isabellyaoyao

Hi Alice, after reading your background and questions listed here, I feel like you need to do more research of this field. SLP is a very competitive field filled with talented, and hardworking individuals. I don't know if retaking those classes will help and I suggest you talk with your CDS professors to ask for their professional opinions. 3.15 is not absolutely hopeless because I have seen top 50 graduate programs take in students at that GPA range, but indeed rare. The current emphasis of needing bilingual SLPs refers to mostly spanish/english fluency, not necessarily Chinese/english fluency. So even with most schools who offer bilingual track, they want students who speak fluent spanish. Personally speaking, I don't feel like being an international student/permanent resident will make that much of a difference. I am a permanent resident now and applied as a PR instead of an international student. You can just elaborate on your international background in your personal statement. Why bother to ask for higher tuition? To counter low GPA, I'd say the rest of the package better be killer good: GRE, rec letters, and personal statement.

Hi cowsy, I just came back from the UO CDS visit day and it was wonderful to hear from the current graduate students and faculty members. Your insight is wonderful information and thank you so much for taking to time to respond with such great details! :－)　 Btw, do you know if most students here take loan to finance their education? I don't see many GE opportunities within CDS and I understand it is a common problem here for west coast schools.

Got my 1st acceptance to Uni. of Oregon, 2nd acceptance to Uni. of Minnesota Twin Cities and yesterday Portland State. CU Boulder rejected me and UW wait-listed me--a little bit sad because UW's Medical SLP is my top choice. But just like others mentioned, when I saw the first acceptance letter, I really felt relieved because I know that finally, I am going to grad school for real!

Hi SL PBJ, thank you for taking the time to respond. I did my postbac at UO and my professor actually said to me in spring that I should consider UO unless I get into UW because UO hired a professor in dysphagia 2 yrs ago. Deanna definitely has the perfect background that I'd like to work with but I also wonder how many students she can take in to shadow and mentor since the PSU program has 2 cohorts of 25 ppl. Unfortunately I won't be able to make it to the PSU open houses so I will have to listen to sharings from PSU alum/students!

I think it really depends on what schools you are applying to too. I have been following the results page and seen many getting into the program with GRE scores between 145-150 (Verbal or quant) but with more popular schools I will say you need to score at least 155 to just be safe (stay on their list). It never hurts to have good scores so if you can and have the time to study more and retake GRE, definitely do so. My stats: V-155, Q-161, AW-4.5 wt cumulative GPA 3.94 and CDS GPA 3.95. I am an out of field applicant who did post-bac last year but still have 2 audiology classes left which I intend to finish this summer online. My stats are not stunningly good (applied to Top 30 schools and 2 other Oregon schools ranked between 50 to 75 because I'd like to have the options) but I think my background with international development really helped me leave an impression to the committee. I did an assistatship (assisting graduate student clinician) for one term helping with AAC sessions, no research experiences. I graduated back in 2011 with a BA in sociology and have been working full time in development/fundraising since. It is definitely a whole package but I consider scores are your smile and sharp looking suits that make your interviewer want to prioritize you as their first interviewee.

Hi there, I recently found out I got accepted into Uni. of Oregon (my alma mater), Portland State, Uni. of Minnesota Twin cities, and wait-listed by UW seattle (Medical SLP). Definitely not going to Minnesota (too cold and too expensive) and I don't think there's much chance for me to have someone's spot at UW so my decision will likely be made between UO and PSU. I want to focus more on dysphagia and medical SLP so my concern with UO is the location where there are not too many medical facilities I know of that provide related services for practicum. PSU is right in the middle of Portland-metro but the increasing traffic and living cost is also quite intimidating. I wonder if any PSU/UO current students or graduates can shed some light on both schools by reflecting on your personal experiences. I'd like to know 1). quality of teaching; 2). practicum opportunities (i.e. variety, easiness to be placed with preferred facility, etc). 3). support from the department (i.e. research opportunity, well informed with certifications in preferred modality, etc) 4). "employability" (i.e. Do employers find you as a PSU/UO graduate favorable?) & graduation preparation (i.e. Does your advisor help you map out, or at least inform you how to get on your career path as a future clinician specialized in dysphasia?) Thank you all so much for contributing to the topic!