Puffer Fish

And that's okay too! I have anxiety problems, so don't take my obsessing about getting apps done ASAP as something normal people do. It might be something they do, but I'm not normal so I'm not a good baseline. Best of luck on the GRE!

You should definitely apply to at least some of your intended schools! Don't give up now! Also, belated congratulations to your wife on her promotion!

I do not, slp2be1106, but bakenator might since they applied for spring! In my app news, I discovered today that the reason my letter writers never got back to me to verify that they would still write for me...is because my email address from the school is broken and won't receive emails! With an updated email address sent out, I now have confirmation from 2/3 of them, even if I do feel like a huge doofus. Pro tips for other applicants: make sure your contact information works. Blarg.

I'm going to apply to 6 schools. 3 of them use my program's universal application, so I can't start them until September 17th. The other 3 have their own application systems, so I've already done 90% of them. Just gotta upload my SOPs, acquire transcript scans, and get my LOR writers to [small panic] freakin' respond to my emails!!! [/small panic]

You definitely sound like you'd have a shot at least somewhere! You have a lot of varied experience that is relevant for the field, plus a good GPA (better than mine, actually...nope, not gonna be jealous...) I think you'll be fine. From what I've seen on this forum and the internet in general, grad applications seem to be half you and half what the department needs. If they aren't looking for someone with your kind of experience this year then you're out. If they are, then you're more likely to be in.

After I posted this thread this morning, I finished 80% of Penn State's application (aka: all the personal info sans transcripts, personal statements, and LoRs) and today after work I did the same with University of Maryland and University of Virginia. The other 3 schools I'm applying to (James Madison University, West Virginia University, University of Pittsburgh) use CSDCAS so I have to wait. UVA doesn't mind using unofficial transcripts, so I actually have half of those listed already. UMD and PSU seem to want official transcript scans... But! Starting is always my hardest part, so the fact that I've made headway on applications gives me (hopefully) enough momentum to start really buckling down on my statement.

Oh dear, I'm so embarrassed. That explains why I couldn't find anything. I was thinking it was like College Park, Maryland. Thanks for fixing my fail!

There's a thread for Canadians specifically already, but none for the rest of us! How goes your applications, folks? I know CSDCAS doesn't open until September 17 but surely there's still progress being made like letters and statements and non-CSDCAS programs. Right now I'm having the "fun" of LoR writers not emailing me back and difficulty editing my SOP. I only have one draft but I need to modify it so a separate draft fits my non-research schools.

After searching I've noticed there is virtually nothing on this site about Penn State. Does anybody go there? What's the campus/city/etc. like?

I was planning on getting cats even after grad school, actually. I am 100% a cat mom at heart. Cats, not human children, are definitely in my personal future whether it's when I'm in school or when I move in with my boyfriend after we're both done with school. This isn't a 'getting a cat because I'm in grad school' sort of issue for me; sorry if I didn't make that clear before! I am absolutely planning on moving the cat(s) with me if I have to move post-master's. As for the whole PhD argument, my field does not require a PhD unless you plan on teaching at a college level. Since I plan on practicing, I don't need to bother with a PhD right now. My program is 2 years of a master's degree, then 1 year of clinical fellowship placement. It is possible that my CFY could be in the same city. So it would be 3 years instead of 1-2. Not much different but it's still significant enough for me. I need to discuss finances more with my parents, I guess. I am extremely grateful and humbled by the fact that they're willing to help me pay for school. I need to find out what they're willing to pay for and if my own savings will cover a cat's potential emergencies and cat accessories.

I've seen some older threads on this, but they're all related to dogs. I'd like some newer inputs I guess. I'm hopefully going to start my program in Fall 2016 (knock on wood), and provided my life doesn't explode I'm looking forward to maybe adopting a cat to help keep me sane while I'm away at school. I already know I won't be adopting a kitten unless I find one on the street or something. Adult cats are the way for me to go right now. Do you think it's a safe and sane idea to have a cat in grad school as a first time pet parent since childhood? How does your schedule affect how you interact with it? How do you afford its care? Would you get one that does fine being an "only child", or adopt more than one? ...How do you even deal with having two or more cats at once if you live alone? I'd feel like a crazy cat lady if I got two, even if it would make me super happy. If you're not a cat person, same questions apply but with your pet of choice!

Thank you for all your input! I really appreciate it. I don't know about the whole 'reach/target/safety' school thing in regards to master's programs, since it seems like every school should be considered either target or reach for me. The only reason I can't do this is because my leveling courses are online; I rarely interact with my professors and never will meet them in person. I don't feel like they are good candidates for giving me recommendations. The only SLPs I'm going to have worked with in person by the time apps are available are the elementary school SLP and the one at the hospital nearby. The ES SLP already told me she doesn't feel comfortable writing one for me, and I'd have only known the hospital SLP for (at the very least) 8 observation hours, so I don't even feel comfortable asking her in the first place. I didn't make many professor connections in college. These three professors are the only ones who know me well enough to give me substantial letters. Everyone else I either had once or twice and/or never went to their office hours.

So, with a little over two months until CSDCAS opens for apps, I'm starting to panic a bit. Here's where I stand so far: I graduated a semester early from my mixed psychology/linguistics undergrad, with a GPA of 3.07 overall, 3.11 in-major. I was not the most responsible student for the first half of my undergrad, due to an undiagnosed anxiety disorder and general "living-without-parents-for-the-first-time" problems. If I don't include my study abroad courses, my last 60 credits GPA is 3.21. If I do include them it goes down to a 3.076. I'm taking pre-requisite courses now and doing a lot better in them. I've only completed two classes so far, and I have a 3.7 GPA. This is not including the courses I'm in right now that finish up at the end of this week. As long as I don't absolutely fail the final exams, I'll have A's and B's in these courses too. I interned with an elementary school SLP this past fall, and I'm going to get a few observation hours at the local hospital by the end of next month with the potential to get some more before apps are due. I've taken the GRE twice. First time: 157V/148Q/3.5W Second time: 162V/152Q/3.0W Is my high verbal enough to cancel out my less-than-stellar writing? I can't really figure out how I got worse at that...can I send the best of the scores so schools receive 162V/152Q/3.5W? I have 3 professors that know me well, from across different disciplines (one English literature/poetry, one psycholinguistics/internship advisor, one Spanish) to write my LoRs. I'm not really worried about these. I have four schools (tentatively five) on my list of 'schools I am going to apply to', as seen in my signature. Is this too few? Do I even stand a chance? Is there anything you guys think I should play up in my SoP? Any suggestions in general? Thanks in advance!

I can't edit my posts, so I'll just update my decision here: I'm going to take leveling courses online from Longwood so I can have better application options in the future and stop having to be constrained to so few programs. Woo.

Hi everybody, I'm about to complete my linguistics major in undergrad, and I want to go on to be an SLP. My school's program is tiny and general, so it has no SLP courses at all. The only relevant experience I have in the field right now is an observation I'm doing for internship credit. I have found one school so far (Edinboro Uni of Pennsylvania) that verified that they will defer admission until I finish their prerequisite program. The rest (Gallaudet, Pittsburgh) have said they do not, and I am still waiting to hear back from West Virginia University. However, elsewhere in the forum I was reminded of pre-SLP programs and now I'm attempting to look into those so I'm currently sifting through La Salle's website. I wish I knew why I was so hell-bent on going to Pennsylvania! Would it be a better use of my time to apply to a pre-SLP program and get the prereqs over with but have no guaranteed admission anywhere, or apply to Edinboro and pray that they accept a ~2.9 GPA, pretty average GRE, nothing-really-special-about-it application? (I also need to make a decision soon because I want to let my LOR professors know if they should still write the letters or not...) Thanks in advance!

This time around I think I'm only really applying to Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and West Virginia University because they both have a prerequisite track of the program as far as I can tell through emailing the departments. If I don't get into either one I might try to do prereqs at Pittsburgh or something. Thanks!

All I know about the city is that it's a small college town and there's nothing much to do, which is fine by me honestly. Does anybody know anything else about Edinboro?

I just started my CSDCAS app today for Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. Tomorrow I'm going to start asking professors to write LORs and maybe Thursday I'll be able to find time to start my SoP. I started way too late on this but I have to either decide to take a year off, pick the colleges I'm going to apply to and do their prereqs, or find schools that have prerequisite programs. Edinboro is the only one I want to attend that's on the CDSCAS list that I'm aware of. If by some miracle I get accepted there I'm going to go there. No question about it.

Hey guys, I'm new here. I'm applying to Speech Pathology programs, but my undergrad doesn't have an SLP program so I don't have any prerequisites. The only things I really have "going" for me are that my degree is in linguistics and I'm currently interning under an elementary school speech therapist. My GPA is 2.9 and I still have this semester's grades to go. I'm going to try to get an observation with an SLP near where I live after I graduate in December, but that wouldn't be on my application(s). As a result of not having any prereqs, I'm currently applying to like...one, maybe two programs, because they have an existing pre-grad deferral program. Everyone's talking about applying to 7 to 15 schools, and here I am with 3 or maybe 4 schools I want to attend. Am I setting myself up for disappointment with this? My school choices are slightly constrained by geography; I'd like to stay on the US's east coast within at least 6 hours' drive of DC, so I can't apply to Idaho or anything ridiculous like that (no offense to any Idahoans though!).