Crimson Wife

It also depends on how competitive the schools you're aiming for are. If you're looking at schools with admissions rates in the 10-15% range, then you need to apply to more than if the schools that interest you are in the 20-30% range.

Don't do it in lieu of going to grad school, but it's a decent Plan B in case you don't get in.

Eastern NM is supposed to be very inexpensive if you do it PT. Even FT is relatively cheap, especially if you are a resident of a state covered by the Western Regional Graduate Program.

I'm not talking about completely unrelated courses but electives like child dev and education ones (and some of the psych courses but ask around since other psych courses are hard). My sister-in-law was an ed major and she told me the coursework was a total joke. One of the psych courses I took was called "Developmental Psychology Lab" and it was super-duper easy because all it entailed was visiting the on-campus preschool and making observations of the kids. I believe there may have been a summary reflective paper at the end of the term but it was an easy "A".

Not all schools require the GRE, so I'd be more concerned about the 3.4 GPA than the GRE. Try to find some "easy A" electives to help bump up your GPA to a 3.7+.

You're unlikely to make six figures with a MPH unless you go into healthcare administration. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has an Occupational Outlook Handbook that is good for looking up pay statistics. The median pay for public health is $48.8k and the 90th percentile is $86.8k. http://www.bls.gov/ooh/community-and-social-service/health-educators.htm#tab-5

There is a shortage of SLP's so I really wouldn't obsess over the rankings. It's not like law school where employers can afford to be super-picky because there's a glut of graduates. If you complete your master's and your licensure, you will find a job somewhere.

I think it would look much better than retail or food service. If you don't want to travel, check to see if you could get a job at Lindamood-Bell or a center-based Applied Behavioral Analysis program. You may find that the ABA jobs require some amount of travel, but it probably wouldn't be as much as home care.

I was a psych major in my first undergrad and took a lot of human development-related classes (I originally was hoping to become a pediatrician). I do think they are helpful and relevant in terms of my professional interest in working with kids as a SLP. If you want to work with the elderly, taking gerontology-related courses would help you out.

I had an informational interview with the head of the CSD department at one of my target schools and she said to make sure I mention hobbies or interests that would demonstrate I am a "well-rounded" person on my application. Animal therapy would definitely fall into that category. If you wanted to make animal therapy more language-related, check to see if your local animal shelter participates in the "Paws to Read" or "All Ears Reading" programs and volunteer your expertise. Here's an example: https://www.arflife.org/all-ears-reading One of the early intervention preschool programs for the deaf & hard-of-hearing in my area has a "facility dog" who helps with the kids. http://ceid.org/our-programs/facility-dog/ I think you could make a great argument for your expertise with animal therapy being relevant and interesting.

Has anybody done this? One of the schools I just added to my "to research further" list wants me to have a sociology course (they also have some other atypical social science pre-reqs but I took those as a psych major). I actually took a course during my 1st BA that included a basic intro to sociology unit and that was enough to know that I don't want to spend a full semester or $$$ taking sociology. There is, however, a CLEP Intro to Sociology exam. Do CLEP tests generally count as satisfying pre-reqs?

SLP is a HUGE field, so try to volunteer as a way of narrowing down your specific area of interest. Do you want to work with kids, the elderly, veterans, English Language Learners, etc.? Do you want to focus on autism, apraxia, the deaf & hard-of-hearing, stroke recovery, dyslexia, etc.? It's okay to be unsure at this stage of the game, and volunteering in a variety of settings can be a great way of figuring out what you want to do.

There is a big demand for SLP's who are bilingual in Spanish & English. ASL is useful if you want to work with the deaf in a "Total Communication" setting rather than an auditory-verbal one.

You'll need to address the community college grades, but if you show a clear pattern of improvement, I think you've still got a shot. Maybe you won't get into the most selective programs, but you only need one acceptance and you'll be a SLP the same as if you graduated from a "name brand" school.

If you're applying through the CSDCAS system, they will re-calculate your GPA based on their criteria. I was just looking through the FAQ's today about how they do that and am not thrilled with their method (A+ grades get rounded down to 4.0) But what you would do is to enter in your courses and grades and CSDCAS will figure out how to "standardize" your GPA.

Education is never a waste IMHO. Whatever your future holds for you, you've accomplished something that only a minority of Americans have done. That's something to be proud of!

It sounds like maybe you're dealing with depression, which is very common but fortunately treatable. I would encourage you to speak to a therapist/counselor who can actually do something to help you. We can be all sympathetic (it sounds like the professor is a real piece of work and what she said is totally unprofessional) but we're not able to provide any kind of mental health treatment.

Check to see if any of the classes in other departments (psychology, human biology, linguistics, education, etc.) have similar enough content to the CSD courses. I took a language development class as part of my psych degree and while I didn't personally take them, the linguistics department offered phonetics and language science.

Some extended master's programs want to see at least a few CSD courses completed prior to your application. I don't know whether the school you're getting your psychology degree from has any CSD courses but if they do, it might be a good idea to take them. Cal State Northridge has an online post-bacc that guarantees admission to the master's if you maintain a certain GPA.

I assumed you were in Stockton based on your signature so that's why I mentioned Delta, but as a CA resident, you can take courses from any of the community colleges and pay the same rate. Most offer online coursework so do check around for ones that interest you.

Bumping, though since it's old, you will need to double-check that all the programs still offer the extended master's.

For your social science credit, I would recommend Child Development because even if you hope to work with adults after grad school, you will need to take several classes focusing on kids during your master's. The more you know about what is typical development, the easier it will be to recognize what isn't. Delta College offers a Child & Adolescent Development online course and while I haven't taken it, the Delta courses are by far the cheapest way to knock out requirements: https://classes.deltacollege.edu/schedule/sections.cfm?term=20&year=201516&region=INET&dept=CDEV&course=CDEV%20%20%20%20021

There are lots of schools that offer "extended" masters programs. Several of the CSU's do (San Jose State, CSU East Bay in Hayward, etc.) do. CSU Northridge online guarantees students in its post-bac admissions to its master's if you maintain a certain GPA. Ditto for Loma Linda (not online) if I recall correctly.

My state has a hearing aids dispenser license and I've thought about getting it as a way to save money in the long run for my hard-of-hearing daughter.

I graduated in the 20th century and am in my 1st term at USU online 2nd BA now. I had a meeting last month at one of the grad schools I'm considering (I was visiting the area and wasn't sure when I'd be able to get back there) and talked with the head of the SLP department and the head of the specialty track I'd want to do. They both were very positive about USU's online 2nd BA. They did encourage me to apply this coming year rather than waiting until I complete the 2nd degree as apparently it's a LOT easier to get in as an out-of-field applicant. They said they had around 300 applicants for 30 slots but of those, it was around 270 with CSD degrees for 25 in-field slots and only 30 out-of-field applicants for 5 slots. Now my GPA for my 1st degree was competitive so I don't really need the CSD courses that much to boost my application (though they do want to see how I do in the courses I'm taking this summer and fall).