2023 Canada Admissions SLP thread

[lilaccloudsz]

hi ! I was wondering if anyone would have any insight for this: I retook a course because it was a prerequisite to apply for SLP, so on my undergrad transcript and by the rules of the school, it did not count as a credit towards my degree, just listed as "extra." but on the orpas website, it states for the sub-gpa calculation that they use the last 10 credits, even in the following scenarios: If the courses did not count toward a degree. are these two things the same? like not counting as a credit to my degree vs if the course did not count toward a degree. is orpas referring to electives, but you still got the credit? 

[Natalie SLP]

Is anyone able to confirm if the CASper test has a section in which you answer via a video response? Or is it all typed responses? 

[NikolaSLP]

23 hours ago, lilaccloudsz said:

hi ! I was wondering if anyone would have any insight for this: I retook a course because it was a prerequisite to apply for SLP, so on my undergrad transcript and by the rules of the school, it did not count as a credit towards my degree, just listed as "extra." but on the orpas website, it states for the sub-gpa calculation that they use the last 10 credits, even in the following scenarios: If the courses did not count toward a degree. are these two things the same? like not counting as a credit to my degree vs if the course did not count toward a degree. is orpas referring to electives, but you still got the credit? 

It doesn't count towards your degree, but that doesn't matter for subGPA calculation. ORPAS calculates your subGPA based off your 10 most recent full-credit courses regardless of whether they counted towards your degree or not. For example, I graduated in 2018 and received my degree but since then I have taken 10 half-credit courses as an open studies student, so ORPAS will include those courses and some from my degree as well. Hope that answers your question!  

[NikolaSLP]

4 hours ago, Natalie SLP said:

Is anyone able to confirm if the CASper test has a section in which you answer via a video response? Or is it all typed responses? 

I took CASPer in October, and yes I can confirm that it is now half written and half video response. However, you only receive a quartile score for the written portion... which is pretty dumb because that only tells you how well you did on half the test...

[Natalie SLP]

38 minutes ago, NikolaSLP said:

I took CASPer in October, and yes I can confirm that it is now half written and half video response. However, you only receive a quartile score for the written portion... which is pretty dumb because that only tells you how well you did on half the test...

Thanks for your response! Interesting - so would that mean only the results of the written portion counts towards your application? 

[NikolaSLP]

53 minutes ago, Natalie SLP said:

Thanks for your response! Interesting - so would that mean only the results of the written portion counts towards your application? 

From what I understand, both the written and video portion count towards the score that gets sent to the schools. But you only get feedback on the written portion. Its weird because last year you got the quartile score for your entire test and now you only get half? like what??

[lilaccloudsz]

21 hours ago, NikolaSLP said:

It doesn't count towards your degree, but that doesn't matter for subGPA calculation. ORPAS calculates your subGPA based off your 10 most recent full-credit courses regardless of whether they counted towards your degree or not. For example, I graduated in 2018 and received my degree but since then I have taken 10 half-credit courses as an open studies student, so ORPAS will include those courses and some from my degree as well. Hope that answers your question!  

Since I retook the course, it does not count as a credit for that session on my transcript. For ex, I took 2 other courses plus this one I retook, but I only got 1.0 credits instead of 1.5. So I assume that the retaken course won't count on my sub-gpa because it wasn't counted as a credit? Hopefully this clarifies.

[NikolaSLP]

2 hours ago, lilaccloudsz said:

Since I retook the course, it does not count as a credit for that session on my transcript. For ex, I took 2 other courses plus this one I retook, but I only got 1.0 credits instead of 1.5. So I assume that the retaken course won't count on my sub-gpa because it wasn't counted as a credit? Hopefully this clarifies.

Okay so if I understand correctly, you previously took this course and received credit for it, but then you retook it to improve your grade later right? In that case you already received credit for the course, so your school did not give you a full credit when you retook it. I believe, in this case ORPAS will include the most recent grade for that credit in your subGPA calculation if the original credit falls within the last 10 full-credit courses. Thats my take on it from what ORPAS says anyways, if you want to know for sure I would suggest sending them an email to confirm. Hope that helps!

[somethingcleveraboutspeech]

Hey friends - third time applying and in a pretty unique position. I was accepted to both Western and UofT and confirmed with UofT. However, my offer of admission was rescinded because there was an incomplete prerequisite that I had no idea about! So let this be a warning: 1) double and triple check that each course satisfies the prereq that you think it does! 2) Read your offer of admission very carefully! It's actually a bit obscure.

AMA!

Also - Anyone know if our third referee an employer this year again? 

[SLP--2021]

Hi everyone!

Just checking in to see who went to the info sessions from uoft and what faculty were there if anyone can remember?

 

Thanks!

[egall]

11 hours ago, somethingcleveraboutspeech said:

Hey friends - third time applying and in a pretty unique position. I was accepted to both Western and UofT and confirmed with UofT. However, my offer of admission was rescinded because there was an incomplete prerequisite that I had no idea about! So let this be a warning: 1) double and triple check that each course satisfies the prereq that you think it does! 2) Read your offer of admission very carefully! It's actually a bit obscure.

AMA!

Also - Anyone know if our third referee an employer this year again? 

Ugh that’s so unfortunate! If you don’t mind sharing what was the prerequisite you didn’t have? Or why the one you thought qualify didn’t? 
And yes, third referee can be employer 

[Owl.on.a.Slide]

On 12/5/2022 at 3:35 PM, lilaccloudsz said:

Since I retook the course, it does not count as a credit for that session on my transcript. For ex, I took 2 other courses plus this one I retook, but I only got 1.0 credits instead of 1.5. So I assume that the retaken course won't count on my sub-gpa because it wasn't counted as a credit? Hopefully this clarifies.

If it is still within your most recent 20 half credits, ORPAS will count it. I retook a course I failed (so it showed up as F NCR on my university's transcript) but ORPAS counted it anyway and screwed up my gpa for years. It really sucks. 

 

Edit: sorry I just read your post more carefully and saw that you're referring to the most recent course to my knowledge they count every university course you take

Edited December 11, 2022 by Owl.on.a.Slide

[somethingcleveraboutspeech]

On 12/9/2022 at 12:03 AM, egall said:

Ugh that’s so unfortunate! If you don’t mind sharing what was the prerequisite you didn’t have? Or why the one you thought qualify didn’t? 
And yes, third referee can be employer 

It's a phonetics course. For some reason, I thought my intro to linguistics course would qualify (I think I looked at the wrong line of the spreadsheet. Totally my error, and an easily avoidable one at that! The problem is that I was accepted even though I did not take the course, and it was not clear to me in my acceptance letter that there was course that I hadn't taken. Therefore, I thought I had already done everything I needed to do!

[Natalie SLP]

Hi! I have a question to those who are applying to Dalhousie. For schools such as U of T, Western, and McGill, they allow your referees to work on their references before you submit your application. 

From my understanding for Dalhousie you have to manage your time accordingly because your references receive an email link only once your application is submitted. Can anyone confirm if this is true or maybe I'm misunderstanding? 

[ElsaNotFrozen]

On 12/8/2022 at 12:55 PM, somethingcleveraboutspeech said:

Hey friends - third time applying and in a pretty unique position. I was accepted to both Western and UofT and confirmed with UofT. However, my offer of admission was rescinded because there was an incomplete prerequisite that I had no idea about! So let this be a warning: 1) double and triple check that each course satisfies the prereq that you think it does! 2) Read your offer of admission very carefully! It's actually a bit obscure.

AMA!

Also - Anyone know if our third referee an employer this year again? 

Hey! could you tell us which prereq it was? I found UofT's prereqs to be very specific (had to redo phonetics even though I've done it twice in my undergrad) whereas Western's accepts more of a variety of things. Also UofT not accepted prereqs specifically related to speech/language is dumb  (i.e. Anatomy & Physio for speech/language or Human Dev for speech/lang etc)

[somethingcleveraboutspeech]

On 12/13/2022 at 12:09 PM, ElsaNotFrozen said:

Hey! could you tell us which prereq it was? I found UofT's prereqs to be very specific (had to redo phonetics even though I've done it twice in my undergrad) whereas Western's accepts more of a variety of things. Also UofT not accepted prereqs specifically related to speech/language is dumb  (i.e. Anatomy & Physio for speech/language or Human Dev for speech/lang etc)

Don't worry about what prereq it was - it was totally an avoidable error on my part, if I would have looked at U of T's very clear list more carefully. I think I just looked at the wrong line. The prereq was accepted for Western and McMaster but not U of T. Actually, it was accepted for a different prerequisite but not the one I needed it for

[speechenthusiast]

Hey guys, I was wondering if anyone here knows or has heard from people currently at Dalhousie, about how the first year has gone? As someone who has undergrad experience with applied linguistics, is the first year a lot of repetition?

[egall]

Should I put my references titles (for ORPAS referee section) as professor or Dr. ? They both have a PhD and both are associate professors 

[NikolaSLP]

4 hours ago, egall said:

Should I put my references titles (for ORPAS referee section) as professor or Dr. ? They both have a PhD and both are associate professors 

 You would address them as Dr. since they have PhDs. 

[Natalie SLP]

Hi! 

I'm hoping someone has insight as to the unofficial transcripts required by Dalhousie. I went to York for my undergraduate and paid for my unofficial transcript. According to Dalhousie's site, it says, "Transcripts should be in chronological order (oldest to most recent)." 

However, my unofficial transcript that I paid for naturally begins from my most recent courses, all the way down to my first year. It's just the formatting of the transcript but I'm not sure if that's going to be a big deal since Dalhousie requested it the other way around. I don't know how meticulous they are about these sorts of things. 

Thanks! 

 

 

[NikolaSLP]

21 hours ago, Natalie SLP said:

Hi! 

I'm hoping someone has insight as to the unofficial transcripts required by Dalhousie. I went to York for my undergraduate and paid for my unofficial transcript. According to Dalhousie's site, it says, "Transcripts should be in chronological order (oldest to most recent)." 

However, my unofficial transcript that I paid for naturally begins from my most recent courses, all the way down to my first year. It's just the formatting of the transcript but I'm not sure if that's going to be a big deal since Dalhousie requested it the other way around. I don't know how meticulous they are about these sorts of things. 

Thanks! 

 

 

I'm not applying to Dalhousie, so I could be wrong, but is there a chance they are referring to chronological order not for the courses on your transcripts but for your most recent studies? Me for example I got my degree at Ucalgary but did open studies at Athabasca afterwards so my most recent transcript would be Athabasca. If you've only attended one school, that would be your most recent. 

[Natalie SLP]

3 hours ago, NikolaSLP said:

I'm not applying to Dalhousie, so I could be wrong, but is there a chance they are referring to chronological order not for the courses on your transcripts but for your most recent studies? Me for example I got my degree at Ucalgary but did open studies at Athabasca afterwards so my most recent transcript would be Athabasca. If you've only attended one school, that would be your most recent. 

I didn't think about it that way, that's very possible. Thank you! 

[lilaccloudsz]

hey so im pasting my letter of intent into orpas, but some of my paragraphs aren't tabbed and im trying to fix this,  but its not letting me so I was wondering if anyone knows how to fix this or this is how its gonna look. it looks so bad if I don't fix it so if anyone know I would appreciate it 

 

Edited December 17, 2022 by lilaccloudsz
never mind I realized that it un-tabs all the paragraphs anyways lol

[SLPplease1]

For U  of T...  the second section in the SOI...where it says

"The second section of the Statement of Intent is a summary of volunteer experiences and should list:

1. Volunteer experiences in the field of speech‑language pathology and/or audiology in point form, including dates, duration, total hours, populations, and the nature of activities in which the applicant participated; and
2. Other relevant volunteer experiences, including dates, duration, populations, and activities."

Is THIS part of the 500 ish words?? I cannot locate another "section" to upload a part two to.  Help please.  I see on the orpas site that there is a volunteer section, but it's very prescribed only allowing particular information.  In the description section, there are just a few lines available to write what you did.  

 

I see no where to upload a second section which would allow me to list a summary.  Thanks for any insight.

[Natalie SLP]

I have another question regarding Dalhousie lol. 

For referees it says, "Dalhousie University will only accept university, teaching hospital, and government email addresses [i.e. not Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, or business addresses]"

I'm using a third reference as a work supervisor. However, her email address is associated with the special needs school I work at. I'm not sure if their system will allow that or consider it a 'business address' because I guess technically it is? 

Does anyone have any insight on this? Thank you