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phaedra

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  • Application Season
    2015 Fall
  • Program
    Speech-Language Pathology

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  1. Well, in my personal experience, my classes at my undergrad have been more rigorous than the prereqs for speech I took elsewhere. Based purely on my grades - I got a 100% average in every speech prereq I took with not a huge amount of effort. One reason why there may seem to be grade inflation in Ivies is that the academic caliber of students there is higher overall. If all students are performing at such a high level, one school is that they all deserve As, rather than scaling down the A- students to a C to make a perfect curve. But you're right, it is not easy to compare classes between universities, and many non-Ivies have similar, if not harder, classes but do not have the same reputation. It is not a perfect science by any means. So I agree that LORs and SOPs are helpful, but those are hard to directly compare too as you cannot quantify them. And I think most LORs are pretty positive. So that's where the GRE comes in - to compare academic skills in students whose undergrad schools may differ in grading/rigor. Of course the GRE has its problems as well, but overall I think it is an important "equalizer."
  2. I wan't expecting them to pay attention to my undergrad school, but I go to an Ivy League school and almost all of the grad schools I applied to remarked specifically on this in interviews, phone calls, etc.: "You should be so prepared coming from XXX school," "The grad school course work should be easy for you coming from XXX," "We try to make exceptions for students with your background," etc. etc. So I do think big names stand out and they realize differences in difficulty of coursework between schools. However, my GPA is still pretty high, and I know they still are really GPA focused so I really can't answer your question with any certainty. My recommendation would be to apply to the schools that would be more likely to appreciate a top undergrad school because they are one themselves, e.g. Northwestern, NYU, Columbia (though Columbia has a very low acceptance rate so maybe not that one). So more "snooty" schools lol, rather than the state ones. This was my plan when I was worried about coming out with a lower GPA. And then go rock the GRE! Good luck!
  3. I also went through this, and found it very frustrating. It's not as easy as it seems to just look at the tuition webpage - because you need to know how many credits you take each semester because rates can differ based on that, and then the total credits, summer courses which are often at a different rate... one of my schools had mandatory J-Term (January term) courses also at another rate. I don't have any great suggestions as to what to do, other than to dig for information and calculate the total cost yourself. If a school could not give me an estimate, I tried to find a sample "course of study" for the program, and then calculated tuition and fees for each semester based on that. I think it's a little sad when programs cannot provide an estimate of the total cost; it shows they are a little out of touch with their students' experience.
  4. I plan to apply for a graduate/research assistantship position at the school I'm going to (MGH), as they've said they'll send out the application in the summer. The position is about 6 hours per week which I think will be manageable. I think it will be much easier to have a job within the program, because they will be understanding of your need to be flexible for clinical placements and classes. I did some weekend babysitting in undergrad and it was more trouble than it was worth. Getting references, sending out cover letters and resumes, interviewing with each family - only for them to have me to babysit one night every month or two, and they all petered out pretty quickly. I still babysit occasionally for people I know personally, but I won't know anyone where I'm going. I also want to have my weekends and nights free in grad school because I'll probably be single by then and want to start dating again, and generally have a social life. I've also just worked so many part time jobs by now that pay so little - it just doesn't seem worth it anymore since I'm confident I get can get a good job after grad school in this field. I'd rather take out a few more thousand in loans than waste time at another $9/hour job. But I'm lucky enough that I won't have to take out many loans anyway.
  5. Just in case anyone is reading this and wondering, I did end up asking about the graduation rate at the open house - the director seemed offended and didn't really want to give me an answer, but she did say that some students dropped out because they decided the field wasn't for them, others for personal reasons, and others because Worcester has strict clinical/academic requirements and some students were not up to par, so they had to be dismissed.
  6. Lol, OP, it was me who made those posts. Sorry bindlestiff, I accidentally downvoted your post and don't know how to undo it. I deleted my post about the open house because I wrote it right afterward when I was very frustrated and it was a bit rant-y, but overall I did not get a good feeling about the program. I would be happy to go into more details over PM. I think one important thing to keep in mind that I was not aware of when I applied (it is not advertised on the website, which only says "two full years including summers") is that you wouldn't graduate until Dec. 2017, even if you enter with all prereqs completed. So you have three more semesters than most schools - the short summer 2015, then summer 2017, and fall 2017.
  7. I already touched on my deciding factors, but yup, I'll be moving. Not very far at all - I'm living in Rhode Island for undergrad right now and my family is from southeastern Mass, but I'll be getting an apartment in/around Boston. Not nearly as exciting as your 8 hour move but still overwhelming for me to move to the city!
  8. MGH Institute of Health Professions (MGH-IHP) MGH SLP 2017 Closed group, I'm not the admin, but request to join https://www.facebook.com/groups/602558709878464/
  9. Going to try to revitalize this thread! I made my final decision today: MGH-IHP. Here's how my decision process went: I was accepted to 8 out of 10 schools. Three of them offered me a scholarship: MGH, University of Rhode Island, and University of New Hampshire. Worcester State was cheaper than those even without a scholarship. So I threw out the four most expensive (Northeastern, University of Vermont, University of Connecticut, and Southern Connecticut). I visited Worcester State and did not like the attitude of the director, and I decided to throw out UNH since URI was cheaper and closer. I really liked URI when I visited - everyone was friendly and it seemed very supportive. But I visited MGH today and was so impressed - it is just a higher quality program with more opportunities and felt much more organized than URI, and I like the location better. I felt that it would be worth the extra $20K it's going to cost me. So, that's my decision. Very happy I made it this early and this easily. Anyone else?
  10. Worcester State (in Mass) has one tuition rate for both in state and out of state - it's only about $14,800 total in tuition and fees for the program. However I just visited and got a bad vibe, so have crossed it off my list.
  11. I am also lucky enough to be picky so I've narrowed it down to the schools that gave me funding/were super cheap: MGH, University of Rhode Island and Worcester State. I'm from Mass and am in undergrad in RI right now and wanted to stay close. But can't decide whether I want a rural or urban environment. Even with funding there's still a $30,000 difference between MGH and Worcester, not including cost of living... The rankings also eat at me. I'm not sure how I can turn down a #25 school for a #154 or #181 even though I don't think I'm interested in research. I'm so torn... I realize we are hijacking this Northeastern thread right now, so I'll stop there... good luck to you!
  12. Thanks for the insight! I would just say the ranking is relatively high at #52 rather than "lower mid level"... but I guess that depends on what schools you're comparing it to, as the other Boston schools are higher. What other schools are you considering, Lyra?
  13. When I asked over email, Dr. O'Neil said funding decisions would start late March/early April and continue throughout the summer. However, when I visited at the open house last weekend, she basically said that they only give funding to people once they have committed to going there. So, perhaps if you accept the offer by late March, you could hear as early as then. One of the grad students there said she heard in the summer that she would receive a scholarship. Dr. O'Neil said they don't want to give scholarships to people who will end up turning down the offer since that money is "wasted" (I think this philosophy is a little silly, as you could just redistribute the money). She said that Northeastern is not unusual in this and a lot of grad programs do it this way (which I personally haven't found that to be the case at least for the schools I applied to). She also stressed that they spread the money around by giving small amounts of money to a larger amount of people (maybe 25% of the class? I don't remember), rather than large amounts to only a few people. This is for the departmental scholarships. I think it may be possible to hear about a scholarship from the general graduate school (I know there are some available) before committing, though I don't know for sure. However, I basically have crossed Northeastern off my list, because while I think it is a great program, I've gotten funding elsewhere, so I don't think it would make much sense to take a gamble on it. Anyone else who was at the open house, please chime in if I've made an error, I was a little confused by it all!
  14. Thank you! Do you have any other specific feedback on the program from your friend? Was URI the only school you applied to? My undergrad major is not COMD either, but I took all the prereqs before I applied. They do seem accommodating to non-major students. Good luck!
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