Prospective Students

• Stream 1 students will commence their first clinical internship in the Fall of their second year of study. Upon successful completion, their second clinical internship will commence in the Winter semester of their second year.

• We cannot guarantee clinical internships, but our clinical education coordinator will work with each student to determine best fit for each of the two internship opportunities.There are many factors that are included in the placement process, and some sites do require an interview.

• Before joining our program, you will be asked to sign a statement of understanding that outlines that interns may have to move within Canada to complete clinical internship requirements. Students are responsible for their own transportation and all associated costs in order to meet this program requirement.

• Your clinical education coordinator will work with you to help with placement issues, however, securing housing is the responsibility of the intern.

• The clinical education coordinator will work with international students to determine if internship opportunities outside of Canada are possible. The related procedures including affiliation agreements between McMaster University and internship sites, etc. will need to be investigated.

• We prefer that all preceptors and interns do not have a prior relationship so that assessment and evaluation of performance in the clinical education courses is unbiased and free of any conflict of interest.

• All clinical preceptors are required to meet the Association of Child Life Professionals requirements for supervision which includes a minimum of 4000 hours of paid experience as a Certified Child Life Specialist (equivalent to 2 years of full time employment).

• Students may identify where they have an interest in completing an internship. The clinical education coordinator is however responsible for all final placement decisions in collaboration with internships sites, and will work with each child life intern to ensure a best fit and take into account preferences and past experiences working with children, youth and families.

• Yes, some sites offer more than one internship opportunity so one or more of our interns may be located at the same site. Internship locations vary year to year, so there is however no guarantee.

• Clinical skills seminar takes place once a week for the semester during which clinical internships occur.

• Clinical skills seminar allows each child life intern to reflect, process and learn with, from and about one another while they complete their internship experiences. As each intern will be placed in a different area of child life practice, the opportunity to share evidence based practices, techniques and case study based scenarios is unique to our clinical skills seminar. There are also opportunities for guest speakers and additional clinical knowledge to be gained as we follow a child life internship curriculum.

• Each course is individually graded. For clinical internship courses, interns must successfully complete the academic requirements and achieve a grade of 70% or above, as well as a satisfactory clinical skills evaluation from their preceptor. For the clinical skills seminar, interns must successfully complete the academic requirements and achieve a grade of 70% or above.

• The clinical education coordinator is Allison Sohanlal and she can be contacted at sohan@mcmaster.ca

• No, Stream 1 can only be completed as a full- time student due to the course schedule and clinical internships. Stream 1 is a two year full- time program.

• It's important to consider that with online coursework, required readings need to be completed and lectures viewed before you begin taking part in the weekly discussion boards.  Online learning requires good time management throughout each semester. 
• For each 3 credit course that you take, you can estimate an average of 8-10 hours per week for required readings, online discussions and assignments.  Some weeks will be heavier when assignments are due in addition to your weekly lectures, readings and discussion board engagement.  This means as a full-time student with 2-3 courses you may have up to 30 hours of academic work each week.

• No, the hours would not count as they do not take place in a child life program. The 100 volunteer hours must provide exposure to a child life program and the form must be signed by a child life specialist. It is important to have exposure to child life prior to starting our program to apply in course work and to provide a foundation for your clinical education in year 2 of the program.

• Yes, your application will still be accepted. Should you be accepted into the program, you will receive a conditional offer with the expectation that your hours be complete before June 30 (of the year you are applying). You are still required to submit the volunteer hours form for the hours that are in progress at the time of your original application, and a final form once the 100 hours have been completed.

• Yes, please have all transcripts from all post-secondary institutions attended sent to our program office directly by the issuing institution(s).

• No. Academic references should be submitted through Mosaic by your referees. The confidential professional reference form should be emailed to childlife@mcmaster.ca directly by your referee. An official transcript(s) of academic work completed to date at all post-secondary institutions attended, must be sent directly from the issuing institution(s).

• Applicants whose native language is not English will be required to demonstrate proficiency in the use of the English language, as outlined in the Graduate Calendar. Similar to several other graduate programs, a minimum acceptable TOEFL (iBT) score  will be 92 overall with a minimum of 22 for reading 24 for speaking, 24 for listening and 22 for writing. Alternately an overall minimum IELTS score of 7.0 will be required.​

• The minimum requirements for all graduate programs is an Honours bachelor’s degree. Please keep in mind that you also require a minimum of two courses in child development covering birth to 18 years.

• While our program would like to make recommendations on specific courses to take, we cannot attest to the quality of other courses, nor whether the Association of Child Life Professionals (ACLP) will accept them for certification eligibility once you graduate from our program. For the purposes of our program, we require courses to cover normative development (physical, cognitive, social and emotional development) from birth to 18 years. We feel it is important to inform applicants in our communication of the greater specification the ACLP is looking for so the applicants can use this information when making potential course selection decisions. These decisions will serve them both applying to our program and towards child life certification eligibility upon graduation.

While our program would like to make recommendations on specific courses to take, we cannot attest to the quality of other courses, nor whether the Association of Child Life Professionals will accept them for certification eligibility once you graduate from our program.

To meet the program's admissions eligibility criteria, all applicants must have a minimum of 2 undergraduate courses in normative child development. Together, these courses should address development (physical, cognitive, social and emotional development) from birth through 18yrs. of age. This means you could have two courses which both cover birth to 18yrs; one that covers birth to 18yrs and one for a specified age range (e.g. adolescent development); or several courses which when combined together cover this developmental age range (e.g. course in infant development, course in early & middle childhood & course in adolescent development). Courses that incorporate lifespan development will not meet this criteria, as the focus must be on children and youth to ensure sufficient coverage of content. This foundation in normative development provides a base to then apply in graduate course work, and in future assessment of pediatric patients

• There are many programs that provide a good foundation for our Masters in Child Life program. Please make sure that the program you choose will provide an Honours bachelor's degree and there are course options to meet our child development prerequisites. We also recommend that during your undergraduate years, you look for volunteer opportunities in child life programs to work towards the 100 required hours of exposure to child life programming.

• The 100 volunteer hours must be completed in a child life program that has a child life specialist available to sign your volunteer hours form.We do not have a current listing of available volunteer opportunities across Canada. Contacting Volunteer Resources departments at community settings and children's hospitals is a great place to start!They can advise on what volunteer opportunities may be available.

*This is not an internship or placement where you need to work alongside a child life specialist. We require you to have exposure to volunteering with children, youth and families in a child life program that is overseen by a child life specialist.*

Visit the Stream 1 Financial Matters page for more information.

• Our minimum requirement for admission is a B+ average in your final year of study. Applicants may apply during the fourth year of their degree. The pre-admission GPA for eligibility purposes would then be calculated using the most recent 10 courses towards your degree. Post-graduate coursework will also be considered in GPA calculation, and calculated on a case-by-case basis.

• All references are due by the application deadline in order for your application to be complete.