2023 Canada Admissions SLP thread

[quruxSLP]

Saw that Western University had 506 applicants apply last year, UofT had 337 applicants last year, and Macmaster had 533 applicants last year. 

Edited January 5, 2023 by quruxSLP
corrected numbers

[NicoleSLP]

Hi Everyone!

It's my first time applying to SLP programs in Canada and the United States. I am super nervous because I took an extra year as I was suppose to graduate last year and realize how competitive the programs are. I am applying to University of Toronto, Western, McMaster, Uottawa and McGill. 

Does anyone know how the sub-GPA is calculated or how they can calculate themselves? Cause I am kind of worried about my GPA cause the last two years of my undergrad my grades have been great (except with one grade that was a C) but because I have to take math to get into the states (i just got my grade back and I passed) but i don't know how it will affect the sub-GPA and if it will be good enough for consideration. I also have a lot of volunteer experience with SLP and in the medical field as well.

[somethingcleveraboutspeech]

1 hour ago, NicoleSLP said:

Hi Everyone!

It's my first time applying to SLP programs in Canada and the United States. I am super nervous because I took an extra year as I was suppose to graduate last year and realize how competitive the programs are. I am applying to University of Toronto, Western, McMaster, Uottawa and McGill. 

Does anyone know how the sub-GPA is calculated or how they can calculate themselves? Cause I am kind of worried about my GPA cause the last two years of my undergrad my grades have been great (except with one grade that was a C) but because I have to take math to get into the states (i just got my grade back and I passed) but i don't know how it will affect the sub-GPA and if it will be good enough for consideration. I also have a lot of volunteer experience with SLP and in the medical field as well.

I haven't been able to figure out how they calculate SGPA. They post it on ORPAS in February, I believe (someone can correct me if I'm wrong.) At that point, you'll have a better idea of your chances. Your SGPA is the most important factor in getting an interview at McMaster, and it's pretty high up on the list for U of T as well. 

Good luck!

[SLPplease1]

9 hours ago, quruxSLP said:

Saw that Western University had 506 applicants apply last year, UofT had 337 applicants last year, and Macmaster had 533 applicants last year. 

Interesting! Did you see this on orpas somewhere?  

[SLPplease1]

2 hours ago, NicoleSLP said:

Hi Everyone!

It's my first time applying to SLP programs in Canada and the United States. I am super nervous because I took an extra year as I was suppose to graduate last year and realize how competitive the programs are. I am applying to University of Toronto, Western, McMaster, Uottawa and McGill. 

Does anyone know how the sub-GPA is calculated or how they can calculate themselves? Cause I am kind of worried about my GPA cause the last two years of my undergrad my grades have been great (except with one grade that was a C) but because I have to take math to get into the states (i just got my grade back and I passed) but i don't know how it will affect the sub-GPA and if it will be good enough for consideration. I also have a lot of volunteer experience with SLP and in the medical field as well.

Hoping you can see this.

 

[NicoleSLP]

15 minutes ago, SLPplease1 said:

Hoping you can see this.

 

Thank you so much!

[SpeechPath22]

1 hour ago, somethingcleveraboutspeech said:

I haven't been able to figure out how they calculate SGPA. They post it on ORPAS in February, I believe (someone can correct me if I'm wrong.) At that point, you'll have a better idea of your chances. Your SGPA is the most important factor in getting an interview at McMaster, and it's pretty high up on the list for U of T as well. 

Good luck!

Hi guys this is my second time applying so I am quite familiar with how they calculate sub-GPA. Ultimately, it is calculated on your last 20 credits. So for most students, this is your year 3 & 4 grades. However, for students such as myself who went back to complete extra courses after graduating, they only had to take a couple of my 3rd year classes to make up the 20 credits. In this case, they took the average of all my 3rd year grades , and that became my grade for the remaining courses that make up the 20. Each of the 20 grades is then converted to a gpa calculation (on a 4.0 scale), and then the average of all of those determines what your sub-gpa is. Hopefully this helps!

[nslp2be]

16 hours ago, MajorTom10 said:

Take a read through the website! I did some of the practice questions by setting a five minute timer and practicing answering the questions. It’s tiring, but it’s hard to practice for.  You’ll have both written and video filmed questions. I focused on some core words for me what I wanted out of my responses, and tried to include them in all of my answers. I found these pages helpful 

https://bemoacademicconsulting.com/blog/casper-prep-tips

https://www.savvypremed.com/blog/surefire-tips-for-improving-your-casper-score-with-examples

 

I did mine right after a day of work and I wish I had had a little more rest before as I found it fatiguing. But it wasn’t hard, per se. good luck! 

Awesome thanks so much for sharing these!!

[SLPxyz]

Hello!

Does anyone know if ORPAS rounds the thousandth digit of our subgpas? 

 

[Lucky11]

Hi Everyone, first time applicant here! Although I’ve been following these forums for the last couple of years. I agree with other people there does seem to be less activity this year as compared to previous cycles. Just working on the finishing touches on my application. 
 

For those who might not be applying this cycle but plan to in the future. I’ve never seen cost be discussed on these forums but the fees really add up. I’m applying to 3 Ontario schools; UofT, Western and McMaster. I’ll be paying $510 in application fees. So just a heads up if you are reading these forums and plan to apply to SLP programs. 

[somethingcleveraboutspeech]

5 hours ago, SpeechPath22 said:

Hi guys this is my second time applying so I am quite familiar with how they calculate sub-GPA. Ultimately, it is calculated on your last 20 credits. So for most students, this is your year 3 & 4 grades. However, for students such as myself who went back to complete extra courses after graduating, they only had to take a couple of my 3rd year classes to make up the 20 credits. In this case, they took the average of all my 3rd year grades , and that became my grade for the remaining courses that make up the 20. Each of the 20 grades is then converted to a gpa calculation (on a 4.0 scale), and then the average of all of those determines what your sub-gpa is. Hopefully this helps!

Do they convert the letter grade or number grade into a gpa calculation? For example, I got an 88% on a course at U of A, which is considered A- at U of A but A elsewhere. 

[SpeechPath22]

3 minutes ago, somethingcleveraboutspeech said:

Do they convert the letter grade or number grade into a gpa calculation? For example, I got an 88% on a course at U of A, which is considered A- at U of A but A elsewhere. 

They convert the number grade. So an 88 would be a 3.9 for Ontario schools

[nslp2be]

17 minutes ago, Lucky11 said:

Hi Everyone, first time applicant here! Although I’ve been following these forums for the last couple of years. I agree with other people there does seem to be less activity this year as compared to previous cycles. Just working on the finishing touches on my application. 
 

For those who might not be applying this cycle but plan to in the future. I’ve never seen cost be discussed on these forums but the fees really add up. I’m applying to 3 Ontario schools; UofT, Western and McMaster. I’ll be paying $510 in application fees. So just a heads up if you are reading these forums and plan to apply to SLP programs. 

So true! I'm applying to 6, with the application fees of each plus transcript requests, it'll probably be $1000. I'm debating if I should knock McMaster and/or UofT off my list because my GPA isn't very competitive and my grades for their prereqs especially are quite bad lol

[somethingcleveraboutspeech]

6 minutes ago, nslp2be said:

So true! I'm applying to 6, with the application fees of each plus transcript requests, it'll probably be $1000. I'm debating if I should knock McMaster and/or UofT off my list because my GPA isn't very competitive and my grades for their prereqs especially are quite bad lol

Mac is completely grades based. I didn't make the cut the last two years, and my SGPA is lower this year so I'm not even bothering spending the $100. U of T is strongly grades-based too, but they do factor in other things as well. 

[nslp2be]

Just now, somethingcleveraboutspeech said:

Mac is completely grades based. I didn't make the cut the last two years, and my SGPA is lower this year so I'm not even bothering spending the $100. U of T is strongly grades-based too, but they do factor in other things as well. 

Do you mind sharing your SGPA from when you previously applied? And did you ever make the waitlist? Yeah you're right, honestly I don't even want to go to Mac or UofT I just felt like I should just apply everywhere. Or maybe I just want the validation to see if I could get in anyways. But do I really want to donate 100$ to them lol

[somethingcleveraboutspeech]

8 minutes ago, nslp2be said:

Do you mind sharing your SGPA from when you previously applied? And did you ever make the waitlist? Yeah you're right, honestly I don't even want to go to Mac or UofT I just felt like I should just apply everywhere. Or maybe I just want the validation to see if I could get in anyways. But do I really want to donate 100$ to them lol

3.77 in 2021 - waitlisted to U of T and Western, rejected to McMaster

3.82 in 2022 - accepted to both U of T and Western (see my previous post about what happened there... didn't realize I had an outstanding prerequisite to complete).

[nslp2be]

3 minutes ago, somethingcleveraboutspeech said:

3.77 in 2021 - waitlisted to U of T and Western, rejected to McMaster

3.82 in 2022 - accepted to both U of T and Western (see my previous post about what happened there... didn't realize I had an outstanding prerequisite to complete).

Ah I see, thanks for sharing! That sucks that that happened, but third times a charm eh ? best of luck!!

[55slp]

Couple of questions for U of A applicants-

1. For grades, they are calculating our GPA based off our last 60 credits, correct? So not overall GPA of degree?

2. Snapshot is not a requirement for U of A, only Casper test?

3. How do we confirm that the U of A received our Casper results? I know it says on the Casper website "delivered" but is there a way to make sure on the university's end that they actually received the results?

4. On that note, how do we confirm that the U of A has received the referee letters once they have been submitted? 

Thanks

[quruxSLP]

7 hours ago, SLPplease1 said:

Interesting! Did you see this on orpas somewhere?  

Yes! I found it here https://www.ouac.on.ca/guide/orpas-program-requirements/

Edited January 6, 2023 by quruxSLP
added link

[NikolaSLP]

9 minutes ago, 55slp said:

Couple of questions for U of A applicants-

1. For grades, they are calculating our GPA based off our last 60 credits, correct? So not overall GPA of degree?

2. Snapshot is not a requirement for U of A, only Casper test?

3. How do we confirm that the U of A received our Casper results? I know it says on the Casper website "delivered" but is there a way to make sure on the university's end that they actually received the results?

4. On that note, how do we confirm that the U of A has received the referee letters once they have been submitted? 

Thanks

1. Yes, its based on the last sixty credits to my knowledge, I couldn't find any info on their website that says otherwise.

2. Snapshot is not required for the UofA 

3. If Atlus (CASPer) says it has been delivered then you are all good. 

4. Once you submit your application you can access it in the GSMS portal under completed applications. From there you can check if your references have submitted their references or not. Also up until the 15 of January you can delete and upload documents as well. 

[MajorTom10]

Does anyone know how many people apply to u of A? I know the Ontario schools release it but I’m so curious about alberta. 

[nslp2be]

11 minutes ago, MajorTom10 said:

Does anyone know how many people apply to u of A? I know the Ontario schools release it but I’m so curious about alberta. 

They said it was 270+ when I went to the OASIS conference in September (with 56 spots available + 15 for saskatchewan students)

[MajorTom10]

1 hour ago, nslp2be said:

They said it was 270+ when I went to the OASIS conference in September (with 56 spots available + 15 for saskatchewan students)

Wow! That’s a lot more than I was expecting 

[Lucky11]

2 hours ago, somethingcleveraboutspeech said:

3.77 in 2021 - waitlisted to U of T and Western, rejected to McMaster

3.82 in 2022 - accepted to both U of T and Western (see my previous post about what happened there... didn't realize I had an outstanding prerequisite to complete).

If you don't mind me asking what were your volunteer hours like? My volunteer experience is probably the weakest part of my application due to the pandemic and how hard its been to find volunteer positions. I'm sure many of us can relate. I know that technically it's been waived but I think it still plays a role into the strength of my SOI. I do have some volunteer experience, however, its all with adults and seniors with Aphasia, Dysphasia and Apraxia. Based on previous years I've read that the programs really look for variety and diversity across age groups and disorders in volunteer experiences. Anyone else on the same boat? 

[quruxSLP]

2 hours ago, Lucky11 said:

If you don't mind me asking what were your volunteer hours like? My volunteer experience is probably the weakest part of my application due to the pandemic and how hard its been to find volunteer positions. I'm sure many of us can relate. I know that technically it's been waived but I think it still plays a role into the strength of my SOI. I do have some volunteer experience, however, its all with adults and seniors with Aphasia, Dysphasia and Apraxia. Based on previous years I've read that the programs really look for variety and diversity across age groups and disorders in volunteer experiences. Anyone else on the same boat? 

I was initially very worried about my lack of volunteer experience due to the pandemic. However, I have been in contact with a UofT SLP graduate (who graduated last year) and they had essentially zero volunteer experience but still got in during the time they applied. I believe this was due to their very strong personal statement, which they graciously allowed me to read, and their strong reference letters from their professors.