angelicpiano

For me some programs look at your last two years to determine GPA and some look at your last year. Those that look at my last year of courses put me in a more advantageous position as my gpa was high last year. Then some look at the last 2 years which makes my gpa much lower. U of T look at the last year of courses, but they have to be 3000 or 4000 level. Since I transferred into social work as a university graduate with another degree, I had to take three 2000 level courses. That means that U of T has to go back to my other degree. I have 2 A's, but then one C which ruins everything. I hope we both get in somewhere. I know these programs are competitive. You have a lot of experience, so I think you can use that as your selling point. I also know Western University focuses more on experience, so that could be an option. I am trying to do as much volunteering now as I can and applying to some jobs that are social work related. Even if I only get 200 extra hours before the application deadline, that is something. Also, the Cousneling program at OISE is cool. I considered it, but I do not have the one-year counselling experience.

I am applying to McGill, U of T, York, and Windsor. McGill is my top choice as I love the city and will get to use my French skills that I don't want to lose. U of T is my second choice, then York and Windsor. I thought Windsor was easy to get into, but I heard though they require only a 73% in your last 2 years, the applicants have high 80's and higher. I did a different bachelor's before and my grades for the last year were decent, but only round up to a mid B as I had a mix of A's and B's. This year for the third year BSW program my average was 87%. I worry I do not stand a chance for Windsor. McGill I am really hoping on as they only look at your last ten credits and U of T. This is really stressing me out. May I ask other people's stats. Only if you are comfortable sharing. My GPA is good from last year, but I do not have much direct social service experience. Just about 200 hours combined with a research assistant position with a Social Work prof and two volunteer positions. Plus I will have 350 hours from my practicum. I feel this is not enough for any school.

Just wondering how competitive I am for the one year master's. Applying next year. I did not have super high grades in my first bachelor's. I have an 87 average in my BSW. It is considered 4.0 at U of T. For experienced, I have ten hours from a temporary volunteer position where I called clients in the Mental Health and Addictions unit of the community health centre, to do a patient services evaluation and feedback. Other then that I tutored French for a while. I volunteered at non-profits at my uni, ran a club as an exec and now have a research assistant position with a social work prof. The total hours is probably around 2000 for everything. I am planning to apply to the advanced standing programs at U of T, UWindsor, York and McGill. My top choices are U of Toronto and McGill for clinical social work. Do I stand a chance?

Does anyone know how good of a program McGuill is? I want to apply and become a clinical social worker, hopefully in a hospital, but have not heard much about the program. I speak French, which is a big reason I am interested in the program.

Thanks I will check it out. I was considering more going to Quebec or a city where I will work. BC has always intrigued me, but it is so expensive to live there. None the less, I will consider it.

Thank you for all the links. I am sorry I keep asking os many questions. Thank you. Good luck with your program. Do you know what kind of work you want to do in the future as in location? Hospitals, mental health clinics etc.

What stream are you in? Also, I was wondering if you can get a social work license in Ontario after finishing McGill's program?

I am so excited for you! I would love to stay in touch and learn about your experience. Which stream did you pick? Thank you for the suggestion. I actually was just looking at job opportunities in Montreal in Hospitals. I found only one or two in the Hôpital Juif. When looking at Toronto postings there are so many more. I worry I might not be able to get a job in a hospital there. I looked at the placement list. Thanks for sending. They do have hospital placements. Maybe, if I check the actual hospital websites for jobs, I might find them.

Sorry I keep posting so much. I am research 1-year MSW programs, for when I graduate from my post-BSW. I was wondering if anyone had any insights on schools that are good for more clinical social work. I really want to work in a hospital. I know U of T is very clinical, but I have not heard of others.

May I ask your average when you got accepted in McGill and about how many hours of volunteering you had?

Hello. I got into a post-BSW at Windsor, and am interested in possibly attending McGuill. Just wanted to hear your experience about the program and the city.

I am happy I could help. Congrats on the offer! I did not apply to the York BSW as they told me my volunteering would not be competetive enough. It must feel so good to get at least one offer. I had so much anxiety and stress worrying I would not get in anywhere, then when I got the post-BSW offer the anxiety immediately went away. I think if you enroll in the post-BSW, you can apply to OSAP right? I also Windsor has some options to apply to awards and scholarships in August. York has them too, I got 1,500 once for a scholarship. I just applied to all the ones I qualified for. My friend told me sometimes no one applied to them, so I did it. Of course master's programs give more funding. I assumed it was based on grades, no? My grades are not great so I don't know if I would have gotten any funding on a master's program. Are you going to be renting in Toronto? My problem is that I have to rent and this work part-time. OSAP probably won't give me grants as before for my tuition, so I will have to figure out budgeting and all that and how much to work to make enough. Anyways, you still got time to decide. How long does your offer last? I had a month to accept it..you can wait and see if you get into the Master's. I am praying that you do!

@mswto21 Are you planning to apply this coming September or did you apply already? I also had a poor average due to health issues/some difficult courses in my program that most people had to retake. I have a 71% average to be precise. I was not hopeful on anything. Somehow Western calculated my average to be 83%, I don't know how. They said my average was within the range offered and had I had much more than 2000 volunteering/direct service work, I would have had a competitive application. At least it seems, Western uses their GPA system which makes my GPA higher. Windsor I know uses the system of the university you are from in calculating averages. Anyways, I was worried no one would take me, but Windsor did. They required 70% GPA, but said averages are usually 5-7% higher. I did not have that much volunteering that was direct social service work, but I think a strong personal statement and references. Anyways if your GPA is not that great, make sure to focus on the other components. If you look at Western's application information page and some other university sites, they sometimes post the breakdown of your admission score. The grades are only part of it. If you are not planning to apply for the fall or only for the winter of 2022 and want to boost your grade for a research methods course. I recommend doing an Athabasca course. It is all online. It is an Alberta University. I took SOSC336 titled, "Research Methods for the Social Sciences", they have others too. It was a lot of work, as in you had to do your own study at the end and do several steps starting from a research proposal, but it really prepared me well for a master's and I did well in the course. You get 6 months to do the course at your own pace, which I liked. It was just stressful for me as I took the course in July and was not motivated all summer to do it, then I had a full-time course load and basically had to finish a 6-month course in like 1.5 months or less. That was my own fault, but otherwise if you pace yourself, it is not bad. The quizzes were not that hard. For the mid-term, you can take as long as you need to complete it. I enjoyed doing the study to on whatever topic I wanted. I would recommend this course. I think you can do well. Also, I know some universities say you need a research methods course, but don't require a certain grade in it. U of T does sadly. Also, a tip I got from someone who coaches people applying to master's programs. He is my friend, so he gave me tips for free. Anyways, if you had a health issue or something that affected your grades, do not dwell on it in your statement. Rather if you GPA is low, make sure to emphasize your strong points and try to draw the attention away from your grades. He said it is best to only briefly mentioned it, if you want to state how you grew and improved from it. Do not try to get them to feel for you. I thought it was a good idea, but he says that admissions committees do not care much for these types of written statements. For example, through my mental health crisis I met a Social Worker, and she inspired me to go into this field. In this, case he said it is ok to go into my health issues, as I am bringing out a huge positive. Also, find something unique about you if you can. For example, I learn languages for fun and also in university. I won't bore you with a list, but I have some languages up my sleeve. That is my unique point. Try to find something about yourself that is unique to bring to the Social Work field. Put emphasis on that. Of course, some programs unfortunately still weigh your GPA heavily in the overall application. I already expected a rejection from U of T for my low average. I know that Western for example, puts a lot of weight on your experience. Though they say they recommend/require a minimum number, as I mentioned the admissions officer told me that I needed much more than 2000 to be competitive. Again this is for the 2-year program, not sure about the 1-year program. Do not give up! Keep on pushing through. As I am really passionate about this career, I told myself I will keep pushing forward until I finally get my master's. I support you all the way and am cheering on for you. I hope that your difficult moment in life has passed or will pass, and that good luck will come to you. Sorry for the ramble, I am bored during covid and love helping people out.

I am not a Social Work major, however I myself applied to 2-year MSW programs (Western, U of Toronto and University of Windsor). I also applied to the post-BSW at Windsor. I did not get into any of the 2 year programs, only the post-BSW. At first I was really stressing about the extra year as I already did a fifth year in my bachelor's degree. However, I talked to a social worker and also did my own research and came to the conclusion that this option is better than doing a 2 year master's. Let's start with the pros of a post-BSW. You can skip to the end where there is a more concise answer. I am comparing the practicum hours out of interest. 1. First let's look at the practicum hours you need at post-BSW programs: University of Windsor - 700 hours minimum in year 2/last year of the program Western University - 225+ hours in first year and 500+ in second year. Approximately 725 hours total. As I am going to apply to one year master's programs after my post-BSW, I will write down how many hours I will need for those programs and then compare with the 2 year programs. Keep in mind that regardless of whether you do a post-BSW of 2 year MSW, for the most part you will only be doing a practicum for two years. For a post-BSW it is usually in the second and last year of the program (except Western which has it each year of the post-BSW), then during your one year MSW and for the two year MSW, you do a practicum each of the two years. 1 -Year MSW programs: University of Toronto - 575 practicum hours University of Windsor - 450 practicum hours Western University - 450 practicum York University - 450 practicum hours Now let's look at the 2 year programs. University of Toronto - You do approximately 450 hours in Year One and then merge with the Advanced standing (1-year MSW) students and do 575 hours in the second year. (Total 1,025) Western University: 450+ hours each year. (total approximately 900 hours) University of Windsor - 450 hours each year (total 900 practicum hours) York University - 550 hours in first year and 450 in second year. (total 1000 hours). I only looked at universities I applied to this year. For the most part for 1 year MSW's you get only 450 hours with the exception of U of Toronto. In the 2 year MSW programs for the most part you get 900 hours Max in one program 1,025. If you we compare this to taking the post-BSW + 1-year MSW route, you get minimum 1,150. If you get a 1-year MSW at U of Toronto, you now have 1,225 practicum hours. After these long calculations my point is that with a post-BSW even though you only do a practicum for one year and then another one year practicum in your MSW, you get more hours than doing two years of a practicum in the 2-year MSW. Why do you need more hours? Social Work is a competitive field, the more hours you have the better it is for your resume. 2. A post-BSW is also good if you are not yet sure what group of people or setting you want to work in. My programs has courses on working in the community, with families etc. With the practicum, you can also explore a field you think you might want and make sure that you are sure of the specialization you want to do. I want to do clinical social work, but I want to explore all of the MSW fields through courses etc. to be certain I am making the right choice for me. 3. The final reason (not final, there are many more, but final important reason an psot-BSW is good). Without a BSW, your options for 2-year MSW programs are really low compared to Advanced Standing programs. Some universities do not have 2-year MSW options, or require certain courses such as 6 sociology courses, human development, statistics etc. Hence, I only applied to a handful of programs. With a post-BSW you are on the same level as a BSW students and have so many more options for programs. Here are the cons: The obvious con is that it takes an extra year. However, the Windsor 2-year MSW program for example is 32 months. Which is almost two years. Other MSW programs require to be in the program 12 months a year (for some you finish your course work in June and do the practicum in the summer). The post-BSW I am and the York one is only two semester's a year so September to April. So you get the summer off to work and save up for your future or for rent/living expenses if you will be renting or living on campus. Another con is that you have to go through the stressful period of applying to master's programs in your second year and going through the harsh waiting game. However, with a post-BSW it is a lot easier to get in, so if you have very good grades, a good reference from your prof and practicum, and perhaps some volunteering you should be set. 2-year MSW programs require a lot of volunteering to show you did not make this choice on the whim, I got rejected at Western for not enough hours. I would recommend doing a post-BSW program first.That being said, if you really want get into only U of Toronto or another school, that has a 2-year program that you qualify for, and do not think you care to much about an extra 200-300 hours of practicum, go for the 2-year MSW. It is ultimately up to you, I just laid out some points that helped me not feel so bad about not getting into an MSW and realize that a post-BSW is a better choice for me and my future career.

Hello everyone. I was rejected from all master's programs, but got into the UWindsor post 2 year BSW. Super excited to start my social work journey. I just wanted to ask if anyone went to U of T for their MSW or another university for clinical social work, how hard is it to get a practicum in a hospital?

Hello everyone! I

Did anyone hear back from the Windsor Professional Years BSW?

Congrats! I am applying as well. I do not work full-time, but rather I tutor a few hours a week? Can I still apply? Also, may I ask your average and volunteer stats? I have about a mid 70's average. I worry it is low. I also only have ~1800 volunteer/work hours. I have about 60 working at a Sexual Violence Centre. The rest are just volunteering at a non-profit playing piano for patients in hospitals, exec positions for organizations at my university, one was also a non-profit, and then teaching experiences. I would some input on your application.

Hey guys, so I just got a letter from that I chose this program as my top choice and that they look forward to meeting me. Uwinsdor that says Recruitment letter. Nothing has changed on OUAC for the post-BSW program. It just in the letter that they look forward to meeting me. Did anyone else get this letter? I emailed them to ask, as they did not clearly state I got in. I have to wait for a response.

Recently got rejected so yes I heard from the Western 2-year program.

May I ask your average? Congrats!

Thank you. My parents will not accept me if I don't get in. Nor did they accept my mental health struggles. I am even more nervous

Western only requires 70%. I am hoping on it. I feel that supplemental questions were strong and experience.

Regardless it does not make an effect for U of T. They need mid B average.

Both. I did much better this year, but the thing that the course marks did not get submitted for this term to U of T and the other schools as they were recieved after the deadline. Unfortunately these marks would only have raised my last 10 half credit gpa to one percent.