Hello there! This is a great thread and I'd love to give some info about my experience.
I was rejected from all of the grad schools I applied to right out of undergrad. This was really discouraging to me and I had a freak out moment. I did not have great undergraduate grades and was very negative about reapplying because I did not want to be rejected again. I decided to apply to a SPED program at a nearby university. I finished a year of the program part time while doing an internship at the local preschool. During my second semester I was having a lot of second guessing. I had two kids in the class I was working in who went to the SLP. Every time the SLP came in and did in class observations or in class sessions, I was obsessed. I wanted to hear what she was saying, what she thought about them, what she was going to do next with them, the activities she was doing, why she was doing it with them. I realized that my heart was with speech. I loved working in the school and I loved my SPED classes. But I loved speech more and I needed to pursue that. I stopped my program and decided to work towards that goal. I applied again. Got two rejections and one acceptance to Nova Southeastern's online program which wont start until the Winter of 2016 (this was last summer so I was going to be waiting a long time). In the meantime I found a job with a Birth-3 organization and worked as an Early Intervention Assistant and 5 months after that I found a SLP-A position as long as a Behavior Therapist position that I was hired for. Three part time positions that were all relevant to my path towards becoming an SLP. During this time I decided that I wanted to try for an on campus program that would start in the fall of 2015 instead of waiting all the way until winter 2016. I am currently applied to three schools. And although I will most likely get rejected I will still be able to go to Nova if that is the case.
Long story short... I believe I would have been happy as a Special Educator! I loved the classes and working in the school. But I had the constant thought in the back of my mind that I was missing something. My heart was always with speech.
If you do decide to do SPED, you can always try speech pathology again! Keep in mind that after doing that program you will have more classes on your transcript and experience with a similar population! It wont hurt your future application that is for sure.
Sorry for the rambling!