MSW Canadian Applications Fall 2023

[MSW709NL]

Hi all,

I'm feeling very fortunate to have received admissions offers to Memorial University's MSW program and Laurier's MSW program (Advanced Standing for Spring 2023). I was on the waitlist for Laurier and received an offer about 2 weeks ago. 

I have another couple of days to make my final decision. If anyone knows anyone who has attended either MSW program, or if you have taken either program yourself, could you please let me know your thoughts? 

Thank you, and good luck to everyone who is waiting on decisions from their program(s) of choice 🙂

[Liv987]

Do decisions come out on weekends or just during “business hours”?

[sworkerr]

For anyone still waiting to hear back from Waterloo for the 1 year program, they have a “waitlist two” which they are using as they move people off the first waitlist. 

[Liv987]

Has anyone heard back from Western yet?

[ManukaHoney]

On 3/18/2023 at 10:05 AM, Torrberry said:

Update for York applicants, they called me yesterday as part of first round offers and I have been accepted to the full time program full ride plus more due to my gpa.

Im stuck between choosing UW or York - anyone have thoughts on which path to take? 

congrats!! Is it the advanced standing or regular track?

[SCallaghan]

1 hour ago, ManukaHoney said:

congrats!! Is it the advanced standing or regular track?

It's probably advance standing since they applied to UW (requires a BSW)!

[msw_ia]

3 hours ago, Liv987 said:

Has anyone heard back from Western yet?

No, not yet!

[Liv987]

3 minutes ago, msw2325_ia said:

No, not yet!

Is anyone else starting to go a little crazy or just me🥴

[barelyhanging]

4 minutes ago, Liv987 said:

Is anyone else starting to go a little crazy or just me🥴

I feel you!! I keep checking. I literally just made this account to find out if others have heard yet /: 

[SCallaghan]

I emailed York admissions to ask when the 2 year MSW applicants should hear back and they responded saying mid to late April! Looks like we still got a ways to go 😅

[Liv987]

1 hour ago, SCallaghan said:

I emailed York admissions to ask when the 2 year MSW applicants should hear back and they responded saying mid to late April! Looks like we still got a ways to go 😅

Ughhhh the wait is painful 

[SWRKMSW12]

Hi there,

I have been following this forum since I applied for my MSW to Waterloo for the Fall 2023 intake (Advanced Standing, full time, online), and the Fall 2023 intake for WLU part time (online), advanced standing. 

I have seen a lot of posts from individuals who heard back around Feb 17th for Waterloo, or have been moved off of waitlists already. My Quest portal still says "Application, no decision has been made by the academic department". I am wondering if anyone else is in the same boat as me? 

[olivia473]

Hi everyone! So far I’ve received acceptances from the advanced standing programs at McGill, U of T and York (I’m still waiting to hear back from Laurier). I’m very torn between U of T and York - York offered me an amazing funding package but I’ll have to take on student loans from U of T. And they’re very different programs, I’m worried I won’t get enough skills from York while U of T offers me very relevant skills for working with children and families. Does anyone have some advice? How much does your MSW matter in terms of finding work in the future? 

[CharmedAhri]

2 hours ago, SWRKMSW12 said:

Hi there,

I have been following this forum since I applied for my MSW to Waterloo for the Fall 2023 intake (Advanced Standing, full time, online), and the Fall 2023 intake for WLU part time (online), advanced standing. 

I have seen a lot of posts from individuals who heard back around Feb 17th for Waterloo, or have been moved off of waitlists already. My Quest portal still says "Application, no decision has been made by the academic department". I am wondering if anyone else is in the same boat as me? 

Hey! I'm in the same boat. I've been refreshing and waiting for emails as soon as March started and still no update. My last name is B, but unsure if that matters haha. 

[SWRKMSW12]

2 minutes ago, CharmedAhri said:

Hey! I'm in the same boat. I've been refreshing and waiting for emails as soon as March started and still no update. My last name is B, but unsure if that matters haha. 

My last name starts with a B too! So hard waiting

[CharmedAhri]

9 minutes ago, SWRKMSW12 said:

My last name starts with a B too! So hard waiting

Right? I’m getting so nervous LOL, I’m glad we’re both B’s, we can update each other!

[SearchForMeaning]

57 minutes ago, olivia473 said:

Hi everyone! So far I’ve received acceptances from the advanced standing programs at McGill, U of T and York (I’m still waiting to hear back from Laurier). I’m very torn between U of T and York - York offered me an amazing funding package but I’ll have to take on student loans from U of T. And they’re very different programs, I’m worried I won’t get enough skills from York while U of T offers me very relevant skills for working with children and families. Does anyone have some advice? How much does your MSW matter in terms of finding work in the future? 

Hey, I am totally not qualified to give really good advice since Im just an applicant myself, and dont know the full details of your finances (i.e.: how big of an immediate financial impact on your lifestyle does the UofT vs. York decision makes for you)... I will assume that the financial-factor is a survivable one for you.

All I can say (having done an unrelated graduate program before), is that the school you go to; the courses offered, and the people you meet, will very likely shape your career trajectory in ways you cant really expect or map-out in advance... that's just the nature of starting a career in a new field where you are still exploring the ways you can use a professional degree!  If one school offers you more promising opportunities/courses in your area of interest, I like to think it usually pans out well in the long-run, even if it costs $20k or more so than the other option. 

Putting all that aside, I am also someone who is child & family focused and for that, the course offerings and faculty of U of T blew me away. So I can appreciate your perspective & dilemma. 

 

[sworkerr]

50 minutes ago, CharmedAhri said:

Hey! I'm in the same boat. I've been refreshing and waiting for emails as soon as March started and still no update. My last name is B, but unsure if that matters haha. 

 

3 hours ago, SWRKMSW12 said:

Hi there,

I have been following this forum since I applied for my MSW to Waterloo for the Fall 2023 intake (Advanced Standing, full time, online), and the Fall 2023 intake for WLU part time (online), advanced standing. 

I have seen a lot of posts from individuals who heard back around Feb 17th for Waterloo, or have been moved off of waitlists already. My Quest portal still says "Application, no decision has been made by the academic department". I am wondering if anyone else is in the same boat as me? 

Hey,

Mine is the same. I reached out to them and they said that anyone who has not heard is on "waitlist 2" and that as people drop the initial waitlist you may be added to the official waitlist. So basically, you are either going to be waitlisted or declined depending on how many people decide not to accept. 

[SearchForMeaning]

I applied for the 2-year regular track MSW at U of T. This could be and likely is completely insignificant - but I just got an automatic message that my undergraduate transcript (also from U of T) has been received (when I submitted the application, I sent a scanned copy of an official transcript; but evidently the admissions committee went out and obtained an original themselves). 

My thinking is that the admissions committee would not go through the trouble of requesting official transcripts for every single applicant (i.e.: hundreds of applicants might be deemed non-competitive off the gate; why go through the administrative nightmare of obtaining official transcripts from their respective universities... makes sense to make such requests only when they are whittling down to the pool of people they will admit or put in a competitive spot on the waitlist).

Could be a total red herring but its nice to finally see some slightest pulse of movement on my application!

Edited March 21, 2023 by SearchForMeaning

[Racheleve]

I am in the am boat. I was accepted to U of T an Lakehead, with Lakehead offering a generous funding package. For me, I can't say no to the money as it will greatly ease my financial stress while studying. 

[cookiecrumble]

5 hours ago, SearchForMeaning said:

I applied for the 2-year regular track MSW at U of T. This could be and likely is completely insignificant - but I just got an automatic message that my undergraduate transcript (also from U of T) has been received (when I submitted the application, I sent a scanned copy of an official transcript; but evidently the admissions committee went out and obtained an original themselves). 

My thinking is that the admissions committee would not go through the trouble of requesting official transcripts for every single applicant (i.e.: hundreds of applicants might be deemed non-competitive off the gate; why go through the administrative nightmare of obtaining official transcripts from their respective universities... makes sense to make such requests only when they are whittling down to the pool of people they will admit or put in a competitive spot on the waitlist).

Could be a total red herring but its nice to finally see some slightest pulse of movement on my application!

wait did it say: This notification is to let you know the following official document was received.

because i got that email on january 6th and i was wondering the same?? i submitted my official transcript though so idk what that means haha

[SearchForMeaning]

44 minutes ago, cookiecrumble said:

wait did it say: This notification is to let you know the following official document was received.

because i got that email on january 6th and i was wondering the same?? i submitted my official transcript though so idk what that means haha

Yes that's right! Knowing you got it back in january completely defeats my theory of this message meaning anything.

It is a strange message too, because I also submitted a scanned copy of an official transcript, and submitted it as such.. so they had an "official" transcript all along. 

[Liv987]

11 minutes ago, SearchForMeaning said:

Yes that's right! Knowing you got it back in january completely defeats my theory of this message meaning anything.

It is a strange message too, because I also submitted a scanned copy of an official transcript, and submitted it as such.. so they had an "official" transcript all along. 

I think if you submitted a scanned version it’s not longer “official” like it has to be sealed and come from the school themselves in a secure way

[cookiecrumble]

48 minutes ago, SearchForMeaning said:

Yes that's right! Knowing you got it back in january completely defeats my theory of this message meaning anything.

It is a strange message too, because I also submitted a scanned copy of an official transcript, and submitted it as such.. so they had an "official" transcript all along. 

It’s strange to me because all my other documents in the application checklist states “received” but I only got an email for my official transcript being received. Then again, it wasn’t mandatory to submit an official transcript so maybe they went through a process of verifying  if our transcripts were actually official and maybe did so on an alphabetical order hence mine (my last name begins with D) being received in January. 

Or maybe there was no method to it at all and I’m over analyzing and going crazy out of impatience LOL 

[Liv987]

3 minutes ago, cookiecrumble said:

It’s strange to me because all my other documents in the application checklist states “received” but I only got an email for my official transcript being received. Then again, it wasn’t mandatory to submit an official transcript so maybe they went through a process of verifying  if our transcripts were actually official and maybe did so on an alphabetical order hence mine (my last name begins with D) being received in January. 

Or maybe there was no method to it at all and I’m over analyzing and going crazy out of impatience LOL 

Official transcripts weren’t mandatory for conditional offers because some of us are still in school