katieliz456

I'd recommend a penlight, digital recorder, sturdy backpack/tote, LOTS of velcro, various craft supplies for peds clients, blue pens for writing notes & signing reports, and a personal laminator (best investment ever!). I also recommend stocking up on 3-ring binders during back-to-school sales. I use mine to keep old class notes and handouts, as well as copies of therapy workbooks.

I'm in my 3rd semester of an accelerated (4-semester) program. We tend to have classes mid-day (10:30-2:30 ish), plus a 3 hr night class one day per week. We usually have clinic before/after midday classes. For example: M/W: TA hours 8-10:30, 2 classes, then 3 clients in the university clinic T/Th: TA hours 8-11, 1 class, then 2 clients. Plus night class on Tuesday. Friday: Practicum/ethics class 8-9, then offsite hospital placement until 5 PM. We all typically eat lunch during one of our midday classes... we use our "breaks" for making copies and writing SOAP notes haha. Each week usually breaks down to 10 hours in class, 10 hours of TA work, 10-20 hours of clinic, plus 5 hours for reports, lesson plans, and materials prep. You definitely get more efficient with paperwork as you progress through grad school

Have you visited the Downtown Phx campus yet? Be aware that it is TINY and comprised of just a few buildings (UCENT, Cronkite, Nursing, and dorms). There are lots of fun coffee shops, bars, and restaurants nearby, and there's a lot of great stuff along the lightrail, but it doesn't have the traditional college campus feel with a big library, student union, quads, etc. like the Tempe campus. Also, downtown Phoenix is known for being "quieter" than other major cities. It is partly due to the heat, but you don't see as many people out & about or sitting outside as you would in other cities. However, the lightrail is a great resource! It will take you to Mill Avenue (Tempe nightlife) all the way to the trendy parts of Downtown Phoenix (check out First Fridays!). Having a car is really nice for going to the grocery store, mall, and other misc. errands. Also, like other posters said, AZ has a West Coast feel and people tend to be into fitness and healthy/organic foods. People in AZ are also known for being obsessed with sunglasses- obviously we have a good reason to wear them, though

I'll be living in San Diego this summer for an internship at Rady Children's Hospital (near San Diego Mesa College). Is anyone familiar with this area? Do you think my best bet would be to sublet from a student for June-early August? I'd prefer to live within walking distance of the hospital, but I'm not sure if that would be safe or within my budget. Any advice is appreciated!!

i believe most hospital placements require a drug screen, in addition to TB skin test, flu shot, vaccine boosters, CPR class, etc. Most all placements that i know of (university clinic, public schools, hospitals, SNF) require a background check and possibly fingerprinting. Your school/work will usually give you a checklist of things to do with plenty of time to do everything I don't want to make assumptions or judge, but once you become a clinician you'll automatically want to be seen as "professional". I've already run into clients TWICE at the grocery store-- I won't start wearing business casual to Walmart, and i won't be afraid to be seen with a bottle of wine in my grocery cart, but i WILL think twice about running errands in a too-tight tanktop or loudly gossiping about my dating life in the aisles of Target. When you start grad school, you're not a college kid anymore. You're a professional who is respected and trusted by families to help their loved ones communicate

Just peeked back at this thread, and I loved hearing what y'all have been up to! CatSLP, i hope your thesis stuff goes well-- let us know which topic you end up choosing. Since I opted to start in June, I'm in my third (yikes!:/) clinical placement now... 8 hours/week in the hearing clinic, and 10 hours/wee (5 clients) in the lang&literacy clinic. I've also just started working 10hrs/week as a GA, so I get to TA for an undergrad class, which is really fun I have to say, the chaos of grad school is MUCH better than the stress of application season last year

I didn't come across many schools that advertised themselves as having a school emphasis, but you might want to ask prospective schools about electives & clinical placements (if a semester or 2 in the public schools is required/optional placement). If you want to work with severe populations (or schools in general), i'd recommend trying to take extra electives on AAC, autism, developmental disorders, and even aural rehab-- as the school SLP, you will be the go-to person for fixing hearing aids and AAC devices Oh, and another up-and-coming area in the field is literacy, which is primarily concerned with school-aged kids, so maybe look into schools with an emphasis in that?

Please don't judge schools by the "sticker price"! The school I chose had the highest price per credit hour, but offered a generous scholarship/assistantship, and has less total credit hours throughout the program. For example, my school counts our clinical practicum (12 hrs/week) as 1 credit hour per semester, while other schools count the same clinical hours (12/week) as 3 or even 6 credit hours per semester! Yikes! Look into any fees, # of credit hours, assistantships/grants/scholarships/work study before ruling out a dream school Good luck!

I'm not familiar with all of those programs, but I know that UNC is pretty unique. For example, their program doesn't assign letter grades/GPAs; instead they do Pass/Fail. Also, you aren't responsible for giving therapy during 1st semester-- you do hearing screenings in elementary schools & do some observations at a center for disabled kids. (This might be a nice transition into grad school:).) Additionally, they don't have an in-house university clinic; this isn't a huge deal, but I preferred having the security of a "back-up" placement in case an external placement fell through or couldn't give me enough hours. I think an in-house clinic is nice, too, in case you need some last minute diagnostic practice/adult hours/etc. They don't give many merit scholarships for M.S. students, and they don't have many GA opportunities, but it seems like a great program if you can afford it (or get in-state tuition)!!!

I don't think it's *that* unusual. (The majority of the grad students are in their 2nd or 3rd semester of grad school-- just 11 of us are "newbies".) We are all in-field students who have completed 25 observation hours & clinical methods classes. We also had a few days of "boot camp" prior to therapy, and we received pre-assembled boxes/binders with lesson plans and therapy materials. Our clients had already been evaluated, so we just had to choose which games/activities to implement (from the set we were given), and what order to do them in. We have extremely close supervision, and we have to get all lesson plans/treatment plans Okay-ed by our supervisor beforehand. So they really make sure it's impossible for us to screw up haha if a supervisor sees us doing something wrong (not reinforcing, giving the wrong level of support, etc) they will intervene IMMEDIATELY to correct us. So there are several "safety nets" in place

Yep, they really do throw us into our first clinical practicum the first week! Right now, all of us grad students are doing the 4-week intensive literacy camp, so we each have 2 school-aged clients for 3 hours/day, 4 days/week! After camp, we will switch to a more traditional clinic schedule.

Not sure if anyone still looks at this thread, but I wanted to check back in and say "hi" now that i've survived my first week of grad school/clinic!!! Classes haven't been too hard, but doing all the lesson plans/treatment plans/room decoration/activities takes a LOT of time. It's totally worth it, though, once you get to be in there with the client(s)! and huge congrats to badgerina! I know you'll love UW Madison!

Several friends and I have discussed this problem ( the lack of true safety schools), and it seems like there are at least a couple things to look for. 1- Tuition cost. Cheap/state schools may have a greater appeal because of the cost, while private/pricier schools may not be as popular or may have more active waitlists (people get into a cheap school, so they decline the offer from the private school). 2- Diversity. We have this theory that schools try to build diverse & balanced cohorts. I still believe the reason I was accepted to some competitive programs is that i expressed my interest in language/literacy, while many other applicants focused on the medical side of things. Even if the school has a strong medical program, they still need students who are passionate about preK and school-aged kids Some schools also seem to prefer a nice mix of new graduates and older career-changers. Basically, swimming upstream might work out to your advantage. Obviously, none of these are hard-and-fast rules for your application experience. Just some things to keep in mind. Good luck!!

Baylor's program is only 4 semesters, so it's 38k total. I will end up paying a few thousand out of pocket each semester, but it's not too bad! I also have a GA-ship for the Fall/Spring semesters, and that pays about $12/hr for 10 hours/week. also consider the cost of living for the schools you're applying to!

I think that this year may have been a bit atypical because of the federal budget "sequester" stuff. From the little information I've heard, it seems like a lot of the national funding organizations that provide research grants basically suspended funding (at least until the budget stuff got sorted out). Departments had to re-allocate some money and gave first priority to PhDs. I think one reason I was offered money from Baylor is that they don't have a doctoral program, so they weren't as affected by the budget cuts. Some schools offer assistantships when they admit you, and others wait until you show up on campus, then have you apply (similar to work-study). The wages I've seen range from $10-20/hour, and between 5-20 hours/week. Keep in mind that schools with undergrad SLP/CSD programs may have more opportunities for TAs, and schools without PhD programs will have greater need for RAs. (For example, UNC-CH doesn't offer much funding because they give all RA positions to PhD students, and they don't offer an undergrad program so they don't have much need for TAs.)

Congrats on your acceptances! I'm not familiar with any of those schools, but the debt is NOT worth it, especially since there aren't any subsidized loans for grad school. My opinion is that our hands-on experience will be pretty much the same no matter where we go-- an elementary school is an elementary school, and a rehab hospital is a rehab hospital.

Thanks, steph! I actually just put down a deposit for the village- apparently they have security guards on the premises, which makes me feel safer:) Thanks for the restaurant suggestions. I'll make sure to check those out this summer.

Hey Ballerina, here are a couple things that caught my eye when I glanced at your SOP 1- I don't think you need to have a separate paragraph for each question in the essay prompt. It might flow better & make more sense if you combine some of the ideas. 2- Explain HOW your hobbies/volunteering inspired you or would make you a better clinician. Did crocheting preemie hats inspire you to work with infants with feeding problem? Did teaching dance give you experience working with small groups of kids? (I, too, have taught dance to the little ones, and I explained how that gave me experience teaching small groups, branching to diff activities to keep their attention, etc.) 3- I'd eliminate the sentences: "SLPs are trained to understand...", "The online ISU SLP master's program is my first choice", and the final sentence of your statement. Also, make sure the school(s) you're applying to are suitable matches for your interests. They might read your app and think "Wow, this girl sounds amazing, but we can't give her any training in peds feeding." Look into the different elective classes and research opportunities at the schools, and mention those in your SOP. Also mention specific intern/externship opportunities that draw you to the school (if there's a children's hospital, or a hospital that specializes in high-risk/preemie births, etc. When asked "Why our university?", I think the adcoms want to hear something in addition to the convenience. Best of luck to you in your next round of applications! I know you'll make a terrific SLP:)

woo-hoo! you are awesome!! congratulations!!