slpslidingaway

I'm a post-bac at PSU and I believe you have to complete the prereq courses first, but they can be done in a year.

One tip I've heard in regards to Skype interviews is to stick a pair of googly eyes right next to the laptop camera so you're maintaining eye contact with the camera instead of looking at their face on your screen, which translates to downcast eyes on Skype. I think even paper drawings of eyes would help with that. Good luck on your interview!

Congrats to everyone who heard good news! I'm not applying until next fall, but I'm lurking around anyway to pick up some tips and get insight into the application process. It looks so nerve-wracking, but you're all doing great!

I'm another PSU post-bacc starting in a week and a half! I really want to get good grades, so I'm spreading it out over a year and a half instead of trying to cram it into one year. Since I do have to work part-time, I'm taking the minimum course load to be considered full-time so I can really focus on getting those As. My undergrad GPA was around a 3.2 (I graduated in May 2011), so not amazing, but could be worse. I became interested in speech-pathology because I realized that my undergrad degree wouldn't give me the opportunity to work directly with people and as I've grown up, I discovered that is where my passion and talent lies. Growing up, I struggled with a speech disorder, albeit a comparatively mild one, which really fueled my desire to enter this field. I've worked with adults who have developmental disabilities for a little over two years now and the experience I've gotten has been invaluable, but I'm not sure how that experience will translate in a grad school application. I'm looking for clinics to volunteer at as well and I know a few SLPs as well for job shadowing opportunities. I'm excited/nervous about the whole process, but I'm following this thread for tips even though I won't be applying until fall 2015.

Hi, I finally got around to poking my nose into these forums and seeing what they have to offer. So far, it looks like a lot of great advice is going around! I'm going to be starting the post-bac program at Portland State next fall and I'm very anxious right now about taking out extra loans and then possibly failing to get into grad school. Even if I get rejected from every graduate school I apply to, I'm going to apply the next year and the next year and so on, until I get accepted. A little bit about me/some of my stats: I graduated with a B.A. in International Studies from a small liberal arts college. I became interested in the SLP profession through my first job post-graduation: I had lost interest in what I studied in school and knew I wanted to be in a field where I would be working directly with people. So I started out in basic, entry-level social work at a group home for adults with developmental disabilities while I figured out what I wanted to do. Nothing glamorous about this job, but I ended up loving it and have stuck with it for a year and a half. I found myself drawn to the speech-pathology aspect of my work (which there is a LOT of with the people I work with) and I would say that it probably relates to growing up with a speech impediment. I did see an SLP when I was younger and although I was pretty resistant to the sessions due to being constantly teased for going to the Special Ed room, I did end up using a lot of what I had learned later on to conquer it later on in high school. I had some issues in undergrad GPA-wise. I think it was a combination of trying to work with some undiagnosed/untreated ADD and becoming increasingly disinterested in my major. I finished undergrad with a GPA of 3.2 and the classes that dragged it down were in my major. I got As in my science courses, writing courses, and language courses (my highest semester GPA was during French immersion study abroad), so I'm hoping that will reflect well on my abilities. Now that my ADD is more under control, I am *hoping* that I can pull off a 3.9 or 4.0 in the post-bac classes. I test very well (usually in 97th-99th percentile) and I feel confident that I can get a very strong GRE score. Sorry for writing the novel, but I am still so unsure of whether or not I have a chance or if my undergrad GPA has ruined that for me.