racoomelon

@alexagrace How many clients do you normally see in the first semester? And in the second?

U of Arizona is 14 for the first semester, but they don't really have summer or winter coursework-- aside from doing clinical rotations over summer. I'm not clear on the workload for the second semester or year, but I think it's lighter!

Oh, I hadn't looked at Baylor! I focused on public schools-- UH (I could commute to this one!), UT, UTD, Tech, and Texas State.

(I'm not really a leveler student, but I kind of am. I got a lot of my coursework done this year as a senior, but I'm still missing a few courses. So I'm essentially a 2 year student, just with a bit of catch-up to do. I still had to stick with programs that had a leveler option, though.) The biggest plus about a leveler program is, like others have said, that you're in the program; you won't need to reapply. And after experiencing the stress ball that is the application process, I can honestly say that I'm so glad I won't be applying again come fall. That said, I think it's to your benefit to apply to both leveling programs and post-bachs. Just to be safe, and just to be sure that you'll be enrolled in some sort of program next year. Everyone has pretty much already covered the whole post-bach v. leveler points, so I'll bring up something else that might be worth thinking about. You won't have as many choices if you go the leveler route. I had initially wanted to apply to more Texas schools because I'm a resident there, and in-state tuition is a huge plus. I found out (after I sent the 7 free GRE scores ) that most Texas schools don't allow out-of-field applicants. In fact, UT Dallas (and possibly UT, though I remain unsure about that one) was the only school I could apply to for a leveling program-- it's an awesome program, yes, but it was the only one out of five schools I wanted to apply to that I qualified for. It sucks realizing that you don't qualify for most of your application list. This might not really affect you (maybe all of your top choices have a leveling option), but I just thought it might be something you'd want to consider.

I'm not sure about the penalizing stuff, but I think it might be easier to work with non-campus housing. Any housing directed towards students is going to have lease dates that follow the academic year, and they're not going to be flexible with you if you want move in earlier. You might have better luck finding a place to lease if you look for off-campus housing, or find something through Zillow. I don't know if that's any help! This is just what I've run into as a student. When my roommates and I looked at campus housing, the leases starting in August. When we looked at houses being leased by realtors, they were hoping to start leasing the house ASAP or before summer started. The only problem is that the houses tend to go fast-- there were two times that we went to tour the house after another group, only to end the tour with our realtor's announcement that the other people had put down a security deposit. It was incredibly frazzling.

I was referring to the financial aid award! Thank you, this does help. Now that I think of it, my undergrad school didn't tend to notify me until around May.

When can we expect to hear back from FASFA? Does it depend on the school or...?

I'm gonna second @Rorororosy. Texas heat is totally different than Arizona heat is, and it varies by what region of Texas you're in. I say this as someone who has lived in the panhandle, East Texas, and Arizona. Arizona heat is ridiculous, and it's horrifically dry. You need to drink twice as much or more water than you normally would, especially if you're not acclimated to the heat levels. East Texas, around the Houston area, is humid and hard to deal with-- you're getting into the swampy area so there's a ridiculous amount of water in the air. Having lived in Arizona for the past four years, I have a really hard time going back to the humid heat. It dehydrates me and gives me headaches now. I will say that Arizona has its own special brand of allergens, though. The palo verde, olive, and mosquite trees tend to give me horrible allergies come March. North Texas has more reasonable weather. Someone from that area might have better insight than I do, though. I lived in Amarillo until I was in 3rd grade, and I don't remember the summers being too bad. They were warm, but not as extreme as Houston's 90% humidity summers or the 110+ degree Arizona summers. If you're looking at one of the schools in the Dallas area, I doubt the weather is going to be on the same level as Arizona!

I would go with wherever you're going to be most comfortable, especially if you foresee it being an issue for you. The grad programs seem like they'll be a bit stressful, at least for the first semester, so why not lower some of that stress by going to a program in a location that will make you happy? One other thing to consider with some of these programs is that you'll get to go home during the winter season (though you will have to be there for a few weeks before and after the season). So if the weather gets to be too much, you'll be able to escape it for a little.

Has anyone heard about funding for Arizona? The deadline we're supposed to hear by is April 5th, but I'm wondering if they've started to send things out.

Oh, I thought I'd seen some people mention that Vanderbilt had a bilingual track. My bad! I'm kind of a weird candidate haha. I've spent the last year completing as many of the pre-reqs as I could. I'd initially planned on applying to more Texas schools for in-state tuition purposes, but I am missing a post-bach and several of the pre-reqs (mainly audiology-related ones). I'll have about 21 units completed when I graduate, though. Regardless, I had to narrow down my list and change my focus to schools that wouldn't flat out reject me for not having done all of the pre-reqs. It worked out in the end-- sadly, after I had already sent my GRE scores to several programs I later realized I wasn't qualified for haha. (Definitely know where you're applying when you take the GRE. You should take advantage of the seven (or so) free schools you get! It's like $23 for any after that, and I can promise you that'll add up.) I can't say that I would have preferred to get a post-bach, because I was pretty determined at the time to avoid one and I got into the school I wanted to without one. If you're dead set on going to certain programs, it might help. But I honestly think you've got a pretty comprehensive list as is. It's up to you-- you could always apply to both and see where you end up. I think someone mentioned that Portland State has a year-round application for their post-bach, so you could apply there if the three year programs didn't work out. Bilingual-wise, I'm interested in a bilingual program but only if I'm going to work with children or in a school. I'm from the southwest and would like to stay in the southwest, and a school district in this area is going to have bilingual kiddos. I'd like to know how to asses and treat bilingual kids in that case. Otherwise, I'm not sure that I'd pursue a bilingual certificate. I'm not bilingual myself (even though my mom's side of the family is and loves to remind me that I should be hahaha), so I wouldn't qualify as a bilingual SLP. One other suggestion, because I was looking at the suggested coursework for one of the programs I'm looking at: see what coursework a school offers. If you notice that they have bilingual electives, I'd say they'd be a good candidate for you to look into. UT Dallas actually has several bilingual courses and, like I mentioned earlier, they seem to be very out-of-fielder friendly.

I'm not entirely sure haha. I do know that there's a difference between being certified and actually being native-level fluent yourself. Either way, I'd think you would want to understand the theory behind treating a bilingual client and how you would asses, especially in the case of a child, the client's language. Talk to professors for more information or find someone else who's going the bilingual route, either with certificates or whatever. My explanation is how I've understood this, which has been more in passing and isn't something I've looked into in depth. I think you should email the program at Virginia and see what they say. It might be that you want to attend a program that allows you to work with a Spanish population, rather than has a bilingual track specifically focusing on bilingual treatment. This is the Arizona coursework book: http://slhs.arizona.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/2015-2016-MS-Cactus-Book.pdf. On the 7th page or so is a summary of the bilingual program. That might give you a better idea of what the certificate would look like.

According to ASHA, they have an in-coming class of about 25. That seems pretty typical of an SLP program. They don't have a ton of applicants, so they actually have a higher acceptance rate. Here's the link to their ASHA EdFind page: http://www.asha.org/edfind/details.aspx?id=ZZ3WgWSlBCYEJ4SPXtOAwg== Another thing you might be interested in is the cost of living in Albuquerque. Housing options are incredibly cheap there. The state also allows you to declare residency at the end of your first year (I think). So if you're paying for out-of-state, which is actually pretty cheap as is, you do have a chance for in-state tuition your second year (which is incredibly cheap). Price wise, I think the program is pretty good. You can also look into CLASS, which is their bilingual program that, I think, waives tuition if you agree to work for X amount of years in a New Mexico school district.

When I went on a program tour, most everyone was wearing something business casual-y. There were a lot of dresses and a few of the girls wore slacks with a nice blouse and jacket. Mainly closed toed shoes, but there were a few nice sandals in the mix. I'd stick with flats just to be safe; I don't know if nice sandals fall into the business casual realm for everyone. The guys wore slacks and polos or button-downs. Basically whatever you'd wear in the clinic!

A 3.84 is a strong GPA, from what I've seen. I think you'll be fine on that account. You should also keep in mind GRE scores-- high GRE scores can be pretty helpful on an application, and low GRE scores can cause a lot of harm. I think being bilingual is in your favor, though. Any extracurriculars you have can also go a long ways on an application. Ahhh I know a bit. The certification isn't the same as being a bilingual SLP-- it means that you know how to deliver bilingual treatment (with an interpreter) and you understand the theories supporting bilingual treatment. So the program at the UA is going to expose you to bilingual treatment theories and require you to get X amount of hours of bilingual clinical treatment. A bilingual SLP is fluent in another language, which is slightly different from what I understand. I don't know if that helps at all. I don't know a ton about it, but you would be prepared in bilingual treatment and work with an interpreter (if the client's language was not one you spoke).