Jump to content

SACP786

Members
  • Posts

    39
  • Joined

Everything posted by SACP786

  1. I'm from Ontario so I can't speak to other provinces, but off the top of my head: McMaster: Psychotherapy MA uOttawa: Counselling Psychology MA/MEd UoT: Counselling & Psychotherapy MEd Guelph: Family/Couples Counselling MSc Western: Counselling Psychology MA If you graduate from these programs you can become registered counsellor/psychotherapist in Ontario. I know Alberta has a lot of great programs too but I don't know if they are recognized in other provinces.
  2. To answer your question, no. However, it depends what your goals are post-graduation. If you're only interested in clinical work, private is a fine option (but keep in mind you might need additional courses post-graduation to meet your province's licensing requirements). If you wanted to work within academia or at a research hospital, I wouldn't recommend private. I personally don't think the quality of education you get at these private schools warrants the high tuition price, but I see the appeal. There are a ton of great terminal, course-based counselling psych programs so I would only consider private as a last resort.
  3. No decisions have gone out yet (they usually get released around the same time). Last year decisions went out end of February all at once but the department told me mid-March. If you don't get in this cycle, I would also recommend applying to School Psychology programs if you're interested in working with kids. It's equally competitive but gives you more options in terms of schools to apply to.
  4. Also curious about this. I applied to the Counselling and SACP programs but haven't heard anything from either one. With the deadline being so late, it's likely we won't hear back for another 2-3 weeks at the minimum ?‍♀️ Any current students lurking who might have updates?
  5. I called McGill this morning to get a rough idea of when interview offers are going out but couldn't get through. My BSc and MA are from UoT so it may be a long-shot anyway since I'm assuming these schools will take their honours students.
  6. Any news from University of Alberta, McGill, Western, and OISE?
  7. Depends on the school. University of Alberta, University of Calgary, Mount Saint Vincent, and University of Manitoba do not have interviews. OISE SCCP prelim interviews have started being sent out (according to the clinical thread). No word on McGill/unclear if they will be holding interviews.
  8. For some schools yes, though we did not formally meet via Zoom/in person. The general process is: Contact faculty to see if they're accepting students. Submit application listing PIs you want to work with. Admissions committee does pre-screening (i.e., rejects those who don't meet the programs' minimum requirements). The faculty member(s) you listed in your application receive your application and review. At this stage, they may do prelim interviews. From the applications they receive, they will shortlist 10-15 applicants they present to the faculty. The faculty decides which 6-8 students are offered admission. In short, having a pre-existing relationship or contact with a PI doesn't really make a difference since its the committee's decision, not just one PI deciding. It will certainly help you make the shortlist though.
  9. Nothing yet but I think it's PI-dependent. Some interview applicants and others don't.
  10. McGill and UoA. The rest are clinical/counselling programs with developmental streams! What about you?
  11. To be eligible for CGS-M, the program must have a significant research component (e.g., major research project, thesis). If it's course-based, it's very unlikely you'll be eligible but it never hurts to ask. Other than internal awards offered by the school and maybe provincial awards, I'm not sure what kind of funding there is for counselling programs.
  12. To my knowledge, no (though it depends the school). Your application goes through multiple rounds of revision so by the time you make it to the interview phase it's likely a faculty member will already be assigned to you based on the interests expressed in your SOP. Most faculty members don't even know if they can accept new students until the new year anyway so in my opinion, contacting faculty prior to applying doesn't make a difference.
  13. Since there are only four CPA-accredited PhD programs for school psychology, they're all very competitive by nature. However, if your goal isn't a PhD there's Mount Saint Vincent and University of Calgary which both offer terminal masters programs (meaning you can work in those provinces with just a masters degree). For these programs, the requirements are less intense and they generally admit more students. I would say University of Toronto, Western, and McGill are all extremely competitive due to the sheer volume of applications they receive for so few spots. These schools offer between 4-8 spots per program. They also admit students with the expectation that you will progress to the PhD, so extensive research experience (RA work, honours degree, existing MA/MSc/MEd), clinical work, and publications/presentations are expected at the minimum.
  14. It varies a lot by university. Some programs (e.g., McGill) look mostly at cGPA while others (e.g., UoT) are more forgiving (i.e., have a more holistic approach). Your application will go through several rounds of review so while you may make it through Round 1 by meeting the minimum GPA cutoff, you'll almost certainly get filtered out in Round 2 where you're up against people with 3.8-4.0. Of course GPA isn't everything and some schools have a more holistic approach to reviewing your application. Off the top of my head, University of Western Ontario, McGill, Dalhousie, and Ottawa would be bad choices for you based on your GPA. Check out UoT - they accept more student and their admissions requirements aren't as brutal as the schools mentioned above.
  15. Oh that's amazing - congrats!! Where were you thinking of applying? A lot of the PhD students I've worked with at McGill actually come uOttawa's MA program. They've had nothing but positive things to say about the program! As for my goals, I actually want to be a school psychologist but since there are so few programs in the country I'm shooting for counselling as well. Most schools will let you do your practicum in a school board so it shouldn't be too much extra work getting licensed as a school psychologist. uOttawa is also about 2 hours from where I live so it would be super convenient than uAlberta or UBC. I think the thesis stream would be great in terms of getting more pubs/presentation credits since there are a lot more opportunities for research (which is important since I eventually do want to get my PhD in school psych). I've heard that it's really difficult to get a spot in the MA program but I'm hoping 4 years of RA work, an honours thesis, an MA thesis, and volunteer work will make me competitive! I sent out a few emails already to meet with faculty and everyone has been really kind so far.
  16. I heard OISE received over 1000 applications last year ? Might have something to do with COVID because, even though the number of applicants has been steadily increasing, the spike is certainly an anomaly. Yeah I also heard the same thing! Although I'm pretty sure there are ~30 spots for just the course-based MEd stream alone. I think the research paper option & thesis have around 5-6 spots per stream. On paper the difference looks marginal but hopefully you feel more hopeful. I'm not sure which stream to apply to. I'm working towards my MA in educational psychology now (w/ thesis) so I'm thinking I could be competitive for uOttawa's thesis counselling program but I might just apply to the course-based program to cover my bases.
  17. For those who have applied before, how would you rank the competitiveness of each program? Intuitively I would think OISE, McGill, and Ottawa are among the toughest to get into just because of the sheer volume of applicants.
  18. First time applicant here as well (only applying to uOttawa though). Feeling nervous but excited.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use