American applying to Canada with low CGPA?

[SunDevil22]

Hello,

 

I am interested in applying to I-O and social psychology  master's programs in Canada, with the eventual goal of a PhD. The only two problems are: my GPA is low and I don't have research experience. I'm actively trying to remedy the latter, but there's nothing I can do about the former at this point.

 

My stats:

 

CGPA - 2.9

Psychology GPA - 4.0

Last two years GPA - 3.8

an A in my statistics & methods courses

 

I've not yet taken the GRE, but I have a good amount of time to study for it expect to do well.

 

 

I know that most of the departments I've looked at say they place emphasis on the last two years' GPA, but is that only a nominal factor? Also, I've heard that international admission can be pretty competitive in general in Canada. I don't know how many international students there are vying for positions in I-O/social psych, but I imagine it's not negligible.  Do I have a shot?

[Slutsky_Walrus]

I can't speak for the rest of Canada, but at least in Ontario international admissions has gotten a little more difficult because the province decided they'd prefer to fund domestic students rather than international ones. So for a school to take on an international student, either they won't offer funding or the student has to qualify for some merit-based scholarships or bring external funding with them.