flowerbloom

I went to both Iowa's and Purdue's open houses and I preferred the vibe that I got from Iowa. All the faculty, no matter how busy they were took the time to pop in and introduce themselves to the group and talk with us during the luncheon. I didn't get that same welcoming feeling at Purdue. I also didn't care for the fact that the department head bashed a bunch of the other top schools in his address to the group. Like you, I was interested in getting a research position and had contacted people at both universities. I got a prompt response from Iowa and met with her to discuss a potential position when I was there for the open house. I never heard back from Purdue, even just to say they didn't have anything open. My friend went there and had a good experience so I think it just depends.

Former student here. 1) I would say that they have high expectations but not over the top. My overall take on grad school was that it was challenging but not overwhelming. The professors themselves will tell you that it's okay to get B's now that you've been admitted to the program. The clinical faculty is supportive and take the process of helping students improve seriously. The atmosphere also depends on your specific cohort as well. My cohort was very supportive and we were all very friendly with each other. We were not competitive with each other at all. We shared notes, study guides, studied together. We all felt like there wasn't a point to being competitive because we'd all really already achieved the ultimate goal of getting into a good school. 2) Funding is not all that common. Of the students in my class maybe 2-3 people got a TA-ship or paid research position. The TA-ships were offered to students specifically but I think the paid research positions were something people sought out. TA-ships were only offered for one semester with no repeats. I do know that some students sought out TA-ships in other departments, like linguistics or Spanish. One nice thing is that the final semester in the second year you only pay for 4 credits so it's significantly cheaper than the other semesters. 3) What I like most about the program was how close my cohort was. We all helped each other and were very supportive, I really felt like I could have gone to any one of them with a problem and they would have listened and tried to help. I also liked how knowledgeable the clinical and academic staff were, they are very good at their jobs and I always felt like I was learning cutting-edge EBP practices. I also really liked doing the stuttering camps for kids and teens in the summer. It's a great crash course in stuttering therapy which not all universities have experiences in. Iowa also allows you to do your clinical practicums anywhere in the country and will help you find one if they have connections in the city you are looking for. You may still have to do some cold calls on your own if it's a new city but they'll assist you in setting it up once you've ascertained the place you are looking at is open to taking a student. My least favorite part was that team experiences during the summer are shorter than during the semester--I was doing early intervention team during the summer and was sad that I didn't get to do a full semester's worth of working with clients. I was there when they had two preschool classrooms in the building that we serviced and they no longer have those, which is a shame because it was a great experience.

Hello! I'm sorry to hear that you are having added anxiety to this already strenuous process. When I was waiting for application results, I thought about it constantly and checked the Grad Cafe results page way too much (which I don't recommend because it made me even more anxious). Even in grad school and my job, it's hard to separate thoughts about work when I go home. I would try to incorporate some meditation and breathing into your day, even for 5 minutes just to center your thoughts in the present and to keep them from drifting. It was also really helpful for me to have someone to vent my worries and anxieties to. I checked with my campus health services and found that they gave free counseling sessions. It was so nice to have to have a third-party to help process my feelings with. I was worried about not getting in anywhere and then not having a plan, so I also gave some though into what I would do in that case so that I had a little less to worry about. I also exercised a lot during that time to release some stress so maybe joining a gym or a recreational league might help. I hope this was helpful, best of luck!

Hello! The process can be very confusing, definitely. For most schools that I applied to, the deadlines were in either December or January of my senior year. If I remember right, I submitted my applications before fall grades were in and then just uploaded it or sent it once they were finalized. Once I was admitted to programs and had chosen, then I sent my spring grades for my final semester when they became available, which the program required. The process for SLP school is different than for OT or medical school. It's tempting to compare them but programs and disciplines run their admissions process differently. It takes a couple months for the programs to get through the applications. I applied to one that was a rolling admissions so I heard from them at the end of February. Most other programs sent out their responses mid-March to early April, so it's very normal to have seniors still waiting on interviews at this point. Hope this helps!

Per the ASHA website: "All graduate level academic course work and clinical practicum submitted for ASHA certification must have been initiated and completed in a program that holds accreditation, or a program admitted to candidacy, by the Council on Academic Accreditation in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology (CAA). You can find a list of CAA accredited programs by using EdFind, ASHA's academic search engine." Based on their answer, it seems to me that as long as the school remains in candidacy during your time there you should be fine. However, it could get dicey for you if the program is denied accreditation before you have finished. If that were to happen then the remaining coursework and clinical practicum experiences you are currently or would need to take to finish would not be valid. This is my take based on the info above. Practically speaking, I agree with Ciboney above. Established programs have had years to work out the kinks in the program, new programs have not, so I would consider the impact this might have on your experience. Consider if the clinical faculty there have had experience supervising students in a university setting. Since we come out of grad school with little experience beyond our externships, they are critical in getting a good CFY placement. Established programs have relationships with clinics and hospitals i the area they are in and across the country due to connections with faculty, alumni, prestige, etc. Some hospitals and clinics may even save spots for students from certain universities that they have good relationships with. My first externship fell through a couple weeks before I was supposed to start and immediately the director had a replacement for me even that late in the game. If this is the only option for you then it might be worth the risk, but if you have other options I would recommend a program with a longer history. Hope this helps!

I started scoping things out in the areas that I was interested in starting in March; however, most places with job openings that I applied to wanted someone to start right away so they weren't interested in a CF candidate that couldn't start till June. Most of the jobs, at least most of the school jobs start to appear in May/June so that's really the time that I was doing a lot of interviewing. I'd say you can start looking about 2 months prior to graduation. Many of the people in my class didn't have jobs until after graduation though. Hope this helps!

Hello! I've only seen one job that outright offered that and it was a job in a rural state and area with a requirement to stay in the area for a certain amount of time. One of my classmates had gotten a scholarship that was dependent on her working in the public service sector (aka a public school) for three years in order to keep the grant. I do know there is a government program that reduces the amount of your loan if you work in certain settings, so that might be worth looking into. Choosing a place to complete your CFY is very individualistic and you'll probably have your own specific needs, but the most important things I looked for were a positive work culture. Coming out of my degree I knew the leaning curve was going to be STEEP, so I really wanted a place where there were people around who knew what they were doing and were willing to share what they knew. I have and continue to have so many little questions that it's invaluable to have co-workers, both SLPs and other disciplines, that I can tap for resources and advice. I also looked for a place where the people seemed nice and respectful and were happy to work together for the better of the client. I interviewed for a lot of jobs where I would have been the only SLP in the building, and that didn't appeal to me at all. In that same vein, find a place with a CF mentor on site. You can do a CF with a remote mentor but again, my mentor's desk is right across from mine and if I have questions she's right there. If you are wanting to work in a school, it's a good idea then to discuss case load size and cap, as well as other responsibilities you'll have, such as case managing. Overall, just make sure that you are in a place that gives you the resources and support that you need to succeed!

Hello everyone! I just finished up my Master's degree in May and officially started my clinical fellowship year in July in early intervention. When applying to grad school, I felt like there were many unknowns about what came after graduation, so if you have any questions about life post-grad school, the clinical fellowship year, or even externships, feel free to ask me!

New graduate here. I just started my real adult job in July and even though I've gone through the pearly Master's degree gates, I still felt like I had no clue when I started. When I first started clinic, I relied a lot on what previous clinicians had done with the clients. There's no shame in keeping the status quo as you get your bearings and allow the clients to get to know you. Don't reinvent the wheel! Your supervisor is a great resource and they expect you to ask questions, they expect that you don't know a lot about working with clients you've never worked with before. My advice would be to ask about what the treatments have looked like in the past, do some research on those, and go in with questions for your supervisor. I've had clients with articulation difficulties and clients with aphasia so if you have any specific questions that you'd like to ask, feel free to PM me! Good luck and remember, be kind to yourself, you're learning as you go!

I asked about outplacements at open houses ( e.g., what connections each school had, if there were prominent placements that held spots, etc.). I also asked my undergraduate professors what they thought about the programs that I'd been accepted to. I had the opportunity to ask some SLPs in the area while I was doing my observation hours about which schools they liked to take students from and which ones they tended to steer clear of.

I wouldn't say "rankings" are as important. But I think "reputation" is important. There are schools that are well-known for producing well-rounded SLPs and those schools are the ones that usually get top pick in terms of outplacements ( oftentimes in-demand outplacements will save spots just for their students because the places know they will be top quality), CFYs, jobs, etc. I have personally seen it happen where an SLP refused to take a student for an outplacement because that student was from a university that had a reputation for producing poor-performing graduates. I've talked to SLPs who work in the schools and in the hospitals in relatively small towns and they all know which schools--both in the area and around the country--that have good reputations. Don't choose a program if all you are looking for is name recognition, you should go because the program is awesome and fits your needs, but just some fruit for thought. Hope this helps!

No problem! And thanks--I love dogs!

My program advises one GA position for 10 hours/week as a maximum because of the workload from classes and clinic. Personally I think you should just accept one. You are in graduate school to learn about how to be a good clinician, accepting two positions, especially one outside the department, means less focus on the main reason you are there in the first place. I'm in the middle of my second semester of my first year and I cannot imagine doing 20/hours either this or last semester. Plus, you also want to leave yourself time to study, relax, and do fun things with classmates, otherwise you'll get burned out really quickly. Hope this helps!

My schedule is similar to jessie_lee. Plus I think it depends on which semester you are looking at too. I'm at the clinic every day Monday-Friday and it was the same last semester as well. Even though I might not be in classes, I'm in clinic everyday doing therapy prep, conducting sessions, writing notes and progress reports, and going to meetings. I would prepare to be on campus everyday. In terms of classes, I have class everyday, with most of them being 1-2x a week for an hour and 50 minutes at a time. Classes in grad school tend to meet less often but for longer chunks of time generally. Hope this helps!

Hi there! It's obviously been said that a good GPA and GRE scores are really crucial for getting into schools. I got in on my first try and here are some non-GPA test scores-related things that I think really helped my application: (1) LoRs-I had three LoRs from CSD professors that I knew fairly well and vice versa. It really helped to form relationships with my profs in advance so that when LoR writing time came around, my letters were more personal because they actually knew me pretty well. I had lots of friends who asked profs for letters of rec even though they'd never spoken before. It also helped that all three of mine came from people who are well-known in the field, sometimes name recognition can be helpful. Committees can really tell a good LoR from a bad one....they read so many of them after all (2) SOP- I spent a lot of time writing my SOP and tried really hard to make sure it was different. I thankfully had a really great story as to why I wanted to be an SLP and I think that made a really big difference. It's hard to write a really unique SOP. A lot of them end up sounding similar because people learn about the profession through experiences like a family member that maybe needed therapy as a child or from an SLP that helped a grandparent after a stroke. These are totally legitimate experiences but make it hard to stand out from the crowd. If possible, try to take a different angle or examine other reasons for wanting to be an SLP. This is the only time where the committee gets to hear your voice and not just the numbers on your application I hope some of this helps. This is what I think helped me the most in terms of getting into my first choice school the first time around. If you have other questions feel free to PM me! Good luck!