. I was also asked what my theoretical orientation was in terms of interventions (e.g., CBT, human-centred, etc.) 
Alternatively, while preparing for that interview, i came across this pdf <http://www2.tulane.edu/sse/psyc/news-and-events/archive/upload/InterviewQuestions.pdf>. I found it really helpful and I hope you do too. Even if a lot of the questions listed aren't asked, I think you'll find that, while trying to answer these questions, a lot of the responses you have are adaptable to the questions you're going to be asked during the interview day. 
Hope that helps! Good luck!!

I’m not too sure about UBC but generally speaking, programs will sort through the applications, and have a “rolling process” where they will interview their “top choice” applicants first. If they are not able to fill all the spots, then they’ll move on to a second batch of students they would like to interview. With regards to rejections, if the admissions committee knows that an applicant is a hard no, they will send out rejection notices. Hope this helps!

I’m not too sure about UBC but generally speaking, programs will sort through the applications, and have a “rolling process” where they will interview their “top choice” applicants first. If they are not able to fill all the spots, then they’ll move on to a second batch of students they would like to interview. With regards to rejections, if the admissions committee knows that an applicant is a hard no, they will send out rejection notices. Hope this helps!

Notified by POI at U of M after prelim interview that I can expect an invitation to formal interview ?

Notified by POI at U of M after prelim interview that I can expect an invitation to formal interview ?

Notified by POI at U of M after prelim interview that I can expect an invitation to formal interview ?