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OT/PT accepted/waitlist/decline forum - 2021 cycle


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Hi everyone! I'll be applying to OT schools this fall in Ontario. I was a prospective MSW student, but have been more interested in OT! 

I am confused about interviews. I have seen posts that say schools will interview you as long as you meet their GPA minimum, which I believe is about 3.3. I have seen other posts that say schools take the top 200 GPAs and only interview those people. Which one is true? 

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1 hour ago, Ot2022 said:

Hi everyone! I'll be applying to OT schools this fall in Ontario. I was a prospective MSW student, but have been more interested in OT! 

I am confused about interviews. I have seen posts that say schools will interview you as long as you meet their GPA minimum, which I believe is about 3.3. I have seen other posts that say schools take the top 200 GPAs and only interview those people. Which one is true? 

I think every school has a slightly different policy around this. For example, I interviewed and got accepted at UBC and their competitive GPA to get an interview was an 84% for your last 45 credits, but their minimum GPA requirement to just be able to apply was 76%. I think graduate schools can’t firmly say “only apply if you have an 85% average” because then they wouldn’t make as much money collecting application fees. I think McMaster may work like you stated above in that they invite the top 250 applicants (ranked based on GPA) to interviews, so if it’s a year with higher GPAs in the pool it’s going to be more competitive to get an interview. Also not all schools require interviews (University of Alberta, Queens, Western, U of T, etc). 
 

Hope this helps and feel free to PM me if you have any other questions :) 

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Hey guys!

I had a question for those who have taken time off to upgrade their GPAs. I was wondering if there are any classes you guys took that were not considered in the subGPA calculations. I know most universities recommend upper division courses in life sciences but I was wondering if people took other courses and if they counted in the GPA calculations as well? thanks a lot :) 

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How many students actually get shadowing experience?

I have paid experience coordinating cycling rides for a municipality, cycling recruiting and coaching youth, and work as a support worker for individuals with neurodevelopmental disabilities.

With these experiences I am worried my application will not be competitive. I'm sure we are in the same boat with COVID complicating a lot of things. 

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17 hours ago, PTOT123 said:

Has anyone taken courses online at Athabasca University? Can you share your experience? :) Do OT schools like McMaster accept these courses? Do courses need to be transferable at my home university, or can I take any course?

Yes, I took Nutrition 331 and I was able to finish it in 6ish weeks. Since you are able to schedule and proctor exams at your convenience you can accelerate the course. Since COVID hit I had a lot of extra time and I allocated enough time to get it done quickly. Since Athabasca is an accredited university i was able to get my course added to improve my gpa for ORPAS for my current MPT application. 

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21 hours ago, PTtbd said:

Hey guys!

I had a question for those who have taken time off to upgrade their GPAs. I was wondering if there are any classes you guys took that were not considered in the subGPA calculations. I know most universities recommend upper division courses in life sciences but I was wondering if people took other courses and if they counted in the GPA calculations as well? thanks a lot :) 

I personally haven't seen a school recommend solely life sciences! Like UofT states that social sciences are recommended as well, and Mac doesn't specify at all :) They do need to be 3000/4000 level courses though unless they're prereqs

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On 4/24/2021 at 4:51 PM, MAC1 said:

Hey, does anyone know if taking 4/4 courses each sem will hurt my chances of getting accepted? Especially at UofA

Thanks! 

I had a classmate who was told from admissions that not taking a full course load did in fact hurt her admission chances at U of A (she got in after 3 tries I believe) despite her explaining in her application that she was taking a lighter course load in order to manage her part-time job so she could afford rent etc. However, that being said, I got in (off the waitlist) and my last two years of full-time studies had a 4/4 course load and a 5/4 course load (I withdrew from a course in winter because I knew I was doing terribly and it would hurt my application GPA) and my admissions gpa was ~3.6. 

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On 4/14/2021 at 8:18 AM, OTOT2021 said:

Do any current U of A OT students have any insight on when they're releasing acceptances this year? The wait is so nerve wracking :(

Seems to be later every year, 2 years ago (my year) it was April 12 and last year according to another poster it sounds like April 22nd. They usually release everyone's acceptances/waitlist decisions at once. They just finished the first years last final exam today so fingers crossed it will be soon! They tend to send it out near the end of the workday so they can't receive a ton of calls as well. Just remember you can e-mail right away to ask if you're in the top (1-49) or bottom (50-100) half of the waitlist. 

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4 hours ago, Ot2022 said:

How many students actually get shadowing experience?

I have paid experience coordinating cycling rides for a municipality, cycling recruiting and coaching youth, and work as a support worker for individuals with neurodevelopmental disabilities.

With these experiences I am worried my application will not be competitive. I'm sure we are in the same boat with COVID complicating a lot of things. 

I was really worried about this too when I was doing my apps, but I talked to an OT school grad and they told me that although shadowing experience is good to have, quite a few people do apply and get in without it. They also mentioned that it's pretty difficult to get OT shadowing opportunities in general (even before the pandemic) and I think admissions committees know this too, so don't sweat it. I was told that as long as you have experience with populations OTs typically work with, your application won't be weak. I got into UBC this round and got an interview invite from U of M (still waiting to hear back from Ontario schools) so I hope that reassures you a bit. Your experience sounds pretty solid imo!

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