2025 Canadian SLP Admissions/Prep

[tsslp]

i think last year i submitted it through the SAM section just how western wants you to submit your CV through there too... but i think this could've been wrong LOL. i was unsure if it was supposed to be with your letter because there is so little room already to say what you want in the LOI. on their website it says to have it in the second section, but then on ORPAS it doesn't say anything under personal submissions about the experience/volunteering (unless its been changed)

if anyone who has applied and been accepted can give us any advice we would all appreciate it!  

[Saarahbee]

How many programs are you guys applying to? Also is anyone else here applying without volunteer/work experience in the field? 😭

[BerrySpeechie]

On 11/14/2024 at 10:32 AM, LaurSLP said:

U of T's website says that 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.

Does anyone know where in the ORPAS application to complete this second half? I have submitted my SOI but did not see a section for the second part

Hi! First year UofT SLP student here  this may be different from last year’s cycle but when I first opened the application there was a spot to submit this part separate from the first section they specify, but once I had pasted that first section of my SOI into the text field they provide, that extra volunteer section simply disappeared. I ended up submitted my application without including anything like that, and I know other applicants who did the same and still got in! I think it may have had something to do with the fact that UofT and a bunch of other schools were still not requiring volunteer hours/clinician references due to COVID for my application cycle. If that has changed though, please take this with a grain of salt!! You can always see if there’s a way for you to contact ORPAS directly, or ask the UofT student affairs admin Robin Prince for more information! 

[jazzyslp]

Hey everyone!

Does anyone know if western's CV has any page limits? How long should it idealy be?

[Speechie25]

On 11/24/2024 at 5:56 PM, jazzyslp said:

Hey everyone!

Does anyone know if western's CV has any page limits? How long should it idealy be?

I attended the Professional Preview day today and they said there’s no page limit! 

[slpgal890]

Hello!

Has anyone ever emailed UofT's SLP admission committee and asked about the sub -GPA range of students that have been admitted? Would this be an appropriate question to email?

[PolyglotSpeechie]

20 hours ago, slpgal890 said:

Hello!

Has anyone ever emailed UofT's SLP admission committee and asked about the sub -GPA range of students that have been admitted? Would this be an appropriate question to email?

When I asked them they told me they don't disclose that because it changes from year to year. They also said they don't disclose how much they weigh your sub-gpa in comparison to other parts of your application.

[Speechie25]

20 hours ago, slpgal890 said:

Hello!

Has anyone ever emailed UofT's SLP admission committee and asked about the sub -GPA range of students that have been admitted? Would this be an appropriate question to email?

If it helps, I got told by a student that they got in with a 3.77 GPA

[TLA]

Hi all! 

This will be my first time applying for SLP, it's something I've been planning to do for a long time so I'm excited (and nervous) to finally be doing it! 

I am wondering about something on the University of Alberta's website - it says to upload a scanned copy of your transcript. I interpret that as meaning only a scanned version of the physical document is acceptable. But on the one transcript I have tried to scan, when scanned it shows dark letters across saying "void if copied" which makes it hard to read and obviously says that it is void. Do I upload it anyways? Would a digital version be acceptable as long as it is an official transcript with a marking legend? 

At the OASIS conference the administrator was saying that they do not have time to reach out to students to let them know if something on their application is incorrect, so they just reject the application. So I really don't want to do the wrong thing and be rejected just for uploading my transcripts incorrectly. If anyone knows about this please let me know!  

[LaurSLP]

On 11/30/2024 at 10:06 PM, slpgal890 said:

Hello!

Has anyone ever emailed UofT's SLP admission committee and asked about the sub -GPA range of students that have been admitted? Would this be an appropriate question to email?

I know someone who was accepted with a 3.74 subGPA but I feel like it differs every cycle!

[emilliondreams]

23 hours ago, TLA said:

Hi all! 

This will be my first time applying for SLP, it's something I've been planning to do for a long time so I'm excited (and nervous) to finally be doing it! 

I am wondering about something on the University of Alberta's website - it says to upload a scanned copy of your transcript. I interpret that as meaning only a scanned version of the physical document is acceptable. But on the one transcript I have tried to scan, when scanned it shows dark letters across saying "void if copied" which makes it hard to read and obviously says that it is void. Do I upload it anyways? Would a digital version be acceptable as long as it is an official transcript with a marking legend? 

At the OASIS conference the administrator was saying that they do not have time to reach out to students to let them know if something on their application is incorrect, so they just reject the application. So I really don't want to do the wrong thing and be rejected just for uploading my transcripts incorrectly. If anyone knows about this please let me know!  

Hi! When I applied to U of A, I only provided digital copies of my transcript and they had no issues with it. 

[TLA]

25 minutes ago, emilliondreams said:

Hi! When I applied to U of A, I only provided digital copies of my transcript and they had no issues with it. 

Okay, that’s great to hear, thank you! Did you get your digital copies sent through MyCreds and then download them as a PDF? 

It seems impossible to directly receive your transcript electronically anymore. It’s all through MyCreds, but then if the program you’re applying to doesn’t use MyCreds then you’re just downloading a PDF of your transcript anyway? Which is exactly what you would be doing if it wasn’t on MyCreds? I just feel like I’m missing something. 

But either way with the Canada Post strike I don’t know if I can afford to wait for the transcripts I’ve ordered because who knows if they will ever come. So I’m glad to hear digital is fine! 

[sambam12]

Hi everyone - this might not be the correct forum to post in, but I am hoping for some guidance on completing the Phonetics prerequisite to apply at UofT. I am a mature student and taking the rest of my prerequisites through Athabasca, but I can't find any phonetics courses that are offered through these open enrolment universities. Any suggestions on a school that I can complete this at? Thanks!

[slpgal890]

Hi! For anyone applying to McGill, is it just me or there is no section to add references?

[TLA]

On 12/4/2024 at 6:00 PM, sambam12 said:

Hi everyone - this might not be the correct forum to post in, but I am hoping for some guidance on completing the Phonetics prerequisite to apply at UofT. I am a mature student and taking the rest of my prerequisites through Athabasca, but I can't find any phonetics courses that are offered through these open enrolment universities. Any suggestions on a school that I can complete this at? Thanks!

If you are willing to pay an application fee on top of course fees to become an open studies student at the University of Alberta, I believe their LING 205 course would work for most phonetics requirements (including U of T, as far as I remember). They have info about their online offerings here: https://www.ualberta.ca/en/linguistics/onlinecourse.html 

Unfortunately I don’t know of any open universities that have a similar course, but I also haven’t looked into it much so that doesn’t mean there isn’t one. I hope you are able to find what you’re looking for! 

[speechBC184]

Hey everyone! I am still completing my undergrad, but I am wondering if current SLP students could share their GPAs when they got accepted? I am specifically interested in attending UBC, so I would love to hear about UBC SLP students application processes/stats, but am also hoping to hear general information about what grades and experiences make you a competitive applicant as well

[Matthew_SLP]

Hey everyone! This will be my 2nd year applying. I was wondering if someone could share an experience with regard to course load throughout their undergrad? I have always taken 3 courses (9 credits) with some summer semesters. I worked full time during undergrad, so this was all I could really handle. Does this look bad to graduate program admissions? McGill's application asks for an average number of courses you took per term, so I am worried this might work against me. For reference, I do have about 6-7 months of research experience and 120 credits spread out over 5 years of undergrad.

 

Also, wishing everyone luck this year!  

[QCSLP]

On 12/10/2024 at 10:31 AM, Matthew_SLP said:

Hey everyone! This will be my 2nd year applying. I was wondering if someone could share an experience with regard to course load throughout their undergrad? I have always taken 3 courses (9 credits) with some summer semesters. I worked full time during undergrad, so this was all I could really handle. Does this look bad to graduate program admissions? McGill's application asks for an average number of courses you took per term, so I am worried this might work against me. For reference, I do have about 6-7 months of research experience and 120 credits spread out over 5 years of undergrad.

 

Also, wishing everyone luck this year!  

Hey Matthew!! Goodluck in your admissions. I'm a first year at mcgill slp and what i can say is that they look at everything and dont weight certain things over an other. If you took less credits per semester during your undergrad then they will be checking to see if you worked a lot throughout undergrad. whereas someone who had amazing grades but but didn't work a lot or even had less course load and didn't work they wont weight you high. In the end its all about balance and what your strengths are. there are a lot of fresh undergrads this year in the cohort but many of them had high grades while they had either research or work experience throughout. Even if you took a gap year but you just worked during that gap year or took your prerecs as long as you maintained a job thats relevant and thats pretty impressive you're safe. But ngl, its a lot of luck. like this year theres no guys so maybe you have a higher chance of getting in this year because you'll fit the cohort they're trying to make for that specific year. Also, they love if you are bilingual. Make sure that if you dont have high grades that you have something else that can "save you" thats my suggestion. They even said that you might not get in one year because you come after a really good application so like there is bias in the application system. If you do poorly on casper then ,ake sure theres another string spot in your application. you seem to have worked and done research so thats a plus. Goodluck and ill answer more questions if you have!!! 

[Matthew_SLP]

20 hours ago, QCSLP said:

Hey Matthew!! Goodluck in your admissions. I'm a first year at mcgill slp and what i can say is that they look at everything and dont weight certain things over an other. If you took less credits per semester during your undergrad then they will be checking to see if you worked a lot throughout undergrad. whereas someone who had amazing grades but but didn't work a lot or even had less course load and didn't work they wont weight you high. In the end its all about balance and what your strengths are. there are a lot of fresh undergrads this year in the cohort but many of them had high grades while they had either research or work experience throughout. Even if you took a gap year but you just worked during that gap year or took your prerecs as long as you maintained a job thats relevant and thats pretty impressive you're safe. But ngl, its a lot of luck. like this year theres no guys so maybe you have a higher chance of getting in this year because you'll fit the cohort they're trying to make for that specific year. Also, they love if you are bilingual. Make sure that if you dont have high grades that you have something else that can "save you" thats my suggestion. They even said that you might not get in one year because you come after a really good application so like there is bias in the application system. If you do poorly on casper then ,ake sure theres another string spot in your application. you seem to have worked and done research so thats a plus. Goodluck and ill answer more questions if you have!!! 

Wow, thank you so much for this information! It gives me quite a bit of insight into how it is at McGill at the moment. I am, indeed, bilingual, so here's hoping that will work in my favour  I maintained a full-time job (anywhere from 32-45 hours per week) throughout all 4 years I was doing my BA. Although, I should mention that it was not in a related field. This last year, however, I took 2 prerequisites while involving myself on a research team at a university. I still maintained anywhere between 25-40 hours at work. 

Hopefully THIS is the year!  

[BeenatheSLP]

On 12/5/2024 at 1:29 PM, slpgal890 said:

Hi! For anyone applying to McGill, is it just me or there is no section to add references?

Hi! I was also wondering this.. were you able to find it? 

[slpinmontreal]

Hi! I'm applying to SLP and Audiology at Dalhousie this year. If anyone has any advice or key pointers when it comes to the application process please reach out to me! I'd love to discuss your experience.

[tsslp]

Hey everyone!

Just wondering if anyone may know how the sub gpa calculation works with summer school courses. So my 20 most recent half credit courses include a summer course, which means I think they average a semester as that semester is where they are pulling the 20 credits from (if that makes any sense at all lol). This is from the ORPAS website: 

Where course grades and/or lengths must be extracted from a grouping or duration to make up the 20 course grades and/or lengths required, we will use the average of the next grouping or duration of ORPAS GPA values. In the situation where “Full‑time”, “Supplementary” and “Semester” durations exist for the same year, we will use the “Supplementary” grades first, then “Semester” and then “Full-time”.

so in this case, i am wondering how they would weigh an averaged semester. All of my courses are a 0.5 credit, with one course at 1.0 credit , so im wondering if when they do the calculations, the averaged semester is weighed at a 2.0 or something? If anyone who has gotten in has any idea at all please let me know! Anything at all helps.

 

hope that made sense haha, thanks in advance!

Edited Tuesday at 12:48 PM by tsslp

[jazzyslp]

Heyy! I was confused about the same thing before! So from what I know they take our full semesters starting from the most recent. Then if you have leftover credits like 2.0 credits, they take the average of that whole year weighted at that amount of credits. I'm not sure if that makes sense. When I called ORPAS they told me that those leftover credits can't be counted by term and that they would take the average of that whole year ( for example your whole 2nd year instead of 2b term). But I would say, if you are confused about your specific circumstance, call ORPAS, they were super helpful to me!

[drlinguist]

I'm a hopeful applicant to McGill! Still have some stuff to complete for the application but I'm hopeful and nervous!

If anyone has any insight as to my stats or some of my qualities and if/how I'm a good candidate for their SLP program, pls let me know!

BA Linguistics: 3.96 cGPA; MA Linguistics: 4.0 cGPA; PhD Linguistics: *current*

I have extensive research experience in articulatory phonetics, have presented at conferences and held provincial/federal scholarships and fellowships (i.e. I've done a lot more on the theory and research side the last few years)

I'm bilingual

But...I don't have too much volunteer experience directly related to SLP

I was actually admitted to a Canadian SLP program in 2020 (Uottawa!) and interviewed with McMaster but could not attend due to personal reasons (not covid-related)

Edited 21 hours ago by drlinguist