2021 Clinical Psychology Applicants CANADA

[clinical_psyc_hopeful]

How many references is it acceptable to ask for from one Supervisor? 

[Hope466]

9 hours ago, clinical_psyc_hopeful said:

How many references is it acceptable to ask for from one Supervisor? 

I've personally asked both my references for all the schools I'm applying to plus funding (so 7 schools + 1 for tri-council funding). I'm assuming they would submit the same/similar letters to each

Edited October 13, 2020 by Hope466
typo

[Mickey26]

12 hours ago, clinical_psyc_hopeful said:

How many references is it acceptable to ask for from one Supervisor? 

No limit. It's part of their job  (don't worry I still feel guilty asking for like 10+ ref letters a year LOL but rest assured that's part of the duties they signed up for haha)

[katgoheen]

For personal statements, I'm interested in suggestions on how much detail to provide about past research projects? My instinct if to briefly describe the purpose and key results and how they relate to the current supervisors work. I am also inclined to describe key skills I learned rather than providing an abstract of the methods per se. 

Thanks in advance  

[katgoheen]

17 hours ago, clinical_psyc_hopeful said:

How many references is it acceptable to ask for from one Supervisor? 

I'm asking for 7 + 1 for funding! I'm sending my referees transcripts, CV, my personal statement(s) and details on each school/potential supervisor to make the process as easy as possible for them. I'm also submitting my applications ASAP in order to give them plenty of time before the deadline. 

[alittlestitious]

Is anyone a student/affiliate member of the CPA? Do you think this would help in applications in any way? I'd like to become a member but paying $75+ for membership that expires at the end of December seems like a waste of money for this year. 

[alittlestitious]

On 10/13/2020 at 5:34 AM, clinical_psyc_hopeful said:

How many references is it acceptable to ask for from one Supervisor? 

I've asked for about 10 at one point from some people and they were happy to do it, and I've also asked for about 5-6 from other people and they thought it was too much and weren't happy about it (although they did it reluctantly). I think if you have a few good people to use as refs that you can sub-in if one of your top refs doesn't have the time for all of them it's nice way to lessen the burden. Make sure to give them plenty of time (I now try to give a month at least) and do as much of the work for them as you can (in terms of breaking down the information and making it easy to fill things in). 

[emsmith]

Hi! 

Does anyone know what the GPA cutoff is for McGill? 

I can't find one on their website which makes me hope that they look at all of applications as a whole/based on supervisor match (although this hope is a long shot- I know they're super competitive) but I can't find any information on average GPA of admitted students, what their cutoff is, etc.

Anyone know?

[LMoll]

41 minutes ago, alittlestitious said:

Is anyone a student/affiliate member of the CPA? Do you think this would help in applications in any way? I'd like to become a member but paying $75+ for membership that expires at the end of December seems like a waste of money for this year. 

I’m a student representative for my school with the CPA. I considered joining mainly for the benefits that CPA has (preference for mind pad submissions, networking with students, etc.) but I’m sure there are also benefits to having it on your CV. It shows leadership and engagement in the academic community. It is expensive for 3 months of the remaining year, but if you’re looking to publish, I’d say that’s enough of a pro!

[Mickey26]

1 hour ago, alittlestitious said:

Is anyone a student/affiliate member of the CPA? Do you think this would help in applications in any way? I'd like to become a member but paying $75+ for membership that expires at the end of December seems like a waste of money for this year. 

Note: this is my opinion only LOL

I actually just asked my PhD Supervisor this last week and he laughed and said memberships are lowkey useless. If you're involved in a leadership capacity within an organization (student chair, student rep etc), then yes its useful. CPA membership is useful when your a clinician as you get a discount on insurance. I have a CPA membership and the only thing I got out of it was a MindPad publication. Also discounts on CPA conference but we'll see how things are with COVID disrupting in-person confs.

Edited October 14, 2020 by Mickey26
Noting this is based on personal opinion

[Wanderingmind]

This is probably a dumb question, but how does it work to send official transcripts? Will my university mail them to the other university? I'm worried about some sort of delay in mail (never send official transcripts before).

[Mickey26]

17 minutes ago, Wanderingmind said:

This is probably a dumb question, but how does it work to send official transcripts? Will my university mail them to the other university? I'm worried about some sort of delay in mail (never send official transcripts before).

Yes. Or you can get your uni to mail it to you, and then you mail it to the uni (although thats just more work lol)

A lot of Canadian unis arent fully up and running yet, including the Registrar's office, so I know certain (if not all?) programs are taking unofficial transcripts. Check with each department your applying to.

[clinicalpsychstudent]

Hi everyone,

I'm a current clinical psychology PhD student at York university. If anyone has any questions related to the program, or any York-specific questions, I'd be more than happy to answer them- feel free to message me, or just reply in-thread. 

This is such an exciting time for all of you; keep your heads up- it's worth it!

[Wanderingmind]

On 10/16/2020 at 6:18 PM, clinicalpsychstudent said:

Hi everyone,

I'm a current clinical psychology PhD student at York university. If anyone has any questions related to the program, or any York-specific questions, I'd be more than happy to answer them- feel free to message me, or just reply in-thread. 

This is such an exciting time for all of you; keep your heads up- it's worth it!

What do you think about the program at York? And living there? I like the sounds of the program from what I have heard, but I am pretty hesitant to move there. I have heard its hard to make connections and friends. 

[Wanderingmind]

Does anyone know how the references for OGS work? I am just wondering if my references will really need to give reference letters to the same schools twice (once with my application to the program, and once to the school for OGS consideration)?

[PsychGirl2]

I have a question for any grad student who was accepted after reapplying to the same prof.

Specifically, if I interviewed with a prof last year and am planning on reapplying to them, do I need to write a completely new personal statement?

[clinicalpsychstudent]

18 hours ago, Wanderingmind said:

What do you think about the program at York? And living there? I like the sounds of the program from what I have heard, but I am pretty hesitant to move there. I have heard its hard to make connections and friends. 

I feel incredibly blessed to be at York. It has a lot of benefits. Namely:

1) The faculty are amazing. They're incredibly supportive, and everything has a very collaborative approach and feel to it. For example, if I'm having difficulty with stats, there's not only a statistical consulting group that I can contact, but I would also feel completely comfortable emailing any of my past stats professors to meet and chat. The professors are really clearly teaching because they love teaching, and it truly shows in how they lay out their courses and interact with their students. Each prof I've had feels less like an instructor, and more like a mentor. I really truly feel like they care about us, and not only our learning experience, but also our well-being and personally as well.

2) For therapy, York takes on a client-centered approach. This means that when we start learning therapy, we do so from a more humanistic approach; learning how to respond empathically, make reflections to deepen the client's experiencing, etc. For our first client especially, this is really pushed hard onto us, and though it was sort of hard to see it at the time, this was really the best decision I think York could have made for us. After your first client (and even during your first client, but to a lesser extent), you're encouraged to use integrative approaches, depending on the needs of the client. Because of this, I actually think York students get a much more solid foundation, and much more rounded background- we get bits and pieces of EFT, CBT, and DBT, but all within a client-centered framework. Doing therapy now during practicum, I find, it's much easier to connect with clients even when doing more structured therapy like CBT, and I find that because of that foundation, I'm more able to notice alliance ruptures or therapy resistance, and have the skills to know how to fix those ruptures or address that resistance before they become an issue, in a way that the client will respond well to.

3) Related to your concern about making connections and friends- I've actually found the opposite. The cohorts are generally between 6-8 students, and so especially in the first 3 years, you're basically constantly around those people. Of course, now with covid, classes are online and so that may have an impact on how cohorts will bond- but personally, I've never had a better, or closer group of friends than the ones I've made in my cohort. I kind of feel like everyone knows everyone within the faculty- it's very, very easy to make friends. Some cohorts are not as close as others, and that's okay; but there are so many groups, so many ways to get involved, and also just so many opportunities to get together with your cohort or other students, it's really easy to make friends and connections.

In terms of living in Toronto, it really depends. I'm from a smaller town, and I'm definitely more of a small-town person. But even so, I enjoy Toronto. Rent is expensive, and that sucks. But there are definitely places available within everyone's budget (especially now, with rent decreases), and a lot of things to do. The one downside(?) to York is that because it's a commuter school, a lot of people in grad programs don't live on residency. In general, York's residences are just less abundant than other schools. Most grad students live mid-town as it has reasonable rent, is fairly walkable, and has direct access to the subway onto campus!

It sounds cheesy, but my friends and I constantly talk about how lucky we are to all be at York. I legitimately can't recommend it enough.

[rainydaychai]

1 hour ago, PsychGirl2 said:

I have a question for any grad student who was accepted after reapplying to the same prof.

Specifically, if I interviewed with a prof last year and am planning on reapplying to them, do I need to write a completely new personal statement?

I was accepted after my second round of applications and was accepted by a prof I had applied to before!

I did not write a completely new personal statement. I solicited some advice on this topic from a few mentors and they generally agreed that 1) professors receive so many applications each year that they will not remember if your statement sounds similar and 2) as long as you are adding your new experiences from the past year, your statement will look sufficiently different. Personally, my personal statement's opening paragraph in my second application year was almost identical to my first's, as it briefly detailed how clinical psychology first piqued my interest and that didn't change, but I had to combine two paragraphs of my first year's statement into one for my second application round because I had worked at a new research coordinator position for the past year and needed to expand on that sufficiently. My research interests had also changed slightly so that was new, and I was more specific in my interests in my second year (which, I believe, ultimately helped me secure more interviews the second time around). I hope this helps!

Edited October 18, 2020 by rainydaychai

[Wanderingmind]

If anyone here is in the Waterloo program, could they message me? I am pretty confused about the application process

[PrettyFlyForACogSci]

I have a funding question. I have a BSc an am applying for clinical MA/MSc programs as well as back-up experimental MSc programs in Canada. In case I don't get into any clinical programs this year, I would like to pursue an experimental MSc and perhaps apply to clinical programs again in the future. However, from what I've read, if I have already completed a master's degree in Canada, and then re-apply to clinical masters programs later, I am not eligible for master's level funding in my second clinical master's degree. Is this correct? Is this only true if I receive CGS/OGS during my first master's degree? Are there any external funding institutions that will fund more than one master's degree? And lastly, will completing an experimental master's degree in Canada be of little help to reapplying to clinical programs later because I have no external funding options and therefore am not a great candidate? I am not sure what to think here, any help is appreciated, thank you!

[Rapunzel116]

Hii, does anyone know anything about University of Ottawa's program second language requirements? The website makes it sound like all students must meet the second language requirement in order to graduate but I heard someone else say that if you select the English only steam then you dont need too. I have tried to email the department but they are on strike right now if any goes there currently or knows anything then please let me know

[PsychGirl2]

2 hours ago, Rapunzel116 said:

Hii, does anyone know anything about University of Ottawa's program second language requirements? The website makes it sound like all students must meet the second language requirement in order to graduate but I heard someone else say that if you select the English only steam then you dont need too. I have tried to email the department but they are on strike right now if any goes there currently or knows anything then please let me know

Hey! I was definitely confused about this too. I spoke to a graduate student and from my understanding, if you select the English stream, then you still must fulfill some second language requirement throughout your degree. I believe this could be fulfilled by taking a French language course (or there are other options as well).

[Rapunzel116]

3 hours ago, PsychGirl2 said:

Hey! I was definitely confused about this too. I spoke to a graduate student and from my understanding, if you select the English stream, then you still must fulfill some second language requirement throughout your degree. I believe this could be fulfilled by taking a French language course (or there are other options as well).

Thank you!! That’s helpful. 

[Hope466]

I am wondering if anyone has any insight into how GRE scores are being considered this year, given that they are not required for most institutions? Specifically, are you at a disadvantage if you do not submit them?

[Mickey26]

17 minutes ago, Hope466 said:

I am wondering if anyone has any insight into how GRE scores are being considered this year, given that they are not required for most institutions? Specifically, are you at a disadvantage if you do not submit them?

Unfortunately its very very unclear this app season. and every department is doing its on GRE thing (not required but accepted, not accepted at all, etc). Its best to email the department and ask (although I'm not sure how much insight youll get on weighting of GRE scores ? )