nicoleac

I just got accepted to UCF today! I can't believe it took so long lol. I heard from all the other schools I applied to like a month ago... Anyway, I declined admissions. I used to be a Florida resident and was hoping I could sneak my way into getting in-state tuition by living with relatives, but they wouldn't bite, so I can't afford the out-of-state tuition. I have a friend who goes to this school though and she loves it! Congrats to everyone accepted, and hopefully they hurry up on these decisions.

Some schools offer an assistantship, like TA or RA, to basically anyone who wants one. It's not much, but it's something. You could also skip that and to part-time work. Or both, if you don't like to sleep much.

I guess that's what I mean by "dream job". I didn't mean to be dramatic. Certainly wouldn't do it for free, but find satisfaction and contentedness with how you're going to spend the majority of your adult life. And I don't think there's much else besides SLP that I'd feel that way about to be honest. I hate working, but when I'm volunteering at a clinic it's obvious to me that this is what I should be doing. I like it.

Each school you look at should have a list of scholarships both through the school and through third parties, I think each school is different. Also, getting part/all of your loans forgiven is a possibility. I don't know too many details, but I think in certain states you can be in a low-income public school system for a certain amount of time and they will forgive them, and I also know certain hospitals will pay your loans back for you. My mother works at a hospital and they repay all their SLP's loans for them. But that's not guaranteed, you'd have to find the right employer.

Yeah maybe I would reconsider, if I were you, then. This is a lot of money to spend on something you aren't totally passionate about. Maybe ask to job shadow? Do you have any experience in the field that you could get some sort of idea of what it would be like? I would be sure you really wanted it before you spent all that money and time.

Also apply for scholarships!!! They are a pain in the ass to fill out forms, but you can rack up a significant amount of money.

Sorry, I'm not from the same states as any of you so I don't have info about those schools. I do, however, know that some schools offer in-state tuition wavers--that's what I'm getting from UT Dallas. U of Arizona offers them too. So there are a couple out-of-state options as well. I'm graduating with ~90k total debt. Yeah, it's completely overwhelming and ridiculous, and I wish I'd been born in Canada, but what else can we do? That's just the cost of education in America. If you know that this is absolutely what you want to do...it'd be better, in my opinion, to be in debt for 10-20 years and be working at my dream job, than to be unhappy at a job you don't like. You're gonna be there for basically the rest of your life so might as well find something you love to do!

When are you applying? If you have time, I would suggest more experience! I know you listed that you have experience and research, but the more the better! When I first decided I wanted to be an SLP, my GPA was around a 3.1. From that point on I had a massive freak-out, never slept so I could get all A's, and really dug around for as many clinical/research/club/activist opportunities as I could! Once you start networking, opportunities just keep popping up. It was overwhelming, but I think that's why I got accepted--a good last 60 credits GPA and a crapload of extracurriculars. That, and I also come from a very good school (#1 public university! Go blue!) and I think I may have been forgiven for my first year of horrible grades due to that...classes ARE harder, and more is expected out of you in top schools! It's part of the learning process--how to be ambitious and how to think critically, especially under pressure. Also, are you in-field or out-of-field? If you are out-of-field, it could be a good idea to do a post-bacc and raise those grades (or retake some classes). I know Wayne State University in MI has a non-competitive post-bacc program, so you don't need to apply to get in. Also, if your school has a Career Center or other resource like that, utilize it! Have them read your letter of intent, your resume, everything. Ask professors for their advice. Ask your research coworkers. A lot of the time people will give you great advice to make your application better! Make up for your grades with a killer letter of intent, resume, and letters of recommendation. And be willing to move from a top university to a perhaps not-well-known one. In the end, you will still be an SLP.

I know University of Central Florida, UT Dallas, and Eastern Michigan University accept students in the spring and/or summer!

You should check with your undergraduate school if they have a letter of recommendation center! At my school (University of Michigan) I found that they had a reference letter service at the Career Center. They basically hold on to all your letters for you, so your professor submits them one time to the RLS and the RLS then forwards it to all the schools you apply to. If your school has something like this, it is DEFINITELY worth checking out! That way all you have to do is tell your professor not to address any particular school in their letter. This made the letter of rec process so much easier for me. Note, though, that CSDCAS does not accept letters through services like this, so if you apply to CSDCAS and non-CSDCAS schools, your professors still need to send a letter to each service. Check it out!

Congratulations!!!

HA today in sunny MI it's like 35 degrees? The only major issue I'm having with choosing a school is that UT Dallas gave me a really big scholarship, so I feel like I sort of don't have a choice to go anywhere that doesn't offer funding. I just don't know if I can justify tens of thousands of dollars more in debt to go to a different school. Although, loan forgiveness has peaked my interest so I will look into that...I see you got accepted to UT Dallas too! Maybe see you there

Wow everyone--thank you SO much for all your helpful information. Honestly if nothing else, I'm pretty convinced by Chandru's pizza commercial. I'm pretty familiar with crime-ridden neighborhoods--Detroit is like half an hour away from me and I go there pretty frequently. I think the situation here sounds pretty similar to what you all have said so far--just live in the suburbs/a nicer area instead of downtown, be aware of your surroundings, and it'll be fine. All the surrounding areas/touristy things you guys mentioned seems like a dream! I would LOVE to be able to visit all those places. Thank you so much for the recommendations for things to do! I really wish I could go visit the school before the confirmation deadline. They really don't give you much time to respond at all...but I will definitely seriously consider U of P. Especially because of what you said, twinguy--an accelerated program is so appealing. Does anyone know about the atmosphere of the school/department itself? It's clinical, not research-based, right? And what are the practicum opportunities like? Do they specialize in any particular field (adults, medical, pediatrics)? What is the program's local reputation? Again thank you SO much for all your insights!!!

Yikes. That's not reassuring. It's not like their program is so short that it's affordable--I don't have tens of thousands of dollars just laying around. Do you know how the loan forgiveness programs work? Are they through employers?

Thanks for the info! I guess I'd take boring suburbs over crazy expensive cities! I had this stereotype notion that everywhere in CA was outrageously expensive. Do you mean that Stockton isn't the best city because it's boring or because it's unsafe?