Search the Community

Hi all, I thought I'd start a thread specifically for those of us applying to Munk and other Canadian international affairs programs for fall 2017. Topic name begins with Munk simply because that's my first choice lol Applications haven't opened yet but I figured, why not Here's last cycle's thread:

Hey Everyone! I haven't been able to find a thread for uoft ischool so I thought I would just start it here. I haven't heard back yet, I applied on January 31st for the program as well as OGS, I was wondering if anyone has found out if they have been accepted or rejected yet? I know they told us we would hear by the 3rd, but with that approaching so quickly I just thought it would be useful to have this forum. Best of luck to everyone! Thanks in advance for the responses!

Hello everyone, Thought I would make a group for those applying to Master of Health Informatics at University of Toronto for Fall 2017. Perhaps we can keep each other updated regarding interviews, acceptances, etc. Other health informatics programs at other universities are welcome too! Good luck!

I got admits to M.Engineering Materials Science and Engineering at Carnegie Mellon Pittsburgh and University of Toronto. U of Toronto is considerably cheaper but CMU is the better school(I think), no scholarships or assistantships on either one. Which one should I choose?

I am fixed between deciding between the two 1. Research Masters in the School of Interactive Arts and Technology with a full funding guarantee 2. Unfunded Masters of Information in the UX Concentration I am considering factors like - How big are university rankings as a factor when it comes to employability - Lesser financial liability will allow me to have a lesser headache in the masters learning experience, I could probably even spend money to enjoy the BC life - Toronto and VC look similar when it comes to living expenses. Any suggestions and advice regarding this would be greatly appreciated Thanks in advance

Hey guys, I'm having trouble deciding between 1) U of T: Master of Management Innovation (MMI) 2) York: Masters of Management (Mmgt) - Both of these programs are relatively new - I am a science student hoping to transition into business (both of these programs are for students with a non-business background) Any help or insights would be greatly appreciated !

Anyone apply to the masters of child study and education of masters of teaching?

Didn't see a thread about the MSc.Pl program at UofT. Saw someone post an acceptance this morning on the results page. Anyone else hear any news? I contacted Marija in mid February and this year she said they received over 200 applicants for approximately 30 spots. I applied on February 1 and haven't heard anything FYI.

Hello All, Has anyone heard from University of Toronto yet? My application has been under review for the longest time. I have applied to the Collaborative Program in Ancient and Medieval History through the department of Philosophy.

Hi, I got an interview call for my PhD application in UofT at Department of Molecular genetics. Any suggestions on what are the prospects to get into the program? Any interview suggestions?

Hi everybody! I've applied to the University of Toronto Social and Behavioural Studies MPH and the Western MPH but the bad news: last year's GPA: ~3.1 but this year I'm confident that it will be ~3.7 I have no research experience but I got to work in a government position that focused on pesticides and public health and I've been volunteering extensively in the health promotion field for the past few months. I understand that my GPA is definitely lower than most of the applicants and I was just wondering if anybody had any insight on how competitive I would be compared to most other applicants. I'm 100% prepared to get rejected and do a 5th year double majoring in biomed and legal studies but I'm just wondering how I can make my application more competitive after the 5th year. Thanks so much in advance!

the working title for this article, before I ran out of steam and insights, was "how incompetence and greed have spawned yet another fruitless policy degree" I am a recent graduate of UofT’s School of Public Policy and Governance (SPPG), and I am unemployed. I cannot tell you how public policy is formulated (I do know it is generally a governmental response to something), or how to write it (charts are important but who knows how to make those). I could not pick the best public policy document out of a stack and tell you it was the most feasible (I would probably choose the one with the most charts, and jargon). For the two-year all-in price tag of $35,000 (the most expensive public policy program in the country), here is what I can tell you: income inequality is rising in Canada, Canadians are having less children, immigrants are great for the economy, many public policies reflect the interests of certain groups, “program evaluation” is a field which exists although no one understands it, an opportunity cost refers to the savings realized by not doing something, the Ontario Public Service is one of the largest and best employers in the country, and I think that about covers it. In other words, I would equate the SPPG MPP education to regularly following articles in the Globe and Mail. The program suffers from a myriad of issues which are mainly due to choices made by SPPG administration and the University of Toronto, and few of which are due to the larger challenges plaguing higher education in Western Nations. Most significantly, SPPG itself is not its own department within UofT, which from my understanding, significantly curtails its autonomy and authority in deciding how it is run. When the program doubled its cohort in size from 40 to 80 students at only a few years since its inception, despite its obvious growing pains and shaky foothold within the Ontario public policy landscape, that was probably a decision made out of greed at higher levels of UofT’s administration. The Munk School of Global Affairs incidentally suffered the same fate. This is the first way in which greed has negatively impacted students of the program. The second way in which greed has affected the program, is through the decision to have it structured as a two year offering, rather than one (such as the $9,000 program at Ryerson which boasts higher graduate placement rates, or the $7,000 program at Queens which acts as a feeder program to the federal as well as provincial government). While a two year professional program could certainly be designed to benefit students, through more in-depth training of skills actively sought by employers (including actual quantitative analysis, project management, and report-writing) SPPG uses its two years as a cash-cow of billings for professors from other faculties, which peddle lukewarm and at times clearly out-of-touch mandatory courses including: “Ethics in the Public Sector”, “Legal Analysis in Public Policy”, “Comparative Public Policy”, “The Social-Context of Policy-Making”, and finally the disturbingly impractical “Capstone” final course. The third way in which greed has affected the program, is through its annual appointment of high-level public sector “fellows” such as former Premier Dalton McGuinty, Ontario Public Service head Peter Wallace, and Liberal MP Bob Rae. SPPG finances the sponsoring of these individuals, which may make the occasional speech at program events, or teach the odd session, on the backs of its students. The program’s tuition rises yearly by around $1000, another appointment is made, the school attracts attention and higher enrolment due to the fellowship appointment, and the actual cohort receives zero benefit. The pristine, empty offices of the fellows (which all reside on the top floor of the Canadiana building) are surely a sting to the program’s actual professors as well, which reside in the basement, four floors down. And for those who might think that fellows bring with them a network of connections to which students can access, or short-cuts to employment, let me assure you no such benefit exists at all. Dalton was all smiles at the orientation and kick-off to the fall 2015 orientation of the program, but come May 2016, he was nowhere to be seen. Speaking of the program’s professors, SPPG’s non-departmental status has had much more insidious effects on its cohort than its current bloated size (future students: prepare for “seminar” courses with 20+ students in boardrooms which require you to take seats against the edge of the room, or lecture courses in UC which require you to ask professors if they would refrain from writing at the bottom of the whiteboard, since it is challenging to see from 10+ rows back). The most negative effect of SPPG’s current status has been on its faculty recruitment. Most of the professors at the school have no experience in government whatsoever. As such, the MPP degree is more accurately described as an extension of an undergraduate degree in political science, rather than the “professional degree” which it touts to be. For evidence of this, look no further than the program’s recent appointment of its new director, Peter Loewen, an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto. The University claims Loewen was selected after an international recruitment campaign, but having read his exclusively academic credentials, and complete lack of public sector or policy development experience, such claims due a poor job at covering the fact that the organization of UofT has found a nice nesting spot for one of its own – to the detriment of MPP students. The recruitment of Peter Loewen is reflective of another dysfunctional trend at the program, faculty departures. The two year period 2014-2016 saw the departure of the founding director Mark Stabile (unfortunately founding administrator Anita Srinivasan did not follow suit), former Mowat Centre director Matthew Mendelsohn (one of the only professors at the school with actual public policy experience), etc. Loewen’s first official act himself as new Director of SPPG speaks volumes about the kind of policy school SPPG is, for it was to take sabbatical at Princeton University. Turning to curriculum, perhaps the greatest failure of the program is its lack of professional development, or teaching of hard skills. To this end, the program offers one 3-hour workshop on writing a briefing note, and a few optional introductory type courses on Excel and data-visualization software Tableau. Upon graduating, you will not have a portfolio of professional work that any public or private sector employer will be impressed by during an interview. You will have a handful of academic papers with proper citations. If in the event I have not persuaded you to not attend SPPG. Maybe because the glowing call of “University of Toronto” is enough to overshadow the money you’ll save, and real employer-sought skills you will learn elsewhere – I will end with some final remarks on how to best navigate the program, based on observation and my own experience: Your job first and foremost, should be to network. There are no awards or employment opportunities for getting high marks on assignments. · All of the professional development events organized by the school are useless, in that their ratio of employer to SPPG student averages around 1:10. Strike out on your own, start by talking to professors and affiliated · The vast majority of graduates who find employment after graduating from the program are hired back on to their internship units from the previous summer.

Hello, I'm a prospective PhD student in neuro fields. Actually, I already had a Skype call with prospective professor, and he said to me 'I can offer you a funded position, and I will write a supporting letter for your application.'. In this case, in the Canadian graduate admissions system, although I have to submit my formal application to the department admissions committee, can I expect successful result? As I'm not accustomed to Canadian graduate system, please let me know. Thank you.

I will be attending an upcoming seminar where there will be Q & A regarding graduate school admission at OISE building. However, I am anxious to ask someone if they have any personal experience. I know that graduate admission is different for different programs, so I wanted to ask science/math students about their experience. Have you ever experienced rejection/acceptance into UofT graduate program in any of its science/math programs (including programs such as Statistics and Economics) with low CGPA but competitive final two year grades? I started out terribly as a Humanities student, but I am studying really hard to get A's for Math and CSC. I was wondering if my chances will be terribly crippled by my prior academic record, or if I have a fighting chance with high grades in my new programs. I will gratefully read every one of your responses. Thanks. * Also, if you have any similar experience with rejection/acceptance into other graduate schools (US included), I would equally appreciate your response.

Hey everyone! A big hello from a newcomer to this website. This is the first post I'm making because I'mat THAT stage of my undergraduate life that I realize that I want to study abroad and I need to start preparing for it early. A bit about me. So, I'm currently 19, and have started my second year of my three year Bachelor of Arts Honours course in Political Science. I am from India and once my BA degree is done I want to go abroad and study, with Canada being my top choice because I would eventually like to stay back in Canada and become a permanent resident after a point. Now, my questions are not limited to Canadians, but open to all HOWEVER if you are an Indian who has gone to Canada for Graduate studies in the social science field and have applied to some of the places I'm mentioning below I would be indebted for your insight and if you could recount your experiences to me! So, the places I'm thinking of applying are: University of Toronto, Munk School of Global Affairs, McGill University. These are the three I have in mind so far, but I'm open to adding more.If anyone has applied here and got in, I'd love to know the sort of resume you presented in terms of gpa, non-academic activities and more. Also one very important question, many of these institutes in Canada ask for a Four year BA degree "or equivalent". Well all my Bachelor courses in my college are for three years only, in fact most colleges in India offer three years UG and then a year or sometimes 2 of Graduate studies. So, am I ineligible altogether if I'm only doing 3 years of Undergraduate? Thanks for reading through all of this! I look forward to hearing from some of you!~ Sagnik.

Has anyone heard back from U of Toronto Immunology graduate program yet? My application status says decision made, but I haven't received any notification, either via e-mail or post. Does anyone know anything about the process?

Hello, Anyone apply to the Master of Health Informatic program at the University of Toronto or the Master of Science in eHealth program at McMaster University for the Fall 2016 semester. If so, feel free to share your statistics. Please also indicate any communication you have received from the institutions including request for interviews, acceptances, and rejections. I personally applied to both programs with a 3.35 cumulative GPA and 3.7 in my final two years with two years of work experience. My first choice will be UFT. Good luck everyone!

I've applied to OISE's Developmental Psychology and Education MEd program. Has anyone heard back from this program or from any OISE program this cycle? My application status is still "documents received, excl. official transcripts," but I'm hoping they'll review my app before my transcript makes it all the way to Toronto from Louisiana . . .

I am applying to the Master of Public Policy at U of T and also the Political Management program at Carleton. My GPA is not amazing 3.35 with a joint honours BA in history and poli sci. I have pretty good references though as well as resume and background experience (including extracurriculars) in terms of volunteering. My professional experience is alright. I've yet to write my letter of intent. What are my chances of getting into either? I was also thinking of applying to Carleton's Public Policy and Admin program but don't know if I'll bother as I won't have enough time to write a good letter of intent most probably.

For people who have been accepted to OISE's Master of Arts in Child Study & Education program, are any of you in the RIT (Research Intensive) Stream? Wondering whether only PBI (Practice Based Inquiry) has received acceptances yet or RIT candidates have also been accepted.

Hi everyone, A 3rd year science student here. Thinking of applying to OISE (UofT)'s Masters of Teaching (MT) program, but am not sure if I will be accepted / chances of being accepted. My cGPA is 2.80 (I didn't do well for the first 2 years because of personal issues), and hoping final year GPA will be 3.80 (applying to MT in final year, so I'm not sure if they'll see this GPA before sending out admissions) I would like to apply for sernior/intermediate (Biology - Science, though my grades aren't that good in science), with second choice in English (my university english grades are all A's, top percentiles). I might be considering junior/intermediate instead though (for english/general science). My recent/present ECs in: - teacher's assistant in high school (science class, grade 10-11) - hospital (pediatrics) placement, assisting physician and child patients - mentoring university students (privately) in English - teaching piano and science for elementary school students (2013-2014) My 2 reference letters will be from my English TA who is familiar with me personally, and the science teacher that I assist at a nearby high school. Could some of you give me advice and opinions on my chances of gaining acceptance? I know my GPA is not that good - should I give up on applying to MT at OISE?

I've been accepted to the Art History programs at both University of Pennsylvania and University of Toronto. I hope to specialize in Medieval art. Anyone have advice on which I should choose?

This forum seems to be lacking Canadianness and moreover criminology applicants! Where are you guys at? Has anyone received an acceptance or rejection thus far from any MA criminology programs? Does anyone have any information as to when these offers should be rolling out? I've applied to Wilfrid Laurier, UOIT, and U of T - I'm still waiting to hear, and all my applications are still under review! Someone feed me some info on anything you might know! Thanks in advance!

Hello fellow OISE applicants! What stream have you applied for? Have you heard any news yet? Where else have you applied?! So nervous!!!

Hello, I've been offered a place in the MA Art History at the UofT. My first choice remains McGill, however. I was wondering if anyone here has done their graduate studies in art history at McGill and the UofT, and could help me make a choice, but mostly give me feedback about the art history department of both universities. I should also note that I still haven't received a response from McGill, and getting quite anxious about it. But if I got in at the UofT, shouldn't I get accepted at McGill too? As they are both the best universities in Canada. Thanks