autismadvocate

twinguy, since your GRE scores and CSD GPA are, your work at the neuroscience clinic looks good, and you're applying to a lot of schools, so long as you've got good letters of rec and a good letter of intent, which I would assume you do, I would say your odds of getting accepted somewhere are pretty good!

artsyrunnergirl, we have the opposite problems. I know where I want to go (or at least my top choice and my second choice - my bottom three get jumbled), but I'm still worried about whether or not I'll get accepted to any of them. My rational brain, thankfully, is telling me that the odds of me not getting into any of the five schools is ridiculously low...but I will feel SO much better when I know for sure! mheroux92, it's nice you have a plan either way! One of the reasons I'm so anxious is that I don't really have a back up plan...it raises the stakes. Congrats on being done with all your apps!!!!

Will you be posting the manual online anywhere after you finish it? I'm a caregiver for technically one child on the autism spectrum (actually two - parents are in denial about big brother because he's "higher functioning"), and that sounds like a great thing to use with him. Also, your stats sound fine, don't stress so much! (Okay, so maybe I'm a hypocrite there, but it's still good advice!) SLP programs seem to weight GPA more heavily than GRE - basically so long as you're 150+ on both sections, you're doing well.

I feel your pain. I don't know how to feel about UCF - I was delighted when I checked my email and saw this message this morning: Thank you for applying for graduate studies at the University of Central Florida! Your application to the Comm Sciences and Disorders MA program for Fall 2014 has been received and processed. Any application supporting documents received as of today have also been processed. But then I was less delighted when I checked my application status and saw that two of my letters of rec for UCF still haven't made it, which means they weren't processed... *sighs* I will be so glad when this whole process is over and I'm actually in grad school!!!!!

It's like my LoR writer reads this thread - I just got an email! Thank you, application gods!!!! tchris, hope it works out for you, too!

Also, on the anxiety front, I am ridiculously anxious right now. One of my LoR writers isn't responding to my emails...yikes! That line between emailing your LoR writer so much that they hate you after this is all over and not emailing enough is just ridiculously hard. I don't want them to hate me....but I also need a reply so I know she's sending the letter that's due Saturday!!! I can only hope that all schools I'm applying to really are more flexible with deadlines for letters of rec...

Huh. I think only one of my programs has a separate bilingual cognate, but they also have an autism cognate which I would choose instead. I wonder if that's the sort of thing you can do a certificate program in later on?

I re-checked and they have (finally) received my transcripts. However, now none of my recommendation letters are showing up and I know for a fact that at least one has been submitted. *sighs*

Congrats, SLPamy!!!! :) I wish I could say the same... UCF is driving me nuts with the slow updates on the status checker! My transcripts mailed to them on the 22nd. It is now almost a week later, and the universities are seriously just an hour or two apart, and my transcript should definitely be there by now. But it's not showing up in the status checker - it's making me nervous!!!

It's rough, because there's this conception out there that autistic people aren't intelligent. My sister is an autism advocate herself, but knowing she has autism means people consistently devalue her intelligence. She's an adult, but when she went to a function educating police about autism, the question people there chose to ask her (it was a question and answer) was "What's your favorite color?" It's a low ball little kid question that you ask people you don't think are very smart. The question a father of a newly diagnosed child chose to lead with this weekend talking to her was "What's your favorite food?" Her reply? Palestinian. And then the two of us made it very clear that she is in college, doing super well, and an Honors student. The child I'm watching now went to see a psychologist for his diagnosis. Despite only having met him for a couple of hours (and not having done any tests or anything), the guy said the child has a ridiculously low IQ. Having spent time with this child, I can tell you that's not the case. Does he talk as much as other children? No, he struggles with verbal language. Does he stim and melt down? Yes, definitely. But that has nothing to do with whether or not he's smart (he is actually quite bright). Here's an article on measures of autistic intelligence you might enjoy... http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/16-03/ff_autism?currentPage=all I actually didn't know there was such thing as a bilingual certification. How do you get that?

I think I am going to contact DCF, yes. After I got that out of my system I started thinking and decided to do it. Because really, it's bleach. The not giving meds for worms thing could be evaded on the religious freedom thing. The giving your child bleach, however, is causing harm and there's no way they can evade that.

I've actually done tutoring for special needs kids myself - specifically, I've tutored and nannied kids on the spectrum. Let me tell you, it is one of the most beautiful, painful experiences out there. It's beautiful because I can help the kids a lot. It's painful because I can't tell their parents what to do. I can suggest and lead by example, but I don't have the all important professional degree to make it so they'll listen to me (sounds similar to your experience?). I wish I could get professional licensures in everything - be a psychologist, SLP, ABA therapist, and a doctor - so parents would be more likely to heed my words. Sadly, they do listen to me a degree, because I have a Bachelor's in psychology and I'm working on adding a CSD post-bacc. But those things have nothing to do with the reason I know how to help their children. I know how to help them because I understand autistic people, something neither my BA nor my post-bacc (so far) have taught me. But without my degrees, no one would bother to even pause to hear what I had to say. But if I was a degreed psychologist, perhaps a parent would listen to me when I tell them their child is autistic. As an SLP, maybe they'd listen to me as I tell them how to work with their child on communication. With ABA certification, they might pay me more heed and let me tell them about discipline. And as a doctor I could tell them that the gluten free diet (for kids without stomach problems), camel's milk, chelation, and freaking feeding their children bleach! (known as MMS) are not necessary (in the case of gluten free and camel's milk) and incredibly harmful (chelation and bleach). One of the things that breaks my heart is that I unknowingly fed an autistic child bleach. I babysit children on the spectrum and parents contact me online to come and care for their children. One parent contacted me and I babysat her son. I refuse to ever do so again. Because I can't successfully get DCF involved (how I wish I could, but not giving her child medication and using alternative "medication" [bleach] are things she could totally invoke "religious freedom" on) and it just breaks my heart to see her son. Her four year old autistic son had worms, had had worms for over six blessed months with no sign of them going away because she wouldn't give him medication. (There is a vocal group of 'autism parents' who avoid traditional medicine at all costs, and she is one.) While I was there, she had me feed him camel's milk (some enterprising camel's milk seller decided to say camel's milk cures autism) and something she called by an acronym, which I recently figured out was bleach. The mom spent so much time trying to 'cure' her son's autism that she didn't interact with her son. And their back yard was just unsafe and I was terrified to let the child back there, as I'd been told to do. I wish I was certified because then maybe I could DO something! Heck, I wish I was a DAN! (defeat autism now) doctor, because even though they're quacks, having that certification means you might actually get listened to in that crazy sub-realm of the autism world which I wish could be banished forever, but the likes of Jenny McCarthy have popularized. There's my rant. That's the reason autism advocacy is so needed. That's the reason I wish everyone was an autism advocate, because there are kids out there suffering and it breaks my heart. On a lighter topic, I am not ethnically Chinese - as far as my background, I'm Latina myself, and I studied Chinese in school. But we had several ethnically Chinese Latinos in my Chinese program - I remember turning around hearing this beautiful Spanish pouring out of their mouths, but when it came time to recite a poem in Chinese....well, they definitely sounded like first year Chinese students (which they were). I don't know what it was like for them when they went to China, but it was probably pretty rough because when you look Chinese people expect you to speak fluently and they didn't. My personal statement was story-ish. I centered it around my journey to deciding to become an SLP, which meant I went all the way back to the day my sister (who has autism) was born (which I used for my hook). Of course, I barely touched on that part (it's not THAT much of a story), but it definitely has a story vibe. I wanted to convey my stats and experience and interest in their school...but I also wanted them to get to know and like me as a person.

Haha, no need for apologies ImpulsiveNixie! To each his/her/ze's own! lol Personally, I find a lot of areas of SLP practice fascinating - if I weren't committed to autism, I would totally do something with aphasia or bilingualism. Agreed about California, though, that does sound interesting!

Everyone who related to #5, I feel for you. It seems like we live in an ever increasingly judge-y society in that regard, where we're expected to know at least by the time we're 22 (if not 18) what we want to do with our lives and be well down the path towards said goal. Heck, 15 year old high schoolers these days have to declare majors. And yet we have very little life experience to base these decisions on. It's very frustrating. All through high school and college my family must have thought I was changing my mind constantly whenever they'd ask me what career I was aiming for. I knew that "I don't know" wasn't an acceptable answer, so I just said whatever career came to mind. I must have seemed like I jumped all over, but in reality I had no clue what I wanted to do, I just made up things. Now, of course, I finally know what I want to do and there is such a relief in truly knowing and having clarity! But I wish society (AKA my family) hadn't been so judgemental during those years I was deciding.

I've never heard of it, so I would tread carefully...

tchris - where's the thread where people started hearing back last year? I want to see when people heard back from my schools.

LDadvocate, First off, I love your username! And I'm glad you appreciated the thread. Letters of recommendation are my least favorite part of any application process. I always feel really bad about asking, even though I know it's part of a professor's job, because I feel like I'm bugging them. And then having to bug them with reminders because they haven't finished it yet (THE DAY BEFORE THE APP IS DUE!) makes me feel terrible, too. I sent out a survey to people from my high school recently, as a kind of informal way to catch up and see what everyone's doing. Little did I know the reason a lot of people didn't take it was because they were waiting 'until they were doing better things with their lives.' We're not going to judge. Heck, I'm not doing huge things with my life (I'm currently a part time nanny living in my parent's house, not very glamorous) and I started the survey! Actually, most of us are like that. I can't tell you how many people from my high school are still figuring their lives out. It's normal and nothing to be ashamed of. As for the perfect people, I dunno, some of us are just perfectionistic and have a warped view of the world. I feel just as insecure about my chances of getting into grad school as most people with a 3.0 would. not that it makes any sense. When I was applying to undergrad, my dad was telling me that no school was going to accept me and I wasn't good enough to get in anywhere. This is despite the fact that I had a 4.1 GPA and a 34 ACT score, plus an IB diploma. I knew he was wrong, but he told me that enough times that it really got in my head and stuck there, so even though I logically know I'm a good candidate for SLP Masters programs, I can't get his voice out of my head saying that I'm not going to get in anywhere. It sucks and that's where a lot of my anxiety comes from. This time around I got a 155 on the quantitative section of the GRE. I hid my score from him, because if a 34/36 ACT wasn't good enough, there's no way that will be. Heck, I don't talk about applications for grad school at all - the one time I mentioned I was anxious about my transcripts making it to FSU he basically told me I was screwed, and that I should ditch my job and drive to the school to plead with them because there was no way I was going to get in otherwise. I know it's his anxiety talking (the FSU thing turned out fine, as I told him, the school was just backlogged), but it really messes with me. And no, of course you haven't offended anyone!

argslp, yes, it does feel nice to get reassurance that you're not the only one worrying about this whole process - I know I was relieved. (I shouldn't be, of course, because that means you guys are suffering, too, but at least I don't feel so alone...) And, oof, emmikate, I feel for you. It's got to be nervewracking! But three schools can totally be enough - it just depends on your stats and your schools. If your stats are very good and/or your schools are very not competitive, you have a great chance of being successful.

Finished my third application! Gah! I was so freaking out about it and getting all perfectionistic, so I just pushed "Submit" because I knew it would never be perfect but it was already quite good and I wanted to get the app in with plenty of time to spare to allow room for application technical glitches or whatever else might pop up. Glad it's done! Next up is sending out recommendation letter requests (they just have a simple form that needs filling out, so I'm just going to email it to my recommenders) for that app, and then finishing up with my last application. The last one has been taking longer because it's mostly a paper application, strange as it may seem. I have never submitted a paper application before, so I'm out of my comfort zone there....

SLPamy, It doesn't sound dumb at all. I don't have animals myself, but I know that when I'm petting a cat (or an older dog that will actually stay still to be petted), I suddenly feel much less anxious. You won't be taking time away from my statement. I'm still battling procrastination, for one thing (although I did take care of my transcript issues today!). For another, I have always found helping others as one of the best ways to help myself, as strange as it may seem - I can't explain it, but it does seem to work. Actually, after giving you the advice I went and got a lot of work done on apps which I wouldn't have done otherwise. And your situation, with the anxiety, sounds very similar to my own and I relate to what you're feeling quite strongly and want to help. My own statement is already done (I submitted it to two schools already), but I'd still be happy to read over yours if you haven't changed your mind. Also, I'm sure you're aware of this already, but WOW that's awesome that you have a woman at your school whose job is to help with personal statements! My progress report: Okay, so while I'd intended to get a new app done, I had a fright when I realized I'd only sent the transcripts from ONE of my schools out, but not from my other school. So I spent my time frantically ordering transcript copies. I'll try to get some more work done on the app I'd planned to do tonight...

SLPamy, I'm not done yet either, and I too have a February 1st deadline, so it's really stressing me out. Actually, I've been procrastinating on one app the past three days, so I can really relate. I have a lot of the same anxiety issues you do, it sounds like, and though I don't bit my nails it takes its toll on my body in other ways. A small suggestion, from my experience: find a friend, loved one, anyone supportive of your grad school endeavors. And just have them sit near you while you work. They don't have to say anything (in fact, they shouldn't say anything), just be a soothing presense and someone to make you feel accountable for getting work done (because they're watching - again, they shouldn't actually say or do anything). For me that gives me the push I need to confront my anxiety, and it makes me feel calmer to have them close. A lot of my friends use this method, too, and it really helps them. Also, try not to think of it as "I have to write a personal statement" if you're having trouble working. Try to take it line by line. Give yourself permission to stop working after you've finished a line. So, for instance, right after you read this you'd go open a Word document and write one sentence (or do something constructive, like make an outline). After that sentence, give yourself permission to stop working, but ask yourself, can't I just write one more sentence? It's just one sentence after all, not threatening. And then, if you write the next sentence, ask yourself, can't I write just one more? Keep going like that for as long as you want. And really do allow yourself to stop work if you want to - giving yourself permission to leave takes a lot of the anxiety away. You're not sitting down to write the whole thing, you're just writing one sentence. That is another of the many ways I personally overcome anxiety that would otherwise be crippling, and it might help you, too. PM me, btw, and we can talk about this. Once you get it written, I'd be happy to edit it for you. I'm actually a writing tutor and I've helped many students edit application essays successfully and would be happy to help you (for free, of course). And that way you wouldn't be doing the editing and would have an outside person to reaffirm that it's a good statement and help you not second-guess). Heck, any of you guys that are feeling crippled by anxiety, PM me. I think it would be really constructive - a way to support and encourage each other. Also, partially to reassure myself, and partially for you guys, know that having this anxiety doesn't reflect on us in any bad way. It means we care about this, and that's a good thing. It doesn't mean we'll be nervous wrecks in grad school or anything (or, even if we were, it doesn't mean it'd negatively impact our performance - personally, my anxiety comes from perfectionism, so it's actually a symptom of the fact that I over-achieve). I think posting progress reports here would also good for those of us who are so anxious we're having trouble working. Here's my progress report: I managed to email a professor and let her know the address of a school she needs to send my letter to! One small step, I know, but I have a fair amount of inertia in the right direction now, and I'm going to go finish my Texas State app after I post this.

Okay, PsycD - definitely agreed on the whole needing a "heart attack imminent" option. I tried to update the poll to add that, but it wouldn't let me. Might I just say, though, I am ridiculously envious of those two people who aren't really nervous. Whatever you guys are doing to accomplish that, please share it with those of us who are in the 'heart attack imminent' category! I am so stressed about applications, it's not even funny. You guys who didn't make it in previously, yes, those are exactly the kinds of stories that freak me out and prompted me to reach this level of anxiety in the first place. (You should totally keep venting, btw, don't take that as me telling you to stop, I'm just venting, too.) Unfortunately, my reaction to stress is procrastination because I just get so nervous about things that I can't touch them. I'm pretty good at countering that reaction, as demonstrated the grades I pulled in college and the fact that I've finished 2/4 grad apps, but it's still painful and a battle for me to so much as think about my grad apps, much less work on them. It sucks.... Overall, glad I started this thread! It's one thing to logically think you can't be alone in freaking out about apps, and quite another to actually have confirmation. I feel so much less alone now, and that's nice. I'm going to be so very happy when this is over...

Let me tell you, I've been seriously stressing out this past month or so, and I know I will continue to be anxious until I finally get the acceptances or rejections from my schools (after which point I will either be desolate or elated). I figure I can't be the only one with this application anxiety, because I have pretty good stats and experience and I'm STILL freaking out. So I figured this thread could be a place for people to come and vent and support each other while we finish off this application season. Share your stories and take the application anxiety poll! I'll start. Here's my story: In all the schools I looked at (even the ones I decided not to apply for) the highest acceptance rate was 36%. Which means the least competitive school I'm applying to still rejects 64% of its applicants. Wow. That is really scary and I can't help stressing about whether or not I'll get in to any of my schools. A year off doesn't have to be a terrible thing...but I've already taken a year off and exhausted what generosity my family was willing to show me, so if I had to go into a second year, I don't know what I'd do.

Wait - I didn't realize all of FL programs were competitive! Making me nervous, here, because 2/4 schools I'm applying to are in FL! I think I am applying to "less competitive" schools. Or at least schools where the average stats are below mine. Since I used strength of autism-related resources as my main criteria, and cost as the secondary criteria, I didn't pay attention to rankings and ended up applying to schools that are all over the competitive-ness spectrum. Of course, by the nature of SLP grad schools, even the least competitive school I'm applying to (Marshall University, in WV) has only a 36% acceptance rate...but I would still say that qualifies it as being 'less competitive'. What would you guys define as being less competitive?

kbell, I am very relieved to report that when I checked my status today, it was marking everything but my transcripts and recommendation letters as complete. Of course, I would be more relieved if those were coming up as complete, too, but at least it's something...