SLPamy

I am not a native Spanish speaker, but I am applying to a bunch of bilingual programs (all of them in my sig except Northwestern and UIUC). Even if a program says that they have a "bilingual" or "multicultural" track, you should research what the program entails. Some schools have additional classes you have to take that will teach you about serving bilingual populations or things like Spanish phonetics (Marquette, UT-Texas, Indiana-Bloomington) while others just try to place you with bilingual/monolingual Spanish-speaking clients and may offer an independent study in an area related to serving bilingual clients (Chapel Hill). I also think that some schools are willing to give you bilingual clients/placements even if they do not have an established bilingual track, especially for native speakers.

If you're looking for a forum for SLPs, I would recommend http://livejournal.com/community/speechpathology - it has more actual SLPS instead of prospective grad students!

I took the GRE in the summer, and had my scores sent to a few schools including University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I meant to e-mail them before the deadline to make sure they received and saved my scores (because they would have received them in the summer before I started an application). I forgot to e-mail them. The deadline was January 15. Do you think it would make me look bad to e-mail them now to make sure they received my scores? It's obviously after deadline. Or should I just wait and see if they contact me? I did e-mail Marquette, who I also sent my scores to in the summer, and even though they explicitly stated they would not save scores they received before an application was turned in, they had kept my scores and I didn't need to resend them. I don't want to be a pest but the possibility that they didn't receive my scores is freaking me out!

My profs always said to either go on a prospective students day if you want to meet faculty, or go on your own but don't expect to talk to faculty. They simply don't have time to meet individually with hundreds of applicants. I haven't visited any schools yet... I think I will wait until I get accepted into a program. Some of my schools are so far away I don't have the money/time to visit even if I decide to attend (which is scary...).

This is a good topic! I wish that I sought out an internship during my earlier years of college. If I had tried, I could have easily gotten one at a local speech and hearing center who frequently takes students from my school. I wish that I had tried to get involved in research. I also wish that I had more experience - even just shadowing/observing - in the medical setting. I wish that when I took the GRE, I had known which schools to send my scores to. I took it early on last summer so I just picked a few schools I thought I'd be applying to. Later on, I had to resend my scores to a few of the schools I had chosen because I didn't send them to the CSDCAS code, but to the school code. Or, I had to resend them because the school didn't store GRE codes unless an application was already started/turned in. Speaking of the GRE, I wish that I had practiced writing more of the essay prompts. That section totally freaked me out (mainly the time limit) and I know that I am capable of at least a 4.5 or greater. I just got so overwhelmed by that section. I also wish that I had made an effort to do my personal statements sooner. I wish that I had started a few general drafts in the summer and had them all finished before winter break. I still have to write one more statement and I just really don't want to lol. UGH

As long as they have your original transcript (not the AU/Fall grades) you should be fine. You don't need anything verified by the deadline for orange-coded schools, they just need to have all of the documents (not including new transcript with fall 2013). Technically AU is open until February so you really shouldn't worry about that.

I do think that some schools develop "reputations" that can influence the way an admissions committee views a prospective student from that school. Like if, in the past, students from that undergrad program were admitted and looked great on paper, but didn't fare well in the grad program, the grad admissions committee may remember that next time they see an applicant from that school. So I'm sure that if you went to a school with a very good undergrad program, that has a good reputation with the grad schools you're applying to, that will be taken into account even if your GPA is slightly lower. However, if a school has a cut-off (like below 3.5 or something), I think they just don't even consider your application regardless of what university you came from. I went to a small, private school that grad programs outside of the midwest probably haven't heard of, and I really hope they don't think that I got a 4.0 easily because of that. GPAs and GRE scores should be comparable - that is the point of them. As far as someone coming from out-of-major, I think admissions committees have a different way of evaluating their application so I'm not sure about that.

I had my interview for the STEPS program on Friday. I was super nervous but it was not bad at all - it lasted about 10 minutes. The website www.conversationexchange.com is a great tool to practice your Spanish with native speakers if you think that would help you. Beforehand, I practiced saying a few general things I thought they might ask about, and that seemed to help me a bit. Apparently they only take 5-8 people into the STEPS program, so even though I felt okay about my interview, I will be pretty surprised if I get in. Good luck!

I was wondering about this too! If someone figures this out, please let us know! I'm so confused!

We're applying to so many of the same schools! I also have U of I left, along with Elmhurst and Northwestern. I'm aiming for getting all my drafts done before Christmas. Good luck to you sayjo and asemoooooo!

Is there anyone else not even close to finishing applications? I submitted 5 applications that I was able to use similar(ish) personal statements for. I now have 3 schools left that all require different personal statements. The 5 statements I've already done were geared towards bilingual programs and the remaining 3 aren't so I honestly can't reuse any material. It just stinks because I am so mentally checked out now that the semester is over and I'm finding it so hard to get motivated. Someone please tell me I am not alone in feeling like this!

I would trust the school's website over the ASHA stats, which may be outdated.

If you can take any AP classes that would get you out of some gen eds that are unrelated to the field, that might be helpful. I'm thinking like AP English or AP History. That way, you can jump right into major classes. You can also take some subjects that can help prepare you for the classes you'll have to take for speech pathology, like biology, physics, anatomy & physiology, and statistics (even if they're not AP classes). If you have a background in the subject, it might help you when you're taking the college level courses. I took anatomy & physiology in high school and I did feel that it helped me when I was taking my anatomy & physiology for speech and hearing class.

Thank you! I'm about to submit my ApplyTexas app today so I just wanted to double check. And that's awesome - I currently attend Elmhurst right now so if you have any specific questions please let me know! It really is a great school.

It's awesome that you're not giving up! I think that alone should mean something to admissions committees. I would definitely apply to more than 2 places (I'm assuming from your signature that that's what you did)... and look at schools that don't consider the GRE! I know someone who got into grad school last year without ever taking the GRE. Since you are taking it again, I would say to try to focus on areas you know you're not strong in. Your experiences sounds great though. I'm not sure what else you can add before applications are due - maybe try to get involved in research? Are you doing okay in your pre-req classes? I think that will also be significant. Besides that, definitely try to keep your spirits up! And rock your personal statements!

Can someone confirm this for me - we do not submit our personal statement to the ApplyTexas application, right? We submit our application without any essays, and then submit the personal statement onto the Application Status Check. It does say this pretty clearly on the application and their website, I'm just paranoid and don't want to do something wrong, haha.

I may be wrong, but I was under the impression that you needed a certificate to work with bilingual clients in their non-English language. So even if you are a native Spanish speaker, without the certificate you would not be able to work with a bilingual client in Spanish. My sister is a bilingual (Spanish-English) kindergarten teacher and she is always complaining because there are no certified SLPs to work with her kids that need therapy, even though there are SLPs that speak Spanish. I have looked into it, as I'm minoring in Spanish, but I don't think I'm advanced enough to actually get certified. If I was a native speaker I definitely would do it! I live in the Chicago area as well and from what I hear bilingual SLP's definitely get more $$$$$ because they're in such high demand. Plus, you can also find agencies to pay for your grad school if you agree to work as a bilingual SLP for them for x amount of years after graduating. I know at Marquette the bilingual speech path students just have to take like 4 extra classes, and most of their clients are bilingual. But even if all of your clients are bilingual or native Spanish speakers, they will all still have different disorders... so it's not like you won't be exposed to different things? You will obviously still have to learn about the same things every other grad student learns about. As far as keeping your language skills in tact, this website is interesting/useful: www.conversationexchange.com

You look like a strong candidate to me, but I do understand that you're applying to some competitive programs. I would say that you should definitely prepare for the GRE as much as you can. I say this in like every post but Magoosh (http://gre.magoosh.com) was amazing for me. I think a very strong GRE score would balance out an OK GPA. Would you be able to get in the upper 150's or 60's in either section? You seem to have a lot of strong research/volunteer experience. The fact that you are bilingual and male is significant in my opinion as well. If you have the resources/time to retake maybe a class you got the lowest grade in, I guess that could be worth it. But like I said, I think studying for the GRE should be your priority for the next month or two.

I would suggest that you use ASHA's EdFind website (http://www.asha.org/edfind/search.aspx) to search for graduate programs in the states you want, and also look at the admissions data they have (GPA, GRE score, etc.) to see how you compare.

I saw that University of North Carolina-Greensboro had "Transgender Voice" listed as a unique feature on their ASHA EdFind page.

My current school, Elmhurst College, is starting their grad program this year. It's a small private school in the Chicago suburbs, just a train ride away from downtown. It's honestly a great location - very cute area, near a large hospital, and has connections in the city as well. I'm sure they would love to have more out-of-state applicants, especially since they took like 10+ seniors from our undergraduate program for this upcoming year. It's a great undergraduate program, so I fully believe it will be a good graduate program as well.

Hello everyone! I'm starting my last semester at Elmhurst College (located in the Chicago suburbs) this fall, where I'm majoring in Speech-Language Pathology and minoring in Spanish. I have a 4.0 GPA and I took the GRE last month and scored 165 V, 155 Q, and 4 AW. I know I totally dropped the ball on the writing section, which was so disappointing because I consider writing one of my strengths. I definitely considered re-taking the GRE, but ultimately decided that it wouldn't be worth all the stress and studying just to get a 4.5 or 5. For those of you who are still studying for the GRE, I HIGHLY recommend Magoosh (http://gre.magoosh.com/). I have around 40 clinical hours in our school's clinic, I hold leadership positions in NSSLHA and Best Buddies, I have experience volunteering with children with special needs, and I just completed an internship tutoring children in literacy. I also studied abroad in Costa Rica twice and I plan on teaching abroad in South America after I graduate this February. Unfortunately, I don't think my Spanish is strong enough to get me into a bilingual program but I may just apply to some for the heck of it. I have not decided where to apply, mainly because I can't decide if I want to stay in Illinois or go out-of-state. I'm also trying to decide if the top 10/25 schools are truly worth the hefty price tag. Here are some of the schools I'm thinking of applying to: Elmhurst College (our grad program is actually starting this fall), Northwestern, U of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Indiana U-Bloomington, Marquette University, U of Texas-Austin, U of Wisconsin-Madison. I'm thinking of applying to some schools on the west coast too, but need to do more research on some good schools. I would love to apply to some good, smaller schools as well but I don't know many outside of Illinois (any recs in Texas/California/west coast area?).

Those scores are DEFINITELY above average, and I truly believe that it would be a waste of time for you to retake the GRE. I promise you that a 157 Q score will not be holding you back.