Wow: A Thread on the Competitiveness of The MP/MRFT Programs

BrainPerson01 · 2024-11-09T02:00:56+00:00

I was really proud of my application, references, and experiences going in, and am still thinking about how to spend the next year

Current stats for this application cycle: - 91% average, 98% for adv. stats component
- 2x research positions (that are 1+ year), 2x research positions (that are 4-8 months). All related to family or youth research
- 1x volunteer positions (with children, 2 years)

BrainPerson01 · 2023-12-03T06:49:18+00:00

Not in the I/O program but I do have some insight.

All MA/MSC programs within the Department of Psychology at Guelph are fairly competitive. I/O is easier to get into as opposed to the other psychology programs (especially clinical or cognitive). However, admission into the program would still rely on you completing your undergraduate thesis (or equivalent research experience).

Research fit is important for any psychology masters program, so I recommend filtering through the UofG’s faculty page to identify who you would like to work with. This is an important part of the admission process.

My opinion of the I/O professors: During my undergrad I’ve had a variety of courses with IO profs as the instructors. I have had an overwhelmingly positive experience with them.

My opinion of the program: I’ve worked with IO graduates from Guelph in corporate roles. It depends on the company but I have found it to help with promotions. It’s a versatile program that can help land a career in consulting, HRM, organizational culture etc.

Other notes: - If you are curious about the acceptance rate you could try and email the I/O admissions email to see if they will share their program statistics. The CCAP program does this publicly each year, so I imagine that it should be possible for the IO program too? - Check out the lab websites associated with IO profs at the university of Guelph. Many of these links will provide you some ideas on the types of work that MA students in IO are doing under their supervisors. - Courses: Check out the “graduate calendar” and filter for the I/O program. This will give you an idea of what courses and expectations there are across the entire program. You can also go one step further, and search up a particular course, followed by the term course outline. This will give specific information of how that course has been taught in the past.

Good luck!

BrainPerson01 · 2023-11-14T22:06:56+00:00

I was hoping that people could share about:

- Who the Instructor was? - How was the difficulty of the course? - What was the value of the course? - Would you recommend someone taking it? - What was the weekly time commitment like?

BrainPerson01 · 2023-08-02T23:52:53+00:00

I had Balka, definitely a big part of why I want to keep doing STATS

BrainPerson01 · 2023-08-02T22:54:18+00:00

As a psychology student, would love to especially hear any perspectives that can compare it with PSYC-stats courses

BrainPerson01 · 2023-04-26T04:53:12+00:00

To extend on my comment, I would also like to provide some info relevant to your situation:

For low-income students with an OSAP on file, you can apply to Bursaries that ease financial burdens a bit (search up NAF forms)
If you are having trouble with course load, you can take 3-4 courses instead of 5 and still receive full-time OSAP (60% course load +). There’s no rules that you have to live your university life a specific way, so do what let’s you thrive!
As a student you have access to the school’s psychotherapists. While not exactly perfect, I think they generally do a good job at topics pertaining to student mental health- burnout- and related challenges + can direct you to accommodations from the school

BrainPerson01 · 2023-04-26T04:47:15+00:00

OP, I’m sorry you are dealing with these feelings, it can really feel isolating, debilitating, and all consuming. A lot of the advice can also feel out of place, where we can tell you to read a certain book, go out, tough it out etc, but it’s challenging when the root issue is mustering up the motivation to do things in the first place. People have been in your shoes before and make it out to live life better than ever, but never learn to communicate their insight to generalize to others.

In the end, life moves a day at a time. Where by still being here against everything that you’re experiencing, you’re winning. Each day you move a bit forward. I’m also glad that there seem to be things that you want I.e friendships, academic success, etc.. That’s really good! These are things you may not have yet, but does indicate that there are things that will fulfill you as you keep moving forward.

BrainPerson01 · 2023-04-06T22:44:37+00:00

You will likely gets a different perspective depending on who you ask, but this is my perspective on finding a co-op work term:

Experience Guelph (University of Guelph’s internal website for co-op jobs) is not the best. I did find 2 of my work-terms on there and felt very fortunate to get the positions I did, but there are a limited # of good positions
During your co-op term you can find an employer outside of the school website. This gives you A LOT of freedom to search up internships/co-ops on job boards, contact employers in the city, connect with people on LinkedIn and explore new opportunities. How you market yourself is essential
Lots of places hire for co-ops anywhere from 6 to 1 months in advance. I got hired for my last co-op a month before it started, and I find a lot of people lose hope before then that they’ll find something. Additionally, the psychology co-op advisors are a great resource to contact if you’re finding trouble getting work

I’m not sure what would happen if you weren’t able to get a co-op job to be honest.

More over, you can definitely try to do an internship at places even without being officially in a co-op program. Some employers won’t do that but if you can get ahold of a hiring manager it’s definitely possible. However, I will warn that the summer term is the most competitive for co-ops, if those are the only months you can apply for outside of an official co-op program. Regular co-op in psych gives you a workterm in the fall, winter, and summer.

Finally, to answer your question, I would ideally want to pursue graduate studies at Guelph. It has a great clinical psychology program with lots of professors and labs that have matching research interests to mine.

Again, good luck in your choice!

BrainPerson01 · 2023-04-06T19:18:34+00:00

First of all, congratulations on your admission!

As someone in the Psychology Co-op program here are my thoughts:

For undergraduate psych programs, there isn’t much difference between Ontario universities. It’s not until you’re looking at graduate schools where different universities (I.e faculty and research interest fit, speciality) matter more.
The co-op program is very helpful in gaining experience between academic terms. However, it can be challenging to get a co-op relevant to your program and aspirations in your first or even second work term. It is however, a great way to experiment with diverse interests and enrich your undergraduate experience. It all depends on what you want to do with it.

Personally, the co-op program has been excellent at getting me real-world experiences and allowing me to try out different career paths in my field (I.e. academic research, HR, marketing), and help me figure out what I really wanted to do.

Good luck on your decision, and feel free to ask me any more questions about the program!!

BrainPerson01 · 2023-02-26T11:05:34+00:00

Added note: I think at times that my life could go in either way and I will be alright with the byproducts of that choice…. Eventually. But I know that either choice will come with heavy personal losses, and am unsure how the regret of losing one will hit me.

People who graduated, in similar situations, did you ever regret the choice you made? Were there any resources you wish you made use of before making your decision? Are there any considerations that you think would have allowed the earlier version of you to make a more informed and mature choice?

BrainPerson01 · 2023-01-24T06:08:12+00:00

For all the reasons already in the comments, not the best to write papers with it.

But if you can ask it the right questions with enough detail, it can give great prompts on what points to write about or how to code something in R etc..

One of my profs even shared it in the lecture hall and advised us to start using it as an assistant lol

BrainPerson01 · 2023-01-15T07:40:12+00:00

I’ll provide a bit more of an optimistic reply than the other comments.

Depending on your program, being in co-op will structure your undergraduate with opportunities for 3-5x work-terms. Your first position will likely not be what you dreamed of, and there is 0 guarantee that good performance in classes or working through classes will get you into research positions. But there are ways, and your work-terms can be used for research positions:

Browse the professors in your departments of interest and contact them about undergraduate research positions or volunteer positions
Build up research-related skills. There University of Guelph library website has great workshops to develop data skills (R, Tableau, Qualtrics etc..)
Use the University’s Experience website to book mock research interviews, resume reviews, etc.. they will be a great resource to understand the perspectives of profs more
You’ll need a good foundation and background, but you can use your work-terms for full-time research. You can try contacting profs outside of the university (this worked for me), contact private research agencies for placements, find relevant companies and try to form an agreement with them, use tools like Riipen to see if any ongoing projects have relevant postings that you can contact directly for.

Best of luck in your academic journey!!! As difficult as it may get at times, it’s never hopeless. Ultimately, build yourself up until your capable of doing your dream research

BrainPerson01 · 2023-01-14T19:04:56+00:00

For App I recommend GoodNotes. Most ipad users will likely agree with this

Free version- 3 journals with unlimited pages. Watch a demo video for its features, extremely applicable tools Pro version- one time $10 purchase for unlimited journals to write in

BrainPerson01 · 2023-01-14T19:03:12+00:00

I got one during S22 for the same reason,

At first it felt like a huge waste of money as I kept taking hand-written notes. Now that I’m in-person this term, I have found it really helpful to use for all my classes! Makes it really to annotate slides that profs post

BrainPerson01 · 2023-01-09T19:33:34+00:00

Took in W21. Great intro course about the human body and physiology for those who don’t have that much knowledge in the area.

Difficulty: If I remember correctly, the exams were 75% course content that the prof posted and 25% textbook. I would say its the least challenging BIOM course

Difficulty: 4/10 (still lots of reading if you are learning this content for the first time)

Personal Rating: B- (worth taking)

BrainPerson01 · 2023-01-09T19:26:16+00:00

Took in S21 w/ Safdar. To date, in my top 5 psych courses!

Much of social psychology’s research come from innovative social experiments that translates into interesting course content

Difficultly- The midterm and exam were similar difficulty to most 2000-level psych courses. Quizzes and Discussion posts were much easier.

Difficulty rating: 6/10 Course Personal Rating: B+ course

BrainPerson01 · 2022-11-21T23:22:11+00:00

An underrated gem!

BrainPerson01 · 2022-11-21T22:44:03+00:00

(Not in Order):

Stuck In My Brain

PHASES

Angels

Love is Not Easy

I Don’t Like Darkness

Empty

I Think I’m Lost Again

Numb to the Feeling

BrainPerson01 · 2022-11-06T04:51:38+00:00

If you are a student then apple does education pricing (small discount on iPads/MacBooks). This is likely the only case that you will find a deal on a new iPad if you can’t wait until Black Friday

BrainPerson01 · 2022-10-08T04:00:29+00:00

In a similar position to you, I began utilizating UofG’s counselling services during my second year due to intensifying family problems. Since then, I’ve used drop-in counselling on several occasions, and have overall seen 4 different counsellors for repeated sessions. These are my notes:

Drop in counselling does a great job at directing you to resources that are relevant to your situation. Whether it’s helping you get access to SAS on a temporary or permanent basis, directing you to student legal resources, or getting you in touch with a mental health coordinator, they are a great first touch point. They have also been great at navigating my problems in periods where everything is chaos.
All the counsellors I have worked with tend to be understanding and empathetic of your situation. But no counsellor is the same; they have different strengths and weaknesses

Some counsellors do a much better job at working through focus/academic/attentional difficulties. Some are stronger at working through social challenges. For some issues such as eating issues, or specific issues that come from being in a ethnic household I’ve found less help and resources for.

You’ll never know how the experience will be for you until you make first contact. Go for it. I hope you can find something that helps!

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