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Current OISE MEd Counselling student here! You're right, it's really hard to find counselling-related work without actually being a counsellor. Your best bet is probably doing volunteer work. To boost my application (got rejected 1st time applying), I volunteered at places like a crisis line centre and peer support mentor. For courses, I actually did a few counselling courses in undergrad since they're preqreqs for some counselling programs (e.g. UBC). Not sure if they helped my UofT application except for maybe further showing that I was committed.

I got my offer letter on April 18 and it said you have 3 weeks to accept or decline. This pushes the deadline to accept to May 9 so you may hear after that point!

Thanks so much! Absolutely, no problem I'm gonna message you with the documents! If anyone else is interested, PM me and I'll send them to you as well! I also applied to UBC and UVic with the same stats and was rejected from both

Hey everyone, Crazy turn of events...I got into OISE MEd Counselling! I'm still in shock since my track record hasn't been good (rejected everywhere last year including OISE and rejected everywhere except OISE this year). I actually got the email yesterday saying my status had been updated, but refused to check until today since I fully expected a rejection and wanted to enjoy the end of my long weekend haha. While I don't consider myself an expert on applications (personal statements, resumes etc.) I would be happy to share my stats and documents if anyone is interested!

Crossing my fingers for us both! We'll get through this one way or another. Thanks for sharing your story as well, it's really interesting how you came from a clinical background (I had a similar situation as well where a lot of my early experiences were research-based)! Glad to share my experiences And no worries, it didn't come off that way at all! I can tell you're really passionate about this and wanted to do everything you could to strengthen your application. Thanks so much for the well wishes. Best of luck with your program as well!

First, congrats on your acceptance @postpostmodern!! Fantastic news! I always find it helpful and reassuring to hear the other side of the coin as well. I've been rejected 2 cycles in a row (still awaiting OISE but at this point my hopes aren't high). After getting rejected the first time, I also picked up 3 new volunteer positions - crisis line responder, support group facilitator, and peer support mentor - in addition to a couple volunteer positions I already held plus my mental health related job. I also talked with people in the field to get their feedback on how to improve my application for re-applying, as well as to just talk about the field in general. Like I've said before, my hopes for OISE aren't high and I'm gonna be looking into private institutions next. But, I wanted to share my experience for you all because it shows that this is super competitive. You can be getting the 'related experience' and doing the right things and it may not work out right away.

First, congrats on the acceptance!!! That's great news and I'm so excited for you I've definitely thought of MSWs but was discouraged since many of them require you to have a BSW, but UofT doesn't which is nice. Also, my main interest lies within providing therapy and so I gravitated toward counselling programs, but it's nice to know that you can do that with a different degree! If I have questions about the MSW in future, is it ok if I DM you?

Definitely, it's disheartening that there's so few spots when the need for therapists is so great. Will be looking into private programs (Adler, Yorkville etc) if I don't get in this round since the numbers seem to be against me with the universities.

Congrats to everyone on the waitlists for UBC! Fully expecting my rejection email to come, which makes me sad since this was my 2nd time applying, but at this point, I just wanna get it over with.

Last year UofT sent out decisions in late April/early May. We were told that finding out that late was unusual but due to COVID it took them longer to process all the applications

Roughly end of February to end of April!

I emailed UofT with this exact question and here was their response: "You will have ten additional days after November 15 to submit all supporting documents, including reference letters. Applications must be submitted and paid for by November 15 to guarantee consideration."

Nothing official Also, I'm in the same boat where I don't wanna email hahaha! At this point, I'm going about my life as if I've been rejected, but it sucks cause I just want to let my references know the final outcomes and officially move on :(((

Congrats on your acceptance!!! If you don't mind me asking, what were your work/volunteer/etc. experiences like (I was rejected, but I'm thinking of re-applying next cycle)?

Hey! I'm sorry to hear about UofT Although you didn't get the outcome you wanted, you deserve a big pat on the back for applying and going through this whole process! I will likely be in the same boat as you for references (but my timeline will be shorter since I plan to reapply next cycle) so this is what I was thinking. I'll thank them for writing letters and for their time, and then I'll briefly tell them my plans for the coming months (whether that's getting more experience or taking courses). I'll then say that I plan to reapply and am wondering if they would be willing to provide a reference for me again. If I've done work with them since re-applying, I might mention if they could emphasize that, but at the very least I'll tell them what I'm planning so that they can see I'm proactive and how much I value their input. You mentioned that you'll wait a couple years to ask them again, does that mean you're planning to re-apply in a couple years? I'm asking because you may decide to ask different people in 2 years than the one's you've asked this past cycle. As such, you could always leave your emails more open ended such as, I'm planning on spending the next couple years [taking courses, working etc.] and then re-applying to make myself a stronger applicant.

Oh wow! Well at least they'll let you know sooner if you're facing another deadline. Honestly at this point, I'm going about my life as if I've been rejected because I just can't keep waiting. So essentially I'm putting into action my plan B for not getting into grad school!

I'm sorry to hear that! Crossing my fingers for you for SFU We'll get through this! It's been such a crazy year

Hey everyone, I got a rejection email last night from UBC for their M.Ed Counselling Psyc program. Not gonna lie, this one stung, but I guess with fewer seats available and more applicants the odds were against me. Congrats to those who got in!

Agreed! I also feel that if they'd filled all 35 seats, we'd be hearing a lot more rejections as well aha

THIS. I just wanna know so I can go through the emotions and plan a course of action. But with the waiting, I'm in limbo and I just feel so lost

Ah jeez, that really sucks that they're offering less places I wonder if the larger pool of applicants will continue in the future or if it's just particularly big this year because of COVID

Something tells me that all of the schools are gonna send out decisions very close together, so we'll find out everything at once aha

No problem! Hope it was helpful Congrats on getting an interview for an RA position, that's a huge accomplishment in itself!! Here are some tips that have helped me land positions in healthcare/psych labs: Research the lab thoroughly! Have a good sense of their projects (and especially projects that you might work on), any techniques/technology they use etc. In my lab, the interviewers would often ask people about common modalities we used to see how much they knew about them, and the more they knew the better. Be prepared to talk about the experiences on your resume and any other material you may have submitted when you initially applied (cover letter etc.), and how those experiences will translate to the RA position. Also, be prepared to talk about your future plans (e.g. where you see yourself in 5 years) and how this position will help you get there Show genuine interest in what the lab's doing! This could include their overarching research goals but also the day to day tasks you'll probably be doing as an RA You may be asked behavioural and situational questions where you're given a scenario and you have to decide the course of action on the spot. You can't really prepare for these questions, so just go with your gut! Prepare questions to ask at the end of the interview! I like to have several questions that are targeted toward specific people in the lab. For example, I may ask the PI and/or grad students about their research whereas I may ask a research tech about the day-to-day operations. Send a thank-you email to your interviewers within 24 hours of the interview and reaffirm your interest in the position. Although, since your interview's on Friday, I'd aim to send it before the end of Friday! In addition to these points, I'd also probably brush up on answers to common general interview questions (e.g. what are your strengths/weaknesses etc). I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any more questions. Good luck, you're gonna crush it!!

First, I know how strong the doubts feel right now, but remember that it isn't over until you receive a reject! There's still the possibility that you could be waitlisted and accepted at a later date. I know it's hard to maintain hope, especially when you hear about other acceptances, but try to remember that! In terms of research experience, it's generally easiest to begin as a volunteer RA and then work your way up to more senior positions (which is the route I took). So, find labs whose research interests match yours, and email the PI or research coordinator to see if there's open positions and show how interested you are in their work! Ideally, if you could work on a project where you could present your results at a conference or in a paper (uni's will often have these specifically for undergrads/recent grads) that would be good cause it'll show initiative and be good practice if you're applying for a research-based master's program. As for references, I don't see why you couldn't ask the same people to be referees for you again? Especially for academic ones since you'll be out of school, so it's not like you will have taken more courses where you can ask different profs. That being said, if you want to have new ones, maybe think about other profs whose classes you took and ask them? But otherwise I think it'd be fine to ask the same people but have them emphasize the stuff you've done since you applied the first time to show your commitment to the program and career path!

Posting an update of what I ended up doing in case folks out there are in a similar boat! First, I tried to allow as much time to pass between talking with my referees about LORs and job references. To achieve this, what I didn't do was email my referees at the start of my job search to tell them that I was looking for jobs and was wondering if they could be references. Rather, I decided to wait until I was invited for job interviews to contact them, or if I knew that I was one of the final candidates. This way, by the time I was deep in the job search with interviews and applications etc. enough time had passed where I would have felt comfortable asking them to provide job references. Now...if I had been invited for job interviews closer to when my referees had written LORs, I would have made it super clear that I was still 100% committed to grad school, as well as that I understood I was asking a huge favour of them and that they were under no obligation to say yes since they had already helped me immensely.