atrochemoche

I'm intending to stay in the UK since it's home for me. However, I'm now thinking I'll take the place at Northeastern because I much prefer the programme, so I'm actually going to be dealing with this situation in reverse! One thing I will mention as a caution to save you some grief if you are considering studying in the UK: you *will not* be able to work there unless you have nationality from a EU member state. In the last five years it has been made virtually impossible to get a UK visa unless it's by intracompany transfer or for a shortage profession, which SLP is not. Sorry I can't be of more help. Where were you thinking of applying there?

I was working a FT and a PT job (~55 hrs/week) plus volunteering (~5 hrs/week) while doing post-bacc, and I found doing two classes was pretty stress-free. My courses were online, though, and if you were doing them in person it could lead to scheduling conflicts. Granted, it is *possible* to do more than two - for the recent fall term I juggled four 7-week (ENMU) and two 13-week (USU) classes while maintaining that work schedule and managed to have an okay social life. Still, I would not recommend overloading yourself unless you are really used to balancing work and study.

I suspected as much. I have a 4.0 in my first master's...I was hoping this and my research experience would be an asset, but not yet My only acceptance has been to a uni in the UK but it is out of the question financially and the program is not at all academically rigorous so I'm not interested. Every university I contacted (Northeastern, Emerson, McGill, Toronto, Alberta, SDS) explicitly said that the master's GPA is irrelevant in their calculations/rankings and is just considered a nice extra. It bewilders me why grades from general ed. courses I took when I was a teenager matter more to them than those taken at the graduate level. Surely the latter are a better indication of our ability to succeed at the grad level...? 2bridges - your master's is so relevant to SLP, I would think it would count for something!

I'll have to work through the program as well. I worked two jobs (one menial, one more 'intellectual') through my first master's and am really thankful now that I minimized my loans down during that time. It didn't negatively impacted my studies/social life, plus it kept my thoughts from being taken over by the academic content of the master's and gave me an opportunity to apply what I'd learned in my program (baby-sitting might be a good job for this!). You'd be surprised how easy it is to be more efficient with your time the more it is taken up by responsibilities. I probably had the same amount of free time back then as I do now working one FT job because I didn't use to dilly-dally as I do now. That being said - it depends on your situation: how much you owe in loans going into the program, what's your cost of living going to be compared to your wage... With a conservative estimate of your future earnings as an SLP, how much time would it take you to pay off that your living expenses for the next two years + interest? Are you comfortable delaying saving for a family/house/travels/other luxuries for that amount of time? Also, are you going to be moving to a new city during the program? You might end up regretting not spending your time there appreciating the city and making friends. It is also worth checking on the culture of the institution you'll be attending regarding work. At one of my universities, PT work was the norm, and the teaching/admin staff catered for this and making plans with friends was easier as they understood juggling work with study. However, at my other uni it was highly unusual to work and I felt quite alienated from my coursemates. Though they were nice people, it was difficult to relate to them and it was a bummer that they were always attending extracurricular events and going out while I was at work. I didn't really have a choice about working or not, but it's something to bear in mind... Last thing, if it helps: If you did well on the GRE, tutoring through Kaplan etc is a high-paying and not very time-consuming option. I taught LSAT prep classes and they let you choose those that fit your schedule. I would do the intensive classes for one weekend and it paid my bills for the whole month. Good luck in your decision (and congrats on all your acceptances!)

Another prospective multilingual SLP, though I'm not applying to bilingual programs...I hope to work with Persian, Portuguese and Spanish speakers. I'm totally fluent in Spanish as it's my family language, have an advanced level in Portuguese and am fluent in spoken Persian but really need to work on writing as it's drastically different to the spoken language. I keep up with Persian/Portuguese with Skype or in-person language exchanges (I'd recommend My Language Exchange) and watching local news from Iran/Brazil/Portugal, as it provides a good mix of formal and colloquial dialogue. I also speak French at an advanced level but my largely academic knowledge of it would be useless in this field. I observed a supposedly bilingual SLP last year - who did not speak the language proficiently - and watching her struggle with patients in the 2º language made me ditch any hopes I had at working with my not-so-strong languages. Also, I came across an article from ASHA on bilingual practitioners, if it's of interest to anyone. Alisoj21 - where were you living in Madrid? I live just outside the city

Anyone else out there still received no word from Northeastern? I'm mulling over accepting a permanent job offer and I'd hate to start just to have to leave in September...

I'm sorry r4chung, I know how you feel I just got the rejection notification myself. I wasn't surprised though as my undergrad stats are mediocre, I need more observation hours with an SLP and have far more related employment experience than volunteer. Oh well, there's always next year

You're not alone - I haven't heard anything from them either. As nobody has posted in the results list about having been waitlisted, I'm not too worried yet. I'm not going to be attending the open house as I live abroad and never got an invite anyway. Is the open house for anyone or only Fall 2015 applicants?

Unfortunately I live in a rural area and don't have a car, so the people I've found who are ASHA-certified are quite unaccessible. Thank you so much for adding that information though, I may see if I can take a week off work just to do the observation. As for why I'm here, my partner is Spanish so I came here to be a teacher and translator.

Thank you for the advice! I live in Spain, and the only nearby country with an ASHA accord is the UK, where it's only possible to observe after extensive background checks which I would have to live there to get. I can't really afford to go there for more than a couple of days, so that's out. The current SLT I have observed is not ASHA certified, although she has signed off on my hours with her AELFA (the national body here) number. That's a great idea to ask an ASHA-certified SLP to supervise my comments on Master Clinician, it hadn't even occurred to me. Unfortunately the next time I'd go to Canada or the US would be in the week I (hopefully) start grad school, so no luck for that option!

Question for any international students/3CKs/emigrants...Many of the US and Canadian unis I'm applying to require 25 observation hours before applying and I'm having trouble meeting the requirements as I live permanently elsewhere. Though I've done observation with a speech language therapist in the country I live in and will continue to do so, she is only certified by the ASHA-type organisation here. There are no SLPs here certified by ASHA, and those that are certified by this country's national body have significantly less training than ASHA would require (example: the SLT I observed only took half-year of extra classes on top of her teaching degree to obtain it). Finding placements with another SLP is not possible. The reply I received from one uni was that unless I'm applying as an international student, I'm required to do the observation with an ASHA-certified professional (or another national body with qualifications recognition by ASHA). The problem is, I'm not an international student, just a dual American/Canadian citizen who has rarely been in those countries. In the only ASHA-recognised country I could afford to go to before the application deadlines, observations are only permitted after a series of expensive and time-consuming background checks which I cannot obtain as a non-resident. I could do the observations on Master Clinician, but is this sufficient? I've also thought of contacting a a Canadian/American SLP who may allow me to observe virtually, but scheduling that would be a bit of a nightmare. Either way, I can't very well take a week off work to fly across the world and do an observation in a place I know nobody before the application deadline. Any thoughts?

I'm applying to Toronto and McGill in Canada. I hope to work as a bilingual SLP and both them seem to have a number of academics working in that area, albeit largely with French (if anyone knows otherwise, do tell). I'm going to be contacting the universities with this question, but just in case anyone here knows the answer: How is GPA from postgraduate degrees considered in the equation (in my case, MA and law school)? Is your GPA calculated cumulatively from studies at every level? Is the grad school one weighted more heavily...or less? Or not at all? Surely recent postgrad marks are more telling of ability to succeed in grad school than some class I studied 11 years ago as a teenager.

I'd also recommend only taking two classes a term, maybe three maximum. I'm a FT teacher and have a PT job as well, and while simultaneously taking two classes in the spring term I found myself having to dedicate nearly all my free time to studying to maintain a 4.0.