PsychGiraffe

I would send them an email or give them a call to check what happened. Haven't heard of that before.

You can defer funding only for reasons of parental or medical leave for the most part or issues surrounding visa and relocation. In either case, supporting documents are required. Quite unfortunate really... But the fact that you got CIHR once is a good thing and you can put on CV as declined which still benefits you in a small way for the next cycle.

The way I can describe this process to you is the same way every clinical MA and PhD student has described it to me thus far; it's a crapshoot. I mean it. Having those years of experience is great including the one publication, but you just have to keep doing more or less the same thing. Changing your application materials also can make a difference, such as reference letters, LOI, etc. DM me maybe and we can have a video chat to discuss at length? I could type an essay here and still not be done.

If you got rejected this round, I advise (and I believe others would advise you to do the same; this is what I was told to do by a DCT) that you undertake a research position. That can be one or two volunteer positions or one full-time paid research position. The most important thing for these programs to see is that you've been doing research. The clinical aspect is also important but tends to be secondary. If you can do clinical research then even better - two birds with one stone. Another option is to do volunteer research and get a pain job in a clinical setting of sorts (with the respective population you want to work with as part of your degree would be ideal).

I had the chance to speak to a PhD student in the clinical program at Lakehead and from my understanding (and take this information as anecdotal), not all PIs there do interviews but some do.

Best thing you can do for yourself is to not hope. I gave up hope last year and I got in this year on my third round of applying. I was already starting to make a list for which schools to apply for next year when I received emails that I was recommended for admission at OISE and Western. But overall, the healthiest thing I did for myself was assume rejection ?

If your PI is the one who let you know then that might actually be a good sign; but don't use that as the basis for your hope. What school is this at?

The two adjudication processes are separate and governed by different committees. Your scholarship ranking or even getting the scholarship is unlikely to affect your chances of getting in. You could get the scholarship and be rejected from the program in which case you would have to decline the scholarship. That said, it is not completely unheard of for a supervisor to push for a student's acceptance if they received CGS-M - this information is from me speaking with clinical students directly at various universities including but not limited to OISE, Ryerson, Queen's, Windsor, and YorkU. However, this has happened very few times, perhaps 2 or 3 cases that I have personally heard of.

The process for these schools is arduous at best. Your third point is likely what you'll have to strengthen more (even if it is currently strong; assume you need more - competition is brutal). Having high stats grade and GPA are key as those are some of the earliest criteria clinical programs use to rate your application. After which its research experiences and all its forms (talks, posters, publications, etc.), and believe it or not, some schools grant a point in their applicant rating pool for diversity (this is confirmed after I spoke to a clinical student who helped design the rating excel sheet for one of the universities I applied to). "The right direction" you speak of largely depends on what you want to do with your future. C.Psych. and Psy.D. programs are quite different in their training model and career outcomes. In short, C.Psych. programs follow the scientist-practitioner model with a heavy focus on research (your research informs your practice and your practice informs your research), whereas Psy.D. programs are course-based only with little to no research component (this did not appeal to me personally due to my background in research and believing that research is how we advance and inform our therapeutic approaches; just my two cents). Glad to zoom about this further if you'd like (DM if so).

I know each school has a different deadline, but GENERALLY, do we know what the absolute deadline is to tell schools whether you accept or decline their offers? Was it April 1st? 10th? In parallel to that, the announcement date for CGS-M is...April 1st as well?

Afaik, a professor takes on 1 student per cycle, very rarely 2 students. I think the waitlist is designed for students that get multiple offers so that if someone declines an offer they can move on to the waitlist to grab another student. So to answer your question, I reckon you'll be grabbed off the waitlist contingent on someone declining their offer and where on the waitlist you're positioned.

Yes you're right and I already knew about that. Will have to play it by ear once I get both offers in a couple of weeks and decide swiftly.

Won't share PI here in forums, but yes I did apply to OGS as well as SSHRC. I'm worried about being granted SSHRC or OGS at Western and not at OISE though; I'm inclined to pick OISE due to the training available and the (somewhat exclusive) collaboration with the TDSB.

I think it's a safe bet to say that this post summarizes poignantly what all applicants are thinking. The application process is a combination of having the right resources (CV, LOI, experiences, etc.) and a crapshoot. A crapshoot is how I had the process described to me by almost a dozen clinical students (both MA and PhD). I know people that got in right after undergrad (almost never happens), and I also know of people that got rejected from the program having already completed a second PhD and had several publications. This is not to discourage you, but rather, to juxtapose the state of things as they are. A typical application cycle at YorkU for ClinDev was ~250 applicants for 8-10 spots; this was when the GRE was still in place. This year, when I received a rejection from YorkU, it came so early (about first week of January), I was certain there was a system error. I contacted the school and they told me they had 1000 applicants for 7 spots... think about that. So many well-experienced students such as yourself in a pool of 500-600 (I halved it as a lot of applicants aren't eligible based on GPA, not having an Honor's Thesis, unrelated degree, etc.) and profs have to choose 7. That ratio is insane. The point of this is for you to decide what you really want to do. If this is it, bear down, tie your shoes real tight, keep doing what you're doing (all your other experiences are great btw) and keep being involved in research. You might even consider doing a second Master's degree (your choice entirely; the YorkU and Windsor DCTs have told me that most incoming students already have another master's but don't treat this as the holy grail of getting in as it doesn't guarantee anything). If this is what you really want to do, keep at it; ALL THE WHILE not putting your career and academics on hold. I realize this is a lot of info and I can't fit on here everything I want to say in which case happy to zoom to discuss further if you'd like.

The process is brutal and is unfortunately getting more difficult by the year. Just when I was already making plans to start working on applications for next year (4th time applying) I got interviews and two offers... EDIT: keep at it and strengthen your CV.