Master of Health Sciences in Physiotherapy - University of Ottawa

[Happylife6]

Hi everyone,

I'm a 2nd-year student in Kinesiology (BSc) from Quebec and I would like to apply for the Master of Health Sciences in Physiotherapy of the UOttawa. If it's possible, I would like to get advices or ideas about my admission...

I have a GPA of 3.67/4.3 but if I convert it into the 4.0 scale it's about 3.41. Honestly, I think I might finish with a 3.54/4.00 (Winter 2024 excluded).

Also, I'm involved in research about children with CP (cerebral palsy) in a rehabilitation centre for kids between 0-17 and I do volunteering as a physiotherapist assistant in a rehabilitation hospital where patients are mostly elders.

Is it too early to study for the Casper test? Should I find a job as a physiotherapist assistant or do you think my volunteering is enough?

Thank you for helping me out 

[ConfusedKinGrad]

Master's at uOttawa does not look at your CV at all for the application unfortunately... its 50% Casper and 50% GPA

I'm pretty sure you need a 3.8 to be competitive. You might benefit from looking into schools that actually evaluate your experience.

[Noël]

On 11/2/2023 at 1:34 PM, ConfusedKinGrad said:

Master's at uOttawa does not look at your CV at all for the application unfortunately... its 50% Casper and 50% GPA

I'm pretty sure you need a 3.8 to be competitive. You might benefit from looking into schools that actually evaluate your experience.

I know that's what ORPAS says for the application evaluation, but I think it's incredibly dumb uOttawa makes you waste your time creating and submitting a CV if they're not going to consider it in their admission selection.

Nevertheless, I just wanted to say that I still think uOttawa is one of your better options if you have a lower GPA given their lower number of candidates, particularly if you can get a good CASPer score. While I had around the same GPA as you last year (and a not very good CASPer score) and just got waitlisted for PT there, I don't think there's any chance that I would have even been waitlisted anywhere else, despite my significant work and volunteer experience (I only applied to uOttawa to save money) given the extreme emphasis every Ontario school places on GPA. Unfortunately, I think you have to focus on trying to get a higher sub-GPA (only the last 20 credits matter) and a good score on the stupid CASPer test. Alternatively, if you're not super set on PT at uOttawa, I did get into OT there, or you'd almost definitely be able to get into an international school (which I would've loved to do if the cost wasn't so prohibitive).

However, you may also want to keep in mind that it seems like uOttawa reserves most spots for Ontario applicants, so you may be at another disadvantage applying from Quebec.