autismadvocate

I had a dream that I got an interview at one of my schools! And then I woke up, and was deeply disappointed to find it wasn't true. Apparently I was in a wishful mood last night because after that I went back to sleep...and had a dream that the autistic child I care for was speaking in full paragraphs. Only to wake up and find that wasn't true either... (He does talk, but it's a pretty impressive thing if he strings five words together.)

I'm applying mostly to Florida schools - UCF, USF, and FSU.

Haha, no, I didn't even think of that! I just looked at all my grades, figured out what my last sixty hours were, and then did the math myself. (A or A+ = 4.0, A- = 3.67, etc...don't use my numbers, though, it varies by school.) You've got a little while to figure the personal statement out. If it helps, I found FSU's letter of intent prompt to be a common thread of the prompts for all the schools I applied to - check theirs out and start thinking in your head how you would respond. http://commdisorders.cci.fsu.edu/files/2011/06/SCSD_letter-of-intent.pdf If you find there are areas of your imaginary letter of intent (response to this) where you are weak or don't have much to say, then that's good guidance for what you can be working on.

Is UoP super expensive? I read somewhere that it's not a good idea to take on more debt in a graduate program than what you could expect to earn in your first year on the job as a rule of thumb. Seeing as the salary for the lowest paid 10% of SLPs is $44,000, that's a fair amount of leeway.

Thanks, LDadvocate!!!! You're right, they don't actually teach students much about autism. As a psychology major, it got brought up once buried in one chapter in my Abnormal Psychology class. That was it. And the CSD major doesn't seem to be that different, so far. Even parents of autistic children and autism professionals often don't know much about it. Which is really sad. I think part of the problem is that a lot of parents and professionals focus way too much on facts about autism - the theories about a cause, a list of symptoms, therapies/treatments, intelligence quotients, etc. What little was covered in my psych class fell along those lines. But they don't actually try to understand autism from the perspective of autistic people - they look at what autistic people do and not the rationale for doing it, the scientific cause for behaviors instead of the emotional cause, etc - and until you do that, I don't think you can understand autism. Now that you mention it, I haven't actually promoted it. I need to do that, glad you brought it up! It's in my signature on WrongPlanet (where the people already know about autism, because they're autistic, but I have it there because I'm seeking content contributors), and in my signature here, but that's pretty much all the promoting I've done, if you can even call it that. I'm always so scared I'm going to offend parents, which is part of the reason I'm nervous about mentioning it to them. The autism community is a RIDICULOUSLY controversial place to be. I talked about it in the Controversies page on the website (so you may have heard my take on this already), but basically there are two camps, the acceptance camp (mostly consisting of autistic people themselves) and the cure camp (mostly consisting of parents). Again, this is where the comparison to the Deaf community works really well. I strongly side with the acceptance camp, and though I tried to not show that too much in the website, there is definitely that vibe (especially in the negative narrative page, [ http://www.autismspectrumexplained.com/negative-narrative.html ] which for that reason is kind of buried but it's true so I don't want to remove it). But you're right, I should promote it more...and maybe I should grow a thicker skin while I'm at it, because the Internet can be a really rough place. Believe it or not, I only posses rudimentary computer skills, nothing along the lines of the knowledge needed to create a website. That's why I used a website maker. The one I used is called Weebly ( http://www.weebly.com ) and I like to tell people it's so easy to use that my grandma could do it, and she can't even double click. Because it really is that easy and it's free. I've made a bunch of websites through them and I highly recommend it.

madisong23, when was that written? Temple's views on autism have evolved a great deal over the years... Also, I should say that I, too, REALLY want to read The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. It just costs money...which I don't have. Did you know they're turning it into a movie?

That's what I've done with my gap year - I've been nannying children with autism who receive speech therapy. It's been a great experience, and I think it helps the applications, too. You can find special needs children to care for on Care.com, which is what I did. But, yes, you sound like you'll be fine. All of my schools asked for my last 60 hours GPA, along with the overall, so they can use that to see upward trends. I'd say even somebody with a 2.0 GPA overall that had a 3.98 last 60 credit hours would still have great odds of getting in because the last 60 hours counts for a lot.

Yikes...I hope you guys are all wrong because I wrote 1300 words for my FSU letter of intent. They said there was an 8000 character cap, so I wrote 7600 characters. Oops...

Haha, I'm here! I actually did read that book...I really liked it and got into it. I just remember reading the book and walking away hating the color brown and not knowing why until I realized I'd just gotten that into the book (the character hates the color brown). Haha, only a temporary effect, but definitely told me that it was an awesome book. I did read it back before I had much of any autism knowledge though (the only thing I had going for me at the time was a sister on the spectrum, and you know what they say, 'if you know one person with autism, you know one person with autism'), so I'd have to reread it to check accuracy now. If you're looking for good portrayals of autism, though, there are loads. I'll split them into multiple categories. Books: 1. The Unwritten Rules of Social Relationships: Decoding Social Mysteries Through the Unique Perspectives of Autism - This book just totally Blew. My. Mind. And that's not easy to do. I super highly recommend reading it, for many reasons. The title is kind of a misnomer, though. Here are the reasons it's awesome and highly recommended: A ) For those of us future SLPs, the book really goes into pragmatics in-depth. You will emerge with SUCH a better understanding of pragmatic difficulties from the autistic perspective. B ) It shows the diversity of the spectrum. There are actually two authors who teemed up to write this, Temple Grandin and Sean Barron (the son of the author of Look Me in The Eyes), both of whom have autism, but very different experiences with it. Sean Barron's experiences are so different from Temple's...they actually line up better with most autistic people I've actually met, especially my sister. Reading his words, I felt like I was understanding what my sister was going through for the very first time. And I'd read at least a bookshelf's worth of autism related books at that point, so that's saying something. C ) It's the best book about autism I've ever read. As I read it, I saw flashes of all the different people I know on the spectrum, from my sister, to my classmate, to my friend's brother. Things I hadn't understood before, or even thought of as being autistic, just clicked into place when I read it. I think the title is a bit of a throw off - it's not only useful for learning/teaching rules of social relationships, but for understanding the autistic perspective as a whole. We make autistic people adapt to our world - it's about time that we appreciated all the work that goes into it behind the scenes. It's about time that we better understand their world. And this book is the gateway to doing exactly that. Read it. *drops mic* 2. Personally all other books pale in consideration, but if you're still interested, I recommend Aspergirls. It helped me realize that my sister needed way more accommodations than we were giving her, and has a lot of stories from lots of women on the spectrum, a perspective that often goes overlooked. A book I haven't read fully (I am currently broke, as in double-digit bank account, so I only read the first free chapter on Amazon), but if their website and that one chapter are anything to judge by is awesome is A Thinking Person's Guide to Autism. My thoughts on biographies. Reading a book that describes one person's experience with autism, we go back to that whole 'if you know one person with autism, you know one person with autism' problem. They're great reads and certainly tend to be popular, but...it's still only one person. That's why the books I recommend tend to be multiple people. A not autism-related but still SLP related book I recommend is: No Pity: People with Disabilities Forging a New Civil Rights Movement Okay, so it's crazy old. And many facts are out of date. (I know because wow, the view of autism it has is backward.) But WOW what an introduction to a new paradigm of seeing people with disabilities, a paradigm SLPs, of all people, really need. And it's inexpensive (I think I got it on Thrift Books for $3). FREE RESOURCES Because most of us are broke, and these resources are still super awesome. TV Shows/Movies: The Bridge I have never watched it. Why? Because it seemed kind of scary and I'm a wimp when it comes to that. That said, the main character is autistic, and starting with episode two they had a (very well regarded - he's the founder of WrongPlanet, which I'll get into more later) consultant who has autism himself come on and make her autism realistic. It's gotten great reviews in that regard from the autistic community, so I recommend it. I think it's on FX. Loving Lampposts - http://www.hulu.com/watch/235717 This is free to watch on Hulu. While it doesn't so much explain autism, it does give you a great introduction to the autism community, the good, bad, and crazy sides, which you should know as an SLP because you'll be dealing with parents that are very much part of this world. Also known as an introduction to subtypes of parents of autistic kids - the ones that won't let their kids eat gluten/dairy/food dyes/GMOs/...you name it, I've seen it eliminated; the ones that feed their kids bleach (that wasn't a thing back in 2010, when this was made, but those sort of parents are definitely on there); and the ones that accept their kids for who they are. Plus a bit of autistic people talking about themselves. Web Resources: WrongPlanet - http://www.wrongplanet.net/ A discussion forum for people with autism themselves. They are very welcoming for people who aren't on the spectrum (case in point: me), so if you want to go and ask questions they will totally answer. Even if you don't want to join (it's free) or participate, thought, it's also another paradigm-shifting resource. Just go on and read what people on the spectrum themselves think is important and what they have to say. It also totally busts myths about autism, because there are plenty of people on there talking about relationships, people with great senses of humor, "non-verbal" people who participate and show they are quite intelligent, thank you very much, and just a whole different perspective about autism. The vast majority of autistic people are quite capable of expressing themselves on a forum like this. Here, they can speak for themselves instead of being spoken for (by the likes of Autism Speaks, which actually has no autistic people on its board and does not speak for autistic people...but I digress). If you're looking for a friend there, I haunt the site myself asking questions...my username is BigSister. The WrongPlanet YouTube Channel - http://www.youtube.com/user/theWrongPlanet/videos For all the same reasons WrongPlanet is awesome, their YouTube channel is, too. Lots of interviews and lots of autistic people expressing themselves. Want to Know More About Autism? Ask an Autistic - http://outrunningthestorm.wordpress.com/want-to-know-more-about-autism-ask-an-someone-who-is-autistic/ This is a directory, of sorts, to blogs and articles by autistic people explaining the answers to all sorts of different questions about autism, from what having sensory sensitivities feels like, to how they feel when their parents are told to mourn for them, to making eye contact. Basically more than you could ever hope to gain from buying one autistic person's biography, but way cheaper. The Thinking Person's Guide to Autism (Facebook page) - https://www.facebook.com/thinkingpersonsguidetoautism?ref=br_tf Just like their Facebook page and you'll get the links they post showing up in your newsfeed with high quality articles about autism, from the perspective of autistic people themselves and their parents. It'll also update you with current events in the autism world. An easy way to learn more about autism. Autism Spectrum Explained - http://www.autismspectrumexplained.com/2-terms--background.html If I could sneak some self promotion into here...check out my website, guys! Again, a free resource, explains autistic people from the autistic perspective, and I tried to make it easy to read. Skip article one (I'm in the process of editing it) and go straight to #2 (which I gave the link for). The goal of the website is to take readers from little to no understanding of autism all the way up to something approximating my understanding of autism (which I've developed over a lifetime) in just five articles, numbers two through six. Okay...so this was really long. And believe it or not, I didn't mention everything. But this has actually turned into a really good summary of resources (which I am totally going to update the Resources page on my site with, because this is much better organized). And it should definitely provide more than enough reading/watching material to choose from and last you through this painful application waiting period... :) If you do follow through with any of these resources, my sincere thanks. My goal in being an autism advocate has always been and will always be to make the world a better place for my sister. I know my pic says "awareness is not enough, promote autism acceptance" but really, there's an intermediate step that we need to take before we're ready for acceptance - understanding. And for every person that checks out one of these resources, we're just one step closer to that goal. One less person that will ask my sister if she has emotions. One less person that will treat her like she's stupid. And one more person that will not only understand autism, but will also be one of the rare professionals in a field that helps people on the spectrum who actually understands autism. That's a really powerful position, one from which we can do a world of good. So thanks.

It makes me feel better to hear that I'm not the only one with an application spreadsheet. Granted, mine's not technically a spreadsheet...but it is a color-coded table. I am officially an SLP app nerd...

Congratulations!!!! :) It actually sounds like all your majors and minors, while out of field, will be super applicable to speech pathology - it may not feel like it, but you actually have an awesome background. Hearing back from anyone who has gotten into a school actually makes me feel less anxious (annoyed that I won't be hearing back until March, yes, but less anxious), so thanks for the update! If you don't mind my asking, what are your stats?

Did you apply to any schools that didn't use the CSDCAS application? Believe it or not (and I didn't purposefully do this) not a single one of mine did. They were all school-specific apps. I don't know how CSDCAS works (because as I said, I didn't use it myself), but FSU was pretty flexible with me not having transcripts. Maybe send an unofficial copy of your transcript for review purposes to your schools, explaining and apologizing for the CSDCAS problems. That way they can have something to look at until your transcript is complete, and you can use the opportunity to express how interested you are in their specific program.

I kind of wish they were, or at least came with constructive criticism to go along with any rejections. That way you know what to fix for the next time around...

I think all of mine are Southern programs - FL, TX, and WV (is that still Southern?).

Waiting until March 1st! Three and a half long weeks...yes, I know I've complained about this already, but it's all I can think about!!!!

Sorry to hear that, smartypants14. Good luck with the others! I'll admit, I can't hardly believe that schools are sending back results so quickly...wow. Me, I have to wait another three and a half weeks to find out.

That it is. And you've shown commitment to the school by applying early, which I'm sure will stay in your record, so you've got that going for you.

Well, that didn't last long...I'm back to stressing already. I just want to knooooooooooooooooooow!!!!!!!!!!!

Done with apps! Granted, although everything's in at all the school's the status checker isn't reflecting it, which is making me kind of nervous, but I'm just going to ignore it and focus on the fact that I submitted everything! I thought it was impossible, but my stress levels have actually dropped way down...now I just have to do my work for my online CSD classes! And wait a month to start hearing back...

I already went through that myself, actually. I graduated in May, and I went through the summer with nothing to do. I thought I was going to relax, but instead I almost went crazy for lack of things to do. But then I invented things for myself to do and I was okay again. I worked on translating my website into Chinese and Spanish (and ultimately discovered that's a bit beyond my abilities, but hey, I tried), worked on my website, got more active on WrongPlanet, and eventually did the most productive thing of all, finally deciding to go back to school and become an SLP. If you want, you could do what I do for work. I felt like I should be doing some kind of job related to SLP work as well, so I've been nannying children on the autism spectrum that receive speech therapy. I feel like (1) I'm able to give back, because I actually care about helping these kids and many nannies don't seem to and (2) I'm getting exposure to speech therapy (I take the children to their appointments and they let you sit in) and how to help kids with their speech (before the child I'm with currently plays video games or on the iPad he has to do speech homework...AND I slip in speech [asking w-questions like, "Why is that cat so angry?"] while he's playing the games, too, so he's getting therapy even when he doesn't realize it!). I used Care.com to find families with special needs kids that needed care and I recommend it.

Nope, it doesn't have to all be complete (or I would be in trouble!). Actually, most schools have places to add courses that you're taking now and courses haven't done yet but will take before entering the program built into their applications. So you're fine.

Love the Sun, grades and GRE scores count for a lot, so maybe your odds are better than you think. That said, that's a really rough situation for you, only having one school - my sympathies.

Lillian, you sound quite competitive, don't worry so much! (Again, I'm a giant hypocrite there, but it's good advice even if I don't take it, lol.) Your in-major GPA is more important than overall, and since you can show an upward pattern to your grades (better GPA last two years) that makes it look even better. Plus with your GRE (which is much better than you made it sound - basically 150+ seems fine) and your experience, and the sheer number of schools you're applying to...I'd be ridiculously surprised if you didn't get in anywhere. That said, good luck!

twinguy7: Yikes! Man, I don't know about that. Maybe that was a very numbers-oriented school you visited. Because to me the fact that you work as an SLP right now serves as an important data point in your advantage. It shows me that you're committed to the career, you have a great perspective to contribute to the class, you have relevant experiences, among other things. I cannot see how that would not be something significant in your favor, except in a school that is super numbers-oriented. My thoughts exactly, mheroux92. I, too, have thought of traveling abroad again and helping out, on my side of things I'd want to work with autistic children. (Shocking to hear, I'm sure, given my penname and interests, lol.) But, ignoring the fact that I can't travel right now, I also will be of far more value to the children there (and by there I'm referring to China in particular, but also to a lesser extent Latin America) with my degree than without it.

I didn't know you worked as an SLP! Okay, I'd say your odds just went up. I can't say you're definitely getting into a school (I won't say that for myself, either), but let's just say I would be deeply surprised if you didn't get into *at least* one.