Admissions FAQ

All documents are compiled by Graduate Admissions and Records, who assess your file once they have received your application fee. If your application is complete and meets University standards, it will be sent to the Department of Psychology. It is then made available to the potential supervisors you have indicated on the Prospective Grad Student Information Sheet. Once your application has been fully considered, Graduate Admissions & Records will let you know by e-mail what has been decided.

From the time all your paperwork has arrived at UVic, it can take between a couple of weeks to two months to process your application, depending on volume, competition, and whether it has been retained for further consideration. You can monitor your application's status online at My UVic application.

The Faculty Directory page names faculty members who intend to consider students for admission next Fall, but circumstances change. The most up-to-date listing is always on our website. You do not need to ask professors' permission before adding them to your list.

No. Although there is some overlap between these programs and their Clinical counterparts, they are distinct areas of study. Admission into any one program does not transfer to another.

This is UVic's grading scale:

4-point GPA scales vary from one school to the next. You can most accurately convert your own GPA by converting it to a letter grade and using the table above. For a comprehensive explanation of how GPAs are calculated see: Graduate Admissions GPA calculations.

Admission GPA is calculated by the Grad Admissions and Records Office (GARO) on the basis of the last 2 years (full-time) undergraduate study (that is, the last 30 units, or last 20 single-term courses). Therefore, your admission GPA may be higher (if you had better grades more recently) than your overall GPA for your BA/BSc. The grad students we admit tend to have an entry GPA of at least 7.0 (on the 9 pt UVic scale) or an A- average or above in their last 2 years of classes.

Applicants are required to have completed a BA or BSc with a concentration in psychology if applying to the MSc program, or have a MA or MSc with a concentration in psychology if applying to the PhD. Successful applicants normally have an upper second or first class average (e.g., 3.5 on a 4-point scale or a minimum B+) in their recent academic work, with a specialization in psychology. Students with an Honour’s degree or equivalent research experience are preferred.

We offer Clinical Psychology, not Counselling Psychology. Counselling is, however, offered through UVic's Faculty of Education, under Educational Psychology and Leadership Studies.

If you have read our material and still have questions, please feel free to ask.

First contact Karen Kienapple, the Graduate Admissions Secretary in the Department of Psychology, at psychgrd@uvic.ca or by phone at (250) 721-6109. For questions about particular programmes, contact the following area coordinators:

Cognition and Brain Sciences
Dr. Daniel Bub.................dbub@uvic.ca

Lifespan Development
Dr. Andrea Piccinin..............piccinin@uvic.ca

Clinical Psychology
Dr. Marsha Runtz..............psycdct@uvic.ca

Social Psychology
Dr. Frederick Grouzet..............fgrouzet@uvic.ca