Fall 2019 Clinical Psychology Canadian Applicants!

[FallGO]

Hello everyone!

I'm applying for the Masters and PhD program in Clinical psychology for the 2019 admission. My first deadline is approaching: Nov. 15. This is a daunting but exciting experience, I think everyone would agree  Let's share our progress and hope everyone's dream will come true!

Here is my progress:

1. Did GRE once, will do again next month to get higher marks. 

2. Contacted POIs, but only 3/7 replied so far (one said she is taking a year off, so won't be taking in new students). I was first upset, but than a prof told them they receive numerous emails everyday, so sometimes they just simply don't have the time to reply. So I guess who replied are definitely the friendly ones, but those who didn't are not necessarily bad, so I will go ahead and apply anyway. 

3. Schools that I'm interested in: UBC, Uvic, UAlberta, SFU, UWaterloo, OISE, Queen's, Western, UOttawa, Ryerson.

 

Look forward to hearing about your story!

Edited October 26, 2018 by FallGO

[JoyJoy]

Good to see someone is starting a thread for the Canadian applicants!

Here is my background information: I'm currently a master student enrolled in a development psychology program at a Canadian university. My GRE is okay, so I won't retake. Undergraduate GPA: 3.80 out of 4.33; Master GPA: 4.1 out of 4.33. 

Strong research background:  3 publications and 10 conference presentations.

Dream program: UWaterloo, but will also apply to Oise, Western, Dalhousie, McGill, Calgary, UBC, Queens.

Most of the POIs I emailed didn't reply me either... ... but I'm fine with that. First, I didn't ask questions in the email cuz I don't have any (they all clearly state on the website that they will accpet students). Also, they don't really know me and there is no point to spend time replying to a stranger. 

 

[Piagetsky]

If you're interested in OISE and if you're local, one of the best things you can do is come to the open houses that they hold.    Some of the faculty come, and they're making connections and putting names with faces.  It matters, speaking from experience.  

[JoyJoy]

34 minutes ago, Piagetsky said:

If you're interested in OISE and if you're local, one of the best things you can do is come to the open houses that they hold.    Some of the faculty come, and they're making connections and putting names with faces.  It matters, speaking from experience.  

Hi Piagetsky, Thank you for your input. Are you attending OISE now? I think I've missed the open house, I'm not from central or eastern Canada...

[Inez_Only]

Hi Everyone!

Great to see this thread! I'm also applying to Masters and PhD programs for 2019. Here's my background: This will be my 2nd time applying for MA/MSc and PhD programs.

Overall Undergrad GPA: 3.7 / 4.5, final 2 years of study: 4.0 / 4.5 (most schools will only consider your last 2 years of study)

GRE Scores: Not great but not bad either, not retaking

Research: 2 publications, 2-3 more in progress will be submitted before application deadlines (hopefully). Lot's of volunteer experience in research labs and clinical experience in the community. Didn't attend many conferences: 6 presentations

Schools I'm applying to (there's lots): Queens, Ryerson, UOttawa, York, Wilfrid Laurier, SFU, New Brunswick, UBC Okanagan, Dalhousie, Guelph, Windsor, Victoria

 

Good luck everyone!

[FacelessMage]

Good luck on the applications everyone!! Remember to take some time to breathe throughout the process! 

[JoyJoy]

On 10/30/2018 at 11:10 AM, TrindStarr said:

Hi Everyone!

Great to see this thread! I'm also applying to Masters and PhD programs for 2019. Here's my background: This will be my 2nd time applying for MA/MSc and PhD programs.

Overall Undergrad GPA: 3.7 / 4.5, final 2 years of study: 4.0 / 4.5 (most schools will only consider your last 2 years of study)

GRE Scores: Not great but not bad either, not retaking

Research: 2 publications, 2-3 more in progress will be submitted before application deadlines (hopefully). Lot's of volunteer experience in research labs and clinical experience in the community. Didn't attend many conferences: 6 presentations

Schools I'm applying to (there's lots): Queens, Ryerson, UOttawa, York, Wilfrid Laurier, SFU, New Brunswick, UBC Okanagan, Dalhousie, Guelph, Windsor, Victoria

 

Good luck everyone!

Hi TrindStarr,

Thank you for sharing! You have a really strong background. Since this is your second time applying, I wonder whether you could share about your experience about your application last year? Anything we could learn from it?

Thanks!

[Inez_Only]

2 hours ago, JoyJoy said:

Hi TrindStarr,

Thank you for sharing! You have a really strong background. Since this is your second time applying, I wonder whether you could share about your experience about your application last year? Anything we could learn from it?

Thanks!

Absolutely!

Last year my background was very similar to what I posted above. The only thing I did differently is increase my GRE score (but not by much) and I have continued working to get more publications. I will also be applying to much more schoools than I did last year (I applied to 5, compared to 12 this year). I do not recommend applying to this many schools unless you have the time to perfect each and every application, and only if you think you have a real chance of being accepted. This year, the only reason I'm applying to so many schools is that almost every POI I contacted has replied to me saying they are interested in my background and research interests, and if my application reaches them, they would be interested in connecting with me for an interview. I'm taking my chance with all of them.

I would say as important as GPA and GRE scores are, they are not considered nearly as highly as relationship with POI's and similar research interests. I applied to a school where my GPA and GRE scores were below the program average (and maybe even just below the cutoff), but I still got an interview. I was even told that my interview was excellent, but unfortunately I was still not accepted. The POI I applied to work with suggested I focus more on getting another publication rather than increase my GRE scores or GPA considering I was still interviewed. I decided to work on both.

Also, TRY TO GET FUNDING!! This is an extremely important part of the application so I highly encourage everyone to apply for Tri-Council (CIHR, SSHRC, NSERC) if you can, and the OGS for any universities in Ontario. I applied for a CIHR last year and didn't get one at any of the institutions I applied to and I believe this is a major reason why I was not accepted. This year they changed some things too - you can only list 3 schools instead of 5 to receive funding for.

The first round of applications is always tough. If you get in on your first attempt then that's great! But if you don't, then it can be used as an excellent learning experience for any attempts made in the future. It takes most applicants at least 2-3 attempts before they are accepted, and I expected this for myself as well considering my GPA and GRE scores are not as high as my peers. But I'm confident I will get accepted now that I learned a lot from my experiences last year.

[gillis_55]

Hi all - glad there is a Canadian-specific thread to share in during this stressful process! This is my first time applying to 15 clinical and counselling programs (see my signature for which ones), which is an enormous amount of work but I'm very eager to get at least one acceptance. I'm coming from a career change after 6 years working in marketing research and I'm excited to get back to psych research. Marketing research was initially interesting and fast paced, but eventually became very repetitive and limited in scope. I quit my job as a research manager in August to take a position as an RA at a community agency that focuses on child maltreatment, as I wanted to brush up on my academic research skills and hope to study the impact of traumatic life events on mental health outcomes in grad school. I took a considerable pay-cut to do that, so it would be disappointing if I was rejected this year and missed out on a year's salary as those savings would certainly help with spending 6-8 years in grad school.

My background from undergrad is 3.7 / 4.0 GPA from UofT as a psych research specialist, where I did an honors thesis and an independent research project, and volunteered at 4 different university & hospital research labs. I have 1 publication and 3 conference presentations. From work I've gained experience in project and people management (which should be helpful), data analysis, and interview + presentation skills. I think I'll have a good chance if I can get to the interview stage at a few places - that's been a strong suit of mine after doing a ton of job interviews and presentations over the years. My weakness is my lack of any publications or conferences over the last six years, as all my research projects were internal to the companies I've worked for. Also nothing concrete in terms of POIs - I've had contact with a few POIs who said they would keep an eye out for my application, but nothing super positive. I'm still working on that. In terms of standardized tests, my Psych GRE was 830 / 99th percentile and I just took the General GRE on Monday - 166V (97th), 157Q (65th), AWA not available yet. I am beyond relieved to be done with standardized testing, it was a crazy amount of pressure to add on top of the application process. 

@TrindStarr I have a question for you about CGS-M - I know this year we have to select 3 institutions instead of 5, which is unfortunate as it seems like every advisor and school mentions how critical it is to have funding and that receiving tricouncil funding significantly ups your chance of acceptance, as you said. How did you decide which 3 schools to pick? Part of me wants to select the ones I would be most likely to attend if I were accepted due to location, but then I wonder if I should be picking  based on how many awards the school has to hand out, access to other funding (e.g. all ON schools have OGS, but I don't qualify for Quebec specific awards because I'm not a resident), or how competitive it is. For example, I've heard Waterloo is insanely competitive for CGS - though I would love to go there, I'm wondering if it would be a waste to submit my CGS application there. Any advice? 

Edited October 31, 2018 by dougie

[JoyJoy]

1 hour ago, TrindStarr said:

Absolutely!

Last year my background was very similar to what I posted above. The only thing I did differently is increase my GRE score (but not by much) and I have continued working to get more publications. I will also be applying to much more schoools than I did last year (I applied to 5, compared to 12 this year). I do not recommend applying to this many schools unless you have the time to perfect each and every application, and only if you think you have a real chance of being accepted. This year, the only reason I'm applying to so many schools is that almost every POI I contacted has replied to me saying they are interested in my background and research interests, and if my application reaches them, they would be interested in connecting with me for an interview. I'm taking my chance with all of them.

 I would say as important as GPA and GRE scores are, they are not considered nearly as highly as relationship with POI's and similar research interests. I applied to a school where my GPA and GRE scores were below the program average (and maybe even just below the cutoff), but I still got an interview. I was even told that my interview was excellent, but unfortunately I was still not accepted. The POI I applied to work with suggested I focus more on getting another publication rather than increase my GRE scores or GPA considering I was still interviewed. I decided to work on both.

 Also, TRY TO GET FUNDING!! This is an extremely important part of the application so I highly encourage everyone to apply for Tri-Council (CIHR, SSHRC, NSERC) if you can, and the OGS for any universities in Ontario. I applied for a CIHR last year and didn't get one at any of the institutions I applied to and I believe this is a major reason why I was not accepted. This year they changed some things too - you can only list 3 schools instead of 5 to receive funding for.

 The first round of applications is always tough. If you get in on your first attempt then that's great! But if you don't, then it can be used as an excellent learning experience for any attempts made in the future. It takes most applicants at least 2-3 attempts before they are accepted, and I expected this for myself as well considering my GPA and GRE scores are not as high as my peers. But I'm confident I will get accepted now that I learned a lot from my experiences last year.

Thank you! This is super helpful! What specific area are you interested (adult or child development?). My interest is in deveopmental psychopathology. 

[Inez_Only]

3 hours ago, dougie said:

@TrindStarr I have a question for you about CGS-M - I know this year we have to select 3 institutions instead of 5, which is unfortunate as it seems like every advisor and school mentions how critical it is to have funding and that receiving tricouncil funding significantly ups your chance of acceptance, as you said. How did you decide which 3 schools to pick? Part of me wants to select the ones I would be most likely to attend if I were accepted due to location, but then I wonder if I should be picking  based on how many awards the school has to hand out, access to other funding (e.g. all ON schools have OGS, but I don't qualify for Quebec specific awards because I'm not a resident), or how competitive it is. For example, I've heard Waterloo is insanely competitive for CGS - though I would love to go there, I'm wondering if it would be a waste to submit my CGS application there. Any advice? 

1

@dougie It was super easy for me to decide which schools I would select for the CGS-M because I'm only applying to 4 that are not in Ontario. All other schools are in Ontario so I only had to decide on 1that I either may not apply to or I will apply without trying for funding.

[Inez_Only]

3 hours ago, JoyJoy said:

Thank you! This is super helpful! What specific area are you interested (adult or child development?). My interest is in deveopmental psychopathology. 

I'm interested in both! Adult and youth/adolescent development! Not too interested in child development though

[Clinpsyc01]

4 hours ago, dougie said:

Hi all - glad there is a Canadian-specific thread to share in during this stressful process! This is my first time applying to 15 clinical and counselling programs (see my signature for which ones), which is an enormous amount of work but I'm very eager to get at least one acceptance. I'm coming from a career change after 6 years working in marketing research and I'm excited to get back to psych research. Marketing research was initially interesting and fast paced, but eventually became very repetitive and limited in scope. I quit my job as a research manager in August to take a position as an RA at a community agency that focuses on child maltreatment, as I wanted to brush up on my academic research skills and hope to study the impact of traumatic life events on mental health outcomes in grad school. I took a considerable pay-cut to do that, so it would be disappointing if I was rejected this year and missed out on a year's salary as those savings would certainly help with spending 6-8 years in grad school.

My background from undergrad is 3.7 / 4.0 GPA from UofT as a psych research specialist, where I did an honors thesis and an independent research project, and volunteered at 4 different university & hospital research labs. I have 1 publication and 3 conference presentations. From work I've gained experience in project and people management (which should be helpful), data analysis, and interview + presentation skills. I think I'll have a good chance if I can get to the interview stage at a few places - that's been a strong suit of mine after doing a ton of job interviews and presentations over the years. My weakness is my lack of any publications or conferences over the last six years, as all my research projects were internal to the companies I've worked for. Also nothing concrete in terms of POIs - I've had contact with a few POIs who said they would keep an eye out for my application, but nothing super positive. I'm still working on that. In terms of standardized tests, my Psych GRE was 830 / 99th percentile and I just took the General GRE on Monday - 166V (97th), 157Q (65th), AWA not available yet. I am beyond relieved to be done with standardized testing, it was a crazy amount of pressure to add on top of the application process. 

@TrindStarr I have a question for you about CGS-M - I know this year we have to select 3 institutions instead of 5, which is unfortunate as it seems like every advisor and school mentions how critical it is to have funding and that receiving tricouncil funding significantly ups your chance of acceptance, as you said. How did you decide which 3 schools to pick? Part of me wants to select the ones I would be most likely to attend if I were accepted due to location, but then I wonder if I should be picking  based on how many awards the school has to hand out, access to other funding (e.g. all ON schools have OGS, but I don't qualify for Quebec specific awards because I'm not a resident), or how competitive it is. For example, I've heard Waterloo is insanely competitive for CGS - though I would love to go there, I'm wondering if it would be a waste to submit my CGS application there. Any advice? 

Not a current applicant, but I just wanted to add that you should try to find out how schools fund their students when applying for CGS-M. Some schools require profs to fund their students out of their own grants, so they greatly prefer students who have applied for funding. Other places, the money comes from the university/department and they might not care as much. For example, at Western, every student is guaranteed a very decent stipend from the university, so I got the impression that they didn’t prioritize students with funding. 

[gillis_55]

16 hours ago, TrindStarr said:

@dougie It was super easy for me to decide which schools I would select for the CGS-M because I'm only applying to 4 that are not in Ontario. All other schools are in Ontario so I only had to decide on 1that I either may not apply to or I will apply without trying for funding.

@TrindStarr Ah that is very smart, thank you so much! Makes things much easier now.

And thank you @hsnl as well, looks like I've got more research to do on how each school funds their students. 

[Jay's Brain]

Hi everyone! Long-time poster and glad to see that all the Canadian applicants are still bustling with energy and vigour! It definitely is a stressful experience, so wishing you all the best! For those who haven't already, take a look at this link as it tells you the allocations for the CGS-M award for each Canadian university across the three areas. Could be helpful in deciding what to do moving forward.

Best of luck!

 

[Executive-D]

Good luck everyone! ???

[mdmhfx]

Hi everyone!

I am new to this form and am looking to see if anyone has any feedback for my application. This year I am applying for the Clinical MSc program at Acadia. This is my first time applying to a graduate program and I have many reasons for only applying to one school, which I will not get into here. Below are the strengths/weaknesses of my application.

1. I have a 4.0 GPA/4.33

2. 1 publication and another in progress, with 8 conference presentations

3. I have 5 years of experience working as a paid research assistant. The past 1.5 years I have been working as a research co-ordinator at Dalhousie University under an extremely successful clinical professor, which has allowed me to develop relationships with professors in my field of research.

4. I scored 61st percentile on GRE verbal and only 23rd in quant (still waiting for analytical writing score). I am aware this is terrible but do not have adequate time to write it again and actually make an impact on my score before apps are due. I will take another stab at it next year if I do not get in. 

5. I have developed a relationship with 2 profs at Acadia who have both expressed interest in accepting me as a student. One would be a co-supervision with my current boss, whom I have a great relationship with. They have let me know that my GRE quant score will not work to my advantage, but I'm hoping the numerous other strengths of my application will outweigh this score (or I will score an SSHRC).

Any feedback on what I should highlight in my letter of intent? I have already let my references know that they should comment on my quantitative skills, as I have received an A or higher in all statistics and research methods courses I have taken. 

Thanks in advance!

[gillis_55]

5 hours ago, mdmhfx said:

Hi everyone!

I am new to this form and am looking to see if anyone has any feedback for my application. This year I am applying for the Clinical MSc program at Acadia. This is my first time applying to a graduate program and I have many reasons for only applying to one school, which I will not get into here. Below are the strengths/weaknesses of my application.

1. I have a 4.0 GPA/4.33

2. 1 publication and another in progress, with 8 conference presentations

3. I have 5 years of experience working as a paid research assistant. The past 1.5 years I have been working as a research co-ordinator at Dalhousie University under an extremely successful clinical professor, which has allowed me to develop relationships with professors in my field of research.

4. I scored 61st percentile on GRE verbal and only 23rd in quant (still waiting for analytical writing score). I am aware this is terrible but do not have adequate time to write it again and actually make an impact on my score before apps are due. I will take another stab at it next year if I do not get in. 

5. I have developed a relationship with 2 profs at Acadia who have both expressed interest in accepting me as a student. One would be a co-supervision with my current boss, whom I have a great relationship with. They have let me know that my GRE quant score will not work to my advantage, but I'm hoping the numerous other strengths of my application will outweigh this score (or I will score an SSHRC).

Any feedback on what I should highlight in my letter of intent? I have already let my references know that they should comment on my quantitative skills, as I have received an A or higher in all statistics and research methods courses I have taken. 

Thanks in advance!

Hi there! Good idea to have your references specifically comment on your quantitative abilities. If it were me, I would emphasize the time limits of the GRE as being an issue, and showcase strong grades in quant classes. Same thing for Verbal, depending the scores required by Acadia for that section of the test.

However, I wouldn’t spend too much space in your SOP explaining away your GRE scores - a couple lines at most. Focus on making an argument for why your research experience complements this particular program and this particular researcher - you want it to seem like your acceptance to this program is the logical next step in your story, which it sounds like it is! In addition to providing additionally compelling reasons to discount your GRE scores, it’s a great chance to showcase your writing ability.

Also, some schools let you submit an explanation of your GRE score right in the app or as an attachment - see if that’s possible at Acadia, and keep your SOP focused on your strengths if possible. Good luck! Feel free to post your SOP or message me if feedback could help. 

[JoyJoy]

I've started writing and editing my statements of interest. I wonder how many hours do you guys spend to write your statement? Some said 8 hours is the minimum... 

[FallGO]

On 11/7/2018 at 12:44 PM, JoyJoy said:

I've started writing and editing my statements of interest. I wonder how many hours do you guys spend to write your statement? Some said 8 hours is the minimum... 

I'm starting mine today, aiming to finish by the end of this weekend.

[Jay's Brain]

On 11/7/2018 at 12:44 PM, JoyJoy said:

I've started writing and editing my statements of interest. I wonder how many hours do you guys spend to write your statement? Some said 8 hours is the minimum... 

Don't feel bounded by the number of hours that you think you should take to write your SOI. Instead, make sure it's well-written regardless of how many hours it takes. Not to mention, you will likely give it to mentors or other people to review and will then have to incorporate their suggestions and feedback. 

[gillis_55]

Are you guys using the same research proposal for provincial, federal funding apps? UCalgary Clinical is the only program I'm applying to that requires a research proposal, so I'm thinking of tailoring mine to that particular advisor and then re-using it for OGS and CGS. Would it be an issue that my OGS and CGS applications wouldn't match my POIs at all schools? E.g. the UCalgary one will be focused on child development, many other programs I'm applying to are with adults. Wondering if POIs see your OGS/CGS applications or if they just know if you were funded or not. 

[Clinpsyc01]

6 hours ago, dougie said:

Are you guys using the same research proposal for provincial, federal funding apps? UCalgary Clinical is the only program I'm applying to that requires a research proposal, so I'm thinking of tailoring mine to that particular advisor and then re-using it for OGS and CGS. Would it be an issue that my OGS and CGS applications wouldn't match my POIs at all schools? E.g. the UCalgary one will be focused on child development, many other programs I'm applying to are with adults. Wondering if POIs see your OGS/CGS applications or if they just know if you were funded or not. 

For CGS, I don’t think they have access to your proposal, just whether or not you applied.  The vast majority of grad students I know are doing research completely different from their funding proposals. 

I think OGS might be different and probably varies between schools.

[Piagetsky]

On 10/27/2018 at 2:11 PM, JoyJoy said:

Hi Piagetsky, Thank you for your input. Are you attending OISE now? I think I've missed the open house, I'm not from central or eastern Canada...

Yes, I am.  If you're applying, be sure to reach out to the prof/s you're interested in working with.  They may have others -- if so, I'll try to remember to pop on and post about it!

[SunnySet]

Good Luck everyone! I just submitted my first app More to come