Cowsy

UO's dysphagia professor, Samantha Shune, is amazing. She just won the National Foundation of Swallowing Disorders Award at the Dysphagia Research Society's annual meeting. I haven't taken dysphagia yet, but I'm currently taking Motor Speech Disorders and she is a superstar. She's kind and relatable and also a genius, which is par for the course with the entire faculty. McKay Sohlberg, the program directer, is a preeminent researcher in brain injury and cognition. The program's emphasis on cognition and learning is one thing that sets it apart, in my opinion. One of McKay's priorities is preparing great medical speech-language pathologists. :-) UO's externship coordinator is also amazing. She will help you go wherever you want to go, as long as you also put in the effort. :-) There are lots of members of my cohort who plan to do our medical externships in Portland, and some from the cohort above us who are already there-- past students have gone to BIRC, Providence, OHSU, Doernbecher, CDRC, Northwest Center for Voice and Swallowing, Kaiser, different SNFs, etc. The variety of clinical opportunities provided to UO students is amazing. We have a specialty clinic model, so each term small groups of students are assigned to one specialty clinic. AAC, Young Child, School-Age, CAALMS (adult language), BRICC (brain injury and cognition), Fluency. The lead clinician of each specialty clinic is an expert in that arena. This is my second term. So far my clinical experiences have included: assessing AAC needs and implementing AAC systems in elementary schools and a SNF, working with a client with complex needs who used AAC in our on-campus clinic, working with a variety of children on language, articulation and social skills goals at an elementary school, and being part of LAPE (Language and Play Everyday) and LAPE+, EI parent-training programs for children with language delay and children at risk for autism. I am also guaranteed experiences in working with individuals who have suffered TBI and have cognitive impairments as a result, adults with aphasia, fluency clients, more work at SNFs, and more school-aged clients, all in our on-campus clinic at at off-campus sites. The combination of clinical experiences and academic rigor is difficult, but worth it. I've heard that in the Portland area, graduates from PSU and UO are basically on the same level in terms of employability. UO is higher ranked, for what it's worth. Edit: a few members of my cohort do research with Samantha. I assume that will be an option next year as well. She let us all know about the opportunities at the beginning of the year. The professors and supervisors here jump at the opportunity to mentor and guide. Also, sorry for overusing the word amazing. I'm tired. :-)

Also, you can look into volunteer opportunities at a local hospital. Even if you can't get a position volunteering directly with an SLP, it's good experience if you're interested in medical SLP. I volunteered at a local children's hospital, first in the family library/resource center, and later was able to get a spot helping out the interdisciplinary team who do ASD evaluation. I think it was all pertinent and helpful... good to interact with families of different cultures and definitely encountered kids with various communication disorders even when I was just helping out in the resource center.

For volunteer opportunities, I had success with emailing a bunch of local school districts. I emailed the student services/special ed departments of probably 5 districts, and was put in contact with a few different SLPs interested in some help. I ended up volunteering with one weekly for about a year. I did lots of material organization/creation which was definitely educational, but also got to observe and just form a relationship with the SLP. Oh and I also ended up transcribing tons of language samples. I was kind of at a loss like you are, and had tried reaching out to private clinics but hadn't heard anything back. Reaching out to school districts was easy and effective for me! You'll have to get a background check and maybe sign a disclaimer or something depending on what kind of work you'll be doing.

This is the SLP forum... My somewhat educated guess is that there would be a 75-90 (???) percent decrease in the number of SLP grad students if we all followed your advice. I think that what you're saying is appropriate for most grad students. But the reality for this field is that there's just not very much funding. On the flip side, we're all virtually guaranteed jobs once we're certified. Not sure if that's true for most graduate students.

My understanding is that you can't get loans for a post-bacc certificate or if you're cobbling together a few classes, because you're not a degree-seeking student. I'm not sure about a full 2nd bachelors degree-- I'm guessing you can take loans out if you go that route. I had money from AmeriCorps that I used for some of my classes. I guess that's considered a scholarship. So those are acceptable but not sure how commonly they're offered to post-bacc students.

Hey there! Just wanted to add that it's really impressive you've made it this far and are choosing to look forward and improve your application for next year. That shows perseverance and belief in yourself, both of which are integral to this process and to your future career! You come across as well-spoken and I'm sure that you have the ability to do well on the GRE, given the right preparation. It really is all about knowing what kinds of questions will be asked, the structure you need to use on the AW portion, etc. I'm just hoping that you don't feel too discouraged by some of the previous comments-- it seems like you've got the right balance between positivity/belief in yourself and an understanding that you need to make some changes. It's great that you know you DO have the ability to make those changes, so I wanted to reinforce that. :-)

Thanks! Yeah, 3400. Agreed, I feel like group projects in online classes are usually horrible in terms of delegating tasks and how uneven the effort amongst group members tends to be. Blah. But it can be good leadership experience I suppose. I took 3 other classes through USU and those went well so I'm confident this one will be okay too. Thanks for the info!

Oh that sounds delightful. I'm taking an online Biology 101 class right now and it legitimately takes up 3-4 hours of my day. Every day. 5-10 assignments a week. I realize this is partially because it's a lab class, and I'm also enjoying what I'm leaning, but it's exhausting. So a class with less frequent assignments sounds like a breath of fresh air. I can handle processing a lot of information but keeping up with the constant assignments is taxing. Thanks for the info!

Anyone taken either of these courses and have anything to share about workload, types of assignment, etc.? I'm taking both this summer at the same time as stats and a few general science classes and want to know what I'm getting myself into. Thanks! :-)

I got the "waitlist closure" email from PSU too. I was on the first tier list. They filled up fast! Oh well.

Yeah, I would say instead of SLPA do a post-bacc and lots of observing/volunteering. You could apply to leveling grad programs and post-bacc programs at the same time, just to give you a back-up if you don't get into a grad program right away.

Yeah, seems schools do it one of two ways (the only two ways possible I guess, haha). They tell you, which might risk you feeling slighted (lol) and being less inclined to accept an eventual offer. Or they don't tell you, which might make it feel more like just an acceptance if you are eventually accepted, but it's still obvious if you're paying attention because those acceptances will be after 4/15. I do think it's interesting that some schools tell you and some don't! I'm curious about what goes into each school's particular decision in that regard.

I live on less than that now. ? I don't have a car, though. And I don't have kids. And I've got an amazing rent deal that I'm sure I'll never be able to match. And I haven't bought new clothes or anything splurge-y in over a year, apart from plane tickets. But I have somehow managed to pay my way through 8 post-bacc classes. Anyway. I've been telling myself that after grad school I can just continue to live this way for a while and maybe pay my loans off more quickly just to get it over with.

Hey there! I don't attend PSU and wasn't accepted this year, but I thiiiiiiiink I've read on their website that they actually do two cohorts of ~25 each, so they're able to admit more students but maintain the close-knit cohort thing. Also, if you dig around enough on their website they've got a list of community partners for externships and I recall there being a good mix of school/med, including a couple of the awesome children's hospitals in Portland. Not sure how that list translates to reality for students though. If you have any questions about Portland more generally I might be able to help with those as well. :-)

I feel like it's basically saying, "well, there are still two schools in front of you, so you can't be #2!" You know? Like, even if two schools are tied for first place, they still take up two spots, so the third school is still third even if its "score" or whatever is technically the second highest. It doesn't get to be second because that might imply there's only one school ahead of it. Right? I think? Haha.