BlueHeron

I am an out-of-field applicant applying for 3 year extended programs for Fall 2018. My undergraduate major is Interdisciplinary with focuses in biology and psychology. My GPA is 3.9. I have biology research experience, some shadowing hours (I intend to get more this fall), and I work in direct support for a company serving adults with physical and developmental disabilities. I just took the GRE and received 156 V 146 Q 4.5 AW. I haven't taken a math class in years and did not have much time to study between my job and summer classes. Do I have any chance of getting in with these scores or should I make a plan to retake? I'm worried about not having a sufficient amount of time to really improve my quant score. FWIW, the school I am most interested in (the only one I would not have to relocate for) has averages of 149 V 146 Q 3.9 AW listed on ASHA EdFind.

Hello all, After a lot of researching, I have finally decided that I want to pursue Speech Language Pathology as a career. I have explored many other health related careers (including medical research), and I believe that SLP will be a great fit for me. I currently have an associates degree with a concentration in biology, and in the fall I am starting my bachelor's degree in psychology. The reason I am majoring in psychology instead of communication sciences/disorders is mainly a factor of cost. I will save a lot of money commuting from home to a state school, and communication sciences/disorders is not an undergraduate major there. I'm hoping that majoring in psychology will not lessen my chances of getting into a graduate program. I currently have some biomedical (microbiology/genetics/pharmacology) research under my belt, and have presented posters at one national conference and two regional conferences. I am not sure if this will be beneficial or irrelevant, since the research has nothing to do with the field of speech language pathology. I am hoping to get involved in some psychology/neuroscience research at my new school, which might be more pertinent. I am hoping to be accepted to a local graduate program, and there are four different programs in my general area (Upstate/Western NY) that I have looked into. All four of the programs offer an extended (3 year) master's program for non-communication sciences/disorders undergraduate majors. They are Syracuse University, Ithaca College, University at Buffalo, and Nazareth College. My top choice is Nazareth College, as it is closest to home and offers a concentration in autism, which I am interested in. How realistic is it for me to only consider applying to these four schools? Does anyone have information about any of these specific schools, and/or the extended master's program option? Is there anything I can do in the meantime to increase my chances of being accepted? I plan to shadow an SLP eventually, and of course study for and take the GRE. Would it be worth it to contact the programs I am interested in now? Will attending a community college first and transferring hurt my chances at all? I will graduate with my bachelor's degree in the Spring of 2017, and I would ideally like to start a 3 year master's program in the Fall of 2017. With this timeline, at what point should I plan to take the GRE? Any other general advice would be appreciated. My apologies for the length of this post!