autismadvocate

I'm at Florida State University, and my clinic supervisor is getting certified as an auditory verbal therapist. Probably a good place to check out - they're very big on auditory verbal here.

I think the only reason I got a phone call was because I actively sent an email to the grad advisor about it (asking to turn down the offer). I do agree, it's a terrible situation and I feel really bad for your friend. Thankfully this happened late in the game so hopefully most people with these emails had already gotten offers elsewhere.

Nope, it's true. I was removed from the wait list there, but somehow something happened and an acceptance email was sent out along with the removal from waitlist email. I can take it in stride like this because, well, I already accepted at Florida State, which is my top choice.

So, just got a very nice phone call from a sweet lady who works in graduate admissions saying that I was not, in fact, accepted and that the email was erroneous. It was a mistake on their part but they're responding to it really well. Either way, though, for me at least it made for a rather amusing experience!

So...I just got simultaneously accepted and rejected from Texas State. No, really, I got the emails back to back. Here's the weirdest thing - I actually withdrew my application almost a month ago (accepted elsehwere). After my withdrawal they emailed me saying I had been waitlisted, but all I had to do was not reply to the email to be removed from the waitlist. So, of course, I just waited to be removed as promised and sure enough, that was the email I got today saying that since I hadn't replied I was getting denied...but there was another email saying I was accepted. What an odd experience overall! Just thought I'd share it with you guys, lol.

CONGRATULATIONS TWINGUY7!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know how hard you worked for that and I am SO happy to hear that you're accepted! You're going to go on and be an amazing SLP and I am so excited for you to be able to go out and live your dream. And, yes, you've always been accepted here. I find myself hoping that my graduate program cohort will be this warm and accepting, because wow, those of you here at gradcafe set the bar high. Wish we could all go to the same program!

Interestingly, despite having emailed them several weeks ago withdrawing my application (perhaps I had the wrong address?) I just got waitlisted at Texas State.

That is way better than I thought it was going to be, actually. Not that I'm saying what you're doing is easy, it's just that I thought it was going to be even harder.

I specifically chose schools based on which ones have good autism programs. FSU was the best one I found (which is why I'm so excited to be going!!!).

I chose Florida State. My reasons are many, but here are the top ones, listed in order of importance: 1. They have an awesome autism program - which I REALLY hope I get into! (I find out next Tuesday - oh, goodness, I'm so nervous!) 2. They have a great program overall. 3. They're near(ish) family. 4. They're inexpensive, comparatively speaking. 5. They're in Florida, meaning it won't get too cold! It's so unbelievable that I'll be going there in the Fall. It was just everything I was looking for in a school. Now I'm just REALLY hoping to get into the autism program - if I do, this will have been a dream come true application season!

Quinn, I try. But it's just SO hard to ease into and do in a way where the person doesn't feel defensive. I called out someone online recently for using the word retarded and this is the response I got from a bystander of the conversation - it was so disheartening. It's just ridiculous the kind of backlash and defensiveness that's out there - I wasn't even talking to this person and they got offended!!!! It's just really frustrating. Glad to know there are other advocates out there.

I am a girl, but was thinking about something and wanted to get you guys' thoughts. It's weird how different fields have different gender makeups. I was an economics major and it was incredibly uncomfortable, because even in my biggest classes I was one of only a few women in the class and in another I was the only one. I felt like I was being judged all the time, like if I messed up (which I did plenty, economics is HARD!) it would be taken as a reflection on women. (Because, you know, that whole idea that women can't do math.) My professors treated me differently, too. There was probably some cultural influences there, because they were from different countries, but it was still really weird. And my male classmates were well aware I was the only female classmate, so all of a sudden I was drowning in 'study buddies' (who, thankfully, did help me study, but still, it was a weird dynamic). And now I come into this field and it's almost completely women. While it is a relief not to be the only girl anymore, having been on the other side I can relate to what it's like to be in the minority and I was wondering, guys, do you feel the same discomfort I did? And if so, how would you propose that your classmates help ease it?

I love diversity. I grew up going to magnet schools. If you're not familiar, where I'm from magnet schools are a type of school whose goal is to encourage racial desegregation (those of you from other countries are probably going to be horrified to hear those exist and there's still a need for them). For my school what that meant was that at least either the principal or assistant principal had to be black and a certain percentage of children at the school had to be black, too. Then I went to high school at a non-magnet school and it was really not diverse - only two black students were in our graduating class. (To our school's credit, it was a graduating class of sixty and there were a fair number of Asian and a handful of Latino students, so it's not quite as bad as it sounds, but still...) And then finally I went to a university. And WOW. It was amazing. It was diverse in every way, shape, and form. On my walk to class, I heard at least two foreign languages every day. I got to meet people from countries all over the world. And not only were there international students, there were plenty of domestic diverse students, too. Asian, Latino, Black, White, old, young, disabled, LGBTQ, Muslim, Buddhist, atheist, it was a beautiful melting pot of people. And I loved every minute of it. As you can see, I've had a lot of experience with schools and diversity. And there were some common themes I noticed. First of all, when children were forced to be together in the magnet schools, ironically enough there was less mixing. I remember being scared of the black girls in elementary school. Not by virtue of the fact that they were black - one on one I was friends with several of them - but, and I was too young to notice if this was self-segregation or due to pressure, they grouped together and were pretty mean to anyone out-group (and if I was one on one playing with someone, they stopped playing with me as soon as someone else from their group came up...even if they actually wanted to play with me. The white kids probably did the same to the black kids, I don't know, I wasn't particularly part of their group either - I, unfortunately, was a ridiculously unpopular kid so I was happy with stragglers from either group that would accept me. My point, though, is that the whole 'put race first' attitude in constructing schools didn't work very well. Then, of course, my high school didn't take race into consideration at all. This led to the opposite problem, where we had pretty much no black students (few minorities of any sort, for that matter, unless you count girls who seriously outnumbered boys). But college was such a wonderfully diverse experience. And what I think they did right was weighing race as a factor...but not making it THE factor (which, on top of being incredibly unfair, would not solve the problem). The other thing I noticed that separated my schools was honors programs. Consistently, honors programs were less diverse. My high school was an honors program, and my college dormitory was through honors as well (I had about 100 dormmates over the years and only a handful were black, a handful Latino, and a handful Asian...that's it, and as I mentioned, otherwise the school was INCREDIBLY diverse). Both had minimum requirements to enter, and both required applications. I don't know if it's just fewer diverse students who meet requirements or fewer who apply, but that anecdotally does seem to be a big weed-out factor, and that's a problem. I'm wondering if SLP has the same problem, probably with few students applying. My guess is the problem isn't something that needs to be fixed on the admission side of things, it's a recruitment and education problem. And that's the end that we should be working at to solve it. Just my two cents based on my experiences. Interested to hear you guys' thoughts.

Pues, a mí me parece que un programa bilingüe seguramente va a tener clientes bilingües, entonces no creo que la localidad del programa es tan importante. Sin embargo, estoy totalmente de acuerdo con las otras características de su lista.

So sorry! Hope it will be worth the wait!!!