jazspeaks

I wish that could be the case for everyone. However, these assistantships are very very competitive. I wouldn't hold out for one. There were only 2 graduate assistantships available out of the ~36 students admitted. I interviewed, but didn't get it. I am saving up as much as I can this summer, taking out the full $20k allotted for financial aid, trying to establish residency for the spring semester, and will be trying to work 10 hrs/wk to just barely skate by. I've had friends who took 1-2 bartending/server shifts each week and this seemed to be the best way to make it through.

You can also look into prerequisite/leveling programs. I took online classes from University of Alaska and University of Montana and that allowed me to apply to all of the schools I was interested in attending.

Hey!! I will be in the the communication disorders master's program at the UofA. I completed my bachelor's degree there, but I've been living in Alaska since then. I can't wait to return to warmer weather as well! :-) Housing... Unfortunately, Fayetteville recently got ranked as #3 in some top places to live list. I say unfortunately because that means housing prices are inflated now. If you can move down there during the summer, that's really the best time to look because it's a big "college town," so a big chunk of the population moves out during the summer. In August, the demand will be higher than the supply. If you're looking for an apartment instead of a house/plex that's a little bit easier. You can try craigslist and reddoorar.com, but if you can drive around and look for For Rent signs, that's better. If you're unsure about what parts of town are good, send me the address you're looking at and I'd be happy to tell you if that area is ok. For the most part though, it's all pretty safe. I don't know what my partner and I are going to do about housing. We may live with family for a little while until we can recover from the moving expenses!

You can look at the probation report on the ASHA website: http://caa.asha.org/programs/accreditation-decisions/ University of Arkansas was on probation for the last year but it was all minor stuff. They are now off probation. I look at it as a positive thing actually... If a program goes on probation, the University won't be happy because they might lose a lot of money and it can hurt their reputation, so you know the program is under a lot of pressure to fix it. It can hurt the ratings though. I think University of Arkansas was ranked #106 in 2015 and is now #120 in 2016.

Waitlisted for the University of Montana distance program yesterday. I have already decided to go to an on-campus program, so I'll be asking them to remove me from the waitlist to give other folks a chance. Congrats to those accepted! It looks like they sent out acceptances on Friday and Monday, waitlists on Tues, and rejections Wednesday.

Last year, someone posted a list of schools that take spring admission applications:

I haven't heard anything from either UAMS or UofA about a Facebook page. Still haven't heard from anyone going to UofA :-(. I got some information in the mail from UAMS regarding the next steps, so if you haven't received that, you should receive it soon. I emailed Univ. of Arkansas to see if there's anything I need to be doing right now and was told information would be sent out after April 15th.

I'm sorry you had such a bad experience this application season. I don't know why some of these schools are so rude to their applicants (umm.. we want to give you money!). Your scores aren't that far off from mine. I didn't have a communication disorders undergrad degree either. I didn't apply for super top-notch schools and I think the East coast might be a little more competitive than where I applied as well. There was a post somewhere in gradcafe from someone who sat down with an advisor and discussed the reasons she/he was not accepted. I wish I could find that post again. It sounded like the committee didn't feel that she/he was ready for grad school. It may be worthwhile to try to get a meeting with someone at one or two of these schools to help improve your application for the next round. I've seen people with awesome scores and experience not get in the first round. It's hard to say what they're really looking for in a candidate. Don't give up hope yet though. It looks like you still have a couple of schools to hear from.

I agree that Univ. of Northern Colorado is probably one of the best online programs based on my pre-application research. They only take applications every "even numbered" year, so the next application round is Feb 2018. They also have a flat rate for their online program (as opposed to in/out-of state tuition) and only like a 2wks or month on-campus requirement. I also think Univ. of Montana has a good program, but they have only recently been ranked because their program just started. They are also "synchronous" so classes are during the day, like a normal campus schedule. There's also Eastern Carolina Univ. They're pretty expensive though. I have no idea how all of that works between countries though. You should email a few of them to get more information. You can also search for their 2016 rankings for the SLP program. It won't designate between on-campus and distance probably, but I would assume a high-ranking school would want their distance program to be similar in quality.

Has anyone had "warm" welcomes from their accepting schools? I've had a range from super-long email + physical mailed info packet to just a short congrats, we accept you. Unfortunately, the school I had my sights on is the later. I kind of want to receive a packet of information and welcome letter in the mail after waiting months for them to decide my fait. Maybe that's just me?

If you want to move to Anchorage, Alaska, you get about $14/hr + benefits from the school district. I don't know if other school districts in the country make it as easy to become a speech TA, it may be worth looking into. The pay isn't good as a TA as opposed to SLPA, but it's experience. For this district, you only need a bachelor's degree and leveling coursework in speech if the bachelor's was something different, as well as some experience, such as classroom/sped TA or observation hours. They have a tuition reimbursement option too if you work for the district during and a few years after grad school. Only online grad options though.

I agree that a cat would be a better option than a dog. My partner had a dog when he was working on his masters. He said it was nice to have the company, but there were times when he would get stuck on-campus for long periods of time and be unable to get home to the dog. A puppy would probably be very difficult. I can imagine coming home to chewed up stuff and accidents during grad school (ahh!!). Cats can be pretty self-sufficient though. If you have to go away for the weekend, you can ask a friend to come over once or twice a day for feeding and you can deal with the litter box when you get back. A dog requires 3x/day preferably.

I think this might be very specific to the program. I had a bunch of observation hours from my postbacc classes at UMT and they wanted a spreadsheet of all the details (hours, type of observation, date, etc.) submitted to a specific person. The professor signed the hours sheet, and told us the person to send it to. If you can't get into contact with that professor, email another professor you knew well or an assistant who may be able to help pass you along to the correct person.

I have an offer for the Speech-Language Pathology program! I've heard they have a great engineering program! Congrats!

Thank you for the tip!! I was beginning to think there was no one on here that had attended school or work in the area :-P. I'm very interested in acquired communication disorders, so I'll be looking into the hospitals and rehab centers. I'm glad to hear you've had good experiences there! It looks like I'll probably have classes on Tues/Thurs, so I would also have to work around that.