MSW2018applicant

I am sorry for such a late reply since I was really busy for my final exams in April!! I asked my professor who has worked at U of T about your question regarding accommodation. Her answer was that she doesn't know exactly what accommodations are available, but she said that OISE is distinct within U of T and really emphasizes diversity and equity, so they should provide necessary accommodations for students. I hope you're handling your anxiety well and getting ready for September. I think I'm feeling both anxious and excited, but I'm sure we'll be all excited once we've started school and started gaining new experiences and knowledge in September

Congratulations on the acceptance! And thank you so much for creating the facebook group. I'll join you guys after I finish my final exams! I have to create a facebook account first I look forward to meeting you.

I'll also create a facebook account to just join the group, so I'll also have a "weird looking account with zero activity"

Congratulations again! I also received my official acceptance package from U of T yesterday. Now we can finally fully relax! After I got "invited" on ACORN, I was still frequently checking ACORN to make sure that the invited wasn't taken away lol Now I can stop doing that Thank you for sharing the information about scholarship, too. My package also doesn't contain any info about entrance scholarship. I don't have a facebook account but I'll create one (after I finish my final exams) to just join the group although I probably won't be active on facebook because I don't really enjoy posting my pictures and daily life lol But I would love to connect with you guys! I'm looking forward to that.

Thank you very much! Yes, my status on ACORN changed to invited last week. I think everybody should be receiving their letters very soon.

I live in Vancouver but I received my official acceptance letter from U of T today. I was glad it got to Vancouver earlier than what I expected

I think those comments aren't true of everybody's experiences. Even if those comments are true, it doesn't mean all students who go to a 2 year MSW program cannot get a job after graduation. It's just describing the general tendency. And there are so many individual differences. Some students can get their dream jobs after graduation while some students may have difficulties finding jobs. And when it comes to looking for a job, your connections play a huge role. I'm also quite anxious about the job prospect but I think we just have to try our best and see what will happen! Earning the acceptance to U of T is a great opportunity and I think you should jump at the opportunity. Worst comes to worst things don't work well you can always do more education after you finish your Master's. I'm also anxious about going to the new stage of my life. But I look back at how I was always anxious about going to the new stages of my life but how things always turned out to be great, which gives me a courage to taken on another challenge again I believe U of T also provides necessary accommodations as long as you go through the required procedure, like meeting the deadline to submit documents. I'm from UBC, and they have enough support. The procedure is more standardized and automated compared to the college where I was studying prior to transferring but they are still helpful. My professor who worked at U of T also said OISE particularly embraces diversity. So I belive they are committed to accommodate to students who require accommodations. I can ask the professor about if she knows about accommodations at U of T. I'll let you know if I get any insight from her. I hope to see you at U of T

Having a thesis looks really good on your application. Have you presented your research at conferences yet? I feel like presenting at conferences helped me strengthen my application because not everybody who works as a research assistant presents at conferences. I think presenting at conferences will help you whether or not you get off the waitlist. If you get into U of T this year it'll look good on your resume when you look for a part-time research assistant position. If you have to try again next year it'll look good on your resume, too. My prof said that U of T probably wants a variety of students since they accept a large number of students (for a graduate program); some students may get accepted based on their outstanding experiences while other students may get accepted based on their outstanding research & academic records (plus a bit of experiences). So I think social work experiences aren't a must. Also, remember that being waitlisted is already an accomplishment because there isn't just enough space for all qualified applicants. My professors often tell us not to take it personally even if we get rejected from grad schools. Even my professor who is super smart said she got into only one of the graduate schools she applied for when she was a student. The competition today is even worse... I also think whatever the final result you'll get, everything happens for a reason. Although I'm just finishing up my undergraduate degree I'm a mature student (I didn't include my work experiences prior to my undergraduate in my application though). I also spent some extra time figuring out what I really wanted to do in my undergraduate. Taking the extra time really allowed me to gain many valuable experiences and skills, which will help me in my graduate degree. As long as we keep working toward our goals we'll eventually get there, and things happen at the right times for us. I really hope you get off the waitlist though!!

This list looks very helpful! I was also not very sure what experiences I was expected to have when I was applying. I notice that many people here are discussing about how to meet the experience requirement for MSW when you're coming straight out of your undergraduate. So I'd like to share my experiences: I got into U of T (2 year) without any work/volunteer experiences directly related to social work. But my experiences are classified as "teacher's assistant" and "research assistant" mentioned in the list. So my experiences were probably still deemed "social services experiences" in a broad term. When I wrote my admission essay, I also tried my best to present my experiences as applicable to social work. I did the same for my CV. I think the ways we present in our admission essays are quite important. I'm still finishing up my undergraduate and don't have a lot of free time. So I applied for only U of T to spend all my free time on my U of T application. As the information ms_teacher shared says, our life experiences are also relevant (I used that in my admission essay, too!). Also, I presented my research projects at many conferences. It may have looked good on my CV. For those of you who have fewer social work experiences, but have many research experiences, I'd recommend you to present your research project at conferences. People who have a lot of social work experiences don't always have research experiences. So if you can stand out for your research experiences, it may make up for your fewer social work experiences (especially for U of T since U of T seems to value research skills). Another advantage of working as a research assistant/teaching assistant is you can get really strong reference letters from your professors/supervisors. I believe the three really strong reference letters I got from my professors who were also my supervisors made a huge difference in my application. Based on my experience, it is not impossible (although it is challenging) to get into MSW (especially U of T because they seem to be less strict with experience requirement compared to other social work programs where experiences are essential) without a significant amount of direct social work experiences if you can strengthen other part of your application and have some sort of "social work experiences".

Yes, I can see that you crafted a perfect application! It would have been too much work if you had applied more than one school... I felt the same way. Like you said, I wasn't able to fall asleep last night! But at least it wasn't an anxious night anymore. I'm still a bit anxious though. I need to see an official acceptance letter before I can fully relax. In my last posting, I almost said "I love your obsessiveness" but I didn't because I wasn't sure if it would be perceived as a compliment lol Your obsessiveness will serve you well in grad school I actually don't have a facebook account. I know it's rare not to have a facebook account today but I prefer to use email and cell phone to communicate. But I'd like to connect with you guys, so I should create a facebook account to join you guys! I'll do that after I finish my undergraduate studies in a month and when I get more free time I'm looking forward to it!

Happy birthday, Erin32796! As many other people already said, they will still continue sending out acceptance letters. So I hope you get a belated birthday present from U of T soon.

Thank you so much, cat_not_kitty, and congratulations to you, too! Yes, relying on one school was really stressful. I debated whether I should apply for other schools as my backups, but I wanted to put all my energy onto my application for my first choice. I'm glad it worked out in the end. I can finally sleep without worrying about having a nightmare tonight By the way, your summary of when U of T sent out admission offers in the past years was so helpful! Thank you so much for all the informative and warm postings. I look forward to meeting you in September!

That's what I'm also thinking, but according to the past postings everybody who got invited on ACORN received acceptance letters within a week! So I don't think we have to worry about it...

No, it just says like this: Enrol & Manage You are not eligible for course enrolment. For assistance, please contact your registrar or graduate department. When I point the cursor to "invited", it says "You are still required to make the minimum payment or defer your fees for this academic session before your division's registration deadline. Before the deadline you are eligible to continue enrolling in courses, if applicable." So we probably need to make the payment first to see other contents on ACORN.

No, I'm a current UBC student. I'm graduating from UBC in May. I know professors tend to prefer to take students who are coming from outside of their own universities, but this tradition is for research oriented programs. For MSW at U of T (course based), I think where you completed your undergraduate degree isn't a big factor.

Thank you so much, nicoleMSW. Conglatilations to you, too

I also discovered that I had "invited" on ACORN this morning (Vancouver time). When we didn't hear back from U of T on the 23rd, I stopped checking ACORN because I couldn't take the anxiety anymore. But when I saw other people saying they had gotten "invited" today, I also logged into ACORN and saw "invited". MSW at U of T was the only program and school that I applied for. I was initially thinking about applying for other field before I became interested in social work. So I had no work/volunteer experiences directly related to social work, and I wasn't very confident while waiting... I wanted to express my appreciation for everybody here. Without this forum, the waiting time would have been much worse It has been nice to see that everybody here is so supportive. I look forward to becoming classmates with some of you guys! Congratulations to everybody who got in and best of luck to those who are waiting to hear back!

Thank you for sharing this information, heather.m! They're still going through applications... I wonder how many applications they received this year. I can't handle the suspense for another 3 weeks... But I still believe some admission offers have to be sent out before mid-April because many applicants have to make a decision about which admission offer they'll accept before mid-April. If U of T won't send out admission offers before mid-April, many applicants will have already accepted offers from other schools by the time they hear back from U of T. U of T shouldn't want to miss those applicants. As cat_not_kitty also said, 2 year applicants don't have to select our streams (admissions office said it's okay to indicate our intended streams on our applications though), so I think our desired streams aren't important factors when they process our applications. I think I'll just try to forget about my application and keep myself busy

I also used to check ACORN so many times a day, but I've been trying not to lately because it increases my anxiety I still check at least twice a day (morning and night) though I really hope some of us start hearing this week!

Thank you for sharing this! Sounds like the latest we'll hear is mid-April, but some of us will start hearing in March. Since applicants are given 4 weeks to accept or reject, the first wave for 2 years program might be mid-March or a bit earlier than mid-March.

MID-APRIL?! I can't continue dealing with this anxiety for another 2 months I'm wondering may be there will be early admissions in March and then regular admissions in April. That was how it worked when I applied for my undergraduate. I think universities want to offer some early admissions to prevent from highly qualified applicants being taken by other universities.

I don't know about course based programs, like MSW, but with regard to research based programs, my professor told me that it's better if students do their graduate studies in universities where they didn't do their undergraduate degrees, not just because students who are applying from other universities have some advantages, but also because it's better for their careers. I've also heard that some professors only want students who are coming from other universities. However, other professor also told me that this tradition is less strong compared to in the past. Yet other professor also told me that there are some rules about the maximum number of students they can take from their own universities to make sure some students are from other universities although this rule isn't rigid. At the same time, if you establish a good relationship with your professor during your undergraduate years, you have a big advantage when you apply for the professor since professors' willingness to take you is the most important thing when you apply for a research oriented program. According to the graduate study guide I read, The ranking of your university also plays a role. But for corse based programs, like MSW, where you're coming from shouldn't have strong effects? Universities may still want diversity though.

Thank you very much for answering my questions! It's going to be a long wait... Good luck to all of us!!

Hello everyone! It's the first time for me to post here. I applied for U of T (2 years) and am still waiting, too! My status says "Under Review" as well. Does anyone know the acceptance rate for the 2 years program at U of T? Looking at the past postings, it looks somewhere around 15%? I tried to find official information online, but I couldn't find it. I'm getting so nervous after waiting for 2 months! Does anyone also know when in March we'll receive the results? Early March, mid March, or late March? I don't want to wait till late March...