Yeah, I think we may be in similar situations. Currently, I'm in the post-bac program at University of Washington, and won't be finished until the last week of August basically, so it will be quite a dramatic transition to finish finals and then quickly move to Austin. Honestly, i don't know too much about the UT program except for it's bilingual certification. I remember being interested in their research and lab in fluency. I haven't been able to visit either school, so I've just been trying to glean what i can from their websites; University of Oregon has a brand new Speech therapy clinic, and they have mandatory practicums for school and medical environments with a straightforward approach to clinical training. For the University of Texas, I can't quite paint the picture in my mind based on their website information. I haven't visited either school and won't have a chance to.
Are you a currently a student at PSU? What type of research are you interested in?
Thank you and good luck to you also!
You also bring up a good point about research and rankings. I'm leaning more on the clinical focus, though you never know when lightning may strike and you start to feel super interested in a particular aspect. Thank you for your response!