lookwhoslp

The more hours the better, as the poster above said. There's also the minimum of 25 hours for when you apply to grad schools, but it sounds like your class will cover that. (These are different than volunteer hours.) But I'd say get as many hours as you can and that you can afford with your schedule. I'd say... maybe minimum of 10 hours in each setting? So like 2 days worth of observations... that way you can see how it is on different days and with different clients. Ask the people you are observing if there are better days/times that you can watch that maybe have clients with different disorders. Then if you find there's an area that really has your interest try to observe in that setting more.

There's been a big influx of out-of-field applicants (and in field too) so you're not alone! I'd suggest looking at grad schools you're interested in and see if they require prereqs or if you can enter/take prereqs with them. You can also contact them, explain your situation and ask what they think might be best. I wouldn't worry about trying to get a CSD bachelors though... some schools even take like 50% out of field applicants for each year, which is pretty good! Just check to see if you can do pre reqs with them or need to take them beforehand (and then apply). It might be best to just take pre reqs on your own time, there are even a few online programs that do pre reqs so you can take as many classes as you want... might take a bit longer but that could work for you. *Few programs have the system where you apply to do pre reqs with them and automatically get into the Masters... most you'd have to reapply (and maybe not get in) which essentially leaves you to apply to other programs*

Aww, glad to hear that! Thanks!

You already have some shadowing experience, so that is good. If you can manage to shadow/volunteer in a different setting (so that you can mention having experience in a couple settings on your application), that'd be great. But even if you don't, babysitting or tutoring is just as good. Or maybe volunteer in an old folks home or something? They all could help.

Shameless plug: I'm an undergrad with a blog about speech pathology and tips for undergrad and applying. Check it out if you want lookwhoslp.blogspot.com I also second Smart Speech Therapy, Speech Dudes and Dysphagia Ramblings... Grey Matter Therapy is also great

Now that I think of it, Univ. of Washington offers a School track (cause they also have a medical track). As for Univ. of Western Ontario... I think ASHA cares somewhat about the hours (I'd check if they have to be ASHA certified-- but that might just be for your CFY), but it's more about the classes that have to fulfill KASA requirements. You also need a certain number of hours in each type of setting (ie. 10 in diagnosis, 20 in pediatrics, etc) so you'd want to make sure the clinical practica can do that. ... I mean, quite a few Americans go to Canada (and quite a few Canadians come to the USA) for grad school, so it is possible. There are some things to watch while doing school there to make sure you'll have it all for ASHA certification, but there's more red tape with doing your CFY abroad. So, I think if you can make sure they follow everything to get you ASHA certified and then do your CFY in America you should be more than fine.

Although it is typically difficult there is an extreme shortage of students going for PhDs in Speech and Audiology, so as long as you have a decent idea nd good academics, I'd say a good amount of PhD programs (in those areas) might take you. All my teachers are saying that if you're at least interested to consider doing it sometime down the road as there aren't many researchers and many teachers will be retiring soon (and a good amount of universities ask for PhDs to teach/do research).

Hey-- just saw this. I'll be applying as well, do you want to read each others? Mine's still in the works but I might have one draft soon.

I also see you're planning on applying to Univ of Western Ontario... just be careful and make sure they will provide you with everything you need for ASHA certification if you go there (if you plan on working in the US after). Even though we have a universal agreement with Canada, there's still lots of hoops to jump through, especially when it comes to schooling and getting certified.

Most people talk about the medically based programs since there's fewer of them. Most schools give you a balance or tend to lean more towards school/developmental settings (classes wise). I think Univ. of Maryland has some Autism stuff, or you can look into schools that will give you a MEd at the end. Some others that has some faculty (or even a concentration) in Autism are MGH, UMass-Amherst, Eastern Illinois U, Nova... For apraxia you might have to find a school with focus/faculty in motor/neurogenic disorders.

UoP as in Univ. of Pittsburgh? That's where I'm at currently for undergrad. Great city, great program with lots of medical (and non medical) clinical placements close by... there's at least like 5 within a walk/10 min drive from the main building. Pretty reasonable rent. Most faculty do some research (including telepractice, speech physiology/ motor disorders and cochlear implants) and some great classes. They also started one of the first clinical doctoral programs, the CsCD, which is medically focused.

MGH also just accepts more students. Most programs are around 20-30 accepted students, but MGH accepts 60 I believe. It's also very expensive, close to $70k for the whole program (not including the costs of living in Boston, which is a pretty expensive city!)

Hi all! Hope you're enjoying your summer! I'm beginning to visit some grad schools and was wondering what the best attire is? The first one I'm going to is a prospective student meeting that'll just have an overview of the program and a Q&A with faculty. Will nice jeans and a blouse/blazer combo be enough... or something more professional like a pants/blouse combo? Also, did you bring a purse or notepad? (Hopefully I can think of some good questions for the faculty!) Thanks everyone!

Yeah there's not really any internships for us since we can't really do therapy... I'll be volunteering at a pediatric outpatient center though... Try looking into local SLP offices or related centers to see if they could use a volunteer. Or see if you can contact a local hospital's volunteer coordinator about volunteering in the speech therapy department (or even just volunteering in general.. although opportunities directly related to speech are better, doing anything in a related area, like watching kids at the hospital play center or being a conversation partner at a elderly home is still related experience that you can talk about in your application. Everything involves communication after all, and places like these require sensitivity to each person's situation and understanding them... so you can relate it back to your application!)

They want a diverse group of people, especially those from diverse backgrounds that want to research. I think you'd have a good shot and many people switch after obtaining a BA and do the leveling courses. I'd suggest doing the minor or at least taking some classes so that you have less pre reqs to do. Some programs have a leveling program that go right into a masters, others you have to reapply for the masters (and possibly not get in... in this case apply to numerous schools). You have good stats and experience, so there's a good chance you'd get in. I don't want to scare you, but even those with SLP majors and decent scores don't get in the first time around, half of it's a guessing game as some that had better scores didn't get into some places while people with lower scores but maybe more experience got in. Don't let that stop you though, just keep pushing through and gaining more experience if thats the case... there's lot of competition but once you're in you're golden. There's also schools that have start times in spring or summer too so that is always good for back up options. I'm actually interested in the neuroscience side of things, and several schools have a more medical focus or even neurogenic concentrations. University of South Carolina had a certificate option for that. Others I forget... but you can look at your prospective school's curriculum to see which classes they offer.

I think they like any experience, although SLPA would be slightly more applicable since you'll see therapy. You'll have to check and see if your state needs certification for SLPAs though, which might require some classes or other things. Over all, I think if you help at a summer camp, daycare, etc... for the summer and into the school year that could help. If you really are worried about experience with kids maybe find an organization that relates to a population SLPs work with (like Autism, Cerebral Palsy...) Like the above posters said, I think its a little less about what experiences you have and more about how you apply those in your statement of purpose. You want to say how those have prepared you to be a grad student and a speech pathologist and what you took away from those. That being said, if you feel that kids aren't your thing and really want to focus on adults... that's fine too! The like diversity and just mention in your statement of purpose that with past experience you feel that adults are more in your area of interest, but you are still open to being around kids in your clinical placements to solidify that idea. (To back this up you might want to volunteer like 20 hours at a daycare or something to have "proof" you don't like kids) As long as you say you're open to other things but have stronger interests in other things , even if you end up not doing volunteer stuff with kids, that's fine... like I said they want diversity. I think they like people with diverse interests, who are possibly certain of what they want to do but are still open to other experiences. Also, you said you only applied to California schools. Perhaps beefing up your resume in other ways might help too... California is VERY competitive. Those schools are pretty hard to get into. So, maybe consider applying to schools in states near California if you can as they might not be as bad to get into.

Okay Which person should you contact... the admission person, director...?

Hey guys, in order to learn more about certain programs, would it be weird to find FB groups of those graduating this year or next and contacting 1-2 people in those groups? Would it be better to ask the admissions person of the school for e-mails, or is the FB method ok?

Thank you guys so much! If it was my parents, then I would probably bring them. Seeing as the one is when my boyfriend is here, I'm slightly torn since I rarely get to see him... but I guess it'll only be 1-2 hours (it starts at 6pm after all), so I guess he can stay at the hotel. I'll think about the email options a little more, but thanks for your input! I hate having another email, but it's always good to have a more professional one.

Hi all, So I'm beginning the process of visiting schools to hopefully cut down the number of programs I apply to. This summer I'll be visiting a couple programs that are out of town. I know this has been raised for accepted student visitations.... but for those that are attending a prospective student visitation, is it ok to bring parents or a boyfriend at all? (I know a boyfriend is probably less acceptable, but he lives 3000 miles away in Spain and will be visiting me for a month, during which is one of my visitations... and I'd feel bad just leaving him alone in the hotel.) Also, although my current e-mail is semi-professional (something like "trinak692"), I'm considering creating a more professional email for applying to schools and jobs. I'm sort of torn as my first name is somewhat unique and could help them remember me in the application process... my options would be something like: katrinak@yahoo katrinakillarney@yahoo kjkillarney@yahoo kkillarney@yahoo Do any of those seem better to you guys? (don't worry I changed my last name, but my first/last names do have alliteration ha). I just feel like 'katrinakillarney' is too sterile or uniform, but maybe thats best? I also feel like "kkillarney" might get tricky in the process of going through 400 applicants and forgetting there's 2 k's. Any thoughts? Thanks!

For this I would focus on something else. Unless you overcame something really crazy. For this question I'd think they're looking more for first hand experience while shadowing or volunteering and seeing the person's passion making a difference or being in a class you thought wasn't interesting but the teacher's leadership made you like it and showed you how it's all about presentation which you can translate into SLP clinical experience. If you mention low grades make it short and sweet, like 2 sentences.

As she said, memorization only gets you so far. The course work is varied and interesting though. Some classes, like language development, might be more memorization about milestones and such, but others you actually take what you learn and apply it to other concepts... but don't let that scare you. It's more like getting the foundation then adding onto it to see how changes in the foundation can relate to different disorders. You won't have microbiology or other crazy courses like nursing would have you take though... which I see as a plus. Once in grad school you can really look more into the different aspects of SLP and see which one you like more. That's another thing I love about SLP-- the variety! If you google 'speech pathology blog" you'll find LOTS of blogs. Some are by clinicians who mostly post activities, others are by grad students who tell you about their experiences getting into grad school and what it's like in grad school. I'll do a slightly shameless plug here and say that I have an undergraduate blog and have posted on things that may pertain more to undergrads and give more info on the field and such. You can check it out: lookwhoslp.blogspot.com I think UoN or some other university has a NSSLHA (the student organization) that interviews students from different grad programs to let you know what they think.

Hi all, Seeing as I'll be applying this upcoming fall I wanted to see if anyone has run across this issue and has advice. This past year I've been seeing some posts throughout the internet about some SLP grad programs that take preference with their own undergrad students. I was just wondering if any of you came across this in your application process and which schools seem to be guilty of this (say, more than half the admitted grad cohorts are their own students)? This way I, and others, are aware of this for when we apply this upcoming fall. After all, I'm sure many people don't want to waste money if there's even less of a chance they'll get in due to a bias. (Of course, that's not saying that if I really love a program that does this I won't try hard to get in!) If you'd prefer to message me that's fine too! Thanks!

Hey I go to a different school, but we have leveling/post-baccs here as well. Since they have degrees outside of SLP they need to take classes people usually take in their undergraduate career. This is why sarasahara is in some classes with undergraduate students. It doesn't mean that the undergraduates are taking grad level courses, more like the opposite, the post-baccs are taking undergraduate courses. Correct me if I'm wrong, but leveling/post-baccs don't even get to do clinics yet because they aren't an official grad student either. But undergrads in classes with post-baccs don't get to do clinic (unless the university lets undergrads do that, but most don't). Like where I'm going we have post-baccs in some of my classes. Neither groups are doing clinics as we aren't grad students yet. Hope that makes sense!

If I don't get in, then I've been thinking about teaching English abroad for a year or so. Or possibly taking Spanish classes/ getting a European masters at a Spanish university (my boyfriend is Spanish and lives in Spain currently). This way I can at least build up my Spanish, hopefully get a B2 certificate to prove proficiency, or even get a Masters in the Neuroscience of Language (they university near him has cheap 1year Masters degrees that are interesting like this one). Of course this is a Plan B, but at least I'd have this then hopefully get in the next time around!