Jennszoo

Why are you pursuing a masters? I've decided I want to become a speech/language pathologist and a masters is required to get licensed in most states. How's the process been for you? Not too bad. I am not going to relo, so I only applied to the 2 closest schools that offered the programs. GRE sucked but I did well on it, so I am happy. Worst part was LORs. Its been too long since I was in college to get an academic reference and then I had to nag and nah the ones who did say they would write for me. How are you going to pay for this? No idea. Both schools are state univs so that helps. Loans, begging for an assistanceship. I also have 3 kids who will need some sort of childcare (two will be school aged). It will be a struggle. But thankfully, I know that after the 3 yrs, I should be gainfully employable. Are you still waiting for any responses? I have an interview this Fri for my first choice school. Have not heard from the 2nd choice, but their deadline wasnt until 2/5.

The child I had at 28 has special needs (autism) and the child I had at 35 does not. There are no guarantees in life, other than the fact that children *are* hard work, *do* require a crapload of your time and tend to be worth it nonetheless.

Submitting my last app for a 2/5 deadline tonight but I am stuck on one point. This program does not require an essay, but the application has a spot to upload one (if you program requires it, attach here...) Should I upload one anyway? I feel like my SOP fills in the gaps as to why I am doing a 180 from my undergrad degree. But they also require an interview, so maybe I should save it for that?

I'm hopefully going into a masters with 3 kids in tow. I'll report back in 3 yrs if I survive.

Undergrad: Business Mgmt Grad: Applying to speech/lang pathology prpgrams Why? Because business bores me ( ) and since having children (one of whom is special needs) I want a career with flexibility and something more interesting than sitting in a cube farm for 9 hrs a day. I would love to work in a school while my children are school aged so I can have summers off with them to travel the world. I also have dreams of creating low cost social skills groups/camps for autistic children, since all of the ones I know of are so damn expensive, normal middle/working class families have no chance to afford them (low income folks get stuff covered by medicaid, rich folks can pay for it, everyone else gets kind of squeezed out in the middle since private insurance sucks for therapies, camps and such). So once I have the skills as an SLP, I plan to do a lot of volunteering my time. (yeah, it sounds bad to volunteer for the middle class, eh? )

They updated with 2/3 LORs. Still no resume, SOP or transcripts. Funny how they got my $ from submitting my online app, just not the actual text that went with the $.

Would that mean to bring a writing sample to the interview or would they do some sort of GRE-like thing where you produce a sample on demand?

Well I'm going for SLP after being a business major, so in effect, I am doing my redo. But if I was 18 again and picking a major, I would do nursing. It would have served me very well with good pay, decent job options and flexible work schedule during these years I have been raising kids.

I have been diligently checking my online status. Today is the deadline. I submitted the app ($, resume, SOP) on the 6th, delivered the transcripts on the 11th. Pretty much everything but the GRE and the $$ is showing as incomplete. ARGH. I dont even need a decision right now, I just want to log in and see a nice row of green "received" on my app status page. Even though I *know* these things are in their hands (and at least 2 LORs) and I *know* they said it takes 10-14 days to update the system, it still causes me panic.

I'm planning on getting a netbook for grad school, since it will be easier to carry around from home to class. I have a reg sized laptop (POS) at home and we have several desktops in case I need more than the netbook can provide, but I doubt I will.

I guess its because I fall in this dreaded category, but beyond the increase in numbers (and therefore more competition) what is it about those who are returning to grad school b/c of the recession that is so horrible (so bad people wouldnt even want to admit it). Sure my difficulty re-entering the job market was the trigger that caused me to think about what career I want for the rest of my life. I researched and landed on one that requires a masters. So I've been busting my ass meeting all the same requirements as everyone else here. I had a 3.8 undergrad GPA, scored well on my GRE, wrote my SOP, etc. Why because I didnt plan this since before I graduated college, am I a lessor form of grad applicant than the rest of y'all?

I'm one of them. I have been out of college since 1996, out of the work force raising kids for 4 years. I have piddled in part time work, but last year, when we got into a money crunch, I tried to look for FT work. I didnt get one nibble, even for jobs completely related to what I did in the past. I realized my database skills were dated, my business degree is undefined and I didnt have any real marketable skills. So I am applying for grad school to get a degree and skills in a field totally unrelated to my undergrad degree. So hopefully in 3 years I will have relevent, employable skills. Our financial situation has improved a bit due to my husband being in a fairly recession proof industry, but I still dont know exactly how we will pay for grad school and childcare, but I figured that bridge was best crossed after I was accepted.

This was fun!

Hmm, none of my LORs have submitted yet. I forgot about that angle. And they likely wont til after the holidays.

I only have 2 schools I can apply to, my first choice had a deadline of 1/15 and the 2nd choice has a deadline of 2/5. I was going to try to submit the first choice this week, just in case maybe I will hear something early. I wonder if there would be any value in waiting until the end of Jan in submitting app #2 - as in MAYBE I will hear early from #1? Or is that too risky just to save a little change?

I downloaded it and chose "run as administrator" to get it to work on my Vista laptop. I was very frustrated for a few days before I got it to work.

How about being able to skip a question and come back to it? What a nice option. Why did it take this long to offer it? Sound like good changes, but too late for me. They arent getting another dime of my money.

I just got mine today and also scored a 4. I'm kinda pissed. I am definitely a better writer than that, but its not worth paying another dime to ETS, that's for sure.

I'm going for my masters, its a 3 yr program, so I will be 37 when I start and 40(!) when I graduate. Eek.

I am by no means an SOP expert, but I think of it as putting it in a resume. LIke your objective "To earn the highest salary possible". Well yeah, sure we all want that, but its tacky to say. SO I would leave it off. Although if asked, I do plan to mention in an interview that assistanceship opportunities will be a deciding factor for me.

This thread is referring to the PowerPrep tests you get free from the ETS site. I also paid for and took the 800score.com tests. My first few were in the 500s and I did get close to 700 on 2, but mainly was around the 600s for most of those. They also didnt have any of the graph/chart data analysis questions like the real test had. But their explanations were very helpful.

Mine just sounds so much more casual and colloquial than the others I have read here. But I really feel like the whole "parent of a special needs child" angle is pretty key to my application/why/etc. So, really how bad is it? http://gradschoolmama2010.blogspot.com/2009/11/statement-of-purpose-second-attempt.html

I have an undergrad in Business Mgmt and am applying for an MEd in Communication Disorders. Both programs for SLP that I am applying to have a system in place for those w/ the "wrong" undergrad, which basically means it adds a year to my masters. They both would enroll me as a graduate while I take some grad courses and some undergrad courses. If I get accepted, I may look into taking 1 of the pre-reqs over the summer just to ease myself back into academia.

My 2 Powerprep scores were 610/620 V 670/660 Q My actual, taken today: 640V 720Q