Jolie717

I accepted to all three of three programs I was accepted into, and after I received the financial aid info, I rescinded two (including my undergrad). Just be professional, rescind politely and acknowledge your appreciation for the opportunity as early as you can. Congrats!

I accepted to all three of three programs I was accepted into, and after I received the financial aid info, I rescinded two (including my undergrad). Just be professional, rescind politely and acknowledge your appreciation for the opportunity as early as you can. Congrats!

I'm also going to struggle making my final decision...  As someone from Los Angeles however, the cost of living in Seattle is lower (especially with certain "off campus housing" opportunities - $1100 for a two bedroom apartment).  Traffic is definitely worse in Los Angeles, the homeless population is much larger, and I'm fairly certain drug problems are more prevalent.  San Diego is similar.
The dilemma comes down to this, for me at least.  How do you determine the true "value" of your SLP graduate education?  You only get one shot at this for the most part - no "do-overs" lol.  For example, will certain doors open that wouldn't have otherwise by going to a more expensive and more highly ranked / more prestigious university?  Will my salary be higher if I train as a medical SLP (in a medical track program) than if I had studied elsewhere, and will it make up for the difference in the cost of the program?  While I am not currently committed to pursuing a PhD or other doctorate degree, I might wish to do so in the future - how will my grad school choice influence my potential for acceptance into these programs?  
Additionally, the fact that it is impossible to predict finances and student debt throughout the duration of the program makes the decision especially difficult for me.  What if I turn down a more expensive program due to a lack of initial funding, without realizing I would be qualified for a fellowship or significant aid in the second year of the program?  Some of the scholarships I am applying for will not have final decisions made until late May or even June.  But most programs want a decision by April 15th - how will this factor in for me?  
UW has not yet given the accepted students any financial aid info - they do have "recruitment scholarships" available for select students that they will email us about later (for the MedSLP students).  This will be an important factor as well.  I have read many forum posts that state that our profession is so in demand, that it doesn't matter what school you attend.  This may be the case for many, but I don't buy it as a blanket statement of truth for all SLP majors.  I intend to speak to some of my professors to get their take on my acceptances and what they think.  Hopefully this will help me make my final decision!

I'm not sure which you qualify for, but DeVos is proposing an end to loan forgiveness programs as part of her education cuts.  I strongly urge everyone here to write their representatives in protest of these potentially disastrous cuts.  It's a disgrace, honestly. 

I'm not sure which you qualify for, but DeVos is proposing an end to loan forgiveness programs as part of her education cuts.  I strongly urge everyone here to write their representatives in protest of these potentially disastrous cuts.  It's a disgrace, honestly. 

I'm not sure which you qualify for, but DeVos is proposing an end to loan forgiveness programs as part of her education cuts.  I strongly urge everyone here to write their representatives in protest of these potentially disastrous cuts.  It's a disgrace, honestly. 

I'm not sure which you qualify for, but DeVos is proposing an end to loan forgiveness programs as part of her education cuts.  I strongly urge everyone here to write their representatives in protest of these potentially disastrous cuts.  It's a disgrace, honestly. 

I'm not sure which you qualify for, but DeVos is proposing an end to loan forgiveness programs as part of her education cuts.  I strongly urge everyone here to write their representatives in protest of these potentially disastrous cuts.  It's a disgrace, honestly. 

I'm not sure which you qualify for, but DeVos is proposing an end to loan forgiveness programs as part of her education cuts.  I strongly urge everyone here to write their representatives in protest of these potentially disastrous cuts.  It's a disgrace, honestly. 

I'm not sure which you qualify for, but DeVos is proposing an end to loan forgiveness programs as part of her education cuts.  I strongly urge everyone here to write their representatives in protest of these potentially disastrous cuts.  It's a disgrace, honestly. 

I'm not sure which you qualify for, but DeVos is proposing an end to loan forgiveness programs as part of her education cuts.  I strongly urge everyone here to write their representatives in protest of these potentially disastrous cuts.  It's a disgrace, honestly. 

You can take the Praxis at any time.  I believe in a forum on Reddit there were some students who accidentally took it in undergrad and passed.  I have 2 Praxis Practice tests in PDF format if anyone is interested.  I can email them to you.  The closest thing to the real test as far as how it is administered is the $15-20 practice test ETS offers.  It is timed and formatted JUST like the real computer test.  

Ha - I accidentally attached the video, but left it because I like it. Although I suppose it's kind of a sad reflection of our education system and work ethics here in the US.  (I'm from California BTW, and I really wrestled with deciding to leave). Best of luck to you too!

I wouldn't say "rankings" are as important. But I think "reputation" is important. There are schools that are well-known for producing well-rounded SLPs and those schools are the ones that usually get top pick in terms of outplacements ( oftentimes in-demand outplacements will save spots just for their students because the places know they will be top quality), CFYs, jobs, etc. I have personally seen it happen where an SLP refused to take a student for an outplacement because that student was from a university that had a reputation for producing poor-performing graduates. I've talked to SLPs who work in the schools and in the hospitals in relatively small towns and they all know which schools--both in the area and around the country--that have good reputations. Don't choose a program if all you are looking for is name recognition, you should go because the program is awesome and fits your needs, but just some fruit for thought. Hope this helps!

@angela4 
 
GOOD CHOICE   I know I've advocated for the cheaper school, even though I went to a not so cheap school, but I didnt have a choice.  I only got accepted to 2 schools and the price was the same for both.  For example, I was planning on accepting at my undergrad University if accepted because I live down the street and the cost would have been $30,000 cheaper.  I would have done this knowing that the program wasn't very organized, etc because it was cheap and I wouldn't of had to move.  So again, GREAT CHOICE!  you will be taught the same thing every grad program teaches, its up to YOU to absorb the information/study/work hard at externships, etc.  You will get out of it what you put into it.

I asked about outplacements at open houses ( e.g., what connections each school had, if there were prominent placements that held spots, etc.). I also asked my undergraduate professors what they thought about the programs that I'd been accepted to. I had the opportunity to ask some SLPs in the area while I was doing my observation hours about which schools they liked to take students from and which ones they tended to steer clear of.

@Jolie717
I agree,  price is not directly correlated with rankings.
Personally when applying to schools I was very strategic on the programs that I selected. For me the number one factor was  location which ties in with price because of in-state tuition/grants then I considered the likeliness of acceptance. Rankings was last in my considerations.  Which was the topic of this forum. Luckily, I'm in California so I had many Great programs to chose from. Watching the video you attached kinda reminded me of my mother and the things she considered to be important to pass down to me, one being as practical as you can be when it comes to expenses, reinforcing the reasons why I applied to certain schools (state schools).
With this said people have different reasons why they apply to certain schools as you mentioned. My point was that from those schools that you carefully selected to apply to, you should go for the least expensive one if you're between schools.  
Best of luck. UW is an amazing program! 
 
 

Keep in mind - the program that ranked (#1) above my current program (#2) in the "global ranking" I posted was Cal State San Diego. Very inexpensive for Cal State grads such as myself. That said, UW was still less expensive than another lower-ranked program I almost attended.  Please do not assume that ranking dictates price. 
It is also not about saying "I worked amongst the best." Aside from my previous points, and perhaps more importantly (in a general sense) - it is about how relevant the program is in terms of your own interests.  It is about whether you are comfortable with the demographics of the new city you are moving to. It is about the diversity of the client/patient population that you will be serving in grad school and how you feel about it. It is about the the cohort you will be a part of for two years (or more) and how well you mesh with them.  
Just some food for thought - signing out for a while as my grad student load is pretty heavy at this point! 
Best of luck to you all - take a deep breath...don't forget to exhale!
 

Interesting ideas! I'm going to get a little philosophical hahaha. Ultimately I think it's human nature competitiveness that attracts many people to choose or really want the higher ranked school. It feels nice to say I went to the top school in my field, I worked amongst the best researchers..etc. I think if you are really benefiting from what the high ranking program can offer you to the point that it outweighs the $$ then you should do it! Personally like many people here, I don't want my future big life expenses to be influenced or hold back because of a never ending loan. 

Yes, the rankings (US News) are based largely on research and self-report. Research should be important to every practicing SLP whether wishing to pursue it or not. Every program hammers EBP (evidence based practice) into us - as practicing SLPs we need to be comfortable evaluating the research (even if not at the PhD level) in order to ensure the efficacy of the treatment we are providing to our clients. That said, several other benefits were mentioned not directly related to research. I also maintain that the calibre of the faculty that teach the curriculum makes a huge difference in the quality of the instruction. 
Let me also put it this way - ALL OTHER THINGS BEING EQUAL (or close), which would you choose, a higher or lower-ranked school?
And FYI, we simply can't make the assumption that most grads of a given top program want to practice in that same city. I've heard (anecdotally) that it might be the opposite for my particular cohort, but I haven't exactly taken a survey.
Here is a ranking system that might make some feel more comfortable, as it's a bit more comprehensive:
http://cwur.org/methodology/world-university-rankings.php
And here are the university ratings that go along with the methodology (scroll to audiology):
http://cwur.org/2017/subjects.php#Audiology & Speech-Language Pathology
 

Hi, voice of dissent speaking, lol. I tend to see the same opinion on this topic, over and over, and I thoroughly disagree. Not all programs are created equally, just because they are all accredited. There was a student in a nightmare of a grad program posting on this forum not too long ago. And there are currently people who have posted elsewhere about difficulty finding work as an SLP in the city they live in. I'm not saying that all "brand name" educations will guarantee a carefree post-graduation existence, but I've spoken to hiring professionals from many different fields (including ours), and they ALL said the name of the program attended most definitely influenced their hiring decisions. I don't want to have to settle for just any SLP job, I want to ensure I have the very best odds at getting hired into a position that I love.
I was accepted into the three programs I applied to, and ended up choosing the highest ranked among them and am very glad I did. It also happened to be the program that had the second highest price tag. Aside from choosing a higher-ranked program due to a specialty track you are interested in, there are other factors to consider. I get to attend talks given by the "rock stars" in our field frequently that are absolutely fascinating. My professors are very active in research, and several of them are also pretty famous in our field. We are supervised in the clinic much more closely than I have seen in other schools (my experience being drawn from the first year only so far). I love my undergrad program, but there are grad students who were actually unable to get clinic placements in a previous semester and will have a delayed graduation because of it. As I continue through my program (and continue to compare notes with my graduate friends in my undergrad program) I am certain I will find other things that validate my decision. 

I can absolutely understand the "cheapest is best" perspective. It obviously makes great sense from a financial standpoint, and the burden of massive student loans can profoundly impact a graduate's quality of life for years (or even decades) to come. For many people, cost is the #1 priority and that is absolutely their prerogative. 
However...I can also say with 100% certainty that all programs are not the same, and that attending a more expensive program at a well-known national university has afforded me opportunities for educational/professional/clinical enrichment and research that smaller programs in the state simply do not have access to. Guest lectures from other local highly-prestigious university professors and researchers (e.g., MIT), interdisciplinary collaboration with our school's other medical/rehab programs, and classes/clinical experience that other local programs do not include in their curriculum at all (e.g., in-depth literacy classes taught by top researchers in the field and experiential literacy work) are some of the examples that come immediately to mind in addition to top-notch on-campus facilities. Every semester, students from my school and my state's other big-name schools are selected for the top competitive clinical placement slots over students from the smaller state schools who have interviewed. This is not because brilliant, hard-working students aren't attending these smaller, low-ranked programs (they absolutely are - in droves) Students from the bigger/better schools simply have more resume bullets because of the additional educational/clinical opportunities and our faculty/clinical supervisors are perhaps more well-known to the interviewers. 
For the record - I completed all of my pre-reqs at a smaller state school. Their program was great - I loved the faculty, and the classes I took were excellent. I'm not trying to insult smaller or less-funded programs by any means. I very nearly decided to attend that state school's grad program because I had enjoyed my pre-reqs so much. Because I was (very fortunately) in a financial position to be able to attend the much bigger, more highly-ranked program I had been accepted to (the living stipend actually made it more lucrative for me to go there as opposed to the much cheaper school), I elected not to. I began my grad school experience imagining that the education I was going to receive and resume bullets I would earn would be similar to those I'd have garnered from the state school. Over the past year, I have been utterly blown away by how incorrect I had been in that assumption. I am still in touch with several students who are now in two smaller/lower-ranked programs and our experiences thus far have been drastically different. For some, the price point is quite necessarily the most important factor - and grad school absolutely IS what you make of it (some people in my cohort skip the amazing guest lectures and don't jump on many of the opportunities/resources available to them - which is incredibly shortsighted, considering how much $$$ some of them are paying). 
I just wanted to share my experience to say that, as much as people may wish it were so, all programs are not regarded equally. Prospective students should weigh the pros and cons of each program (financially, educationally, clinically, professionally, personally) and determine what will be best for their specific situation, career goals and future. Nobody should be going into crippling debt for an education - but I do think that defaulting to "choose the cheapest program" is not necessarily the best approach, here. 

Thank you for posting this! I'll be attending UW next fall (CoreSLP), and the advice "it doesn't matter where you go" made me hesitant and even guilty to choose it, even though I was always leaning more toward it. It is so nice to hear of your positive experience at UW!
For me, UW's research opportunities and clinical rotations (for example, the rotation through the CHDD) really interested me and were unique from other programs I applied to. I also want to pursue a PhD, so attending a program with noteworthy faculty active in research was important for me. UW was the most expensive option for me, but honestly not by much. I believe that the opportunities offered are worth the extra cost. 
That being said, I have the good fortune to be completing my undergrad without debt. UW is also being offered to me at an in-state tuition rate. I think UW is the best fit for me, but if it were significantly more expensive and/or I had more debt accumulated already, I might not have chosen it. There are just so many factors that go into choosing a program. I think the advice to choose the least expensive option is very solid, but the decision should not necessarily be an automatic response. 

It probably does matter where you go, but there are reasonable limitations. I went/am going to one of the lower ranked programs that I applied to, but I turned down the higher ranked ones for factors of cost, GA experience, placements, and commitment to diversity (i.e., actual courses and clinical opportunities, not just lip service). I don't think there was a significant difference between any of the programs that I saw except along those factors. Of course, there were programs I turned down that felt like a gut punch (good bye, sweet Pittsburgh), but I'm happy with my decision, now - I was able to secure a very rigorous and "prestigious" hospital externship for next year, my clinical supervisors are rock stars, and we have classes here taught by faculty from Hopkins, etc. If there's not a solid reason to go to one program over another except for ranking, I would look a little more closely at the programs you're choosing between and try to find another reason. 
Keep in mind, though - the programs I applied to and got into were all around the top 20 or 30 at the time... at some point, you reach a point of diminishing returns with rankings. I don't know if it would have been different if I had gone to a program ranked 100 (I'm not skeptical that it would be different - I literally have no information to give to you). I recommend you think about the placements you're going to have, the coursework you're going to take, and what your clinic will look like during your first year, as well as cost, and then consider personal factors like location, etc. I chose those factors as my main ones because I was concerned mostly about the quality of the clinical training I would get (including exposure to diverse populations), my future resume, and future debt.

Hi, voice of dissent speaking, lol. I tend to see the same opinion on this topic, over and over, and I thoroughly disagree. Not all programs are created equally, just because they are all accredited. There was a student in a nightmare of a grad program posting on this forum not too long ago. And there are currently people who have posted elsewhere about difficulty finding work as an SLP in the city they live in. I'm not saying that all "brand name" educations will guarantee a carefree post-graduation existence, but I've spoken to hiring professionals from many different fields (including ours), and they ALL said the name of the program attended most definitely influenced their hiring decisions. I don't want to have to settle for just any SLP job, I want to ensure I have the very best odds at getting hired into a position that I love.
I was accepted into the three programs I applied to, and ended up choosing the highest ranked among them and am very glad I did. It also happened to be the program that had the second highest price tag. Aside from choosing a higher-ranked program due to a specialty track you are interested in, there are other factors to consider. I get to attend talks given by the "rock stars" in our field frequently that are absolutely fascinating. My professors are very active in research, and several of them are also pretty famous in our field. We are supervised in the clinic much more closely than I have seen in other schools (my experience being drawn from the first year only so far). I love my undergrad program, but there are grad students who were actually unable to get clinic placements in a previous semester and will have a delayed graduation because of it. As I continue through my program (and continue to compare notes with my graduate friends in my undergrad program) I am certain I will find other things that validate my decision.