AlreadySLP

MGH also has a voice track

To be perfectly honest I don't think that is the case for SLPs. The need for PhD level speech therapists is crazy high, and the lack of them is one of the reasons getting into graduate school is so darn hard. I think ASHA's statement (as you posted above) is true and that a vast majority of speech PhD programs would agree with it. If you really love Stevens Point I would still go there. Contact them about research opportunities and be proactive in that regard once you get there. But if at this point you are just considering a thesis and it is not a make or break, then go to your first choice school. I can say with 99.9% confidence that not doing a thesis will not preclude you from getting your PhD.

It's really not unprofessional. It happens. All. The. Time. And it is why some school have waitlists move until July or even August. When i was applying this was a worry of many in my cohort and a professor and member of the admissions committee (at a very highly regarded program) told us this. There is NO guarantee that you will get off that waitlist and if you turn down the other school you are stuck. Having to apply again. If you would be happy there accept the offer. If you get off the waitlist you lose the deposit to the other school but that's fine. Just make sure you are professional with THAT department when you tell them you have decided not to attend (write a personal email or even make a phone call if you have had that kind of contact in the past, letting them know that you are very grateful for their offer but that you have been removed from the waitlist at a school that is a better fit for you, and for your life circumstances and that you regret to inform them you will not be attending their program). I was in that situation where I was waitlisted at my top choice but accepted into a few other programs. My top choice would not have informed me before April 15th. I paid my deposit to my second choice school and ended up going there as I did not get off that waitlist. I don't regret that at all, and I would not have regretted pulling myself if it meant going to my top choice.

I wasn't accepted to any of the other Boston schools (applied to Emerson but did not get in). I was deciding between Touro, Georgia State and Northeastern. I picked NEU because I wanted a school that would offer me a well rounded education with good research options should I decide I wanted to work in a lab (I did not end up doing so) but had a very strong clinical focus. Northeastern would allow me to start in the on campus clinic my first semester. And the Boston area has a lot of options for clinical placements so I knew I would be able to get diverse experience. I also went to an open house before I applied and found the professors (Dr. Rielly and an audiology professor who's name I don't remember) to be nice and approachable. Plus Boston was a city I have always wanted to live in. I was not (and am not) all that interested in medical speech pathology (at least not in practice, in theory/the classroom I find it very interesting). So MGH, Rush, UWMed were never programs I even considered. I have friends who went to MGH and they always seemed a little more stressed than my friends at Northeastern. The academics there are very very demanding. They also go a whole semester (summer semester but still) longer than Northeastern, so as opposed to finishing in April/May you would finish in August. This is not to say Northeastern is without its faults. My biggest issue with Northeastern is that from an administrative standpoint (so not academically) the department seems to have pragmatic difficulties. What I mean by this is that I felt as if my personal worries (about things like comps, clinical placements etc) were dismissed and at times I was treated like a child (but not one that was ever allowed to ask for help). From an academic standpoint, the professors are (for the most part) really good. And they really LOVE to teach and want you to learn the material. I found the academic part of it relatively stress free because I felt like my professors were rooting for all of us to do well. My friends at MGH said that they felt that the professors there were more interested in their own research and in proving to the students that they were smarter than the students. (but you should ask an MGH student about that as I don't have any personal experience with them). I just found that outside of academics the department was a bit...cold (but that may be an East Coast mentality thing, idk I'm not from the East). The on campus clinic is also very intense and not representative of SLP life in the real world (again I should mention I am NOT in medical SLP so while my clients and their families DO depend on me to change their lives they don't depend on me to SAVE them). However, I suspect this is the case with ALL on campus clinics as a) it is your first clinical experience and therefore is stressful and schools want to put out the best clinicians possible as their reputation rests on it. When it comes down to it, ALL programs will give you a good education and if you pass your praxsis and graduate you will get a job (and multiple offers). The things to consider are: 1) Where is it located and can you live there for two years? 2) Do you have a specific area of interest and does that school line up with that interest? 3) ditto professors doing research? 4) how much is it going to cost you (not only in terms of tuition but also cost of living in that place)? 5) Do you have any MUST haves/CAN'T haves (for example you CAN'T go until August of your second year) Hope that is helpful. Just remember whatever decision you make, you will be fine.

No idea. I didn't have the stats to award me one, so I didn't even ask. I would email Dr. O'Neil. She is almost frighteningly responsive (she responded to me late at night on a Saturday when I had questions before attending). But I say go where the money is. Especially if you like MGH equally.

As a graduate of the program (not comfortable saying when but it was within the last three years) I can speak to this. While Boston is a city of numerous medical and educational institutions it is impossible to place every student from all four schools within the city of Boston for their placements (if you think about the average cohort size being around 25 students (obviously some programs are larger but some are smaller and I am underestimating) that is 100 students that need placements PER SEMESTER.) Too many students and too few supervisors make this an impossibility. So yes, having a car is helpful as it expands the number of placements you are able to have. However it is not necessary. I did not have one. It did mean that I had to take public transportation and as a result maybe spend a little more time on my commute but it was worth not having a car in a major city where driving is notoriously painful. Full disclosure I opted for an out of state placement for the summer and therefore did Zip car a couple days a week for 10 weeks, but that could have been avoided as well. As far as Northeastern Students getting "preference" that is not actually the case. As someone else said, NO one school gets preference anymore. There may be a slight exception to MGH because they are institutionally bound to well, MGH. However, I will say that in my cohort the four major medical placements that require an interview and only go to ONE student (Tufts peds dysphagia, Tufts adult dysphagia, Boston Children's dysphagia and Beth Israel Voice) all went to Northeastern students. So that is perhaps what Susan meant by a 90% (I also know that the Tufts peds went to a NEU student in the cohort above mine). Northeastern students are also placed at the Children's AAC program every semester (also requires an interview). So we get good placements. However, it is not a highly medically focused school. If you really want to do medical SLP and got into MGH (and all/any other Boston schools) obviously MGH is the right decision. But you can still get good medical experience while at NEU. I know people that got CF positions in a hospital after graduating form NEU. I can't speak on the other schools but I am 95% sure that no student from any school is placed 100% within Boston city limits and that they would all benefit from having a car, but all can manage without. And as people have said numerous times (not in this forum but others) ranking doesn't really matter. Certainly not for finding a job and not for quality of placements (those are 90% what you make them). If you want to go into research then yes, higher ranked schools typically have that focus and would be a better fit for you. But if you want to be a clinician (at least initially), just graduate and pass your Praxis. I applied to 5 CF positions. Got three offers. Of the remaining one was already filled by the time they received my application (they did not update the website fast enough) and one wasn't for a CF (but I applied anyway because you never know). Also if you want to do research your focus should be on what kind of research you want to do and whether or not there is a professor doing that research at the schools you are interested in. There is something to be said for a school doing cool research (if you haven't already watch Dr. Patel's Ted Talk on Synthetic Voices) where the demand to help in these labs is lower. If you have questions about NEU feel free to ask them and I am happy to answer.