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

[Futureptgirl]

10 hours ago, OT OT OT said:

Hey everyone! I applied to Mac OT, Queens PT, Queens OT, Western PT, and Western OT and did not receive a single offer. I am feeling discouraged since this is my second time applying. My cumulative GPA was a 3.38 and my sub gpa was a 3.65. Unfortunately my gpa was lowered since orpas had to average my entire 3rd year and use that value to make up my last few courses. I am debating on going back to upgrade a couple courses again and reapplying, or just going to school abroad. 

I have 40 hours working at a physiotherapy clinic, 3 months of experience working at a chiropractor clinic before lockdown happened, and 110 hours doing an internship with an athletic therapist. I have also worked at a hospital the past 2 years, and spent 2 years in school working at Student Accessibility Services, where I assisted those with intellectual, physical, and visual disabilities complete exams.  

Does anyone know if it would be worth going back to school again if I could upgrade my gpa to a 3.74 or 3.8? or would it be better to apply abroad and not risk wasting another year of upgrading courses and applying?

Hey, message me! I can try to help you

[PTontheway]

Applied + (PT or OT?): Western, U of T, McMaster, Queens, Dalhousie
Accepted: Western, U of T, McMaster, Queens, Dalhousie
Waitlisted:
Rejected:
GPA: ORPAS GPA - 3.94/4.00, DAL GPA - 4.17/4.33
Perceived strength of essays/interviews/references: Worked very hard on my essays and had them reviewed by professors on multiple occasions. This really helped so I recommend getting someone to read your work for sure as it can be hard to catch mistakes or develop unique, personalized essays without an outsiders perspective. The interviews for Mac and U of T went very well. I prepared 5 days in advance for each of the interviews and spent a lot of time talking to the camera and learning how to make eye contact and smile for the Mac interview. For the U of T interview, I practiced typing and timed myself answering questions. Showing my personality while being professional definitely contributed to my strengths in these interviews, although I have never been nervous in all my life haha! Very thankful to be accepted everywhere I have applied! If anyone has any questions or needs any help in the future while applying I would be happy to lend a hand. The process is rough!

Experience PT and non PT related: I worked with individuals with disabilities for three years setting motor, cognitive and social goals, worked as a PTA for a summer, on the lung health association of NS, executive on PreHealth society of my university, volunteered in my cities emergency department and did a clinic based thesis on cardiac rehabilitation, quality of life, disability and impairment!

Congrats to everyone who was accepted, best wishes to those on the waitlist (I will be opening up one spot each at four schools once I make my final decision!) and for those who were rejected, keep in mind that this moment does not define you and the best way to move forward from rejection is to learn from it. 

[ReallywanttobeOT]

Found out I’m in the bottom half on the UofA OT waitlist. I’m feeling pretty discouraged because I feel like my chances moving off the waitlist are very slim. It’s probably pretty unlikely to move off the waitlist if you’re in the bottom??

[Marshmallow]

Didn’t see a lot of posts for Ottawa, so I’m posting my stats to help future applicants considering that Ottawa is more or less secretive with stats on their website.

Applied (PT): Ottawa

Accepted (PT) : Ottawa 

Waitlisted:

Rejected:

cGPA : 3.9  

In terms of experience related to PT, I had accumulated hundreds of hours of work in a PT clinic (hospital setting) focused on post-surgery rehab. I also shadowed numerous PTs during that time. Over the summer, I volunteered in a PT clinic specialized in helping patients with serious physical disabilities. Not sure if this brought any value to my PT experience, but I was an assistant athletic trainer for a well respected soccer academy in the country (before it got permanently shutdown due to covid’s financial strains :/).  

I am a first time applicant who just finished his undergrad.

J’ai pris mon Casper test en français, and found it alright. It was definitely more challenging than the linguistic test they made me take to prove that I’m fluent in both French and English.

Cheers.

 

[ot_lea2021]

39 minutes ago, ReallywanttobeOT said:

Found out I’m in the bottom half on the UofA OT waitlist. I’m feeling pretty discouraged because I feel like my chances moving off the waitlist are very slim. It’s probably pretty unlikely to move off the waitlist if you’re in the bottom??

Hey, did you email the U of A OT advisor today about where you were on the waitlist? I thought she would only respond to waitlist position questions AFTER today (May 17th)?

[highhopesot]

3 minutes ago, ot_lea2021 said:

Hey, did you email the U of A OT advisor today about where you were on the waitlist? I thought she would only respond to waitlist position questions AFTER today (May 17th)?

They sent an email about an hour ago informing you on your spot on the waitlist (top, middle, or bottom)!

[PT0102]

Applied + (PT or OT?): PT at McMaster, Ottawa, Queen’s, Western, UofT (Maybe)

Accepted: Ottawa,Queens 

Waitlisted: Western 

Rejected: McMaster

GPA:c-gpa and s-gpa : c-gpa: 3.91 s-gpa: 3.96

Perceived strength of essays/interviews/references:

 

400+ hours as student trainer for varsity program. Was able to speak about key cases, what I learnt from them etc… Also spent time working with medical students as a mock patient for ultrasound training. Non-PT community work for holiday programs. References from the varsity PT I worked with and prof I had for 3 classes over my last 3 years.

 

Firmly accepted Ottawa so that's a spot for someone on queens waitlist

 

[ot_lea2021]

Deleted

[sugo]

Just got waitlisted for DAL OT (OOP)

[TiffPT2023]

20 hours ago, PhysioApplicant said:

Hey everyone!! Congrats on all of the offers, is there a facebook group for McMaster PT yet or should we make one??

I was thinking the same thing! But maybe we can wait for the official email following acceptances if they make one for us (do they do that? Idk)

[OptimisticOT22]

22 hours ago, otgirl2021 said:

hi could you add me, i just accepted the UofT OT offer and would love to meet people

 

2 hours ago, OT_ik said:

Hi everyone! I’m having a hard time choosing between Queens and Western OT. Looking at the pros and cons of each I feel they’re both pretty similar. Is anyone else in the same boat? What will you be choosing and why? Any help would be very much appreciated!! 

Hey! I got into mcmaster and Western so my decision is slightly different than yours! However I did my undergrad at Queens so I would be willing to answer any questions you have about the school if you wanna PM me!! 

[OptimisticOT22]

22 hours ago, Futureptgirl said:

For those that got conditional offers- I was wondering when you plan on sending the transcripts? The transcript has to show that the degree as been conferred. I graduate in June 2021 and I’m worried that my transcript may not say it. Does anyone have any information on this? 
 

Any help is appreciated

Also wondering! Let me know if you figure anything out  

[ReallywanttobeOT]

13 minutes ago, ot_lea2021 said:

Interesting...

I only got this email:

Congrats! It says you are in the top

[Spill_The_OTea]

Hello there,

Does anyone know much how UofT (OT) values experience in comparison to GPA? I honestly thought I'd get rejected everywhere since my subGPA is 3.6 but UofT waitlisted me. I got an MSc., was a teaching assistant, volunteered for a kinesiologist, shadowed clinicians (PT, Chiro, Osteo, etc.), and now currently work as a research assistant. I'm not sure how high up I'd be on the waitlist but feel free to be real with me if you think I don't have a chance haha

[OTap]

28 minutes ago, ot_lea2021 said:

Interesting...

I only got this email:

What school is this for!

[ot_lea2021]

6 minutes ago, OTap said:

What school is this for!

U of A

[OTXOTWOD]

46 minutes ago, sugo said:

Just got waitlisted for DAL OT (OOP)

Congrats! I have friends who are in the program who only heard back in the third week of May so I've been trying to remain hopeful! Do you mind sharing your gpa? I'm from Ontario with a 3.82 sgpa. 

[LetMeInOT]

1 hour ago, sugo said:

Just got waitlisted for DAL OT (OOP)

Congratulations! Did you hear back from Dal by email? I haven't heard anything back from the OT admissions department yet. What was your sGPA and experiences like? I'm also OOP

[AudiOt]

Is there a Facebook group for McMaster PT yet? 

[sugo]

27 minutes ago, OTXOTWOD said:

Congrats! I have friends who are in the program who only heard back in the third week of May so I've been trying to remain hopeful! Do you mind sharing your gpa? I'm from Ontario with a 3.82 sgpa. 

 

25 minutes ago, LetMeInOT said:

Congratulations! Did you hear back from Dal by email? I haven't heard anything back from the OT admissions department yet. What was your sGPA and experiences like? I'm also OOP

Thank you! I did hear back from Dal by email around 12:10pm atlantic time, my sGPA is around 4.1/4.3.

I just graduated from Dal with a BSc degree, and I think my experiences and references are very average.

[PTOT4444]

I got accepted to McGill QY PT (which I accepted the recommendation) and Queens and Western PT. McGill said it may take a month to receive the official acceptance if everything is good, but I'm wondering if it would be smart to also accept Queen's as a backup in case the recommendation isn't made official? (Either way I'll be rejecting Western). If anyone is doing something similar or has any insight, I'd love to get feedback on this. I'm probably overthinking it lol

[ptptpt3]

7 minutes ago, PTOT4444 said:

I got accepted to McGill QY PT (which I accepted the recommendation) and Queens and Western PT. McGill said it may take a month to receive the official acceptance if everything is good, but I'm wondering if it would be smart to also accept Queen's as a backup in case the recommendation isn't made official? (Either way I'll be rejecting Western). If anyone is doing something similar or has any insight, I'd love to get feedback on this. I'm probably overthinking it lol

Hi! Congrats on the acceptance! I was also in a similar spot and overthinking it until I received an email this morning "The nomination to GPS is primarily an administrative procedure where they verify that you have fulfilled all of the requisites for admission to a graduate program at McGill " The email also said to check UApply incase anything does come up but they look forward to meeting in the fall. I take that as we've been accepted and dont need a backup option!

[LetMeInOT]

16 minutes ago, sugo said:

 

Thank you! I did hear back from Dal by email around 12:10pm atlantic time, my sGPA is around 4.1/4.3.

I just graduated from Dal with a BSc degree, and I think my experiences and references are very average.

Oh okay that's really helpful! I'm OOP from Ontario. I did my BMSc undergrad at Western and my sgpa is around 4.0/4.3. Hopefully I hear back soon. Maybe doing your undergrad at Dal gives you an advantage?  

[sugo]

8 minutes ago, LetMeInOT said:

Oh okay that's really helpful! I'm OOP from Ontario. I did my BMSc undergrad at Western and my sgpa is around 4.0/4.3. Hopefully I hear back soon. Maybe doing your undergrad at Dal gives you an advantage?  

I'm glad I helped, but I'm not sure if where we get our bachelor degree matters or not.

Did you only apply to Dal? With your GPA I believe you can get into some OT programs in Ontario easily!

[OTXOTWOD]

31 minutes ago, sugo said:

 

Thank you! I did hear back from Dal by email around 12:10pm atlantic time, my sGPA is around 4.1/4.3.

I just graduated from Dal with a BSc degree, and I think my experiences and references are very average.

Damn that's a great GPA! I hope I can join you on the waitlist soon aha. I don't think I've heard any OOP applicants who have been directly accepted into the program yet. Fingers crossed for all of us!