2023 Canada Admissions SLP thread

[egall]

23 hours ago, NikolaSLP said:

My references for the UofA have all submitted their letters days ago, however two of them have not updated on the application to submitted. Has anybody else had this issue? Usually there isn't such a long delay. 

Same issue here. When I had to fix a referees email I received an automated reply that said referees have two weeks after Jan 15 to submit, if it gives you some peace of mind. If you haven't already, it might not hurt to double check that they actually completed the reference, not just that they received the invitation. Fingers crossed it gets updated soon!

Edited January 19, 2023 by egall

[AG404]

Was wondering if anybody got a confirmation from Dal re: receiving supporting documents via their email? I know they're a little slow sometimes so just wanted to check in

[girl]

3 hours ago, AG404 said:

Was wondering if anybody got a confirmation from Dal re: receiving supporting documents via their email? I know they're a little slow sometimes so just wanted to check in

I didn't but it says this on the website:

"Unfortunately, given the large number of applications we receive, we will be unable to acknowledge receipt of your application."

So I don't think we should be expecting a confirmation.

[MarySLP]

3 hours ago, AG404 said:

Was wondering if anybody got a confirmation from Dal re: receiving supporting documents via their email? I know they're a little slow sometimes so just wanted to check in

so far I only got one email from them. Informing my Dal ID number.

[nslp2be]

I'm curious to know what others are planning to do if they don't get in. I'm thinking about other options, but ultimately I know I want to do SLP and not CDA or anything else, so I need the masters. CDA college and then reapply for unis is an option but I have heard mixed opinions on how much it improves an application. Might also depend on the school I guess but I heard Ontario doesn't really consider it and cares more about undergrad GPA... I think my GPA is what makes my application less competitive. I'm wondering if taking a few additional courses while volunteering might be my best bet, but I'm not sure if I should retake relevant courses (had some B- and C's in anatomy/physiology stuff) or if I should take new courses that are less challenging. 

[15itspossibleslp]

I am just wondering if anyone who applied to u of a is showing pre-screening in the portal? I am wondering what that means in the website? Thank you very much!

[NikolaSLP]

6 minutes ago, 15itspossibleslp said:

I am just wondering if anyone who applied to u of a is showing pre-screening in the portal? I am wondering what that means in the website? Thank you very much!

It's just means they are in the process of putting together all your application materials. The other stages are under review and decision. I will say though last year when I applied mine stayed in the screening stage up until I received my rejection letter, so its not the best indicator of what stage your application is in. Not sure if they will be better at updating it this year but probably more likely to receive your acceptance, waitlist, or rejection letter before it is updated. 

[NikolaSLP]

2 hours ago, nslp2be said:

I'm curious to know what others are planning to do if they don't get in. I'm thinking about other options, but ultimately I know I want to do SLP and not CDA or anything else, so I need the masters. CDA college and then reapply for unis is an option but I have heard mixed opinions on how much it improves an application. Might also depend on the school I guess but I heard Ontario doesn't really consider it and cares more about undergrad GPA... I think my GPA is what makes my application less competitive. I'm wondering if taking a few additional courses while volunteering might be my best bet, but I'm not sure if I should retake relevant courses (had some B- and C's in anatomy/physiology stuff) or if I should take new courses that are less challenging. 

Sounds like you know this is the career path for you, which is great! To be honest applying to grad school is kind of a crap shoot (excuse my language). But I do think your best bet of improving your application would be to improve your GPA. Volunteer hours are great, but most schools still heavily favour GPA. Retaking courses is an option but I would say you are more likely to do better and stay motivated in a course you are actually interested in, so take a course you think you be fun. The great thing is that you can apply to grad school as many times as you want! My advice would be don't put your life on hold while you try to get into grad school. Go travel, take a job you are interested in, have hobbies etc., otherwise you are more likely to burn out and give up if everything is ridding on getting into grad school. 

Edited January 24, 2023 by NikolaSLP
fixed spelling mistake

[15itspossibleslp]

2 hours ago, NikolaSLP said:

It's just means they are in the process of putting together all your application materials. The other stages are under review and decision. I will say though last year when I applied mine stayed in the screening stage up until I received my rejection letter, so its not the best indicator of what stage your application is in. Not sure if they will be better at updating it this year but probably more likely to receive your acceptance, waitlist, or rejection letter before it is updated. 

Oh I see, thank you very much for your response!  

[SLPplease1]

16 hours ago, 15itspossibleslp said:

I am just wondering if anyone who applied to u of a is showing pre-screening in the portal? I am wondering what that means in the website? Thank you very much!

Where do you see that?
thx

[Axaxa]

Hi everyone, I have a question regarding CASPer. 

I'm slated to take it tomorrow (the last day possible for most Canadian schools) but I just received an email from Mcgill saying that the application deadline is Jan 31st at midnight EST. I've heard it takes 2-3 weeks for results to get sent to the school, but since they stated on their website that the last valid date to take the CASPer for this intake round is Jan 26th, does that mean they will wait for the results despite it passing the deadline? I've been stressing out because this is the last component of my application(s) that is missing. 

TIA! 

[15itspossibleslp]

11 hours ago, SLPplease1 said:

Where do you see that?
thx

It is on the portal where you click the 2023 admissions at the top left? It has the yellow boxes that shows the progress. 

[SLPplease1]

1 hour ago, 15itspossibleslp said:

It is on the portal where you click the 2023 admissions at the top left? It has the yellow boxes that shows the progress. 

Thanks. I will go look. 

[hopefulslpp]

23 hours ago, Axaxa said:

Hi everyone, I have a question regarding CASPer. 

I'm slated to take it tomorrow (the last day possible for most Canadian schools) but I just received an email from Mcgill saying that the application deadline is Jan 31st at midnight EST. I've heard it takes 2-3 weeks for results to get sent to the school, but since they stated on their website that the last valid date to take the CASPer for this intake round is Jan 26th, does that mean they will wait for the results despite it passing the deadline? I've been stressing out because this is the last component of my application(s) that is missing. 

TIA! 

Hey! From what I understand, so long as you do the CASPER test by the final date, it is okay. On the McGill website it says that the last day to write the test is Jan. 26 - you should be in the clear! I doubt they would put that date on the website if they were not going to accept the results later than the deadline. 

I would email Antoniette if anything, she always gets back to me quickly and it has saved me tons of headaches! (But i do think youre okay.) 

[clementinegreentea]

Hi everyone! I am currently studying Social Work (BSW) and am looking into doing my masters in Speech Language Pathology. Has anyone made a similar field switch and had success getting into grad schools for SLP? Dalhousie is the only school that does not need pre-reqs, so if I don't get in I'll need to take some uni pre-req courses as a non-degree student and apply to other schools. I was also thinking about Brock U's 1 year certificate that would get me all the pre-reqs... Anyone have any thoughts or words of advice? Thanks!

Edited January 26, 2023 by clementinegreentea

[nslp2be]

7 minutes ago, clementinegreentea said:

Hi everyone! I am currently studying Social Work (BSW) and am looking into doing my masters in Speech Language Pathology. Has anyone made a similar field switch and had success getting into grad schools for SLP? Dalhousie is the only school that does not need pre-reqs, so if I don't get in I'll need to take some uni pre-req courses as a non-degree student and apply to other schools. I was also thinking about Brock U's 1 year certificate that would get me all the pre-reqs... Anyone have any thoughts or words of advice? Thanks!

I'm finishing my BA at Brock in Applied Linguistics. Some of my classmates are from the certificate program. I don't know that much about it in particular but have really enjoyed my linguistics courses here at Brock! We have great faculty. Brock is a good option. ?

[nslp2be]

On 1/24/2023 at 4:34 PM, NikolaSLP said:

Sounds like you know this is the career path for you, which is great! To be honest applying to grad school is kind of a crap shoot (excuse my language). But I do think your best bet of improving your application would be to improve your GPA. Volunteer hours are great, but most schools still heavily favour GPA. Retaking courses is an option but I would say you are more likely to do better and stay motivated in a course you are actually interested in, so take a course you think you be fun. The great thing is that you can apply to grad school as many times as you want! My advice would be don't put your life on hold while you try to get into grad school. Go travel, take a job you are interested in, have hobbies etc., otherwise you are more likely to burn out and give up if everything is ridding on getting into grad school. 

That's good advice, thank you! Yeah taking more courses is what I'm leaning towards.

[NikolaSLP]

10 minutes ago, clementinegreentea said:

Hi everyone! I am currently studying Social Work (BSW) and am looking into doing my masters in Speech Language Pathology. Has anyone made a similar field switch and had success getting into grad schools for SLP? Dalhousie is the only school that does not need pre-reqs, so if I don't get in I'll need to take some uni pre-req courses as a non-degree student and apply to other schools. I was also thinking about Brock U's 1 year certificate that would get me all the pre-reqs... Anyone have any thoughts or words of advice? Thanks!

I wouldn't worry about what your undegrad major is, as people with several different kinds of majors such as linguistics, biology, psychology, sociology, education etc. have all been accepted to the SLP masters programs. Whats more important is your GPA and making sure it remains in the A to A+ range for your last two years of your undergrad. 

While you can apply to Dalhousie and see if you get in, keep in mind Dalhousie only accepts 13-20 students a year and receives upwards of 500 applications for those spots. It's quite competitive. My advice would be spend an additional year as an open studies student getting the pre-reqs for the other schools, and accumulating volunteer hours. It will save you time and money in the long run as you will be able to put forth your best application to all the schools in one go. I say this because I jumped on applying right away last year, could only apply to one school, and got rejected because my application and GPA was sub-par. If I had taken a year to boost my GPA and focus on getting the pre-reqs I likely would have had a better shot. But of course thats just my two cents, do what works best for you in the end! 

[clementinegreentea]

15 minutes ago, NikolaSLP said:

I wouldn't worry about what your undegrad major is, as people with several different kinds of majors such as linguistics, biology, psychology, sociology, education etc. have all been accepted to the SLP masters programs. Whats more important is your GPA and making sure it remains in the A to A+ range for your last two years of your undergrad. 

While you can apply to Dalhousie and see if you get in, keep in mind Dalhousie only accepts 13-20 students a year and receives upwards of 500 applications for those spots. It's quite competitive. My advice would be spend an additional year as an open studies student getting the pre-reqs for the other schools, and accumulating volunteer hours. It will save you time and money in the long run as you will be able to put forth your best application to all the schools in one go. I say this because I jumped on applying right away last year, could only apply to one school, and got rejected because my application and GPA was sub-par. If I had taken a year to boost my GPA and focus on getting the pre-reqs I likely would have had a better shot. But of course thats just my two cents, do what works best for you in the end! 

Thank you so much for your insight! This is super super helpful. I only have three semesters left (I'm in third year) and currently have all As (4.0/4.0 GPA), so I am going to try really, really hard to keep that up. I was thinking of applying to Dalhousie SLP next fall along with some masters of social work programs as well and then if I don't get into Dalhousie and decide SLP is 100% the direction I want to go, I'll take a gap year to get all the pre-reqs and re-apply to other SLP schools the following fall. I just figure I should at least try! I'll have to take the gap year either way if I don't get in so I can always just try applying twice, you know? That's just my thinking process! I also will try to get some SLP-related volunteer experience in my fourth year for sure! 

Edited January 26, 2023 by clementinegreentea

[NikolaSLP]

14 minutes ago, clementinegreentea said:

Thank you so much for your insight! This is super super helpful. I only have three semesters left (I'm in third year) and currently have all As (4.0/4.0 GPA), so I am going to try really, really hard to keep that up. I was thinking of applying to Dalhousie SLP next fall along with some masters of social work programs as well and then if I don't get into Dalhousie and decide SLP is 100% the direction I want to go, I'll take a gap year to get all the pre-reqs and re-apply to other SLP schools the following fall. I just figure I should at least try! I'll have to take the gap year either way if I don't get in so I can always just try applying twice, you know? That's just my thinking process! I also will try to get some SLP-related volunteer experience in my fourth year for sure! 

Sounds like you have a good plan in place. Best of Luck!

[MajorTom10]

I just finished one of my pre req courses for U of A that was in progress when I submitted. Does anyone know if I can update my transcripts/pre req page still? 

[NikolaSLP]

2 hours ago, MajorTom10 said:

I just finished one of my pre req courses for U of A that was in progress when I submitted. Does anyone know if I can update my transcripts/pre req page still? 

All the documents in your application are locked now, so you won't be able to change it yourself, but you can email Vicki your updated transcripts and she should be able to attach it to your file from her end. 

[SLPplease1]

Finally, today, my transcripts were received at orpas. Now, to wait for the sgpa. Let the (first stage of)  nailbiting begin! ?

[RDHtoSLP96]

Does anyone by chance have a course outline for the U of A statistics course PTHER 352? My past prof isnt responding and I need one to finish my application. 

[MarySLP]

On 1/26/2023 at 1:27 PM, clementinegreentea said:

Hi everyone! I am currently studying Social Work (BSW) and am looking into doing my masters in Speech Language Pathology. Has anyone made a similar field switch and had success getting into grad schools for SLP? Dalhousie is the only school that does not need pre-reqs, so if I don't get in I'll need to take some uni pre-req courses as a non-degree student and apply to other schools. I was also thinking about Brock U's 1 year certificate that would get me all the pre-reqs... Anyone have any thoughts or words of advice? Thanks!

Hi I am just wandering which certificate in Brock has all the pre-reqs?