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Sorry this is so long. I hope this will help somebody for next year. And I hope you get an acceptance soon and don't need this advice. My hobby is to help friends and family with college searches and essays. My daughter's friend with a 3.35 GPA and a 291 GRE just got her first acceptance last week. This was her second year applying. She finally took up my offer of help. This is the advice I give. When applying there is not much you can do about grades and test scores. Your essay is the place to shine. Schools aren't looking to just admit resumes. They want actual people with personalities. When I looked over her SOP, it was perfectly adequate and totally boring. It was: I graduated from XYZ college. I held a position in a club. I want to be an SLP to help people. And on and on in it's averageness. We discussed her information and I sent the following example I gave to a kid seeking a scholarship from the school he was accepted to. Her final essay used examples of what she learned in college, what she actually did in the club, her love of music, her job as an SLP-A. She tied that all into a progression to show she is a multifaceted person and how her past experiences prepared her for grad school and beyond. Use your SOP to explain specifically why you want to be a speech pathologist, how you became interested in it. Show how you will be an addition to their program. (This can be the same for each application) Then tell how each school will help you. Be specific about one or two things different about each school, whether it's a course or a teacher or the large or small cohort or the clinical opportunities or whatever stands out to you. Your first sentence should grab their attention. Here’s a silly example of an essay using your prompt. Good luck. This is off the cuff to show the formula. It needs some editing to tighten it up, but all first drafts do. My sample shows, not tells, an interest, a plan, why you need what you're applying for. Most important tip is: don’t be boring in your essay. Make the people want to give You the money. Tell a story, paint the picture of you. In answering this question for an application: What are your personal and academic goals and how would this scholarship help you achieve your goals? How will achieving these goals prepare you for new opportunities? Ever since I saw the orange glop on the end of a Q-tip my mother used to clean my ears as a small child, I’ve been fascinated with cerumen. Yes, that gunk in our ears. I’ve collected and inspected samples from over a hundred people since I started studying biology in middle school. I have read all the research papers available about the subject. Through out my schooling, I have maintained excellent grades while delving further into the whys and hows of ear wax. I have conducted experiments using various compounds to see their connectivity to others. For example, I once took 10 samples of ear wax from 10 different fellow students in my class, as well as 10 samples from various adults to see if there is a difference in color, viscosity, smell, drying time. The results were astounding. I discovered young people’s ear wax stays moist longer but also has interesting adherent effect. This could expand into a new form of glue. My meticulous note keeping has assisted me in continuously building on this knowledge whether each experiment failed or succeeded. I wish to attend Wonderful College due to the presence of the world-renowned Dr. Schnickle. His work with cerumen has inspired me, especially his article, “Earwax and You.” I plan to major in Biology with a minor in Chemistry. These two combined subjects will give me the knowledge base I need to understand the chemical make-up and the production of earwax. My plans for the future are to not only study the health implications of ear wax, but also its potential as an energy source and as an adherent. Ear wax is an amazing substance with so many potential uses for the betterment of humanity. Your generous scholarship would allow me more time to dedicate to my research by volunteering in Dr. Schnickle’s research lab. Having access to the state of the art equipment, as well as being in the presence of such knowledge, would allow me to test my theories. The scholarship would also give me the opportunity to intern at the Mertz Ear Clinic in Grand Rapids instead of taking a fast food job over the summer. Learning how ear wax is produced and to see if a synthetic form could be developed under the expertise leading researchers would expand my knowledge. My hope is to change the world through the study of ear wax. Your scholarship would help me to accomplish this goal. Thank you for considering me for this prestigious award. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

My daughter had a work study job the first 3 semesters. Then she had jobs at elementary schools 2 days a week during her 4th semester. She filled in for two SLPs who were out on medical leave. Her Grad school posted the job listings. The pay was 17.00 for the one and 20.00 for the other. She was hired through a private contracting company. She could have continued for the next semester, but she graduated early.

Unless everyone at the out of state school gets the same offer, which I doubt, the faculty saw something special in you. You could become the big fish in the small pond. Tthe professors will know you personally. Your letters of recommendation will show this. And smaller loan payments -meaning more cash for you- later on makes living in the city after graduation easier. If you really want to attend one of the city schools, ask them if can they guarantee the externship you want.

A general rule about student loans is to not borrow more than one year's salary. Speech Pathologists are starting around $50-60,000 a year. At 6%, the payment is about $110 a month per 10,000 borrowed for 10 years. Loan forgiveness is hard to get and comes with a big tax bill if you use it. Spreading the loans out, leaves you smaller payments but paying much more interest over a longer time. On a related note, defaulting on your federal loans can mean suspension of your license in some states.

They don't average the numbers for ranking. If two competitors are tied for first, they occupy the first two spots. The next competitor would still be in third place. If 3 are tied for fourth, they would all be ranked 4th; the next best would be 7th.

Taking out loans is a decision most will have to make. As a grad student, you can borrow $20,500 in federal loans each year at 6.8%. At that rate, the monthly payment is $115 for 10 years for each $10,000 borrowed. If you need to borrow more, you can get private loans with higher interest. How much are you considering borrowing? Can you afford the payments? Use a rough estimate of 30% in deductions (income taxes, FICA, and health insurance) from your paycheck before you get it. If you earn $52,000 a year, you will receive about $700 a week. Estimate your living expenses (rent, utilities, car expenses, auto insurance, food, entertainment, etc) Now add the loan payment. Can you live on what's left?

CBG321: Were you accepted to Dallas? When did you hear back?

What programs are you going for? Have you looked into community colleges? They cost less than half that. Many private technical schools leave you with large loans, credits that don't transfer and a degree employers don't respect.

I'm the mother of an applicant. My daughter really wants to live in Texas. TCU would be amazing because of the TA positions. She likes something about each school applied to so price will be a factor, but not the only one. She'll be taking loans, but no more than the Federal Loan limit for grad students If she receives no aid at any school, Central Arkansas is the cheapest and Memphis is doable because of instate tuition. If none of her acceptances are unaffordable, well, I don't even want to think about that..

Funding questions. How are you paying for grad school? How much debt to expect for grad school? What is the average non-loan financial aid award? How do you find which schools give large amounts of funding? When do we send in FAFSA? How hard is it to get TA/GA positions? How much do the pay, tuition and stipend?

Can you still put some applications in to some of the lesser known or less competitive programs?

As the mother of a graduating college senior, right now my daughter wishes she had accepted UPitt's undergrad admission. At that time, a student with a high ACT or SAT score was guaranteed admission to their grad program if they maintained a good GPA. Taking the GRE and going through grad school admission process is stressful. If she is eligible for a similar program it may be worth looking into.

Would you retake the GRE to improve a 3.5 AW? The scores are 159W and 158Q.

Dibbels is right about D's in college. They could keep you out of Grad School and lose you financial aid. Those college D's will follow you for ever. When you make your college schedule, balance out hard classes and easy classes, and don't take 2 sciences with lab in the same semester. They take a lot of time. Good luck on your college search.

There are no guarantees, but you can increase your odds. Take the GRE soon. Work on your SOP. Start researching schools this summer. Save yourself a lot of time, money and stress by finding schools that you can like and where you'll have a chance of acceptance. Call them and ask the stats of their accepted students from the year before. If your scores and GPA are in the ballpark, apply as early as you can. FInd a safety school or two with rolling admissions. Having an acceptance in hand will relieve the April stress. If you need funding, find programs where your stats are better in relation to most other applicants. You might need to expand the number of applications, or the geographic area.