MSW Canadian Applications Fall 2023

[msw_ia]

1 hour ago, cookiecrumble said:

those applying to the 2-year msw program at uoft, does it say submitted or received for your checklist documents?

Application says submitted and checklist documents says received!

[msw_ia]

I'm hoping (fingers crossed) to at least hear back from Western (King's) next week as last year's applicants for the 2-year track started to hear back around March 15. I'm just so tired of waiting - it's so anxiety-inducing.

Edited March 7, 2023 by msw2325_ia

[Siofra]

On 3/6/2023 at 3:17 PM, Kristine said:

Ok, I heard back. I have been waitlisted. Grrr. wondering how many applicants get rejected vs waitlisted. Does anyone know?

For the 2 year stream, UofT receives 800-1200 applicants each year who compete for 145ish spots. 

For the advanced standing stream, they'll get about 300 applicants who compete for the same 145ish spots. Mental health is the most popular specialization and is significantly more competitive to get into compared to the other streams available

[angelicpiano]

1 hour ago, Siofra said:

For the 2 year stream, UofT receives 800-1200 applicants each year who compete for 145ish spots. 

For the advanced standing stream, they'll get about 300 applicants who compete for the same 145ish spots. Mental health is the most popular specialization and is significantly more competitive to get into compared to the other streams available

This year they had over 330 applicants in the U of T MSW advanced standing program. They accepted a total of 125 students. Yes the mental health and health stream is the most competitive. 

Edited March 8, 2023 by angelicpiano

[Evs22]

Whilst we're all waiting on decisions (going nuts waiting for my official offer letter but have heard promising things about my application status), I had a couple of questions for you all and would appreciate your answers/thoughts!

- Is anyone going into their MSW already planning on doing a PhD later in life? I've had a longterm dream of being a professor one day and it seems like you can also do high-level social policy work after getting a doctorate. 

- What does funding look like for your programs? Scholarships? I am struggling to find detailed information on graduate/social work scholarships in my province other than what is on my prospective university's website. 

- Would it be feasible to work part-time whilst in a full-time program? Do people do this & survive? I worked during my undergrad, but I know that grad school will be a lot more intensive and require a larger time commitment. 

- For those of you interested in doing a thesis, has anyone heard about what the process is like specifically for MSW students? 

Looking forward to hearing what everyone has to say!

[YouBetterSocialWerk]

5 hours ago, Siofra said:

For the 2 year stream, UofT receives 800-1200 applicants each year who compete for 145ish spots. 

For the advanced standing stream, they'll get about 300 applicants who compete for the same 145ish spots. Mental health is the most popular specialization and is significantly more competitive to get into compared to the other streams available

Where are y'all finding these numbers? 145 for the advanced standing seems high but I've never seen numbers reported for it anywhere and when I asked the faculty they just hit me with a "it depends" 🤣

Mental health is the biggest stream offered by far, and so while it has the most interest, it also has the most spaces available to fill compared to some of the smaller ones. The ratio between interest/spaces available probably evens out in competitiveness across the streams and at the end of the day, they're all very competitive. Regardless of stream, everyone should be proud of their achievement and/or not too hard on themselves if things didn't work out as hoped, it's a tough process!

OP I believe the waitlist is quite large, and not numbered. I'm not sure how much the advanced-standing wl typically moves but when I got waitlisted 2 years ago for the 2-year program, I didn't get an official rejection until the first/second week of September. Personally, I set a date in mind of when I would move on with other plans if I hadn't heard by because the waitlist stays open so long with no indication of placement/likelihood. 

[Socwork]

Hi all, 

This is an embarrassing question but nonetheless; I was under the impression that UofT's 2 year MSW was an online program? Is that not correct? 

 

Thanks in advance!

[ManukaHoney]

2 hours ago, Socwork said:

Hi all, 

This is an embarrassing question but nonetheless; I was under the impression that UofT's 2 year MSW was an online program? Is that not correct? 

 

Thanks in advance!

No it’s not online

maybe it was online during covid?

[SearchForMeaning]

12 hours ago, Evs22 said:

Whilst we're all waiting on decisions (going nuts waiting for my official offer letter but have heard promising things about my application status), I had a couple of questions for you all and would appreciate your answers/thoughts!

- Is anyone going into their MSW already planning on doing a PhD later in life? I've had a longterm dream of being a professor one day and it seems like you can also do high-level social policy work after getting a doctorate. 

- What does funding look like for your programs? Scholarships? I am struggling to find detailed information on graduate/social work scholarships in my province other than what is on my prospective university's website. 

- Would it be feasible to work part-time whilst in a full-time program? Do people do this & survive? I worked during my undergrad, but I know that grad school will be a lot more intensive and require a larger time commitment. 

- For those of you interested in doing a thesis, has anyone heard about what the process is like specifically for MSW students? 

Looking forward to hearing what everyone has to say!

I can only respond to the "part-time work question". My answer may be annoying (in that its a long way of saying "it depends"), and I say it without having done an MSW (just applying), but having gone through professional school (law). I am trying to be helpful based on that.

I cannot imagine an MSW (or any post-graduate degree, for that matter) being so rigorous that it is practically impossible to juggle some degree of part time work (i.e.: a 10-24 hour/week commitment), while going through life's basics (e.g. sleep and modest amounts of social time and down time). The main question is, what limits do you set for your own week to week schedule; what are your priorities?... Every person's week/month rhythm is a balancing of school/work/volunteer work & extra curriculars/personal maintenance (eat/sleep/exercise etc.)/social and family life (possibly child care) and personal recreation or development.

For example, I spent my years during law school not working part-time, but taking on a a handful legal volunteer work experiences (sucking up about 14-20 hours a week or so), while doing fulltime courses, and having a pretty fulsome social life and self-care routine.  I prioritized the volunteer work because these opportunities  seemed to be richer for my professional development, as a lawyer, than any paid-work experiences that were available (and fortunately for me, I had saved up enough money  + had a line of credit and OSAP + a little bit of parental help to get me through financially). Even this schedule meant cutting corners (not going to every single class or doing every single reading; having a home that's messier than I would like, a somewhat erratic non-ideal sleep schedule that I could still function with etc.)... And I've met people in school who did more or less what I did, while holding down a 8-16hour/week part-time job on the side, and doing perfectly fine in class; they just probably cut corner elsewhere (e.g, more modest social life perhaps? being content with average grades? less sleep more coffee?)

I think its safe to assume that even if you are a fairly diligent/efficient/organized/focused student, a grad program (class + study + assignments), would take up at least a solid 40-50 hours a week, and more during crunch times... I would be skeptical if someone were to say that being an "average grade student" for most grad programs would routinely require 55+ hours a week of coursework/study.

Anyways, what is most important (and psychologically sustainable) for you to do during the remaining 118 hours (assuming 50 hours of coursework) in the week is truly and wholly up to you, and your own personal priorities. But as a function of basic math, yes one could hold a part-time job and survive grad school.
 

Edited March 8, 2023 by SearchForMeaning

[Siofra]

When I applied to the 2-year program in 2019, Angela told me there were 945 applicants that year. Previous gradcafe's also mention that there's 145 spots available. 

[YouBetterSocialWerk]

9 minutes ago, Siofra said:

When I applied to the 2-year program in 2019, Angela told me there were 945 applicants that year. Previous gradcafe's also mention that there's 145 spots available. 

Yeah that's what I remember for the 2-year too, though I wasn't sure how many spots there typically are for advanced standing, I thought I heard it was less than 100 but I could be wrong, I've never seen them report the advanced standing stuff so just curious if it was listed somewhere! 

[Evs22]

3 hours ago, SearchForMeaning said:

I can only respond to the "part-time work question". My answer may be annoying, and I say it without having done an MSW (just applying), but having gone through professional school (law). I am trying to be helpful based on that.

I cannot imagine an MSW (or any post-graduate degree, for that matter) being so rigorous that it is practically impossible to juggle some degree of part time work (i.e.: a 10-24 hour/week commitment), while going through life's basics (e.g. sleep and modest amounts of social time and down time). The main question is, what limits do you set for your own week to week schedule; what are your priorities?... Every person's week/month rhythm is a balancing of school/work/volunteer work & extra curriculars/personal maintenance (eat/sleep/exercise etc.)/social and family life (possibly child care) and personal recreation or development.

For example, I spent my years during law school not working part time, but taking on a a handful legal-volunteer work experience (sucking up about 14-20 hours a week or so), while doing fulltime courses, and having a pretty fulsome social life and self-care routine.  I prioritized the volunteer work because the opportunities I had felt like richer for my professional development, as a lawyer, than any paid-work experiences that were available (and fortunately for me, I had saved up enough money / had a line of credit + OSAP and parental help to get me through financially). Even this schedule meant cutting corners (not going to every single class or doing every single reading; having a home that's messier than I would like, a somewhat erratic sleep schedule that I could still function with etc.)... And I've met people in school who did more or less what I did, while holding down a 8-16hour/week part-time job on the side, and doing perfectly fine in class; they just probably cut corner elsewhere (e.g, more modest social life perhaps? being content with average grades? less sleep more coffee?)

I think its safe to assume that even being a diligent/efficient/organized student, a grad program (class + study + assignments), would take up at least a solid 40-50 hours a week, maybe a little bit more during crunch times.. I would be skeptical if someone were to say that being an "average grade student" for a grad program would routinely require over 50 hours a week of coursework/study.

 

Anyways, what is most important (and psychologically sustainable) for you to do during the remaining 118 hours in the week is truly and wholly up to you, and your own personal priorities. But as a function of basic math, yes one could hold a part-time job and survive grad school.
 

Thank you so much for this detailed, thoughtful answer! 

[ManukaHoney]

On 3/1/2023 at 3:13 PM, Siofra said:

Hi all,

 

Got an update from Acorn for UofT's advanced standing. I have an invitation and I paid the deposit, but it still doesn't feel like I got in! I'm still waiting for a confirmation letter or admission decision email or SGS update before I say I'm for sure-for sure admitted. I applied for the Gerontology stream, and my last name begins with R.

I'm waiting to hear back from McMaster now!

 

Thanks for sharing and congratulations!!!

I saw you posted that you also applied for tis program in 2019. Do you mind me asking how many times did u apply and what did u do to improve your application?

[DD2021]

9 hours ago, Socwork said:

Hi all, 

This is an embarrassing question but nonetheless; I was under the impression that UofT's 2 year MSW was an online program? Is that not correct? 

 

Thanks in advance!

Everything was online daring the pandemic. I'm a current student and we are back in-person for all classes. 

[DD2021]

14 hours ago, YouBetterSocialWerk said:

Where are y'all finding these numbers? 145 for the advanced standing seems high but I've never seen numbers reported for it anywhere and when I asked the faculty they just hit me with a "it depends" 🤣

Mental health is the biggest stream offered by far, and so while it has the most interest, it also has the most spaces available to fill compared to some of the smaller ones. The ratio between interest/spaces available probably evens out in competitiveness across the streams and at the end of the day, they're all very competitive. Regardless of stream, everyone should be proud of their achievement and/or not too hard on themselves if things didn't work out as hoped, it's a tough process!

OP I believe the waitlist is quite large, and not numbered. I'm not sure how much the advanced-standing wl typically moves but when I got waitlisted 2 years ago for the 2-year program, I didn't get an official rejection until the first/second week of September. Personally, I set a date in mind of when I would move on with other plans if I hadn't heard by because the waitlist stays open so long with no indication of placement/likelihood. 

The number of advanced standing spots for each stream depends on how many first years in the 2 year program register for each stream.

In my cohort MH&H is the most popular stream, while Gerontology seems to be least popular. So there are significantly fewer spots for the advanced standing MH&H compared to other streams. 

[Liv987]

Does anyone know how strict the programs are regarding references? Like if a professor submitted a professional reference because they supervised you in an extracurricular, would it be a problem for them to also mention GPA?

[Siofra]

2 hours ago, ManukaHoney said:

Thanks for sharing and congratulations!!!

I saw you posted that you also applied for tis program in 2019. Do you mind me asking how many times did u apply and what did u do to improve your application?

I applied to UofT only in 2019 and then again for this 2023 year for Waterloo, McMaster, and UofT. I am still rejected from Waterloo haha :')

I got a BSW + 500 ish hours of Hospital experience in both placement and volunteer settings.

I also volunteered at a hospice before covid began. I have been working at a food bank since 2017 in a placement student/volunteer/covid emergency worker capacity and ended up taking on a leadership role. So in 2019 where I had 2ish years of experience, in 2023 I had 6-7 years of social service experience. 

Lastly, my average at my first university was 80. I am now at a 95% cumulative average in my BSW. My references know me very very well, at least, enough to write a social-work-y reference that tailors to what the unis want

 

Hope that helps

Edited March 8, 2023 by Siofra

[ManukaHoney]

1 minute ago, Siofra said:

I applied to UofT only in 2019 and then again for this 2023 year for Waterloo and UofT. I am still rejected from Waterloo haha :')

I got a BSW + 500 ish hours of Hospital experience in both placement and volunteer settings.

I also volunteered at a hospice before covid began. I have been working at a food bank since 2017 in a placement student/volunteer/covid emergency worker capacity and ended up taking on a leadership role. So in 2019 where I had 2ish years of experience, in 2023 I had 6-7 years of social service experience. 

Lastly, my average at my first university was 80. I am now at an 95% cumulative average in my BSW. My references know me very very well, at least, enough to write a social-work-y reference that tailors to what the unis want

 

Hope that helps

 

Oh wow, thanks so much for the thoughtful and helpful response. That’s amazing!

This may be my next step honestly if I don’t get in this year, I may go for a BSW. ( I applied last year for the UofT MED in counselling and was rejected, so this year I applied to it again in addition to MSW) 

What was your undergrad in the first time? And where did you complete a BSW at?

I am wondering whether there is an online BSW program as I currently work full time.

This is my first time applying to the MSW program but looking at stats of people getting in is super discouraging.

[Siofra]

13 minutes ago, ManukaHoney said:

 

Oh wow, thanks so much for the thoughtful and helpful response. That’s amazing!

This may be my next step honestly if I don’t get in this year, I may go for a BSW. ( I applied last year for the UofT MED in counselling and was rejected, so this year I applied to it again in addition to MSW) 

What was your undergrad in the first time? And where did you complete a BSW at?

I am wondering whether there is an online BSW program as I currently work full time.

This is my first time applying to the MSW program but looking at stats of people getting in is super discouraging.

My first undergrad was a hybrid program at University of Guelph for bachelor of applied science + social service worker diploma from Humber College. 

My second undergrad was at McMaster for their post-degree BSW program. After speaking to a TMU (Ryerson) alumni who got into UofT's MSW and is now working as a discharge planner in a hospital (basically what I want to do), she told me that getting into McMaster was a pain in the booty and she got waitlisted. She ended up going to TMU for her BSW.

Waterloo offers an MSW online for full-time, which I like. The only thing that makes me reconsider this option is that the quality of securing a placement might be harder because Waterloo may not have a relationship with that agency depending on how far out you are. I imagine UofT's got their hands in a lot of pockets of hospital agencies which is where I want my placement to be. A good uni-to-agency relationship means your placement coordinator is on a first name basis with the agency connection. Thats just my opinion though, maybe it doesn't matter- I know a person in McMaster's BSW program who is completing their placement in Quebec. 

Research experience, work experience, strong grades. Pick 2. Overall, after peeling through 4 years of Gradcafe and Reddit testimonies of people's experiences getting into MSW, people seemed to have at least 2 of those qualities when getting in. A strong reference and a strongly written statement of interest is naturally helpful as well. I was there once, don't give up girl! I waited patiently and collected my experience before trying again haha

Edited March 8, 2023 by Siofra

[Applicant1992]

I'm wondering if anyone has information about the U of T MSW ITR program. I got into this program a few weeks ago and am probably going to accept. I just wanted more information on what the downsides are of a program that's mostly online if anyone knows, because I have also applied to in person programs. If anyone knows anyone who has taken this program and wants to share what their experience was like I'm looking for more info about student experiences.

Also another question, about how many hours a week per course should we plan for? 

Thanks!

 

[Liv987]

Does anyone have/know of a current list of all 2 year MSW programs in Canada? 

[jjandboyd]

20 minutes ago, Liv987 said:

Does anyone have/know of a current list of all 2 year MSW programs in Canada? 

There's this list of accredited programs in Canada but it's not filtered by length of program so you would have to look up each individually. 

https://caswe-acfts.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Accreditation-Directory-07-2021-1.pdf

[dunnowhatimdoing321]

I'm hoping advanced standing for western/ king's will hear back this week! Still haven't heard anything 

[MSWApplicant40]

13 hours ago, Applicant1992 said:

I'm wondering if anyone has information about the U of T MSW ITR program. I got into this program a few weeks ago and am probably going to accept. I just wanted more information on what the downsides are of a program that's mostly online if anyone knows, because I have also applied to in person programs. If anyone knows anyone who has taken this program and wants to share what their experience was like I'm looking for more info about student experiences.

Also another question, about how many hours a week per course should we plan for? 

Thanks!

 

Congrats on your acceptance! How were you notified? I'm waiting to hear back still about the MSW ITR, my status on the SGS portal still just says "submitted", nothing on ACORN and I've gotten no email/mail yet. It's weird because they told me in the interview that I'd hear back by the end of February, so I'm not sure what to do with the lack of communication!

[Liv987]

1 hour ago, dunnowhatimdoing321 said:

I'm hoping advanced standing for western/ king's will hear back this week! Still haven't heard anything 

I spoke with them yesterday and they told me within the next week or 2 (they release advanced and regular at the same time)