tchris

Congrats!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can't wait to meet you.

I'll be going to the University of Georgia.  I initially planned on getting as far away from Georgia as possible, but UGA ended up being the best choice for me.
 
1. In-state tuition
2. Local program so my boyfriend and I won't have to move
3. Great opportunities for clinical placement in Athens & Atlanta
4. Small program size
5. I got a great feeling from the faculty and students when I went to visit

psycD, aren't you doing a phd in CSD? I have a masters in CSD and while the research is related, it's not a clinical/professional degree. this forum is for speech path programs...

Wow, it is??? I must have missed that. Thanks so much for the clarification. My apologies if my presence here for the last 8 months has offended anyone.

There is no forum for PhD CSD, so I've been hanging out here the entire app cycle. If anyone has a problem with that, please feel free to file a complaint with the GradCafe police.

I personally think it's fine that PsycD is here. PsycD has posted many helpful comments and brings a unique perspective as a Ph.D. applicant.  I don't understand why their presence would be offensive to anyone...

I just made my big decision!  I will be attending Southern Illinois University - Edwardsville in the fall.  It was a really hard decision to make and I kept going back and forth (and back and forth and back and forth) between SIUE and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, but I feel that I've made the best possible choice for my husband and me.  
 
Here's my reasoning (most of which is financial, because I'm practical like that):
 
1. It will be much easier for my husband to get a job in the Edwardsville/ St. Louis area.  I feel that he would have been able to find a job in Urbana-Champaign too, but it might have taken a lot longer and he probably just would have had to take the first job offered to him.
2. I have family in the Edwardsville area that I can live with if it takes my husband longer than expected to find a job.
3. SIUE seems to offer a greater chance of earning a tuition waiver and living stipend through a GA.
4. SIUE's tuition is cheaper and they have one fewer semester than UIUC.
5. SIUE is located near a big city (St. Louis), so I have somewhere I can go when I'm missing Chicago.
6. SIUE's faculty is smaller, and I do well in close-knit environments.
7. SIUE's campus is BEAUTIFUL! (I would be lying if I said this didn't matter to me...haha...)
 
While I realize that I didn't write much about the content of the programs, I found them both to be quite similar, so I'm not worried about one program being better suited for my interests.  Interestingly enough, when I sent in my applications, I almost didn't apply to SIUE.  But now I'm glad I did!!  I'm so relieved and excited to have made my decision!

Haha it is a pretty great idea (and I'm sure I would have at least jokingly given it a thought, too, if I didn't have a cat).
 
But I'm not sure if that poster is a real person or just a troll trying to brag and make people feel bad about themselves, lol... "Oh look at me, full ride, accepted into Harvard, Columbia, Stanford and Yale for Law, no rejections, I'm so amazing, yar har har. Here, let me chime in about ways to save more money (oh wait - I don't have to worry since I got a full ride), while most of you actually are worried about it."

(If you genuinely are a real person, and if I misunderstood the intent behind that post, JD2017, then I fully apologize for being in the wrong.)

Well that's good.  I posted it there on Sunday but I think it may have been drowned out by other notifications. I may wait until closer to April 15 when more people have decided where they're going.  Aside from that, it looks like I might be in a cohort of 1 

Well that's good.  I posted it there on Sunday but I think it may have been drowned out by other notifications. I may wait until closer to April 15 when more people have decided where they're going.  Aside from that, it looks like I might be in a cohort of 1 

Well that's good.  I posted it there on Sunday but I think it may have been drowned out by other notifications. I may wait until closer to April 15 when more people have decided where they're going.  Aside from that, it looks like I might be in a cohort of 1 

I will be attending Montclair State University in Montclair, New Jersey!
 
1) I completed my first two years of undergrad there and absolutely loved the school
2) I am already familiar with the local area, where I would like to live and practice one day
3) It is one of the most reputable programs in the state
4) In-state tuition won't break my bank
5) Their clinic is absolutely beautiful and conducive to experiential learning
6) The current graduate students and faculty have been more than welcoming and supportive
7) I really enjoy the small cohort style of the program
8) I've been offered an interview for a Graduate Assistantship
9) Their course offerings focus on all settings and populations, and will give me a well-rounded education
10) I have the opportunity to complete my externships at local facilities where I have already begun to develop relationships with clinicians
 
It feels great to be a Red Hawk again!

Accepted to ISU's distance program!

I knew that the GradCafe SLPers would go crazy when one of our group favs, TwinGuy, got the acceptance we all knew was coming CONGRATULATIONS!!!

My first acceptance!!! Grand Valley State University!!! Biiiiiiiiig sigh of relief!

I just want to say I LOVE this post.  I think more people should take a break from school instead of going straight through.  You learn so much about yourself just by going out into the "real world" and working for a year (or two!).  For me, working helped me figure out what I really want out of life - and in a job, what are my "must haves" and what things I'll be willing to compromise on.  I'm honestly very happy I didn't know about speech pathology earlier in my life, because I wouldn't trade my first five years working as a teacher for anything.

Congrats on making your decision, Papaya! 

I've finally made my decision. After visiting the University of Arizona yesterday, I'm 99.99% sure that's where I'm going. I can't really foresee any circumstances that would change my mind at this point, so I'm sending in my acceptance letter sometime this week! I was waitlisted at my former top choice, the UW MedSLP program, but I've realized that the UofA has a program that is just as good, and I'll be able to get the medical training and placements that I want. They're both top 5 schools (which may or may not really matter), and the UofA is more affordable, even if I don't get any funding. And there's so much sunshine in Tucson! The research opportunities they have are amaaaaaaazing (and a great fit for some of my interests), the faculty seems very friendly and supportive, and the first year grad students (who will be second years next year, so we'll be seeing a lot of each other) were very nice. Also, none of the students seemed as stressed out as I've seen in other programs - the UofA has a very manageable feel to it, although I'm sure it'll still be very intense. The campus is beautiful, they have an olympic size pool for swimming (my favorite way to work out), I'll be able to continue studying the harp (for free, I might add), and it's warm year-round. I also plan to end up back in SoCal again eventually, and it'll be a much easier move from Tucson than it will be from Seattle. Everything just seems to be falling into place.
 
Did I mention sunshine?! I need some (read: a lot) of that in my life. I'm so glad to finally have my decision made. Now I just have to take physics or chemistry, lol. Best of luck to everyone still waiting on schools or making decisions - it's almost over!

I'm facing this dilemma, too, and I'm leaning towards the local school.  For a while I had my heart set on picking up and moving my boyfriend and myself across the country, but I think that'll have to wait.  I'm hoping that if we do end up moving after school, one of our jobs will be paying for it!  I just can't stomach the extra tens of thousand in loans when there's a great program just down the road.  
 
Another major consideration for me is we would like to buy a house and start a family a few years after graduating.  Securing a mortgage with so much outstanding student loan debt would be difficult with such an unfavorably balanced debt to income ratio.

I'm facing this dilemma, too, and I'm leaning towards the local school.  For a while I had my heart set on picking up and moving my boyfriend and myself across the country, but I think that'll have to wait.  I'm hoping that if we do end up moving after school, one of our jobs will be paying for it!  I just can't stomach the extra tens of thousand in loans when there's a great program just down the road.  
 
Another major consideration for me is we would like to buy a house and start a family a few years after graduating.  Securing a mortgage with so much outstanding student loan debt would be difficult with such an unfavorably balanced debt to income ratio.

You seriously waited this long to reply to your other 6 offers?  Might not want to tout the fact that you hogged 6 offers for weeks or months at the cost of others on the waitlist or hoping to hear from one of those programs before making a decision to attend elsewhere.
 
Take another read over your post and see how conceited it sounds.

AH MY FIRST ACCEPTANCE! Idaho State sent their email this afternoon, and I just burst into tears. I didn't even know what school it was, all I saw was "Congratulations" and I went off the wall.
 
I swear, I'm not usually this crazy...

I see some people are posting acceptances for Idaho State University in the last 10 minutes!  CONGRATS!  Hoping for a wait list @ least!  

How do you know which ones are undergrads? Haha. 
 
You give very good advice. I never thought about being in the same vicinity all day, but that does make perfect sense. It's not like in undergrad where you'll have random classes all over campus. You'll most likely be in the same building all day. 
 
Very good point. If you really can only walk 20-30 steps at a time, then I would consider that some type of mobility disability. Contact the DRC and they'll be able to better assist you than any of us will. 
 
I like your style, persimmony. 
 
Now my insight... Once again, you can only take 20-30 steps at a time. That qualifies, in my opinion, as disabled. But of course, it's a correctable disability. Grad schools don't start for another 6 months. I'm not saying you need to become an Olympian within that time, but you shouldn't just settle for 20-30 steps. You should make it your goal to increase your steps each and every week. Who knows, maybe by the time you get to grad school you'll be perfectly mobile. 
 
I see what you're saying about having seating, desks etc that are accommodating to your needs. To tie in to my previous point, you do have 6 months to work on your fitness. Maybe it won't be as much of a problem by then. But I don't see finding suitable seating to be such a big problem. I'm sure the disability department provides some sort of seating available and they can place it in the classroom for you. There is someone in one of my classes who has his own desk. I don't know exactly what his disability is. He looks fine to me. But he is an older guy and a war vet. Sure it has something to do with that. 
 
And as far as culture... We've talked about this in the other thread about fitness. You didn't really seem to respond to anyone's advice, or at least anything that wasn't what you wanted to hear. My points were that educated people seem to be more health conscious. You'll find way more vegans, yoga nuts, cyclists, mountain climbers etc on college campuses than you'll find anywhere else in the country. I know 70-year old professors who bike to campus every day. Even if they're not meat head gym rats, they can still be health/fitness conscious. I've noticed that younger undergrads are more into looking good and older grad students are more into being healthy. There's really no way of getting around it. I don't think there's such thing as a non-fit culture. You probably won't have a bunch of classmates being too vocal about their workout routines, but you'll definitely have a lot of fit classmates. 

I've been having a really hard time deciding between Emerson and MGH too, but I think I'm pretty much set on Emerson now! I'm really excited For those of you struggling to make a decision, here's what helped me: Making a "who's the winner" list, rather than a regular pro/con list for each school.
 
This is what I did: (1) Make a list of factors you need to consider in order to make the decision (tuition, external placement sites, job prospect, classes offered, special interest, research opportunities, particular professor you want to work with, etc.) (2) Arrange the factors in the order of importance to you. (3) Decide which school is the winner in each category. (4) Look over the list and see which school wins in more categories, especially in the categories that are placed at the top (=more important factors to you).
 
I think those of us who are having a difficult time deciding are struggling because we're lucky enough to have options that all seem great to you, but none of the programs is a clear winner in EVERY aspect (let's face it - if there's a school that is perfect in every way, we would not be thinking this hard). So comparing pro/con list didn't really help me, because whenever I'm looking at School A's pro, School A will look appealing to me. But then if I start looking at the pro of School B and then glance at School A's cons, suddenly School B will start looking like a better choice.
 
It's great to hear other people's opinions and share our thoughts, but you need to figure out what matters to YOU the most, and which school is better in each of those factors.
 
This worked for me (at least) and I'm pretty confident about my decision now. I'll probably be accepting the offer at Emerson within the next few days .
 
Good luck!!

I just logged into UGA's grad status site and it says "departmental approval." They said they would notify only via snail mail so I'm not quite sure if it's an acceptance, but I'm hoping it is!