Southwest Speechie

NAU received reaccreditation for 8 more years. It is a wonderful program; small but mighty. 10 of their 12 full time faculty members have doctorates. The clinic on campus is terrific. You can get a lot of hours in the on campus clinic, but they have a lot of outside rotations in hospitals, private clinics, schools, SNFs, etc.

What would you like to know? You should have heard by now one way or the other. I don't know what happened in previous years, but I do know that acceptance letters have been sent out.

Northern Arizona University (Graduate CSD Full time and Part Time) - https://www.facebook.com/NAUCSD/

You could retake some courses so that your course work in SLP classes goes up.

Well, during the second semester you will have at least one client with a more seasoned graduate student (if you are in the FT program). You will shadow the grad student initially, then slowly take over. You will have your own clients by 3rd semester (which is in the summer). You will be busy all week, every day. I guess weather you are done by 5pm or 10pm depends on your study habits. The clinic closes at 5pm, so no clients in the clinic after that time when you are in clinic. However, you may have some late afternoon classes, and some classes early in the morning. The voice clinic starts at the crack of dawn... seriously.

Congratulations, you two!

Teaching style depends on the professor and on the subject matter. Some stuff, like neuro, is more straight forward.... not a lot of room for interpretation. Other classes there are group presentations and research projects, so it depends. There is not much free time. If you are in the full time program, the first semester is course work, lots of it, along with observation hours in the clinic if you need it. Second semester, more course work and you get to shadow a graduate clinician in the clinic. Third semester (summer), you start seeing clients in the clinic; some see clients outside the clinic too but not most. That's pretty demanding as you are preparing for your clients, evaluating clients and writing reports, etc. Fourth semester you take classes and you see clients in the clinic and outside rotations. There may be driving to locations, working with outside supervisors, seeing clinic clients, evaluating, doing your SOAPs, meeting with supervisors, and taking classes. Same thing for your fifth semester, only you are in outside placements most of the time. Then you complete your externship, which is your 6th semester. You are not in school at all for this but at a job site for three months. There is no time for an outside job.... it's pretty intense. You work on the weekends, especially once you start your clinic rotations. Cohorts are not competitive; they tend to be close and do things together, which is great. Everyone is really supportive of each other. Housing can be expensive in Flagstaff, and the snow can be a drag in the winter. But for the most part, it's a great place to go to school. What I wish I would've known? That I can talk to my advisors when I'm stressed, or to the clinic director when I'm overwhelmed and they can be of help.

I can answer questions about the graduate program at Northern Arizona University (NAU).

Just wondering if I can be of assistance. Sometimes a really strong essay can make up for a less than stellar GPA. LOR need to be from professors and people in the field, and they need to be super strong. Also, have you tried visiting some programs you are interested in? Sometimes if they see you, talk to you, they will look at your application more closely.

I don't know about other schools, but at the one university I'm associated with, those who deal with admissions applications are trained administrative staff and student workers. They don't make the decisions about who gets in and who doesn't, but they do handle all applications and answer phone calls and emails and such. You can always email faculty directly; their emails are usually online.

Check them out on Facebook under Northern Arizona University Communication Sciences and Disorders. They have pictures of the professors and of the building and such.

It's not so bad. I'm in Flagstaff now and the weather is very mild. We are expected to have some snow on Sunday night, but flowers and trees are starting to bloom. We may get some more snow, maybe two storms before May, but the worse of it is probably over. By the way, some of the faculty will be around for Spring Break, if you want to visit.

Dr. Harmon is great. Each of the professor has their area of specialty, so you will be taking classes with your cohort. Your cohort will include levelers and full time, but they don't always take classes together. The faculty is really accessible, with offices on the same floor as the classrooms and the clinic. It's all contained in one floor of the building. Have you visited? Flagstaff is amazing.

It's always good to look at the faculty/student ratio. Did you apply for their Full Time program? There's usually less than 25 in that program, and there are 12 full time professors.

It's really a great program. It's small but you do get to know your professors. All the professors have doctorates and are really caring.