2021 Clinical Psychology Applicants CANADA

[PsychGirl2]

11 hours ago, ENESKR said:

Hi everyone.. this is my first post. I just signed up today and I'm so happy to have found this thread

I am an international student (not American) looking to apply (finally) to graduate clinical psych / psych programs for the Fall 2021 intake.

I graduated from an American university 3 years ago in Honors Psychology + Spanish Literature.. I took time off (the three years) to return to my home country and to work and save up money to go back to school.

I took the GRE once last December and got V 163 / Q 166 / AWA 5.0 and I am currently studying for the GRE to improve my scores  hopefully I can raise my verbal score a bit and get a 5.5 on AWA.

I'm really anxious about everything because I don't know anyone around me who is pursuing a degree in this field and I will be the first in my family to pursue graduate studies at all. I just started my school search today and I'm just really nervous about everything!! So relieved to read through the comments and realize that there are others like me with similar questions. I have NO IDEA what I'm doing!!

Sorry for all of the "I, I, I" sentences!! I wish everyone the best of luck ^^

 

Just as a side note, your GRE scores are excellent (and much higher than many applicants)!

[clinical_psyc_hopeful]

Lakehead has waived 2021 GRE requirement for anyone wondering!

[NeuroLim3]

Does anyone know what the status is for GRE Psychology scores in Canada? Do universities still encourage it given that most are not even requiring the general GRE? 

I saw some unis require a "broad range" of psych courses. I have a major in Psych and specialist in Neuro, (not many courses in social/developmental psych, but interested in adult abnormal psych, neuropsych, and aging anyway). I wanted to take it just in case this is a weakness for my application.

I know this test is not offered online, and registration begins today for it.

[freudianslipintogradschool]

UTSC is not requiring the GRE

[Mickey26]

26 minutes ago, freudianslipintogradschool said:

UTSC is not requiring the GRE

Link: https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/psych/admissions-how-apply

[freudianslipintogradschool]

6 minutes ago, Mickey26 said:

Link: https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/psych/admissions-how-apply

Thanks!! Sorry shoulda posted it

[Mickey26]

UCalgary Clinical Psych will not require GRE scores this cycle. 

Source: I am in contact with the faculty there. Official announcement to follow. Will update if there's a link.

[Kresen]

On 7/3/2020 at 12:38 AM, PsychGirl2 said:

Just as a side note, your GRE scores are excellent (and much higher than many applicants)!

Thank you so much!! I heard from people in Korea that Canadian schools were very competitive in terms of the GRE (avg. 165 V!!) so I was freaking out about that a bit because I thought I was on the lower side.. T_T

[broski]

On 7/3/2020 at 9:53 AM, NeuroLim3 said:

Does anyone know what the status is for GRE Psychology scores in Canada? Do universities still encourage it given that most are not even requiring the general GRE? 

I saw some unis require a "broad range" of psych courses. I have a major in Psych and specialist in Neuro, (not many courses in social/developmental psych, but interested in adult abnormal psych, neuropsych, and aging anyway). I wanted to take it just in case this is a weakness for my application.

I know this test is not offered online, and registration begins today for it.

To my knowledge, most schools haven't required the psych GRE or have made it optional for awhile now. With GRE being optional then psych GRE would also become optional, so I'm assuming its importance may decrease even more. Are you applying to schools that require it?

If you were a psych major then you should be ok for psych course requirements cause I think most psych majors across Canada/US have standardized curriculums. You would defs want to check your province's psychologist licensure requirements as I know Ontario at least requires 1 undergrad/grad course in each of biological bases of behavior, cognitive, and a few more areas. These are your 3rd/4th year level Cognitive Psych, Abnormal Psych, etc. courses. 

[freudianslipintogradschool]

8 hours ago, broski said:

To my knowledge, most schools haven't required the psych GRE or have made it optional for awhile now. With GRE being optional then psych GRE would also become optional, so I'm assuming its importance may decrease even more. Are you applying to schools that require it?

If you were a psych major then you should be ok for psych course requirements cause I think most psych majors across Canada/US have standardized curriculums. You would defs want to check your province's psychologist licensure requirements as I know Ontario at least requires 1 undergrad/grad course in each of biological bases of behavior, cognitive, and a few more areas. These are your 3rd/4th year level Cognitive Psych, Abnormal Psych, etc. courses. 

Do you mind providing me the link for the Ontario requirements of courses?

[broski]

3 hours ago, freudianslipintogradschool said:

Do you mind providing me the link for the Ontario requirements of courses?

http://www.cpo.on.ca/Templates/Become_a_Member.aspx?pageid=2085 

Scroll down to #9 and #10. It doesn't really provide a description of course content. Usually if you haven't taken the required courses, you can take them at the undergrad or grad level when you're in grad school (or earlier if you want? idk much more).

[LostSoulInPsychology]

Hey all I was wondering if you guys had any insight on something

So this is going to be my first cycle applying to grad programs in clinical psyc (I'm a fourth yr undergrad), and typically admission statistics tables show about a 3 to 10 percent acceptance rate. But then I looked at Lakehead's tables and the rates reached upwards of 30 percent some years (in terms of the ratio of offered admission to total applicants). Not a huge number of students actually end up accepting their offer from Lakehead though and that's why their enrolled number is much less than the number of those offered admission. (I've confirmed that this is true by emailing Lakehead.)

Why is this true? Why are a lot of people treating Lakehead as a backup?

[Clinpsyc01]

54 minutes ago, shubeydubeydoo said:

Hey all I was wondering if you guys had any insight on something

So this is going to be my first cycle applying to grad programs in clinical psyc (I'm a fourth yr undergrad), and typically admission statistics tables show about a 3 to 10 percent acceptance rate. But then I looked at Lakehead's tables and the rates reached upwards of 30 percent some years (in terms of the ratio of offered admission to total applicants). Not a huge number of students actually end up accepting their offer from Lakehead though and that's why their enrolled number is much less than the number of those offered admission. (I've confirmed that this is true by emailing Lakehead.)

Why is this true? Why are a lot of people treating Lakehead as a backup?

No personal experience, but I’m guessing location. A lot of people don’t want to move anywhere outside of Toronto/Vancouver/Montreal, let alone Thunder Bay. It’s accredited, so I doubt it’s because there’s anything wrong with the program.

[higaisha]

43 minutes ago, shubeydubeydoo said:

Hey all I was wondering if you guys had any insight on something

So this is going to be my first cycle applying to grad programs in clinical psyc (I'm a fourth yr undergrad), and typically admission statistics tables show about a 3 to 10 percent acceptance rate. But then I looked at Lakehead's tables and the rates reached upwards of 30 percent some years (in terms of the ratio of offered admission to total applicants). Not a huge number of students actually end up accepting their offer from Lakehead though and that's why their enrolled number is much less than the number of those offered admission. (I've confirmed that this is true by emailing Lakehead.)

Why is this true? Why are a lot of people treating Lakehead as a backup?

prob a combination of low ranking (in general) for the university and remote location. The uni likely realizes their acceptance to offer ratio as a result and overextends offers, knowing say 75% of accepted folks decline the offer. Doesn't mean the program is bad (could be--who knows), just that the average accepted applicant will likely get offers from elsewhere (if they meet lakehead's requirements) and chose to go somewhere higher ranked/more desirable. This is seen in the states too with lower-ranked PhD programs, they just tend to get more applicants.

[NeuroLim3]

Hey guys...just a thought RE all these uni's waiving the GRE for this admissions cycle. Entrance into the PhD program after the Master's for some uni's requires a completed GRE in the last 5 years. Do you think this will be waived for those of us that gain admission during this cycle? I hope those of us who decide not to take it right now will not have to do it before PhD.

[LostSoulInPsychology]

Thanks for the replies @higaisha and @Clinpsyc01, it makes more sense now.

@NeuroLim3, I have no concrete knowledge but I feel like programs waiving GRE for this cycle will understand that those who entered their Masters in the waived-GRE-era will also understand that these students may have not taken the GRE at all and it'll be like a special-case thing where we won't need to. Ideal scenario is just deleting the GRE from existence for good but that's not happening anytime soon I don't think lol

[broski]

University of New Brunswick (Clinical and Experimental) not requiring General and Psych GREs for this cycle 

https://www.unb.ca/fredericton/arts/departments/psychology/grad/clinical/admission.html

Edited July 8, 2020 by broski

[Mickey26]

Just a heads-up:

USask Clinical Psych is not accepting admissions for 2021-2022 (aka the upcoming application cycle). 

"Due to the disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the clinical psychology program is not able to accept a new cohort of students for the 2021-2022 academic year. Thus, the program will not be accepting applications for the program in the fall of 2020.  We anticipate resuming our normal admissions process in the following year (i.e., accepting applications in the fall of 2021 for those wanting to begin the program in the fall of 2022)."

Source: https://artsandscience.usask.ca/psychology/programs/clinical-psychology.php#AdmissionsandApplications

[LostSoulInPsychology]

Does anyone know where I would look to find out if OISE is going to require GREs this cycle? I can't even find an email address for someone to ask directly

[Mickey26]

15 minutes ago, shubeydubeydoo said:

Does anyone know where I would look to find out if OISE is going to require GREs this cycle? I can't even find an email address for someone to ask directly

Try someone here: https://www.oise.utoronto.ca/aphd/Home/COVID-19_Update.html I believe its this person (assuming its CCP?? so many acronyms LOL): CP and CCP MA, MEd, and PhD: Todd Will

[LostSoulInPsychology]

32 minutes ago, Mickey26 said:

Try someone here: https://www.oise.utoronto.ca/aphd/Home/COVID-19_Update.html I believe its this person (assuming its CCP?? so many acronyms LOL): CP and CCP MA, MEd, and PhD: Todd Will

Seems like the right person to contact, thank you for tracking this down!

[janelove]

Great to see more people on this thread!

I took a break over the last month from worrying about applications, but I am starting to get into the thick of things again  . . .

I have seen a lot about people wondering whether they should still do the general GRE with it being waived at most schools. Personally, I already wrote it last summer and was prepared to rewrite to boost my quant score. This is still my plan (hoping to write by September), but if I am not happy with my score, I will not include it (which is def nice to have as an option). I was hoping a strong GRE score could still boost my competitive edge since it is still preferred/encouraged at a lot of schools, but if your CV and GPA are great, I think you could certainly apply without the GRE and save yourself the energy and $. That being said, I am for sure NOT wasting my time with the subject-psyc GRE. 

As many of you, I am also torn on when to start contacting profs. I do not have a definitive list of supervisors yet, but that is my goal for the next 2 weeks. I am leaning toward starting to email supervisors the first week of August. 

How many schools are most of you applying to? I saw someone say 10-12 which seems high to me so I was wondering. My plan was to apply to 5-6 schools, but maybe this is not enough considering the competitiveness of these programs?

Hope all of you are well and giving yourself time to relax!

 

[LostSoulInPsychology]

1 hour ago, janelove said:

Great to see more people on this thread!

I took a break over the last month from worrying about applications, but I am starting to get into the thick of things again  . . .

I have seen a lot about people wondering whether they should still do the general GRE with it being waived at most schools. Personally, I already wrote it last summer and was prepared to rewrite to boost my quant score. This is still my plan (hoping to write by September), but if I am not happy with my score, I will not include it (which is def nice to have as an option). I was hoping a strong GRE score could still boost my competitive edge since it is still preferred/encouraged at a lot of schools, but if your CV and GPA are great, I think you could certainly apply without the GRE and save yourself the energy and $. That being said, I am for sure NOT wasting my time with the subject-psyc GRE. 

As many of you, I am also torn on when to start contacting profs. I do not have a definitive list of supervisors yet, but that is my goal for the next 2 weeks. I am leaning toward starting to email supervisors the first week of August. 

How many schools are most of you applying to? I saw someone say 10-12 which seems high to me so I was wondering. My plan was to apply to 5-6 schools, but maybe this is not enough considering the competitiveness of these programs?

Hope all of you are well and giving yourself time to relax!

 

I feel like 10-12 might be around what I end up applying to as well, but finding profs with research fits is the biggest thing for me first and foremost. Anecdotally, I know people in previous years from my uni who apply to just one program and get in, but that also might be because they're really strong applicants. Personally I'm going with that higher value because I need to shoot my shots to as many places as possible since I'm not as strong of an applicant (86ish GPA, haven't even done my honours yet (doing it this upcoming year), but really strong volunteering and professional experience). Unlike what most people seem to think about the place, I would actually love to go to a program like Lakehead - Thunder Bay is pretty much the same vibe of city as where I'm from (it's a bit bigger but yeah). So I think I'll focus most heavily on that one but try the other ones too because living in a bigger city and going to a bigger uni would be a nice experience

[higaisha]

most people I knew of first hand applied to like 3-5 at most, I think the 10-12 estimate is more of an american thing. I think focusing on a few places where you're a strong fit might fare better than applying everywhere for the sake of applying (sounds like a $$$ drain).

[Clinpsyc01]

Yeah I also think the 10-12 is much more feasible in the US since they have so many programs. It would be a stretch to find 10+ Canadian programs that are a good fit unless you have super common research interests or multiple areas of focus.