ap123

Hey. I'm at UofT right now in the 2 year program - just finished first year. This is a fair concern. All of us in the program are concerned as well. They are currently planning for online classes and trying to figure out logistics around practicums. This past month and a half our practicums have been remote and all the students completing summer practicums will have remote practicums as well. Not sure when our next update will be, but it sounds like making everything remote for the fall is a last resort and they are just in the prep stages (although its looking more and more everyday like it will be our reality). As far as I know winter semester will not need to be remote. Hope this helps! All of us students are going through it and the faculty are doing their best. Other than COVID-19 UofT is awesome (in my very biased opinion lol). Congrats and good luck!!!

Hey, I'll try to help as much as possible! My degree is an Honours BASc and my major was Family and Community Social Services (basically a BSW but not a BSW lol). While I was in undergrad I had three placements: 1 at a retirement facility (half year), 2 at Big Brothers Big Sisters (full year), and 3 with an addiction agency (full year). Big brothers hired me during the summer after my placement. I volunteered at a hospital for a year and a half once a week for a few hours starting in my first year. I also participated in undergrad research in my third and fourth year, which resulted in a publication/conference presentation. In addition I helped organise a symposium at my school for my program and I was a student representative for my program. In my third year I traveled to Japan on a study abroad and studied Soka Education (complicated to explain lol). I noticed the values of Soka Education were not so different from Social Work and I made sure to highlight that which added a unique component to my application. All of the above experiences I highlighted in my application and related it to my future social work practice, which I think helped a lot. UofT is very academic oriented so I think my GPA (90%+) and my research experience is what helped the most. Honestly, what I've learned is that the acceptance process is super random. I fully expected to be rejected or waitlisted from UofT like I was from Laurier, but I was surprised with an acceptance. I genuinely think its about making yourself stand out from other applications by highlighting unique experiences, not just what they want to hear. Try again and make sure to highlight how you made your application different from last year!!!!!! Talk about travelling (if you've done so) and cultural competence. Talk about the things you're super passionate about (even if its not social work related) and relate it back to social work. Talk about diversity and equity because those are the two main values of the school! If you were waitlisted, it already means you had a great application. I know this is long, SORRY! As I typed I was reminded of more things I did that may have helped lol. If you have more questions lmk