finnimbrun

Thank you! And congrats to you as well!

I think I'm going to go with school #1. Ultimately the opportunity to study with someone who will have connections and expertise in my area of interest, plus the financial aid, is too much to pass up. I think I just wanted school #2 because it's different, but I'm forgetting that grad school will be an entirely different experience from undergrad anyway! Our last 4 months are done entirely as an internship, so I will be in a bigger city doing that anyways. That was possibly the hardest decision I've ever made in my life. I think I cried for two-thirds of the day. Goodness.

I could definitely handle tuition at school #2, financially it wouldn't be a problem. I'd have to take out loans, but only for the second year. I don't know why I'm still so attached to it, I guess it's because it's got the name recognition, fancier facilities, and just overall a bigger atmosphere. I had gotten used to the idea of myself as a student there. And I had gotten excited about graduation, leaving my undergrad. But it doesn't really make sense to choose school #2, I know. How important is having someone in your area of interest on faculty? I know the curriculum has to cover everything anyway, and clinically I would still get the opportunity to work with voice clients.

I'm heavily torn between two schools. Neither one would be a bad decision, but I'm so worried that I'll make the wrong choice, and it will end up negatively impacting my career, or that I would regret it. I am a speech path major, I also have a degree in vocal performance. I really like the area of voice disorders, and would one day (maybe) like to specialize in treating singers. School #1 (my undergrad): -Have offered waived tuition -Just hired new faculty member, specializing in voice -Would give me first priority in research opportunities for voice -Am well-regarded by the faculty -I've spent 4 years here, I'm a little tired of it -Don't know if I want to go 6 years at a small university School #2: -Would be fresh perspective. -It's a large school, my undergrad was a small school -Some programs prefer that you went to a different grad school than your undergrad -Would like to make new connections with new faculty -Name recognition -No voice specialist -No offer of funding as of yet Both programs would offer the same curriculum, and have the same rate of post-grad employment. I don't even know if I WANT to do research, and it might be nice to explore other areas of speech path. It seems like #1 is the clear choice, but I still feel drawn to #2. I have no idea what to do... any thoughts?

Thank you, everyone. I applied to pretty much all the in-state grad programs, hadn't really considered going too far out of state. I guess if I'm not accepted into any in-state programs I'll have to explore other options. As far as GRE scores go, I could never get a handle on what a "good" score was. Most of the programs listed their unconditional minimum as a comp. 300, so I figured I was safe with a 314, but I guess it wasn't really sufficient. How crucial is experience working with children or working in a medical setting in the application process? I'm a pretty typical "college student," I focussed on academics and being involved on my campus during my 4 years of undergrad. It didn't occur to me that in order to progress to the next level of academia, I'd need to have work or volunteer experience in a tangentially related field. I guess you could consider me a "young" applicant, many of the other women in my program are coming back for a second degree or after having worked for several years. I don't know if this was a detriment on my part, or something that I may need to improve on in the event of having to take a year off. Any advice?

I'm in the same boat. I had what I thought was a competitive (or at least, acceptable?) admissions package: 3.8 GPA, 314 composite GRE, I earned two degrees in four years of undergrad (BA in music and BS in speech path) because I know I want to work as a voice specialist for the professional voice user population, which I wrote about in my SOP. I was in a good bit of undergraduate honor societies and held leadership positions on my campus, which apparently are all meaningless. So far I've been rejected from Vanderbilt (it was a long shot, I know, but they have such a focus on voice, I thought maybe...) and wait listed at Auburn. I'm waiting to hear back from Alabama, but apparently acceptance letters are rolling in and I haven't so much as gotten an e-mail. I'm just at the end of my rope. What did I do wrong?