MSW Canadian Applications Fall 2023

[Joyful13]

WLU APPLICANTS: Anyone in advanced standing or regular track for non-BSW part-time hear anything yet? I am learning that I am not a patient person.. Lol! 

[jmcinn97]

41 minutes ago, Joyful13 said:

WLU APPLICANTS: Anyone in advanced standing or regular track for non-BSW part-time hear anything yet? I am learning that I am not a patient person.. Lol! 

Nope! The website says the target for admissions decisions is the end of May, so I’m not really expecting to hear anything back any time soon at this point 🥲

[Keep on trying]

On 5/12/2023 at 10:20 AM, MSW2022 said:

They sent a mass email this week with a reminder that the deposit and transcripts are due by June 1. So maybe they'll send out another batch of acceptances after that date?

Oh ok. I applied for the mswwp regular online track starting for September right before the March 15th due date and was told I would be notified within 6 to 8 weeks (which would be around now). I emailed them last week and they advised that offers would go out by this week. 

[Socialworkenthusiast]

For people on waitlists in various schools.. what has been your tactic to get in or wait? Have you tried to stay connected to the admissions team or decided to go cold turkey and wait it out?

I would love to know what people are doing out there

[msw.helper]

On 5/8/2023 at 11:19 AM, cookiecrumble said:

Hey everyone! Since I got accepted into Laurier's 2-year non-BSW program, I'd like to share some tips on what I did in my application, my stats, and some general tips if you didn't get in this round. 

Stats: Did my undergrad in Psychology. 3.9 gpa in my last year, 3.8 for the last 2 years, and 3.54 cGPA. I got a c+ in my statistics courses and a b+ in my research methods course (not that it matters for this application, but some other MSW app requirements care about those grades). I began focusing a lot on experience in my fourth year, although I began my mental-health related experience in my third year. I have around 3000 hours of work + volunteer experience in mental health clubs, peer facilitation, aba therapy, crisis responder for distress centre lines, student mentoring, crisis, and addiction counselling. Among those roles, I had specialized experience with women, substance abuse, LGBTQ community, domestic violence, and crisis de-escalation. If you're in the GTA and want to build your experience with volunteering, this is a link I used in my 4th year that helped me find some places to volunteer at: https://www.volunteertoronto.ca/blogpost/1302191/291575/10-Places-You-Can-Volunteer-to-Support-Mental-Health

Personal Statement: I found the questions to be very specific and detailed. Make sure to use the limited space you have to precisely answer the question, using key words in the question to guide your answer. Make sure you have a clearly defined purpose for pursuing social work, and the MSW in THIS particular school / program. Do some research on different types of social work too if you're not entirely sure what you wanna do in the field!  Another benefit of doing so is realizing you may have more related experience than you thought! For example, if you were involved in creative / recreational activities, this can help you dabble in recreational therapy side of social work. If you've done research and you're a good writer, you can excel in research or policy development kind of social work. If you have lots of remote experience, you can succeed in the ever-growing virtual platform in social work through your computer literacy. Another important tip is to look through the MSW course outline and relate your experience or goals to the courses you will take. Include your social location as well and try to relate that to your purpose in pursuing an MSW. Learn about the different ways your social location has given you an enhanced understanding of certain social concerns and how your privileges will contribute as well. If you have access to an academic advisor / career counsellor, I would suggest booking an apt with them to go over your statement. Otherwise, asking friends or students in the program (including me!) to give you feedback can also be helpful. 

Some key words I included in my personal statement: advocacy, empowerment, equity, diversity, inclusion, intersectionality, stigma, and different therapeutic modalities. 

If you didn't get an acceptance this year, that is completely normal and does not mean you're not good enough for this field. Hundreds of extremely experienced applicants get rejected each year simply due to the high volume of great applicants and limited number of seats. You can try to use the time away from grad school to build your experience in work and volunteering, explore post-grad certificates or MSW's with winter intakes, look into post-grad BSW diplomas such as Lakehead's HBSW so that you can apply for the 1-year advanced standing MSW instead of the regular track when you're ready. Or instead, take this time off to do things you enjoy. Spend some time in meaningful solitude to understand yourself and find areas of your life you've been neglecting so you can begin working on them. Learn a new hobby, travel if you have the funds to do so, or push yourself out of your comfort zone.  

I hope this helps and I hope you all achieve your goals in social work. I'm so glad we have so many passionate people willing to enter this very important field of social work. You will all do great!

 

 

This is amazing advice!! To anyone on this forum give this post another read, I completely agree with everything here! Getting rejected says NOTHING about your potential to be an amazing social worker- at the end of the day there are only so many spaces available, and you have to focus on what's in your control.  If you're planning to apply next year I highly recommend checking out the personal statement template and the buzzword checklist to help you get started with your personal statement/application.  

Thanks Cookiecrumble for these golden nuggets

[cookiecrumble]

24 minutes ago, msw.helper said:

This is amazing advice!! To anyone on this forum give this post another read, I completely agree with everything here! Getting rejected says NOTHING about your potential to be an amazing social worker- at the end of the day there are only so many spaces available, and you have to focus on what's in your control.  If you're planning to apply next year I highly recommend checking out the personal statement template and the buzzword checklist to help you get started with your personal statement/application.  

Thanks Cookiecrumble for these golden nuggets

aww thank you!! so honoured you agree  thanks for being such an amazing help to prospective students!

[EN1988]

On 3/27/2023 at 7:41 PM, EN1988 said:

Anyone here apply to the p/t online MSW program at Laurier? Dying to hear back, curious if anyone else has received an acceptance or rejection yet.

Nothing yet and it's killing me!!! Started the process of applying in October and their expected decision wasn't till May. Now we are halfway through May and I'm itching to hear!! I really hope we hear before the month's end or I'm going to go crazy lol.

[Joyful13]

22 minutes ago, EN1988 said:

Nothing yet and it's killing me!!! Started the process of applying in October and their expected decision wasn't till May. Now we are halfway through May and I'm itching to hear!! I really hope we hear before the month's end or I'm going to go crazy lol.

It's a rough wait... I check 100x a day 😆

[EN1988]

I've been checking pretty much everyday too, lol. Just in case some how I didn't receive the email 😅 not even sure what I'm looking for but I'm assuming if there was an offer I would see it! 

[CraftyBee]

For everyone that’s waiting on the Laurier MSW part time online acceptance - from experience you hear normally on a Friday and it seems to be either by the third or fourth Friday of the month. 
 

Although now that I have said that watch this time it’s totally different lol! 

[Joyful13]

Decisions for WLU, PT-MSW, (non-BSW) are now set to come out beginning of June - I received an e-mail back today. 

 

[jmcinn97]

5 minutes ago, Joyful13 said:

Decisions for WLU, PT-MSW, (non-BSW) are now set to come out beginning of June - I received an e-mail back today. 

 

Well that’s… annoying 😂. I wonder why they’ve pushed it to the beginning of June now? 

[barelyhanging]

Hi everyone!

 

I was accepted into the UBCO 2 yr program.

Is there a Facebook group or Discord chat to connect with others starting this fall?

 

Thanks everyone :)

[Liv987]

Has anyone on the wait list for regular track at UofT, York, or Western heard anything yet? I haven’t seen anything on here and it seems like it’s pretty late compared to past years 

[sydney18]

36 minutes ago, Liv987 said:

Has anyone on the wait list for regular track at UofT, York, or Western heard anything yet? I haven’t seen anything on here and it seems like it’s pretty late compared to past years 

I'm still waiting to hear from the waitlist for York and U of T! 

[Ci87xo]

Is anyone going to U of T Fall 2023? I received an admission offer, I’m still waiting for WLU.

[stressball101]

20 hours ago, Ci87xo said:

Is anyone going to U of T Fall 2023? I received an admission offer, I’m still waiting for WLU.

Were you on the waiting list and then received an acceptance? Congrats either way!

[mswtime]

Anyone heard from WLU for the online advanced standing MSW program?? They send end of May so I’m hoping it will come out today 

[Ci87xo]

2 hours ago, stressball101 said:

Were you on the waiting list and then received an acceptance? Congrats either way!

Hiii! Thank you so much! No waitlist I received an admission offer from u of t on March 27th.

[jmcinn97]

1 hour ago, mswtime said:

Anyone heard from WLU for the online advanced standing MSW program?? They send end of May so I’m hoping it will come out today 

As mentioned in previous forum posts, the target for admissions decisions is now the beginning of June. I will post a screenshot of the email I received when I inquired about it haha.

 

[the-millennial-sw]

On 4/29/2023 at 9:59 AM, cookiecrumble said:

Are there any groups / group chats for students starting the regular track MSW at Laurier?

Yes Please! I've accepted my offer  

[Applicant4]

12 hours ago, the-millennial-sw said:

Yes Please! I've accepted my offer  

There is a Facebook page- I believe it is linked somewhere above  Congratulations on your acceptance!

[cmornin]

Please let this be the week that things start moving for WLU part-time!! 🤞🏼

[stressball101]

On 5/26/2023 at 12:21 PM, Ci87xo said:

Hiii! Thank you so much! No waitlist I received an admission offer from u of t on March 27th.

That's amazing!! I had one other question, when is the deadline to accept the offer? Thanks!

[Ci87xo]

23 minutes ago, stressball101 said:

On 5/26/2023 at 12:21 PM, Ci87xo said:

 

That's amazing!! I had one other question, when is the deadline to accept the offer? Thanks!

U of T gave me 4 weeks to accept the admission offer. However the $500 Payment must be made to secure your offer before June 1st. So after Wednesday I assume they move to the waitlist. Good luck 😉