blueeyedblonde

Ask as many questions as you like! I am happy to help. Courses: We had four courses through the summer. Two were full credit courses, and the other two were worth 0.5 credits. The 1.0 credit courses took more time than the 0.5 credit courses. I think the 1.0 credit courses took 2(ish) weeks to complete. The first course was Intro to Social Welfare (SOWK1100). I am struggling to recall the order of the other three, but they were Foundations of Social Work Practice (SOWK2011), Human Development (SOWK2012) and Theory of Social Work Practice (SOWK3401). In the fall, I had four courses. Some people had 5 as one of the courses can be taken either in person in the fall, or online in the winter (I opted to take it online in the winter term). You'll also be starting a research course in the fall that will stretch into the winter term (in the fall, you take the class in person. In winter, it is taken online). The winter term also consists of an elective (which I also took online) and placement. Basically, I ended up taking four courses in-person in the fall, and 3 courses online in the winter in addition to placement. Placement: Generally, I'd say the rules surrounding placement were pretty flexible. The hours you work each week can be negotiated between the student and the agency, so you are not expected to work full-time at placement in addition to completing the winter courses. The deadline to complete placement hours is also flexible as well and will vary depending upon how many hours you work each week. I believe we met with a placement coordinator early in the fall semester. We provided her with some places we'd like to work in, and then she'd reach out to them. I chose to complete my placement as a post-secondary institution and had a great experience. I seem to recall the speed at which people were matched to an agency varied quite a bit. Some people had no problem securing one quickly, others seemed to be up in the air for a while. Relocating: I'd say about half of my class had relocated to Orillia. I seem to recall some relocating from Toronto, while others were from other provinces. I did not have to relocate, so unfortunately, I cannot comment on residence. I believe a couple of students moved to Orillia into their own apartments. I hope this helps! Let me know if there is anything else you're wondering about. If you are hoping to go into an MSW program, I'd also suggest getting to know your profs (you'll need them to be references in the future) and also chat with the graduate students that are assisting your profs in the fall semester. If there is one thing I regret, it is not learning more from the graduate students!

Hey there! I did this program, graduated last fall. If anyone has any questions, I'd be happy to help. Two things immediately come to mind: 1) The summer is a bit insane. You complete an entire course in about a week and it is pretty much impossible to have a life. On the plus side, the weeks fly by and it's over quickly. 2) I wish I'd waited to purchase any textbooks because the profs were really good about providing the readings to us online, or I was able to find the textbook as a free pdf. I'm not sure if this will be different going forward, but it might be worthwhile to hold off buying textbooks until you've had your first class. Congrats on getting into the program! I hope you enjoy it.

Thank you!!

Best of luck to you both! And now the waiting game begins...

Yup, this has been happening to me too. Update: I just tried logging in and everything seems to be working at the moment.

Does anyone who applied to Laurier know if there is a place to check your application status? If there is, I can't seem to find it. The website only states they'll e-mail with a decision. Now that my application is in, naturally I need somewhere to obsessively check every 20 minutes for the next several months.

I am applying to the same program/start date and was also worried about a lack of experience. I figured I'd give it a shot anyway, worst case scenario I need to get more experience and try again. Fingers crossed for both of us! I'm on (what feels like) the millionth revision of my statement and I'm starting to think it's never going to be good enough. Congratulations to everyone who has been accepted! I'm excited for you all.

Bless this thread. I've been working contract jobs at the same place for about 2 years and I'm so sick of it. I love my employer and the work I've been doing, but hate the constant stress of an impending termination date. I'll get something for 4 months and have no idea if I'll have a job after that. So far I've been getting new contracts, but they've all been for 3-4 months as well, so I always have an end date looming over me. I just want some reliable stability for a change. I am also working on Masters applications and find everything so overwhelming. I'll feel great about everything, then I look at the applications and lose all motivation/hope. I kind of want to just fast-forward through the next 6 months and have all this behind me.

Thank you for starting this thread! I've begun my applications and am finding the whole experience stressful already. My current choices are Lakehead, Laurier, and Windsor, and I'll probably try for York U as well. Lakehead is my first choice but writing a "study plan" for the application has proved to be challenging thus far. Good luck everyone!

I did Lakehead's 1-year HBSW and remember the application process as being quite daunting. From what I recall, your average should still meet their requirements. Marks definitely aren't everything though, I worked hard on my resume, had strong references, and spent a lot of time preparing for the personal statement exam. It all paid off in the end. I also don't think the competition is as fierce as the application may lead one to believe, although I'm sure it varies year to year. If you have any questions about the program feel free to reach out.

Hi everyone, new here. I'm planning on applying for 2019 and was just wondering if anyone had applied to/been accepted to Lakehead's MSW program? Any tips/advice? Congrats to everyone who has been accepted!