Quee's MIR (Master of Industrial Relations)

[skippy12]

Hello,

I've just finished submitting my application for the MIR program at Queen's. I was wondering if anyone else applied for the 2016 cycle? Does anyone know when's the earlierst they send out offers?

[macroecon16]

I received an email offering admission this afternoon 

[skippy12]

On ‎18‎/‎01‎/‎2016 at 3:58 PM, macroecon16 said:

I received an email offering admission this afternoon 

 

Hi,

Congratulations on your acceptance. If you don't mind me asking, are you a current student at Queen's and if so, what is your CGPA and last 2 years GPA when you applied? Thank you so much! I'm anxiously waiting..and would love to get into this program.

 

Thanks!

[skippy12]

On ‎18‎/‎01‎/‎2016 at 3:58 PM, macroecon16 said:

I received an email offering admission this afternoon 

Hi,

Nvm, I saw your stats in your other post. Your GPA is crazy! no wonder they gave you an offer so early. Anyways, congratz!

[smcgill5]

Hey I also applied to Queens back in early November.

Still waiting to hear from them and U of T. Right now trying to decide if I will accept an offer from the LSE for MSc HR and International Employment Relations.

Where else did you apply?

[skippy12]

10 minutes ago, smcgill5 said:

Hey I also applied to Queens back in early November.

Still waiting to hear from them and U of T. Right now trying to decide if I will accept an offer from the LSE for MSc HR and International Employment Relations.

Where else did you apply?

 

Hey,

Queen's was the only school that I applied to. Last year I applied to UofT's MIRHR program and got rejected . Apparently, I heard UofT is much more competitive to get into. What was your CGPA or last 2 year GPA when you applied if you don't mind me asking.

[smcgill5]

I'm graduating from McGill with a BA in Industrial Relations, CGPA 3.8, various extracurriculars on the student body, but absolutely zero work experience.

I've also heard the UofT program is slightly more competitive, but the professors I've spoken to in my program at McGill highly recommend Queens (maybe even more over UofT). They say it's more of a practical program. 

[smcgill5]

Oh, also I've heard that many companies come to queens to recruit at grad fairs but they don't do that at UofT. 

[skippy12]

14 minutes ago, smcgill5 said:

I'm graduating from McGill with a BA in Industrial Relations, CGPA 3.8, various extracurriculars on the student body, but absolutely zero work experience.

I've also heard the UofT program is slightly more competitive, but the professors I've spoken to in my program at McGill highly recommend Queens (maybe even more over UofT). They say it's more of a practical program. 

 

Wow nice GPA! I'm sure you should be hearing back from Queens real soon. I have close to 2 years of HR work experience. But from what I heard both at Queen's and UofT, work experience doesn't count for anything   I'm not sure about companies recruiting from Queen but not from UofT. I know that if you're enrolled in the 2 year MIRHR program at UofT, they offer summer internship opportunities with pretty well -known companies. I had a friend who attended the MIR program at Queens and he did not tell me anything about a career fair specifically for MIR grads. He did tell me however, that the program coordinator usually gets requests from companies wanting to hire students and they will send out mass emails to all MIR students. Usually, there are only a few openings and you will be competing with the entire class for those openings..

Edited January 21, 2016 by skippy12

[macroecon16]

Yea I feel like Queen's is more like GPA/recommendation based. I was confused when I received the offer this early so I called in and they just said between my transcript and references I was a good fit. I didn't hand in a CV, SOI, writing sample or anything so had to be transcript/reference based. Don't be worried about not hearing yet, though. They mentioned they don't start meeting often until end of feb/all through march which is when the majority of offers are handed out.

For IR/HR programs I just applied to Queen's & UofT. I applied to a couple policy programs, too, but I'm thinking IR/HR is more up my alley... Just wish they had a higher level of quantitative courses. Anyone know when UofT starts handing out offers?

Also wondering your opinion on the programs - it sounds like you guys know your stuff so feel free to give me your honest two cents! Obvi, like most students coming out of undergrad im pretty broke. I don't have any experience in hr. I do have a lot of data analysis/research experience so I could probably get a job as like a compensation analyst/in labour economics research or something, but i'm wondering how hard would it be to break into hr (with a good job) out of queen's with no experience? I would love to go to UofT but they barely offer any funding, tuition is high, it's two years and you're living in toronto/gta ($$$)... but there is that summer internship. Would the summer internship be worth the debt? 

PS. smcgill5 congrats on LSE, that'd be a sweet adventure (would also be fun to be classmates haha), and I hope to see you both in the fall! 

[skippy12]

3 hours ago, macroecon16 said:

Yea I feel like Queen's is more like GPA/recommendation based. I was confused when I received the offer this early so I called in and they just said between my transcript and references I was a good fit. I didn't hand in a CV, SOI, writing sample or anything so had to be transcript/reference based. Don't be worried about not hearing yet, though. They mentioned they don't start meeting often until end of feb/all through march which is when the majority of offers are handed out.

For IR/HR programs I just applied to Queen's & UofT. I applied to a couple policy programs, too, but I'm thinking IR/HR is more up my alley... Just wish they had a higher level of quantitative courses. Anyone know when UofT starts handing out offers?

Also wondering your opinion on the programs - it sounds like you guys know your stuff so feel free to give me your honest two cents! Obvi, like most students coming out of undergrad im pretty broke. I don't have any experience in hr. I do have a lot of data analysis/research experience so I could probably get a job as like a compensation analyst/in labour economics research or something, but i'm wondering how hard would it be to break into hr (with a good job) out of queen's with no experience? I would love to go to UofT but they barely offer any funding, tuition is high, it's two years and you're living in toronto/gta ($$$)... but there is that summer internship. Would the summer internship be worth the debt? 

PS. smcgill5 congrats on LSE, that'd be a sweet adventure (would also be fun to be classmates haha), and I hope to see you both in the fall! 

 

From my research, it is not too difficult to get a entry level HR/LR job if you go to either of these programs. The big difference is landing a "decent" paying entry level job. My friend who graduated from the MIR program told me that "big" companies and government agencies recruit from Queen's. The starting salary for many of the positions is very high. However, there are only a few vacancies available. Apparently, if you have prior experience, you'll have a very good chance of getting one of these jobs. Since my friend had zero work experience he was not able to get a position through the University. As a result, he had to apply externally through various job boards.  In the end, he did find an entry level HR job, but the starting salary was very low compared to some of his other classmates.

For UofT, I'm guessing someone with little work experience would benefit from the 2 year program. The reason is because they offer summer internship. From what I heard, there are many "big" companies that hire students and there many positions available. Companies are more willing to hire interns because it is cheaper for them and they only need to commit to 3-4 months. The real benefit for students is that once they graduate, they'll already have 3-4 months of solid work experience vs many Queen's students who will still have zero work experience once they graduate. Also, some students who completed the internship program get hired back from the same company.

 

Edited January 22, 2016 by skippy12

[skippy12]

3 hours ago, macroecon16 said:

Yea I feel like Queen's is more like GPA/recommendation based. I was confused when I received the offer this early so I called in and they just said between my transcript and references I was a good fit. I didn't hand in a CV, SOI, writing sample or anything so had to be transcript/reference based. Don't be worried about not hearing yet, though. They mentioned they don't start meeting often until end of feb/all through march which is when the majority of offers are handed out.

For IR/HR programs I just applied to Queen's & UofT. I applied to a couple policy programs, too, but I'm thinking IR/HR is more up my alley... Just wish they had a higher level of quantitative courses. Anyone know when UofT starts handing out offers?

Also wondering your opinion on the programs - it sounds like you guys know your stuff so feel free to give me your honest two cents! Obvi, like most students coming out of undergrad im pretty broke. I don't have any experience in hr. I do have a lot of data analysis/research experience so I could probably get a job as like a compensation analyst/in labour economics research or something, but i'm wondering how hard would it be to break into hr (with a good job) out of queen's with no experience? I would love to go to UofT but they barely offer any funding, tuition is high, it's two years and you're living in toronto/gta ($$$)... but there is that summer internship. Would the summer internship be worth the debt? 

PS. smcgill5 congrats on LSE, that'd be a sweet adventure (would also be fun to be classmates haha), and I hope to see you both in the fall! 

 

Hey, I was a bit confused when you mentioned that you didn't hand in a SOI. When you filled out the application online, didn't you have to write a Statement of Interest?

[macroecon16]

1 minute ago, skippy12 said:

 

From my research, it is not too difficult to get a entry level HR/LR job if you go to either of these programs. The big difference is landing a "decent" paying entry level job. My friend who graduated from the MIR program told me that "big" companies and government agencies recruit from Queen's. The starting salary for many of the positions was  very high. However, there were only a few vacancies available. Apparently, those who had prior experience got the job. Since my friend had zero work experience he was not able to get any of those coveted positions. As a result, he had to apply externally through various job boards.  In the end, he did find an entry level HR job, but the starting salary was very low compared to some of his other classmates.

For UofT, I'm guessing someone with little work experience would benefit from the 2 year program. The reason is because they offer summer internship. From what I heard, there are many "big" companies that hire students and there many positions available. Companies are more willing to hire interns because it is cheaper for them and they only need to commit to 3-4 months. The real benefit for students is that once they graduate, they'll already have 3-4 months of solid work experience vs many Queen's students who will still have zero work experience when they graduate. Also, some students who completed the internship program get hired back from the same company.

 

Yeah that's what my intuition was as well. In reality, I'm really interested in the quantitative side such as working as compensation analyst, but my all time goal would be to get an mba or ma/msc specializing in business analytics/big data/predictive analysis. Since I obviously need a couple years of work experience and a good gmat for that, I was thinking I could go to queen's, spend less time and money, then work in entry level jobs for a couple years while studying/taking courses for my gmat (and getting certificates in data analysis/big data etc). However, I'm afraid once I get into the working world I won't want to go back to school, in which case I would rather have a two year degree from u of t. But if I go to UofT and still want to get my mba later, I'm looking at a billion and a half years of schooling (really just 1 more year but i'm sure we can all agree that right now that feels like forever). What I'd give for Queen's to have an internship option. I really don't want to get a masters degree to get paid peanuts.

Is anyone from the toronto area? If I get no funding and have to pay around $12 000 for tuition alone, how much would you estimate I realistically spend after the two year program? What's the average funding? I feel like it's only a couple thousand max, does that sound right? 

[macroecon16]

3 minutes ago, skippy12 said:

 

Hey, I was a bit confused when you mentioned that you didn't hand in a SOI. When you filled out the application online, didn't you have to write a Statement of Interest?

I know, I was extremely confused. I did the application when I was really tired, so I was just going through and putting like my research interests and stuff, and I didn't see anywhere for me to put in my SOI or CV, so I figured (like a few other schools I applied to) there would be a place for me to upload them after I paid, so I paid but there wasn't. Then I panicked and emailed the department but I never heard back. I figured they would just throw my app in the garbage because I clearly can't follow instructions, but then I got an offer. That's why I called them, and I mentioned my confusion and they just brushed off my question and said I had a great transcripts and really good references so it was a no-brainer. But the site is confusing too - on the admissions tab it says the only documentation you need is the application form, transcripts and references. But then in the FAQ, there's questions about the SOI, so I have no idea what happened there. Did you upload your SOI in the application form part or what? I was pissed because I spent hours on my SOI, and my i've been super involved at school & in research/publications and stuff so my CV is pretty packed and they didn't even see it. 

[macroecon16]

9 minutes ago, skippy12 said:

 

Hey, I was a bit confused when you mentioned that you didn't hand in a SOI. When you filled out the application online, didn't you have to write a Statement of Interest?

But there was a section that said like "if there was anything you wanted to mention anything about any deficits on your transcript or whatever do so here" so I wrote a little blurb there about how busy/involved I've been during my undergrad (aka basically wrote out half my SOI) so that's why some grades may be lower, so they did have that. I must have just clicked right through the SOI part (don't do applications when you're tired folks)

[skippy12]

3 hours ago, macroecon16 said:

I know, I was extremely confused. I did the application when I was really tired, so I was just going through and putting like my research interests and stuff, and I didn't see anywhere for me to put in my SOI or CV, so I figured (like a few other schools I applied to) there would be a place for me to upload them after I paid, so I paid but there wasn't. Then I panicked and emailed the department but I never heard back. I figured they would just throw my app in the garbage because I clearly can't follow instructions, but then I got an offer. That's why I called them, and I mentioned my confusion and they just brushed off my question and said I had a great transcripts and really good references so it was a no-brainer. But the site is confusing too - on the admissions tab it says the only documentation you need is the application form, transcripts and references. But then in the FAQ, there's questions about the SOI, so I have no idea what happened there. Did you upload your SOI in the application form part or what? I was pissed because I spent hours on my SOI, and my i've been super involved at school & in research/publications and stuff so my CV is pretty packed and they didn't even see it. 

You are right, the application was very confusing indeed. I had the same problem when I was applying. I was trying to look for the SOI tab but I couldn't find it anywhere. Apparently, that tab is hidden and it "only" shows up once you click "next" in the reference tab. It is super idiotic the way it is laid out... Anyways, it's awesome that they accepted you purely on your GPA and references lol.

Edited January 22, 2016 by skippy12

[macroecon16]

4 minutes ago, skippy12 said:

You are right, the application was very confusing indeed. I had the same problem when I was applying. I was trying to look for the SOI tab but I couldn't find it anywhere. Apparently, that tab is hidden and it "only" shows up once you click "next" in the reference tab. It is super idiotic the way it is laid out... Anyways, it's awesome that they accepted you purely on your GPA and references lol.

Wow, I'm so dumb... didn't see that. Still waiting for them to retract their offer based on my lack of attention. Sorry for all the novels haha, keep me posted on your status, perhaps we'll be classmates! 

[smcgill5]

Hey so I spoke at length about the importance of internships with some of my profs. I'm pretty worried since I have zero work experience but they said if you get a masters, it kind of makes up for not having any. Also, there are tons of entry-level HR jobs and once you get a little work-experience, you should be able to climb up the ladder fairly quickly with a masters. They also recommended maybe looking for jobs more in government (labour policy) or the labour movement (unions) because they tend to be much higher paid, better benefits, and they're always look for new graduates to make their workforce more "fresh." There's a lot of old, white males so they want to diversify with people with new ideas. I don't think you can really go wrong with either UofT or Queen's - I've heard they have very good funding options for both and it's quite easy to apply for financial aid right through the school. I think the main difference between UofT and Queen's is the variety of classes. UofT has a lot more electives to chose from, and when I spoke with a student there they told me the administration is pretty flexible and lets you take classes from other areas such as political science, sociology, etc. However, at Queen's you get the skills seminars which may teach more applicable skills for IR/HR. So really there's a lot to consider for both. 

[skippy12]

I got accepted! Woot!

The only downside is that funding is extremely limited this year. I spoke to Jennifer Dee (program coordinator) and she told me the faculty took away the graduate award funding this year because the program is not "research" based. I guess we got to start saving money now....

[smcgill5]

Congrats!!! Too bad about the funding though. At least the program is only 10 months!