JustJay

Thank you for the support!

I am happy to report that I have been accepted to a Master in Arts in Communication Sciences and Disorders starting this August! I was granted Provisional Admission. Meaning... I must achieve a 3.0 in my grad courses in addition to retaking the 2 courses I made C's in and make B's or above to continue on. So, I get a chance to redeem myself! I really have the bare down and do well in the Fall so I can prove to the admission committee that they were right in choosing me and so I may become a "regular" student in the Spring. I am so ecstatic! Yes, it took 2 years since graduating with my bachelors and I clearly had no hope. It all came so suddenly, its nearly June! I have a lot to do in the next 2 months to prepare and will also be moving out of state. I had just accepted a position in a teaching program hours before I got the acceptance letter so this really caught me off guard. I was rejected from the 3 others programs I applied to as well . Anyways, I guess I just proved to myself and hopefully have given some hope to the rest of you that you do not need a 3.5 or above to get into grad school in this field. Just stay persistent. You already know from the original post that my gpa is a 3.0. Also, I am (clearly) a minority student and the school I was accepted to was in fact an HBCU. I won't go into too much details on here but if any of you have specific questions for me feel free to PM.

Please, don't be disheartened by my story, we are all different. For one, your GRE scores blow mine out the water and you also have applied to twice as many programs as I have which gives you a great shot at getting in somewhere. I'll also be sure to let you know if I do receive an acceptance after all. Secondly, a lot of what I can and cannot do revolves around whether I am able to afford it myself while others may have financial support from family (which is a blessing). Lastly, some of us are just better equipped to take rejection and keep pushing forward, while others (like me) just don't see the need to fight very long. What's disheartening to me is seeing all of the children in the schools who so badly need a speech therapist and can't get the help they need because of the "shortage". Now, I see that this shortage of SLPs isn't being cause by peoples lack of desire to be in the field, its because of the universities refusal to even look at the application of a person with a 3.4 or less! That is whats really messed up about this situation. People want to help but are told they can't because they didn't graduate cum laude. It makes no sense to me and its unfair to the people who need help. I hope it will change one day.

Hi! Sorry I've taken so long to follow up to your inquiry. Its been a loooong time since this original post and A LOT has changed for me. I'll try to make it short and sweet though. Due to not knowing exactly what my GPA would be by graduation, I never bothered applying for grad school during my senior year ( I even had a professor tell me I should rethink my major ). I did however graduate with a 3.03 cumulative gpa which was slightly better then the 2.97 I predicted. Still..what was best for me at the time was moving back home and taking a break to truly think about what I wanted to do going forward. What's different about my case then many others that i've seen here is that communication disorders was my undergraduate program. I know many have advised to take leveling courses or getting a second bachelors degree to makeup for the gpa but that just wasn't logical for me in anyway. Quite frankly, I worked my behind off to graduate with that 3.0. and If I knew that graduating with a 3.0 in this major would be the kiss of death, I truly would have never chosen this major. After graduation, I couldn't at all land a SLP-A job. I wasn't able to get those assistant hours because I would have had to stay in lubbock after graduation which was impossible for me to do and I couldn't find any opportunities in Dallas. Relocating out of state also wasn't an option for me at the time. To my surprise I ended up a substitute teacher and now, I'm an full-time assistant preschool teacher in Dallas. Last fall, I did end up applying for SLP grad programs for Fall 2015 admissions because I really wanted to give myself a chance and see if I could get in somewhere. So like many others I am awaiting my results (I've already received one rejection). Ironically enough, about 3 months ago while working on apps, I came upon the realization that I really love being in a classroom and teaching students. So although I have applied to grad school for SLP nearly 1 1/2 yrs after graduating, I've decided to go into the teaching field. I applied to a few programs and I have currently been accepted into the Indianapolis Teaching Fellows program to teach Special Education-Elementary! I begin training in June and will be in the classroom by Fall during that time I'll be working towards full teacher licensure and my Masters of Art in Education. Its not SLP, but I believe my undergrad major has served as a plus and I'm really looking forward to it all. What's important to me at this point in my life is to not take any unnecessary (and costly) risks with my future. So for now, I know I want to teach. If later on I decide I really want to pursue SLP then at that point I'll have the means to do so. Right now, I need to start my career especially with student loan repayments coming in. I don't want to sound pessimistic and what I am about to say many will disagree with but, I feel that If you think you will graduate with a 3.2 or less its best to not graduate at all (meaning: stay in school and repeat the courses you need that way you have a chance BEFORE graduating to fix your gpa) or change your major now. Not everyone can afford a second bachelors degree or to do post grad courses just for a shot at grad school. My family has never been able to pay for my schooling, living, etc so I already have a mountain of undergrad debt. So to doing anything post grad would mean more debt to just hopefully get into school which I'll have to pay for with MORE loans. That is something I just can't do at this time. But hey, if you can afford it then go for it. All in all, I still admire the speech profession and I look forward to rubbing shoulders with the SLPs when I'm working as a SPED teacher. Who knows, I may even bump into a few of you! Good luck to all!

I actually am considering teaching english abroad myself if I don't get in! My friend got an offer to teach in China for a year, but I would choose to go to South Korea myself. I currently work as a preschool teacher so my other plan was to stay in the field I'm in while working on a k-5 teaching cert in the U.S. Getting a full blown teaching cert would be more long term security vs teaching abroad so I'm pretty torn what the best path for me would be. I've always wanted to see the world so leaving the U.S. would be a dream come true and is quite tempting. Hmmm.... I guess I'll now in a month or two!

Did you attend one of the information sessions? I thought the applications were closed for Cycle 8.