KLSLP

For anyone who is interviewing at Emerson--I interviewed there last year, and just want to offer some encouragement:  the experience is not meant to be tricky or intimidating.  The faculty members are welcoming and want to get a feel for who you are as a person...not grill you on your SLP expertise.  If any of you will be there Sunday morning, I'll see you then!

Letters of recommendation were the bane of my existence during the application process.  My last full-time semester was Fall 2008, and I took one class in Spring 2009 to finish out my degree--so I haven't been a student in FOREVER.  Though one of my professors remembers me, it's primarily from playing Words With Friends in the intervening years...not really the stuff good letters are made of, so I can relate to your situation.  When I chose graduate programs, I went through my list of prospective schools and perused the websites looking for the types of letters they wanted--in one case, I emailed the program director for more information.  If they absolutely required academic references, I crossed the school off my list.  Thankfully, there were plenty of programs to choose from.
In the end, I came up with the following three recommenders:
(1) A PhD candidate who was my supervisor in an audiology research lab.  We had stayed in touch on facebook, so she remembered me well.
(2) and (3) Teachers who had supervised me during the two years I was a Fulbright TA.  They were not in the CSD field, but they were able to testify to my people skills, organization, professionalism, creativity, etc.--all things which are required as an SLP.
All that to say, I had zero professor references, and I got into all 4 schools I applied to--and I think that was largely due to doing my research beforehand and applying to programs where I could supply letters which fit their specifications.  I'd recommend choosing the people who know you best from any academic or professional context and are able to tie who you are to the job description of an SLP.

I was accepted off the wait list yesterday! I'm literally in shock I can't even process how excited I am

@zrzka Congrats of commiting! I'll see there this Fall! It took a while for them to add me as well, no worries, I think the group moderators probably are busy!

I got an email with an acceptance to the distance program today.  I will be declining my spot tonight, so hopefully it goes to someone else soon!

Still waiting for one school, but also funding, and housing, plus schools for my boys, plus places that accept very large dogs.  We have a Great Dane, lol.  Apparently I had to make every single aspect of my graduate university application process difficult if not impossible, on multiple levels, in every way imaginable.
Yup.  I love a challenge.

It's good to hear that the professors are with it!  That's what matters in the end.

On the creatures of Dallas:
Cockroaches-yes
Snakes-very rare in the city
Scorpions-saw only a few (and they were very small)
But by far the strangest thing I ever found in my Dallas-area apartment was a flying squirrel.  I have no idea how it got there.  At first I thought it was adorable, but then it started climbing the walls and launching itself off of cupboards and high ledges.  I didn't sleep for 48 hours because I was paranoid about it nesting in my hair.  Eventually I opened both doors and chased it around, waving my arms and yelling "NO SQUIRRELS NO SQUIRRELS NO SQUIRRELS" until the poor thing fled in terror.  It was an unhappy experience for both of us.

@copaceticbroad Yes, professors in this field generally do need PhDs, according to the Standards for Accreditation.
http://www.asha.org/uploadedFiles/Accreditation-Standards-Graduate-Programs.pdf
This is for graduate programs, not undergraduate programs, but graduate programs need to have sufficient faculty with doctoral degrees in order to be accredited by ASHA.
2.1 All faculty members, including all individuals providing clinical education, are qualified and competent by virtue of their education, experience, and professional credentials to provide academic and clinical education assigned by the program.

...Academic content is to be taught by doctoral-level faculty except where there is a compelling rationale for instruction by an individual with other professional qualifications that satisfy institutional policy.
  2.2 The number of full-time doctoral-level faculty in speech-language pathology, audiology,and speech, language, and hearing sciences and other full-and part-time faculty is sufficient to meet the teaching, research, and service needs of the program and the expectations of the institution. The institution provides stable support and resources for the program's faculty.

...This number must include research-qualified faculty (e.g., PhDs). The program must document that the number of doctoral-level and other faculty is sufficient to offer the breadth and depth of the curriculum, including its scientific and research components, so that students can complete the requirements within a reasonable time period and achieve the expected knowledge and skills. In order for a program to be accredited by ASHA, they need to have doctoral faculty, and clinical doctorates do not meet the qualifications either. A PhD in another field is sometimes sufficient it seems, however. Some classes can be taught by professors without doctoral degrees, and ASHA doesn't regulate undergraduate/prereq instruction. The small number of programs is affected by the need to have sufficient PhD faculty on staff to get an accredited program, and there's a decent shortage of PhDs in our field. So yes, according to ASHA, you do need a PhD to teach this material. PhD faculty are experts in their fields. They're (regrettably) not always the best actual teachers, but they have a depth of knowledge about their fields/areas of study that others don't, even practicing SLPs.
One program I was accepted to last year was cited for non-compliance by ASHA for not having enough PhD faculty, and they were at risk of being put on probation for it because of the high number of graduate classes being taught by non-doctoral faculty. In my graduate program, all of my classes are taught by those with PhDs, except the ones that are directly about practicing, such as our on-campus practicums, and classes about providing services in the various environments.
Short version: Yes, the number of SLP graduate programs is directly affected by the number of PhDs in the field, and ASHA takes their standards for accreditation very seriously.

I can only imagine pantsuits being a negative in extremely conservative fields, and maybe law. I am team pantsuits, forever.

The original poster here sent me a PM that they were accepted to one of their schools. Yay! 
 

I just got my first acceptance from Montclair!!!!

Congrats to those who got into their respective programs!  Are any of you already making decisions, or waiting for the rest to respond back?
Waiting for emails, but not wanting to contact them in fear of sounding impatient.