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My friend does not have a car, so I think she just relies on public transportation to get to her off-campus placements. Haven't heard her complain about getting around. I don't know how all her clinical experiences have been, but she told me she was particularly surprised at working in schools. Her case load has been very interesting to say the least, working with children with head trauma, and she's found her experiences to be self-gratifying. I'm not sure what hospitals Temple has connections with (other than it's own), but moving here from SF, I was really amazed to see how many hospitals were in the area! If I remember correctly, they also have a bilingual track, no? I wouldn't underestimate how many multicultural opportunities you'd get at Boston University. I was looking to do an MS/PhD program there with someone who specialized in bilingual aphasia. She doesn't seem to have problems with finding subjects for her studies, and I imagine finding bilinguals with stroke-induced language problems are much harder to find than other multicultural populations with speech or language problems. Sounds like a tough decision for you to make and frankly, it looks like all these places will satisfy your interests! The area within the campus feels pretty safe to me too. It's just once you step outside, it can feel kind of dangerous. My boyfriend lives in South Philly and he loves it down there. It's a lot safer community and he just takes the Broad Street Line or the bus to school. I honestly cannot say where their department puts more emphasis in their graduate program -- clinical or research. My friend already has her PhD and came to Temple originally to do research. I also know their faculty is very active in research since I work at a research institute that collaborates with some of the people there. With that said, I also know that the Philadelphia has a lot of hospitals around for a reason -- the demand for more clinicians to meet the needs of the community. And my friend *does* always talk about how she needs to meet with clients and is always busy with her clinical practicum. My guess is that they encourage their students to do research, but that doesn't necessarily mean you have to do it. Anyway, best of luck to you both in your decisions! Hope I'm of some help

Thanks! Congrats to you too! The two main problems with Temple is the fact that the administration can be disorganized and that it's location really sketchy. That's from both personal experience and from my friends who actually go there. I haven't heard anything bad about the program itself. My friend LOVES her clinical supervisor and in fact, asked me if I wanted to come with them and see what its like to work in the schools. One huge advantage of Temple's SLP program is that it's the only one located in the city of Philadelphia AND the city itself is in DIRE need of SLPs. Out of curiosity, why is Temple your top choice?

Just wanted to comment on a few of the points you made: Currently, the UC System's financial resources is probably the most unstable it's ever been thanks to the large budgetary cuts on public education in the state. While it might not directly affect how your education will be funded, it is likely it will affect how much money your department or college gets from the university. That, in turn, could affect what classes are available, shared resources within the department and how many more graduate students will join the department in the coming years.Sounds like wherever you go, you're going to need a car.The Silicon Valley actually refers to the Southern part of the Bay Area where a lot of technology businesses/firms are located (e.g. San Jose, Santa Clara). It's about a 4-6 hour drive from LA depending on how fast you're going and traffic.San Diego is closer, but that's also a 2-3 hour drive.The weather might be milder than Ithaca, but I can assure you the air pollution in LA is far greater. In fact, driving into LA you can often times see a yellow haze suspended above the city. If you're susceptible to lung infections, that's something you might want to consider.Driving is not only a hassle in LA, but so is parking. I'd try and find an apartment with a garage. If not, permit street parking is the next best thing, but make sure you're an expert at parallel parking (seriously, the curbs are lined with parked cars, bumper-to-bumper).Are the profs at Cornell aware of the kind of research you want to do and welcome to take in your interests? If so, you can always carve your own path at Cornell.Are you planning to stay in whichever town (or the surrounding area) after receiving your PhD? If you're planning to move again, then remember this is going to just be a few years of your life.How well do you get along with the faculty and graduate students at UCLA versus Cornell? That's something I would also take into consideration.So basically, I think you should go to Cornell. I think it's a safer bet, especially if the faculty there are willing to help cultivate your research interests even though it's not exactly what they are doing. Plus, it sounds like you might have a better support system at there versus UCLA. As a disclaimer, I actually did my undergrad at UC Berkeley and my sister is doing her undergrad at UCLA right now, so I have nothing personal against LA, UCLA or the UC system. I love LA, but after visiting there several times I've realized it's more of a place to visit rather than to live. I've never been to Ithaca before, so I can't really say much about what it'd be like to live there. Goooood luck!

I got a notification from the CSD dept yesterday via e-mail!

It's so surreal for me, but all my decisions are in! Ahh!

My friend is in the program and she says it's just okay. Never really said anything positive about it and anything negative normally concerns bureaucratic issues.

Hey there, congrats on your acceptance! I'm from SF too and made the transition to Philly life when I got a job out here after undergrad. My suggestion is to not live by Temple at all (North Philly). Even just stepping foot outside of Temple's campus makes me a little nervous. There's even a Temple theater production (Shot!) that depicted the gun violence in North Philadelphia in the 60s, how things have gotten worse and how they're trying to fix things. But I digress. Since you've been to the city already, I imagine you've been to Center City...sort of the business epicenter of Philadelphia. Relative to Center City, be wary of moving anywhere too far North, South or West. East is Jersey, hehe. My boyfriend currently goes to Temple and he lives in Bella Vista. It's basically the area just south of South Street and East of Broad Street, right by the Italian Market. This is a good location because the Broad Street Line (BSL) subway is only a couple blocks away. Other neighborhoods in the area I suggest are Society Hill and Queen Village. Northern Liberties (NoLibs) is a little south east of Temple where the rent is also cheap, but might also soon start to increase since the neighborhood is reforming along with the influx of hipsters trying to spruce it up. There's a trolley that goes along Girard and that connects with the BSL so you can get to school. You could also try looking at the art museum area (around Fairmount?). It's pretty nice and quiet up there and I think the rent's pretty reasonable. Might be too out of the way though if you're going to Temple. Anyway, hope that helped!

Pilipino at lalaki ako din! Teaching English in Spain was actually my plan if I didn't get a job after undergrad (and if I didn't get into any grad schools this time around). So I think it's even crazier that you're *also* going into SLP. Trippy! Looks like someone on the Results Search said they called TC and they're sending out the next round of notifications next week. So, good luck to everyone then! Frankly, I'm getting restless too from waiting on SDSU-UCSD's joint doctoral program in Language and Communicative Disorders. I'm supposed to know before mid-next week. Ahhh! By the way, is there anyone else in here interested in SLP research and thinking about or pursuing a PhD? Just wondering!

To the other cognitive science people here...I CAN TOTALLY RELATE TO ALL THOSE RESPONSES! After awhile, I too began just saying that I "study brains"...but then I either scared people off or got the same responses psychologists get: "so you probably know what I'm thinking right now, right?" or "so you want to be a psychiatrist?" I can't wait to hear people's responses when I tell them I'll be getting my PhD in Communication Disorders! Hahaha. I think it'll be easier to explain since my program does more translational stuff (and therefore I can provide a real-world application for my research, woo hoo!)

Thanks! I'm sure your notification is coming in soon. I was waiting for what seemed like forever from Boston U while seeing people's acceptances on the results search, so I can understand your frustration. I ended up calling them and literally had to make sure I heard the lady correctly when she gave me the good news, lol. Anyway, I suggest you contact TC if you don't hear anything from them by mid-next week, especially because that's already the end of March. I'll actually be declining TC's offer, so hopefully that'll open spots for anyone on the waitlist. I submitted my app on 1/3, but received confirmation of all my materials on 1/19. As for my stats: - 3.58 cumulative GPA - cog sci major, music minor - graduated w/honors 2 yrs ago from top-tier university (not an ivy-league) - studied abroad in Spain and 2 yrs of Tagalog/Filipino coursework (included this in my app since TC's program seems to favor multiculturalism) - wrote an undergrad thesis, designated high honors - lots of research experience: 0.5 yr in 2 social psych labs, 2.5 years in a cognitive development lab, 1.5 yrs in a clinical neuroimaging lab (current occupation, in a rehab facility) - 1 publication in peer-reviewed journal (translational research) - no direct work experience in the field of SLP, but have lots of relatable work experience (e.g. conducting studies with traumatic brain injury patients, tutoring math to kids from elementary to high school)

I was notified yesterday evening that a decision was up online. Not sure if they e-mailed everyone all at once or if they're sending posting these up in waves.

Good to hear your phone interview went well! I actually went to Northwestern to interview for their PhD program, so I'm afraid I don't know the specifics about their masters program and its offerings. I CAN attest to how productive, amiable and well-known their faculty are within their fields and the doctoral students, your TAs, are also very intelligent, laid-back and personable (possibly me in a few years!). I don't know why Northwestern's masters program is so great, but I do know why you've only heard negative things about NYU. I have a friend who knows some of the faculty there and she was able to dish about their department in preparation for my interview. Turns out their CSD program is in a major transition right now. Basically, with older faculty retiring and new blood coming in, there's been a lot of administration changes that's affected the structure of the program. NYU gets a lot of flack because their program normally takes 3 years to finish, but it's because they have more elective requirements than other schools. It's not necessarily a bad thing, especially if you want to undertake more specialized coursework and experiences. But if I can graduate from a higher ranked program in less time spending less money, then you know I'm going to pick Northwestern. NYU also seemed a lot less organized than Northwestern's program, and that definitely showed when I came to interview with them...regardless of how friendly they were. That said, my friend thinks NYU's CSD masters program is alright and headed in the right direction...though I couldn't tell you when things would start stabilizing.

Ahh, this is where I did my undergrad and man, do I miss Berkeley! I would suggest living on either "Northside" (the north side of campus), Elmwood or Rockridge. Of the 3, Northside is closer to campus, but is quite hilly and your legs will get quite the workout walking or biking. It's really quiet up there almost all the time and you'd have to walk about 5-15 min west (depending on where you live) to get down to the grocery store, restaurants and bars. Elmwood and Rockridge are a bit further away south (Elmwood is about 1 mile south of campus, I used to live there; Rockridge is further south), but they are both very nice, quaint neighborhoods with lots of locally owned shops and restaurants. Walking to campus would take >30min, so people normally travel by bus (you get a transit pass, "class pass," when you matriculate) or bike (it's relatively flat). (BTW, Rockridge is in Oakland). And while South side is lively and fun, it *can* be dangerous at night. Walking around I never felt I was in danger even though I heard of friends of friends getting mugged or sexually assaulted...until it almost happened to me. I don't mean to sound scary, but just exercise caution while walking around at night especially in the west and south parts of campus.

I wouldn't worry too much about it. In all, my 2-on-2 interview (2 faculty with 2 applicants) took about 10-15 minutes and they weren't intimidating at all. You should absolutely prepare for the questions you mentioned -- why SLP and why NYU -- and the more you show them how well you will fit into their program, the better. They were particularly impressed with my research experience, so if you have any background, I would advise you to mention it. The other applicant during my interview mentioned her current occupation as a special ed teaching assistant, primarily focusing on children with autism. At that point, the faculty asked her why she was interested in autism and why she wanted to go to NYU's SLP program given those interests. So basically, just be prepared to talk about yourself. Like I said, they were very friendly and were open to answer any questions I had I don't really have any suggested questions to ask, but I will say that their program is unique in the wide-array of electives they have to offer and research is burgeoning there and these faculty looove talking about what they do...so perhaps you might want to ask questions relating to these points. Otherwise, good luck on your interview!

anyone else underwhelmed by the nyu group interviews? ours was later in the day and because it was raining, they canceled the campus tour so we left after being there for only an hour. faculty and grad students were nice and it seemed like a lot of stuff was going on there, but i didn't feel like i "connected" with the program. oh, and apparently this is the 4th or 5th year that they've been doing these interviews. i feel kinda bad for the people that flew out to NYC for this, especially since they didn't seem to write anything down during the actual interviews and everything was sooo nonchalant. haha, yeah, seriously. their subject line should have been a little more informative.