Nebraska19

Well apparently Radford has made their decision and everyone's portal's have changed but mine still says that a decision is still in progress for me. Somebody also got their decision in the mail so the process is all over. I think this means I've been rejected, but it's my last choice school so I'm trying to look at this positively.

Well my boyfriend keeps trying to tell me that everything will work out eventually (kind of a different spin on the "just wait and see!:" logic". I know he is right, but I am on freak out mode so sometimes it is hard to convince me of that. I swear I need to give him a big gift or do something special for him once this whole process is over for dealing with me through this whole ordeal. Poor guy.

Same here. My boyfriend just graduated with his masters in history and he tries to tell me that grad school is not as competitive as I think it is. I try to explain to him that there is a difference between applying for a masters in slp and a masters in history but he just thinks I am crazy. Well I am crazy most of the time, but I think I know what I am talking about this time

Bcjami, I am an out of field candidate too as I am graduating with a degree in Psychology this May. If you don't get into a school this year I would suggest to take a few pre-req courses at an online post-bac program. I think Utah State is very reasonable with their price and I have heard great things on this board and elsewhere about their program. You can either get a 2nd degree and get most pre-reqs done or you can be a non-degree student and only take a few classes. I took a few CDS courses in undergrad and it seems like I am more competitive than somebody who has no academic experience in the field, but then again it may just depend on the schools you apply to. I wouldn't worry much about your GRE because I think most programs do not put as much emphasis on it. Your GPA is good and your LOR, personal statement and experience with the field seem to be more important. If you don't get in maybe you can shadow a slp and get them to write a LOR for you, since most programs seem to look highly if an out-of field student has experience of some type with slp. Also, if you are a teacher many programs probably would look highly at that since you have first hand experience with children/teenagers. Other people on here have given you wonderful advice already, but I just thought I would throw my 2 cents in.

I really hope my schools, if they haven't figured it out before their spring break, just push on through and do not take a week off. I know it's a bad situation for them to work on their vacation but I feel like many of their applicant's lives are being put on hold waiting for their decision. I've been driving myself crazy all this week because two of my schools were (supposedly) according to undergrads in the last stages of making their decisions and would start sending notifications in a few days. But I have seen nobody post results from them this week and both of their spring breaks have begun. Hopefully they don't just sit on the applications for another week, because if I were them I would just want to push through and get them done to get that off my mind.

Were you sure they were going to start on the 8th? I thought that was the date the supplemental app was due because that would be the day they would start the process. I think I read on the FAQ section that they would start notifying around the 15th, so I wouldn't freak out if nobody has heard anything.

Child Star

Thank you, I will definitely be thinking of you too (as well as everyone else still in limbo). When is your spring break? I think you deserve a break as well!

I just want to quickly apologize if I seemed a little ranty yesterday. It was a pretty stressful day since I heard all my friends getting acceptances from their grad programs (all in different fields from slp) and talking about how they planned to visit their schools and find a place to live during spring break, and I continue to have nothing. It doesn't help that people I talk to who don't know much about this process act like I have been out right rejected from everywhere since I have not heard anything from so many schools this late in the game (actually it's not really that late considering the national deadline is April 15th). But that's really not an excuse to go on full rant mode. But it's a new day and I chose to have a new attitude and enjoy my spring break to the fullest and look forward to the 15th, when I may actually hear something. It's time to get out and enjoy this 40 degree weather we are expected to have all week! lol

Wild Child

FINALLY SOME GOOD NEWS ON THESE FORUMS!!!!!! Congrats I am so happy for you!

Darn, I was hoping you were one of those accepted. I will be keeping you (and everyone else on these boards) in my thoughts the next few days.

Great post, I agree with everything you said. I think we all need to just take a few deep breaths and try to relax and think positive thoughts. We are all smart, hardworking and dedicated people and we will all be successful in life no matter what happens in the next few weeks

It just doesn't make sense to me that it is still required to have a certain degree to enter most grad programs in speech pathology when not all schools offer the degree. It would make more sense to make it more like occupational therapy where you can major in anything you want (within reason) and take the pre-reqs of Psychology, Biology and other social/hard sciences needed to enter the grad program. OT is basically three years and SLP is that too if you do not have any pre-reqs done. It just does not make any sense to me to have an entire major devoted to taking a bunch of classes that only will help you if you become a SLP and if you don't get into grad school or want to change career paths when it is too late to change majors, what can you do with the degree? Also what about a person who has a 4 year scholarship at a school or is stuck at a school where the CDS degree is not offered, they are in an unfair position. Not to mention the fact that Illinois has two schools that offer a CDS undergrad, but not a graduate program. As an Illinois resident that really ticks me off because it just floods the market and makes it even harder to get a grad spot in the state. I like the people in SLP but the school administration and profs. are ticking me off with the attitude that only a person with a 4.0 GPA and extremely high GRE scores can be speech paths. Nothing else seems to matter to them. At least that is the attitude most schools seem to have... Or maybe it's just me...

Although I am an out of field leveler, I can completely understand the frustration some of you have with out of field students being admitted. The problem is that the CDS undergrad (at least at my school) is full of required courses that do not have any application to any other job or field besides speech pathology. Also, the CDS undergrad is basically useless because it is full of courses that have no use unless you want to be a speech pathologist, and not a lot of people outside the speech pathology field really knows what communication disorders are. Usually people assume that it is when the radio or television stops working. I'm not even joking. I had to switch to psychology because I was torn between occupational therapy, school psychology and speech pathology. Each had vastly different pre-req requirements to enter graduate school. A psychology degree would be flexible enough to allow me to fill the requirements for school psychology and occupational therapy and a CDS degree would not. I knew it could still be possible to enter speech pathology, but it may be more difficult and I could not be as flexible with the schools I applied to. I also didn't want to be stuck with a useless degree that nobody had any idea what it was. Through my research I thought that having a 3.8+ GPA would allow me to enter as a leveler without having to complete a post-bac and then try to apply to graduate school and figure out which pre-reqs were required for each school. It doesn't help that I live in Illinois, which seems to be the most complicated state to try and be certified in anything because each school seems to have completely different pre-reqs they need and you need every single freaking one completed before you can apply. Anyway, I thought that I may luck out with my high GPA, but with the 3 wait lists and all the people posting 3.9+ GPA with extremely high GRE scores that are in-field students posting their acceptances I don't know. If I don't get accepted I may have to consider if this is even worth trying to complete a 2nd degree and going through this all again. Maybe I completely screwed up and should switch to school psychology next year because the field is less competitive, ignoring the fact that with the school system being messed up I may not have a job or get quickly laid off... Okay my crazy rant is over. Sorry guys. I am going to clean my apartment to get my mind of this

Back Rub

Don't give up! You have wonderful stats and experience that will get you into a program. You still have four schools to hear from so do not count yourself out yet. Many schools look on your transcript and see if you challenged yourself with harder course work and they do consider that when looking at your GPA. You will get through this and get an acceptance, I am sure of it.

House Salad

I have been wait listed at the only 3 programs I have heard from so far. I keep telling myself I have 4 more schools to hear from and the fact that I have not been fully rejected yet is a good sign. However, the thought of waiting until April to see if I am one of the few people picked off the wait list (if a spot even opens up!) is driving me crazy!!!

Epic Failure

I am too jmarti. If I get one more wait list after receiving three in a row (or worse a rejection) I am seriously going to have a break down. It makes me re-think my whole entire application and the schools I applied to. Why aren't I not bad enough to get a rejection, but what is holding me back that I can't get accepted? My spring break is next week and I am REALLY not looking forward to it because I know that it will be me constantly checking my emails every 5 seconds until March 15th if I do not get an acceptance by then. We just have to tell ourselves that we will get through this somehow. It's not over until it's over.

Smiley Face

Don't worry, I am sure you will be accepted. I have faith in you!

Blue Ray