T.O.hopeful

Hi everyone! Good luck to those who have applied to an MSW program! Just wanted to send this message as I was in your boat last year and was fortunate enough to be accepted into UofT's 2-year MSW program (started Sept 2022). For some context, I'm interested in counselling/therapy and after doing some research realized this program could help me achieve that career path (also applied to clin psych and counselling psych programs but didn't get in). I've just started my 1st year placement at a private practice clinic. If anyone has any questions about the program or placement options, feel free to send me a message

Wow super shocked since it's August but I just got off the alternate list at UofT and received an offer!! So, if anyone is still listed as an alternate, take this as proof that you may still have a chance

Not American so curious, does it make a difference what school you went to once you graduate/are registered? I'm just wondering if the earning potential post graduation would be worth having to deal with paying off a 40-50K loan for a 2 year program?

Hey there! First, until you hear from Laurier, you still have a chance to be accepted, so fingers crossed you hear some good news! I've heard that volunteering for a crisis center/line, like Kid's Help Phone, is really good experience on someone's CV if interested in counselling. You could also take a look at some community outreach jobs as the experience required is sometimes a bit flexible and you could structure your cv in a way to make it work. In terms of schools/programs, if you're able to relocate then i would definitely suggest applying to more MSW programs next year. I know UofT and Laurier are fairly popular programs, so it may be harder harder get into. Also, have you looked at the fast track BSW degrees? I know Lakehead has a program and likely there are other schools that have it. It's shorter than a 4-year BSW and is for people with a bachelors already. The good thing with those programs is not only would you likely get social work practical experience for your CV but you could also apply to advanced standing MSW programs after, and not the 2 year MSWs.

Sounds like all the rejections are being sent at once lol. Got the email to check the portal and also saw a rejection. Good luck to everyone else still waiting and congratulations to those who will receive an acceptance!!

As an FYI, it took 5 days from when I saw invited on Acorn (mar 23) to me receiving the official email/update to my SGS file for the MSW program (mar 28). So if there's no way for you to access Acorn, don't worry, you will receive an email in a few days with the official information (if your Acorn status has changed)

Yes, congratulations, that basically means an acceptance into the program!!

My last name also starts with A and I haven't heard anything. Maybe we're just convincing ourselves it's not alphabetical so we don't feel bad ?

I applied to the MSW program this year and the results were released a bit differently this year. It happened over several days and the people saying their last names were all over the place in terms of letters lol. So, I think it's too hard to predict what system OISE will use to release results

People have called the department today and apparently acceptances have gone out already but not all. Supposedly, there's a backlog and they'll continue to send out acceptances over the next few weeks

Fair enough, the Yorkville tuition was also the concern for me. Apparently Athabasca University's online program is cheaper so that's another option you could look into. But fingers crossed you get good news from OISE this month!

I think there's technically still time to apply for Yorkville for this September if you didn't want to wait another year (below quote is what I was told by them). So you could still try applying. For Social Work, you'd register with OCSWSSW. I don't see how you could register with CRPO as it's not a Counselling or Psychotherapy graduate program. But perhaps i could be wrong. "The latest I want to submit applications for Fall 2022 is end of May, however, the sooner we submit, the sooner we would receive a decision of admission."

So, it's not that unusual for rejections to be sent out first. Often if someone doesn't meet the minimum criteria/cutoff, schools will send out rejections to those people first before acceptances/waitlists. I don't necessarily know if that's what is happening now but I do know of other programs during this admissions cycle that sent out rejections first for those reasons.

It's a good plan and was going to be my backup as well! Don't let anyone make you doubt that program, my therapist last year was a Yorkville grad lol

It will look like this when there's an update to your file. So you won't be able to miss it!

I also got an email and update to the portal this morning but for OISE's Counselling and Clinical Psychology program. Also rejected but knew that was going to happen as I didn't interview. Still no update for the MEd Counselling/Psychotherapy stream though!

People who have reached out were told mid to end of April. So that is the timeline I'm working with, anything sooner will be considered a bonus at this point!

I'm also interested in the collaborative specializations, either the community development or sexual diversity studies. But my main question is the program only indicates students take 2 electives, meaning those would have to go entirely to the collaborative specialization? There are so many useful electives that I feel I'd be missing out on. Does anyone happen to know if students are permitted to take more than 2 electives, i.e., graduate with more than the minimum required credits?

I'm not really sure this program would set someone up to directly enter a PhD program but it would depend on the program and what their admission requirements are. There are PhD programs that accept students whose masters weren't thesis-based if they can demonstrate research experience in other ways. But i don't think this is common for clinical psych PhD programs. I think what would more likely happen if someone wanted to do a PhD after Yorkville is they may have to enter at the masters level and then transition into the PhD after 1 or 2 years, depending on the program.

Hey, I think you should consider broadening the schools you apply to. I'm assuming you must live in Alberta but if you're open/able to move out of province, that would help expand your options by applying to other programs. You can also look into online counselling programs like Yorkville and Athabasca. I don't know anything about Athabasca but I know Yorkville tuition is quite expensive and is 2.5 years long, which is longer than other programs, but it does provide you the flexibility of not needing to leave your home province. Similar to the previous poster, MSWs are also an option but it is program specific so you would need to look into one that specializes in providing clinical training. But just to correct something previously mentioned, people with MSWs become Registered Social Workers (RSW). RSWs along with other certain registered bodies (e.g., RNs, OTs, RPs, psychologists, etc.) are legally allowed to practice the controlled act of psychotherapy. And therefore can call themselves a Psychotherapist. But when calling yourself a Psychotherapist, you must mention your registration or credentials first. So for RSWs, something like this would be permitted: "Registered Social Worker, Psychotherapist". Note, I'm basing this off of Ontario's Registration criteria, so obviously I would check for your province specifically, if interested. Edited: okay i see your most recent post about having a strong interest in research. Then i would say disregard the MSW option and consider applying to other programs to increase your chances!

I think you should use whoever is best suited to speak about the things mentioned on the MSW reference form. For me, it was 3 work references as I've been out of school since 2013. So, don't feel pressured to use one type of referee over another. Just pick who's best able to speak to your suitability as a social worker. And if you're worried about how well any of them can write your reference letter because perhaps maybe they knew you in a specific role that was different from what a social worker does, then either meeting with them to discuss why you're applying/want to be a social worker and/or providing them with some notes of examples highlighting your skills/experiences would help strengthen the reference letter they can provide for you. It can sometimes be risky to just rely on what a person is going to write about you without having some sort of convo or notes explaining why you're applying. We may assume our working relationship with someone was strong and they should have plenty to write about us but meanwhile, we could have just been one of many students or one of many employees they worked with and so we may need to guide them a bit with the letter they write for us.

Congrats on your two offers! In terms of what would look better on paper, it would almost certainly be being a Registered Social Worker with an MSW from UofT (school rep, greater employability, etc.). In terms of financially, this is hard to say. Yorkville tuition is more expensive. But you'd have to factor in Toronto rent/living expenses if you chose UofT. So you'd have to do some extra calculations to determine how Toronto rent/living expenses + tuition compares to just paying Yorkville's tuition. In terms of your post-grad career, yes Yorkville doesn't have a great rep, but I know people (my therapist)/have heard several other people mention that they know Registered Psychotherapists who graduated from Yorkville. So I would say many people don't have a serious issue meeting the required supervised hours to become registered. And once you're registered, the school you went to won't really matter. So if staying home is really important to you (and you don't want to reject both schools and try your luck with Laurier's online MSW next year), then I don't necessarily think it would be career suicide choosing Yorkville. But if you can handle ~ 1.5 years in Toronto, then I would lean towards UofTs MSW as I think most would objectively consider it a stronger program than the Yorkville counselling MA.

Apparently, it's common to get off the alternate list. Some people may get multiple offers so they need to decline one and some may get offers to schools that didn't accept them. So there's definitely going to be movement with the alternate list! Just can't put a specific % on the likelihood though

Think the answer is ultimately going to differ for every person. For me, I live in Toronto, have a mortgage, and work in a mental health hospital that I plan to switch to part-time during school. Going to any other city would have complicated things. And as for UofT vs. York, like previous people have said, each school tends to have a different focus and given my mental health background, the MH specialization at UofT stood out to me over the more social justice focus of York. I looked into Ryerson and think it was only AS standing/also very social justice focused. So UofT just made the most sense given my clinical MH interests. But to be honest, I don't know if I agree that significantly more people on this forum have mentioned UofT, i think it could be timing of results. For e.g., when Dalhousie or Carleton released their results, the forum was pretty much just posters talking about those schools lol. And now that UofT released their results, the convo seems to be about UofT. So, it can be a bit misleading when a school's just released results because naturally that's the program everyone will be talking about

Yea for sure, feel free to message. I'm still sort of researching things, so not an expert at all but can share my impressions so far! I mentioned to another person but the tipping point for me has been that my friend introduced me to someone who did their MSW at Laurier and opened up a CBT clinic during the pandemic that has done so well that he had to hire a couple of registered social workers and psychotherapists under him. That example plus indeed counselling/therapist jobs all indicating an MSW as an appropriate background gave me reassurance that this was a good alternative to counselling/psychotherapy/clinical psych programs which are all so competitive.