theominousfuture

Just in case anyone around this time is worried about verification. I submitted my transcripts and official gre a few months before my first deadline of 1/1. I submitted my first app ON 1/1 because it was an orange "complete" deadline. I submitted at 9pm and it said "received" then at 11:25pm it said "complete". This morning, 1/4 CSDCAS verified my application. Perhaps it helped that while I was inputting my coursework, I circled all my questions on the official (3) transcripts I was using, then called CSDCAS and had someone pull up my transcript on their side, and asked them very specific questions (for some questions I even called a couple of times to confirm information, CSDCAS has been on speed dial for months). So definitely not 4 weeks for me, and even less than 4 days. DON'T BE AN IDIOT LIKE ME AND SUBMIT THINGS LATE (but also if you are, maybe things won't go terribly, irreversibly wrong?) Just thought I'd offer my experience in the ongoing survey of CSDCAS turnover time.

I second Pjeak's point! I'm working on a university research team. My job is to go around the city and meet with teachers to help them implement our PI's storytelling intervention. A few times a year, I go into all the classrooms and observe and administer language/self-reg assessments to the kids to see if the intervention has yielded any particularly positive outcomes. So it's not direct SLP work but I get to talk about how much I enjoy classroom-based intervention in underserved school communities!
So don't be afraid to go for unconventional experience if it will mean something to you and give you something to talk about in your letter/interview.

Thank you all for your advice and wisdom. I've just gotten into the SUNY New Paltz post bacc program and hopefully I'll do well enough in it to really increase my chances at a Master's program! It seems that if I manage to get a 4.0 for my post-bacc, it'll bring my combined GPA somewhere around a 3.6. Will this, along with the rest of my application, be able to make the cut at the following schools?
NYU, Teachers College, SUNY New Paltz, LIU Brooklyn, CUNY Hunter, New York Medical College, Kean, Montclair
 

From what I hear, NYU does tend to accept a lot of out-of-fielders!  In the past, I've talked to a linguistics major and a psych major who were both going to NYU for their masters program in speech without taking prereqs or post-bacc programs.  I don't remember their names and never got their contact info though.  A friend of mine also mentioned meeting an English major (or literature? I forget) who was also in the same program.  That reputation to accept many OOFers was actually the main reason why I applied there!  I agree with @racoomelon though.  I recommend looking into a post-bacc, if possible.  There's a higher likelihood that you'll graduate on time, which schools really like.  If you do a post-bacc, you will be just as prepared as your SLP major peers, which means there's also less scrambling on your part to catch up once you get in.  And to top it off, you'll still have that OOF experience to make you stand out!

I am unsure what their exact acceptance rate is, but I applied this year and was recently accepted and my letter stated that there were over 400 applicants and I believe they accept around 50. That information is also all on EdFind. 

Sometimes the acceptances listed on EdFind are a bit off, so take it with a grain of salt (Portland State, for example, has way more applicants than what they've listed)!

Try emailing the coordinator / professor in charge of the admissions? They're normally pretty good about emailing back. 

I'm coming into the field as an out of field applicant, more or less. But I'm also spending my senior year doing coursework so that I don't have to take a full third year. And I'm a linguistics major, so some of my linguistics classes kind of qualify as communication disorder classes.
From what I've understood, the 3 year programs can be more competitive than the general ones. That's the other reason why I tried to knock out coursework-- I wanted to be looked at as a 2 year candidate. I think a lot of schools have cut offs based on GPA and GRE scores, to the point to where it sometimes outweighs the extracurriculars you have. That said, it seems like a lot of the 3 year grad students I've talked to were accepted into the program because they had good resumes (Teach for America, stuff like that). So I think it depends on the program (programs that emphasize holistic admissions would be best). 

Also, just as something I found about after I finished applying: look on ASHA's EdFind to see what the candidates for schools normally looks like. You can see where you fall in the applicant pool AND you can get a rough estimate of how many people apply and are accepted. I would make sure to apply to a back up school that has a high acceptance rate, just to be safe. 

Your choice of schools is severely limited if you haven't complete any post-bacc work. I would do some if you can. Also studying for the GRE is super important so don't put it off (like I did the first time).