AMKersh

Hey guys!
 
It's such a relief to see people in the same boat as me - welcome aboard! Isn't it crazy that we have all this stress about where to go, when a few months ago we were submitting applications and praying for at least one acceptance somewhere? (I mean, I was already trying to come up with a contingency plan if I didn't get in ANYWHERE...)
 
Anyway, i was accepted to MGH and Emerson, and I'm definitely attending the MGH admitted students event.  I visited a couple years ago and absolutely fell in love with it.  I live about an hour outside of Boston, and I've become pretty well acquainted with the Boston medical scene rather unfortunately due to some of my sister's health complications.  I can say that that Boston is an absolute hub of medical and scientific research.  I know I'm pretty much preaching to the choir here - but having personally spent a lot of time in Boston Children's Hospital and MGH (the hospital itself, not the IHP), it has never grown old or ceased to amaze me.  I actually did some audiology observation a couple days ago at Mass Eye and Ear with MGH's aural rehab professor, and it was absolutely amazing.  ...so anyway - YAY BOSTON!  My point is that it is a GREAT place to be if you want to get involved in a scientific and clinical community.
 
I'm very interested in medSLP, but I think I would actually choose the adult neurogenic disorders concentration at MGH.  (Then again, I realize that the more I learn, the more my interests may change!)  One of the reasons I'm leaning toward MGH is the number of research opportunities. My goal is to be both a practicing clinician and active researcher, and I would ideally like to pursue a PhD if possible.  This is what made MGH stand out for me. While I could see that the community at Emerson felt very warm, it doesn't seem to have a strong research focus.
 
Additionally - for those of you interested in medical placements - during my interview with Dr. Lasker, she said that getting a medical placement is not very likely, and people go wherever they can get their Cs.  I appreciated her honesty, but I was also a bit disappointed.  (It also seemed a tad random because I hadn't asked about that, but maybe she was referring to my heavy science-bend essay and interests)
 
One other reason I'm leaning toward MGH (I promise I'm not a paid rep or anything!) is because of the connections to institutions like Harvard and MIT.  These are really great resources for networking and collaboration, and - though it may sound extremely blunt and very superficial - the "name dropping" aspect doesn't hurt on a resume at all. (Part of the whole grad school process involves building up a personal brand.  It makes me feel a little uncomfortable. but it's true...)
 
All that said, any Boston housing is going to be a challenge (I was looking at apartments online last night just for fun, and the prices were absurd.)  For those of you who don't live in the area, I would suggest looking into some of the suburbs.  Many of them are easily accessible by public transit.  Also, Emerson seems like an AWESOME program - that's part of the reason I applied!!  I'm definitely not trying to put them down - I just found that my particular preferences seemed to diverge a bit from their program structure.
 
...and I'm still waiting to hear back from NYMC, UMass, and a few other places.  NYMC seemed awesome too and I could definitely see myself there, but I think I'd like to be in the Boston area for gradschool and beyond.
 
AHHH this is hard!  But keep in mind - this is the best kind of problem.  Imagine if you could tell your past, awaiting-any-response self that you would ultimately have to make a choice between multiple schools that want you!!
 
P.S.  Sorry for continuing my novel of a post, but I also wanted to say that I'm excited to meet all of you that will be attending the MGH event!!! 

Hey everyone!
 
This might seem like a random question, but from my own experience I have found that many people who are interested in speech and language are also somehow involved in music (vocal and/or instrumental).  They are certainly related in a number of different ways!  Practically speaking, both of them involve very specific attention to details of sound production and perception, both involve a somewhat arbitrary, rule-governed system with different types of conventions across styles/cultures, and I always felt there was a similarity between phonetic and musical transcription!
 
This is definitely a research area that I'm very interested in, so I figured I'd start here and see how many of you were musically involved!    I play mainly fiddle/violin, but also some cello, mandolin, guitar, piano.  And I'm ALWAYS singing.  I come from a very musical immediate family as well - we are all multi-instrumentalists.
 
Also, additional question - how many of you are bilingual?
 
Looking forward to hearing from you!

Nice topic, Amanda! Funny, I was thinking the other day how I really felt comfort in talking with you guys on the forum, yet didn't know too much about anyone besides their passion.
 
Ok, I'll go next!
 
My first name is Jess. I am 21 years old. I am a senior at Rutgers University, majoring in Linguistics and Psychology, minoring in Cognitive Science. I have been passionate about speech pathology since the beginning of high school, but decided to attend Rutgers (which does not have a speech program) because I heard great things about the academics, and it is also a great research university. I have been a server at an Italian restaurant for almost 6 years now. In my free time, I volunteer at a nursing home and spend time with my boyfriend, who I have been with for almost 6 years (ahh!). My career goals could go in one of two ways. Either I graduate school with my master's and would work with autistic children, or I continue on to receive a doctorate in the field so that I could become a professor (and maybe the small speech graduate programs would be able to expand and allow for more graduate students being able to pursure the in-demand career). 
 
Can't wait to hear about everyone else!

My dream last night takes the cake. Usually when I dream about grad school, it's a nightmare, but this was an awesome dream that I didn't want to wake up from. I was in a large mall with a healthy smoothie bar in it. My mom and grandma were with me. We were supposed to travel to a graduate school somewhere to accept my offer, but the smoothie barista was new and kept delaying our ordering process. Once we finally got the smoothies, we realized that they were the most delicious drinks that we had ever tasted. However, we were late for our plane. Suddenly, someone shouted, "Bob Barker is here!" Yes, Bob Barker, the former host of the Price is Right. He was seated in a chair a few feet away from me. I went to shake his hand and tell him how much I respected him, and he said, "Hi Amanda! Peace, peace, peace, peace. I'll take you all to school." I don't know what the peace-ing meant, but I laughed so hard when I woke up.

You've already been admitted...you can wear a trash bag and a beanie with a propeller on top if you want.

Haha wow I thought I was the only one!  I had two separate nightmares:
 
1)  I got a really mean email from one of my schools saying that they can't believe they're actually reviewing my application, and that it could cost them THEIR jobs to even be caught with my app. (Somehow that made sense in my dream - my application was so terrible that they could get fired over even taking the time to consider it.  Haha!)
 
2) I got an acceptance from one of my top schools....in garbled Danish. Yeah. 

In January right after submitting all my applications, I had a dream that all of my schools required a self-portrait drawn in kindergarten to be included with the letter of intent. All of my schools decided that my self-porttrait was so bad, that I was barred from ever applying to graduate school for the rest of my life.

You could say I'm a little anxious about this proces :/

Haha wow I thought I was the only one!  I had two separate nightmares:
 
1)  I got a really mean email from one of my schools saying that they can't believe they're actually reviewing my application, and that it could cost them THEIR jobs to even be caught with my app. (Somehow that made sense in my dream - my application was so terrible that they could get fired over even taking the time to consider it.  Haha!)
 
2) I got an acceptance from one of my top schools....in garbled Danish. Yeah.