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Thank you for your response! I’ll make sure to maintain a B or above. I think my bigger worry is my last 60 credits will be lower which could affect my admission (if let’s say I get a letter of acceptance, and then my gpa is lower now than my application gpa). Do you know anything about that side of things?

That’s all good! I’m not able to send the discord server link here — I tried once but it was blocked by mods and I don’t know who the mods are so I can’t contact them. If you go onto the Ualberta subreddit, I made a post called “Server for those interested in SLP graduate programs for 2025”, it’s on there.

Hey all! Someone had a really good question on the SLP discord server and I thought I’d ask here too: my top choice currently is UofA, but I’m taking a course to fulfill prereqs for Western in case it doesn't work out. If I get accepted, do I have to maintain my exact GPA in order to still be considered? For instance, if it dropped from the 3.7 I applied with to a 3.6, could I hypothetically have an offer revoked? I’ll try my best in the course of course.

Has anyone heard from the UofA if everything is going to be due on the 1st or the next business day?

Let me know if you hear back! I’m curious about the same thing.

If you email, you get what’s essentially a copied and pasted response. So, I showed up at their office and asked to speak to them (I’d recommend making an appointment, I was having a rough time that kinda threw logic and courtesy out the window at the time). They’re much better to talk to in person, very sweet and helpful

Hey again! So I actually got a chance to talk with the SLP advisor there and they basically said this, along with other things, so it looks like if I do end up having to re-apply I’ll focus on my experience. I already have more experience in the EDI sector than I did previously, so I know my application is stronger already haha. Thank you!

For people that have considered UofA for speech path (either gotten in or done some research to consider it at least): how highly do they consider GPA? I have a 3.6 right now coming out of my BA at got waitlisted this admin cycle, and my parents (who don’t have a ton of experience applying to grad school or in SLP) keep saying it’s because my GPA wasn’t good enough. Just trying to get a better sense of how correct they actually are… (for context, I had fourth quartile Casper scores and a ton of independent research experience, both related and unrelated to SLP directly)

Hey all! So I’m currently waitlisted for UofA’s program, and while I know shifting around on the waitlist still happens I’ve started to think about what my next steps are if I don’t end up getting an acceptance offer. Does anyone have any tips and tricks for how to “improve” your chances of getting in at the next cycle of admissions? Right now my GPA is at a 3.6 something, but I’m done classes and will be convocating in June. I tried to make up for the lower gpa with a ton of leadership and hands-on lab experience with some fairly big names in the linguistics community, which I think is why I got waitlisted initially. Right now, I have a job that is working alongside an SLP and OT so I have more direct experience in the SLP field, that I’m hoping to continue. I know everyone says it takes 2-3 tries on average to be accepted, but I’m not sure what changes in between those applications or if they just consider the fact that you’re re-applying. Secondly, does anyone know if there’s anyone I can talk to about my other options, particularly at UofA? I would still like to remain in school and complete a masters degree because I know with just a psych/ling BA there’s not much you can do. I know a professor I was supposed to work with over the summer mentioned that I could enter a masters in Rehab Med, and then reapply to SLP next year if things don’t work out. However, this professor *coughs* ghosted me and I have no other connections to the CSD department there 😕 so if anyone has any experience with that or knows of any advisors I can talk to I’d really appreciate it. Lastly, as much as I don’t want to admit it but I think the rejections have hit me harder than I thought they would. I kinda feel like I’m in a slump now where I’m pretty aimless and don’t have any sort of goal to meet, now that admissions are over and I’m stuck without an acceptance offer (as of now). I don’t want lose the momentum I had in my BA of working in labs and making connections but it feels like I’m losing grip of that. On top of that, I’ve been pretty hard on myself and have been having trouble staying positive and hopeful about whatever the future holds. Any tips on how to get out of this slump? I’ll be posting this around to get more opinions, so sorry if you see this post more than once on a different site. If anyone can help me out that would be great thanks all! Congrats to everyone for their hard work and dedication to the SLP programs — whether you were accepted, waitlisted or rejected we all worked so hard and that’s something to be proud of

I said this way up in another post but I’ve heard that that’s kind of Dalhousie’s logic to it — they respond late to make sure that you would be committed to their program and won’t have a ton of options to choose from. Doesn’t make a ton of sense in my opinion but that’s what’s been said about it, or what I’ve heard at least

Quick question for anyone that sees it: do people email back places that have waitlisted you? I kind of always assumed that it wouldn’t even get looked at or it would be bothering admin staff / do little about you being waitlisted but I’ve seen some people talk about responding to waitlist emails thanking them for their time and continuing to show interest in the program. Is that considered appropriate?

This is good to know, thank you! I will say I’ve heard of people getting waitlist offers all the way into August, just less likely than it is now.

Thats the plan!

Nope! Rejected. Sent an email to my potential supervisor thanking him for the opportunity to work under him today but that it isn’t possible… EDIT: still having hope for UofA though, the more I put it out into the universe the more I have faith. Grad school isn’t the final destination or the end all be all but I’d love to be a part of it if fate allows!

It kinda makes sense as to why they wouldn’t tell people where on the waitlist they are (at least, I can see their logic) but it does seem odd that they don’t release historic numbers of how many people get in or are waitlisted 😕

I tried looking them up once and couldn’t find them 😕

That’s amazing! I’m really glad it worked out for you. It’s definitely gruelling and it does suck when you really don’t know what they’re considering but getting into McGill is awesome! Congratulations, all your hard work finally has paid off 🥹

I was rejected. Sucks because it was my best shot but I’m not sure what exactly their criteria is for rejection, so I’m just glad I gave it my best shot. Shame they wouldn’t take me but there’s still hope for UofA as I was waitlisted. If anyone knows historically how fast the waitlist moves that would be great to know

Officially heard back from Dalhousie! Good luck to all the people that are waiting, you’ll hear soon!

I have the same thing currently. I’m pretty sure I sent everything in to them and they’ve never emailed me telling me I was missing anything (where McGill did). I’m pretty sure it just hasn’t been updated.

I honestly haven’t heard of anyone that’s heard from them yet. I had also heard that they give out their letters historically late, like months into spring and summer, but from someone else that’s also applying. Not sure where they heard it from. But apparently Dal’s motivator is giving their letters late to make sure you really want to go there and aren’t considering other options as potentially above their program, so they wait until long after other schools have sent out their letters, and then send theirs out. Again, not sure how true it is.

Me too! Good to know someone else hasn’t heard anything last I checked my graduate portal it still said there’s a written notification to follow, so no change.

Haven’t heard anything yet

See, I’ve just heard generally that having a supervisor “looks good” for grad applications because it shows a professor is willing to invest time and energy into your research. Don’t know if that works specifically for UofA (probably not from what you’ve said). I’ve also heard that UofA is more likely to accept people that are doing research (from a professor that used to be on the grad admission team). But, he also said that this year they were doing things differently, de-emphasizing GPA and all that so everything shifted around in priority, so I’m not sure how much truth that holds anymore. Regardless now, if I get in I’ll have research opportunities waiting for me so I’m just keeping the faith that a spot will open lol. It’s good to know that I can still write a thesis though — I was bummed out for a while because I thought that may have been my only chance to sign up for it

That’s what I’ve heard as well when I met with a professor in the CSD department! I just wish I could’ve put it on my application because it could’ve given me my best shot, but I didn’t know you needed a supervisor in order to apply for that track initially (Dalhousie didn’t have that as a requirement, for instance, you just write an additional personal statement). Regardless it was always my intention to do research a write a thesis so I’m hoping that came through in my personal statement 😕 Now that I have someone who would want to supervise me the admissions committee doesn’t know that, yk?