Well it's official, I've just been accepted into the Masters of Arts in Counselling Psychology (MACP) program at Yorkville University! I'm set to begin the degree in September 2021. In May, I graduated with my B.A. in psychology from UBC Okanagan (virtually) and to become a psychologist here in Alberta, you need at least a masters degree. Yorkville's program caught my eye because of the flexibility of doing the whole degree online (except for the practicum) and that I could finish it in only 2.5 years! The application process requires you gather a bunch of different documents, so although it can be time consuming, once you submit your application you'll here a decision from the application committee within two weeks! Now I'll go through a few tips I've learned along the way through the application process that might help you if you're thinking about applying or want to know more about the application process I went through!

‍

Chat With an Admissions Advisor

I filled out a form on Yorkville's website and an admissions advisor contacted me pretty quickly after that. Once you have an admissions advisor, you can ask them any questions you may have about the program and application process. You will have to go and apply through the portal on Yorkville's website with some basic information about you and the names of your references, plus you'll have to pay a $75 application fee. Once this process is finished, your admissions advisor will send you instructions on what documents they need from you and off you go!

‍

Reach Out to Your References Early

Yorkville requires at least two reference letters from professional or academic references. Both of my letters of reference were from past/current employers and neither of those jobs had to do with counselling. Yorkville does not require you to have any counselling-related experience, so don't worry too much about that component. Writing a reference letter takes time and focus, so if you want a good reference letter, give your references an ample amount of time to complete them. Your references will also have to fill out reference forms (your admissions advisor will give you more info about this).

‍

Letter of Intent

Your admissions advisor will give you a proposed outline for your letter of intent. You can choose to follow this or not, I chose to follow it since it gave me a good idea of what the admissions committee was looking to hear from me as an applicant. Your letter should be about 750-1000 words long and to put it simply, you are basically just writing about why you chose the path to become a counsellor/therapist, why chose the school, and what your professional plans are following the completion of the MACP degree. Since the committee is looking at this letter to evaluate your writing ability, my BIGGEST tip is to make sure there are no spelling or grammatical errors. I proofread my letter probably 5+ times to make sure of this, so I'd recommend you put the effort in for this.

‍

Your Resumé

I'm sure you probably have a resumé somewhat already finished from applying to jobs, but I'd recommend adding a couple things to make it more academic related. Since you're applying to a school, they are going to be interested in your CGPA (cumulative gpa) and your last 60 credits GPA. My CGPA was 3.5 and my last 60 credits GPA was a 3.9 (as you can probably tell, my first year of university was hard for me and brought my CGPA down). Yorkville requires you have at least a 3.0 GPA to make sure you can handle to rigorous grad school program. If you have just under a 3.0, you should still apply because you might have other factors such as experience or writing ability that demonstrates to the application committee that you can handle a masters degree level education.

‍

I am very excited to begin my program in September! I love the flexibility I'll have to be able to travel while completing my masters degree. If you have any questions regarding the application process at Yorkville, I'd be happy to chat with you! Send me an email or shoot me a DM on instagram! I'll be documenting my grad school experience, so stay tuned for more!

‍

‍

Talk soon!

‍

Alexis Toren