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Chebben

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Everything posted by Chebben

  1. Chebben
    There are two programs affiliated with UofT - the one at OISE and the one at UTSC. They probably have comparable rates but I know last year for utsc it was around 2-3% acceptance and this year it was actually less than 1% - close to 500 applicants for 4 spots . It's because this is an exceptionally small program. I expect Ryerson and York to have similar rates - they both take more students but also get more applicants - so around 2-3% I would expect (at most 5%)
  2. Chebben
    I would agree with what others have said that yes it is definitely a good sign. In terms of tips, speaking as a current grad student who has interviewed applicants, it's really important to be yourself and try to be as personable as possible in a meeting with fellow grad students. Show your personality a bit (ideally do this during regular interviews too) but if you fall into rehearsed sorts of statements about yourself, the meeting can fall flat. Also being able to engage with people and establish rapport is super important clinically as well, so if you're meeting with someone and failing to have that, it can have broader negative implications on your potential as a graduate student above and beyond program fit. Of course, ask informative and meaningful questions, but balance it out with personality and humour and normal conversational things. In my experience, I have met with students before who did the opposite, and while exceptionally capable and being strong applicants, they ended up being ranked lower from the grad students perspective (and this probably played into committee decisions as well) because of their weakness in establishing rapport. Really important to remember when you get past that first cut and make it to the interview stage, now its about YOU and why you're a good fit, and less about your grades and CV, etc. I think I ended up branching out on a bit of a tangent there but hopefully that is helpful!
  3. Chebben
    UTSC is only accepting 4 students this year unfortunately (absolutely CRAZY to think about since they received just under 500 apps this year). The program is incredibly small, so normally they only accept 5 students, but because one student from last year's cohort deferred their acceptance, they are only accepting 4. But they could definitely send out more offers depending on if people from first round reject!
  4. Chebben
    The first round of acceptances for UTSC's clinical psychology program have just gone out! 4 applicants were contacted.
  5. Chebben
    AU and AR both at the uoft Scarborough program study bpd, one from a more neuropsych/neurobiological perspective and the other from a more psychotherapy oriented perspective
  6. Chebben
    I would say here really try to get a sense of the PI's work style. Like any pet peeves they have with regards to work, any specific quirks they may have. Maybe try asking, based on your experience working with this PI, how would you describe the ideal grad student for them? Also ask how open they are to collaboration, how many opportunities there are for publication, how open they are with discussing conflict/personal issues, how open they are with getting to know grad students (i.e. how informal/formal lab environment is). Also get a sense if grad students ever hang out with themselves or how friendly the lab environment is. Mainly, just be very clear going in how you see your work style as a grad student, and try to think about what you want in a supervisor, and use this time to ascertain whether or not you and your POI will be a good fit.
  7. Chebben
    Yes, I certainly see why this is frustrating. My personal two cents here - I'm a current clin psych student but speaking as to when I was in my applying, I think I was hesitant to put too much specific information about my application components because I wanted to preserve my anonymity as an applicant - this is especially relevant to when I was going in for interviews and probably running into other grad cafe users. In retrospect I don't know why it mattered to me much, but I just felt weird about the whole thing. If i remember correctly, I was more comfortable with DMing people my POI though. But I do agree, it is very valuable information to pass on.. There's just something weird about being on this platform, like even as a current student I want to share more inside details about my program but I don't feel comfortable announcing it here, versus if I ran into you one on one in person.?‍♂️
  8. Chebben
    UTSC has received over 400 applications this year. Over twice their usual amount, unfortunately. I imagine its similar for a lot of the Toronto area schools/more popular clinical psych programs.
  9. Chebben
    Also out of curiosity can I ask what the allure is for everyone with Mac? It's a newer program, largely just affiliated with one (very good) but nonetheless mainly one hospital network in Hamilton, in a city that's not super exciting. No offense to Mac, I'm just surprised to see almost as many people applying to it as say, Ryerson for example. I did interview there so I have some knowledge of the program - it just wouldn't be my first choice, but that's just personal preference :).
  10. Chebben
    Just to add my depressing two cents here as an accepted clinical psychology student who has been through a few interviews. There are students who get interviewed at schools for POIs who are not accepting students. It's possible faculty just think they are a strong student and may suggest another supervisor for you. Faculty are also ranked as to how likely they are to get a student, so many students interview for faculty who say they are "Accepting students" but realistically they are very unlikely to get students. That's why being strategic about who you apply to is very important.
  11. Chebben
    I agree yeah, it's definitely *helpful* but not *necessary*. I still say it's always worth emailing though in case you spark their interest (cause ya never know), but yeah def don't worry if people seem unenthusiastic. I had a meeting with one of the clinical faculty members in my program recently and she said that her and her colleagues are actually feeling pretty overwhelmed this year cause the application pool seems to have increased dramatically. She said she receives 10-20 emails a day and some of her colleagues who are more well known receive 20+ emails a day!! She was pretty candid about the fact that with this increase in contact, she hasn't been able to keep up to date with all her emails so please do keep that in mind as well! Especially this year, it could have nothing to do with the quality of your app and all to do with the fact that supervisors are just suuuuper busy. Good luck!
  12. Chebben
    Hi! Just weighing in as a current student, I have to disagree and I do think personal connection counts. For both times I got to thr interview phase during my application it was cause I met with the POI first and got really positive responses from that initial meeting. I did however have a situation where I had a really positive pre-interview (she said she thought I was an excellent candidate and really really hoped I would apply to work with her), but never made it to the interview stage (bc she had no input at this stage). But definitely i think making connections helps. The reason I think people wanted to meet with me was because my cv was very strong and I had worked with a lot of people my POIs knew (clin psych is such a small world), so I would say if you can play up your strengths/any relevant or similar experiences you may have with the POI that will make you stand out!
  13. Chebben
    Hi everyone - Clinical Psychology Year 1 student here - if anyone has general questions you can feel free to PM me and I'm happy to answer (about fundings, applications, etc).
  14. Chebben
    Hi everyone, Just wanted to touch base as a recently admitted student that if I got in with a 49 in quant, so can you! Anything is possible, especially when the gre scores are optional ?. Just make sure the other components of your application are strong! I agree that you probably shouldn't submit if your scores aren't strong, but remember that's not the only thing they consider. Good luck everyone! ?
  15. Chebben
    Yeah, I wish there was more of a well-accepted avenue for those who wanted to be just clinicians. I understand the importance of having science inform your practice but I can't see how forcing people to suffer through 7 years (because I feel like if you really don't like research it will be SUFFERING lol) of research makes sense. And with med school, it's not really the same, because while therapy is integrated into their training, the majority of psychiatrists have to spend a lot of their time prescribing medication, so the blueprint for being a clinician largely focused on therapeutic intervention is just not really there... I work with many psychiatrists now and even if I had the opportunity to go to med school over a clinical psych program, I think I would honestly choose another specialty lol.
  16. Chebben
    On a seperate note: Is this something people are open about in their applications (i.e. not wanting to go into academia)? My understanding was that it was a major faux pas to admit this. This is what I've heard from other grad students and was warned against for my own interviews (I'm an incoming clinical student for 2020). It wasn't something I had to personally worry about as I think I do want to go into a career with both research and clinical work, but I know people who lied about their interests in their interviews to get in. I once also had a clinical supervisor at one of the most competitive schools in Toronto tell me that the committee found it to be a "failure" if their clinical students ended up wanting to go into a sole clinical career. Literally her words!! Not sure if every school frowns upon this though.
  17. Chebben
    Hello! I am starting my program in the fall and it sounds like I had the same spread of scores as you. Quant slightly below 50 (literally 49), and other scores 80+. I think its definitely better of course if you can get all your scores up there (to have more choice in schools) but I think it also depends on the spread of your application. I also definitely had among the worst if not the worst GRE scores from anyone I talked to during interview day. That being said, I got in the high 90s for my psych gre so I'm sure that was also taken into account. I also went in with a well above average cv compared to other applicants (this is according to faculty i interviewed with), and I'm very confident in interviews, so I'm sure that helped as well. But again, my cGPA was low ( I always assume they look at this) but my upper year GPA depending if you count extra courses was around a 3.85. So, essentially there are a LOT of factors they consider, and a huge part of it is also fit. So do take a look at all areas of your applications and how you think they compare to the "average" applicant, keeping in mind of course that the average clinical applicant is usually exceptional in many areas. I also recommend applying to a prof that has say in the admissions process (is part of the admissions committee). I was interviewed two years in a row, the first year my POI loved me, was trying to convince me to choose her program and then I found out I was rejected from the committee because she had no say. The second year, same situation with another prof, we hit it off really well and I could tell that if it was up to him I'd very likely get in. And luckily in this case, he was part of the admissions committee so I got in. These are all important variables to consider, especially if you're someone whose application is not strong in all areas and if you feel like you're someone whose strength lies in connecting to faculty/interviews. Feel free to message if you have questions about anything else! Happy to help and best of luck to anyone applying in these uncertain times!
  18. Chebben
    Just to add on, I got accepted to clinical psychology in Canada and the majority of my last two year credits were not in a standard full courseload (5 courses per semester).It's possible they may consider why you took fewer courses, but it helped in my case that I had experience in 8 labs by the time I graduated so I was able to speak about that in my interviews when speaking about my undergraduate experience. Of course you don't need to have worked in 8 labs to get into clin psych but I think it's helpful to say you focused on research and academic work, as that will be very similar to your schedule in an actual grad program. Essentially, even if you don't have a full course schedule it's helpful to say you had a full schedule anyway.
  19. Chebben
    Not sure if it's best to start a separate thread about this, but could anyone provide information on salary ranges (early-mid-late career) for someone with a master's in counseling? For instance if you were to work conducting psychotherapy in a hospital vs private practice? Any past graduates who can speak from their own experiences? Thanks in advance!
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