Hi everyone! I just accepted my offer to UofA on April 23rd, and I wanted to share my stats in case anyone was wondering as I don't have the most complete application. I was originally on the waitlist for UofA and managed to get off it very last minute!
My stats:
GPA = 3.76
CASPER = 2nd quartile
Bachelors of Science in Psychology at UofC, and only completed about 7 linguistic courses
References = only 2/3 submitted theirs on time, and I was worried my application would be rejected, but it wasn't (though, the two that were submitted were academic references, so I'm not sure if that's why it was still allowed)
Volunteer experience = none, I only helped teach at a math tutoring centre
Work experience = I work as a music teacher and vocal coach. So I teach a wide range of ages and people with different levels of experiences and needs. Many of the children I teach do go to speech therapy and use music as an extension of their therapy, and I used my experiences with those children in my SOI. I also had a lot of experience with DEI in the way I've tackled specific situations in my teaching career, whether it was dealing with stigma from parents or helping adult students get past a language barrier to help them sing better.
Fun fact: One of my academic references was actually a professor from abroad in Singapore. I was in their class about language and music during my semester abroad and I tied in a lot of those experiences into my SOI as well
Overall, this is for anyone who doesn't think their stats are good enough or if they haven't taken the conventional method of attaining experience. I was sure I wouldn't get in and needed to do more SLP related things in my life before I could consider applying next time, so getting off the waitlist was a very surreal experience for me. I felt like everything was against me except my SOI, and I'm really thankful to my two references as I don't think anything else could have gotten me through this far. Keep being your most authentic selves! It will pay off!
