springxsummer

I'm curious to hear how other people deal with interview nerves & anxiety. Even just practicing for an interview, I get nervous. Diaphragmatic breathing helps me a little bit, but I haven't found any real fixes.

This is so important. Well said.

That's the way I'm leaning as well, thank you!

Has anyone applied to a counselling or clinical program where you have to make a video submission of a mock counselling session? (i.e. UBC, TWU...) If so, how did you format your session? Did you throw in anything fancy, like some kind of exercise, or did you keep it focused on supportive listening skills?

oops- I meant to post on the Canadian counselling/ clinical thread. I must've clicked the wrong one.

Has anyone applied to a counselling or clinical program where you have to make a video submission of a mock counselling session? (i.e. UBC, TWU...) If so, how did you format your session? Did you throw in anything fancy, like some kind of exercise, or did you keep it focused on supportive listening skills?

I'm doing this right now. It's hard to balance everything sometimes, but it's doable. I have been able to gain a couple of conference presentations out of volunteering in labs. However, the best scenario would likely be to find a paid job as a research assistant and to do that full time. For me, there were no opportunities for this in my city at the time that I was seeking experience. Maybe you would have more luck, though :).

The pre-reqs do make it difficult, especially given that they can vary significantly across schools. I definitely appreciate the more stream-lined nature of clinical applications.Good luck to you as well . The quietness is so weird, I agree.

That is amazing news. I'm happy it all worked out for you

On Monday, also call the graduate advisor for your program and ask them if there is any leniency for late references. I hope everything works out!!

This nearly happened to me and I can empathize with the stress that you must be feeling. Can you call? Any chance you have a phone number other than their office number? I would send an email tonight, and maybe even a couple tomorrow. It is urgent, afterall.

I think this is perfectly fine. To conserve space, I simply put a titile (Statement of Purpose) and then my name in the top right header. I obviously cannot speak for the admissions committees, but I would imagine that the content of the letters matters much more than the formatting.

Hello I'm mostly applying to counselling programs and one clinical program. I'm applying to the University of Calgary, the University of Alberta (course and thesis-based programs), The University of New Brunswick, and Trinity Western University. I also applied to Simon Fraser's Clinical MA... while I have fairly strong research experience and decent GRE scores, I don't have an honors thesis or publications, so I expect that one to be a no! What schools are you applying to?

I also interpretted this as the other posters did.

I feel you. I can't speak for clinical, but for counselling most students will not have applied.

Question: what do you mean? I don't recall having to select any faculty when I chose my three schools. I applied for SHHRC, so perhaps it varies depending on the funding agency (?)

I am! I wouldn't stress, but personally I'll be sending a reminder on Tuesday or Wednesday if my last reference hasn't submitted anything by then. No harm in sending polite reminders for something as important as this.

I hadn't really thought about this... I'll probably have 2/3 of my Apps for the schools I listed for SHHRC submitted by the time I submit the SHHRC application. The third has a January 31st deadline so I'm hoping that's okay and I don't have to rush that app?

I applied to the same number last year. This year I'm applying to 6 total. I wanted to do more, but felt that my applications would suffer if I spread myself to thin— that may not be true of everyone.

It's a shame we can only list 3. I am unfortunately indicating no for the schools that I did not select, since I have not applied for funding for those schools and would not receive it were I admitted.

I put them in the same document. It seems like there's no other place to upload the references.

Makes sense, thanks @Neurophilic! For Statement of Purposes/ Letter of Intents, does anyone know the level of specificity with which we should discuss our research interests? Is it better to say my research interests are x, y, z, or is it better to state specific research question(s)? Thanks!

Just adding onto this, they do say to avoid using abbreviations/ acronyms on the website, as well. Where I required acronyms, I did exactly this and spelt it out the first time, and then used the acronym from that point on.

I would say it depends if you have room. Given the 1 page limit, and examples of funded proposals I have seen (for counselling-related research), I did not go into this level of specificity. That being said, I've never applied before and I am by no means an expert.

I agree— it's so hard to squish everything into 500 words. That being said, I wrote one 500 word letter and one two page letter and I think the shorter one reads better. The word limit really forces a concise, focused letter.