hkates

I think the best advice that I got on the SOP was to highlight why I would be successful as a graduate student in each particular program. This gave me a good central idea to work around, and a way to keep my essay fairly short since I only touched on my experiences which I thought would help support me as a student and help me be successful in the program. I also stuck to this theme when I talked about the specific program and why it was a good match for me, given my strengths and my interests. It's very important to departments to pick students who they feel confident will succeed in the grad program (I know this seems obvious, but keeping this solid idea in mind can be very helpful, I think) since their reputation as a program relies heavily on the success of their students/graduates and they can select so few candidates from the huge number of applications they receive. Many applicants have good grades, high GRE scores, and hours and hours of volunteer experience, and all this information will (hopefully) be outlined on other parts of your application. Use the SOP to express how those statistics and experiences, which are often not unique to you, will lead to your unique success in the program.

I think I only have one really relevant example here, but I talked with one of my former professors who works at one of the most (if not the most) highly esteemed children's hospital in town. She told me she was also offered admission at UW, but ended up turning it down in favor of a smaller, private school in this area because she liked their clinical model better. She's pretty young, so I don't think she's had to spend a lot of time working her way up to the position she has now. The only UW grads I know are professors who did their PhDs there, so I haven't even asked about their experience in the job market since I'm pretty sure I never want to do a PhD. I'd be interested to hear other input on this as well, if anyone has any.

The facilities definitely weren't state-of-the-art, but since they're located in an old building I guess I was expecting that. No, I haven't decided on UW. It's down to there and Portland State for me. The one internship (externship, whatever) thing at UW is a mixed bag for me; I think there are a lot of great clinical experiences to be had in their on-campus clinic, but I also like the thought of being out in the community more. But my big pull away from UW (and towards PSU) is the fact that UW has no bilingual focus, and that is one of PSU's big strengths. The chair of PSU's dept is a very prominent figure in bilingual SLP, and there are 3 other faculty members whose focus is on bilingual assessment/development. I asked about bilingual opportunities at UW, and was basically told that they sometimes get clients from different cultural backgrounds, but they aren't seeking out a bilingual population to serve. And no, I don't think getting a med placement while in the core program is a challenge, especially if you track adults. Are you leaning towards one school, or is it still up in the air for you?

I'm not worried about placements, I think the school makes sure to only take the amount of students they know they can place well. My concern is about classroom learning, and just about the overall feel of closeness within the cohort; all the other schools I applied to have small cohorts and they say it's nice because everyone knows everyone, and they all get individual attention. But this is not a major drawback for me by any means. Just something to consider, along with the thousands of other factors that are going into this decision. Campus housing is not the easiest to get (pretty long waitlist), but there are lots of livable neighborhoods nearby: green lake, wallingford, ravenna, sand point (I'm sure there are more, those are the ones I remember). And Seattle has okay public transport, but they did mention that to get to clinical placements, having a car is a good idea. Are you getting close to making your decision? What are you still considering?

Hi to all of you thinking about UW, I just wanted to let you all know how visit day went. I was very impressed, and have basically nothing bad to say about this program. Students on both tracks seem very well-supported in achieving their goals, and are able to really delve into their interests in a way that doesn't seem as possible in other programs. Core students get a lot of elective options to steer their studies in the direction they want, and clinical opportunities for both tracks are numerous and varied. There seem to be lots of research opportunities, from doing a thesis to doing independent study to being an RA in one of many research labs. One direct benefit from the prestige of this school that I learned of is to do with clinical fellowships: apparently, UW students tend to get recruited for fellowships rather than compete for them. I don't know if this is true for all students, or for what percentage of students, but they did mention that they are often contacted by people requesting to have a UW fellow. I asked about Core students going a medical route, and was told that it is not a problem. Med students are given preference for acute care placements, but other types of med settings are wide open for core student interns. They also said it's not an issue for med students to work in schools, they just have to pass a certification to be eligible to work with school kids. Seattle is gorgeous, campus is amazing, U district is busy and lots of fun. The only things about this program that give me pause are the number of students in the cohort (med and core are combined in classes for the first year, so it's a group of around 40), and the fact that there is only one internship (done in spring or summer of year 2). Oh, and that the program is 2 solid years vs 7 quarters.

I agree with everything you said here, especially about externships. The more people I talk to about various programs and options, the more it seems that externships are one of the most crucial elements of this educational process. And PSU seems like they have many, varied, and long-standing connections for externships. Not to mention the option of doing 3 externships, none of the other programs I applied to have this option. There is a very high chance that we will be classmates! I will let you know my final decision. And I would join a FB group if you make one!

@kc1m2l8c I'm going to PM you about this, cause I have a whole lot to say, but here I'll just say that my overall view of PSU is that the program is excellent and the quality of life of students in the program is not. The facilities are not anything to get excited about, and the students seem to have a lot of work, especially in the first year. But, that said, I've yet to talk to a PSU student who is not very enthusiastic about the program, and I think that's what makes all the difference. If you like what you're studying, and are able to direct your studies in the way you want, and have access to lots of different externship opportunities, being overworked and in a basement facility doesn't really matter that much. And I guess what's swaying me towards PSU (instead of UO) is that what really drew me to UO is the facilities. They are sooooo nice. And although I was very impressed with their program, it doesn't just capture me the way PSU's does. I'm really interested in bilingual speech language pathology, though, and this is a big strength of PSU's program.

Did anyone go to one of the visit days and want to talk about it? I went yesterday, and the impressions that I got were that the program is fantastic (I really like the elective options, the different specialty choices, and the variety of campus clinics), the faculty have varied and really interesting research tracks, there is a lot of connection with the community and great externship opportunities, the facilities are not the greatest (already knew that), and the students are exhausted. This last part worries me, since I have some serious commitments in my personal life. I didn't get the impression that the students were worked so hard at U of O, but then again maybe PSU is just really laying it out honestly while other places are sugarcoating the time commitment. I'd be really interested to hear any other opinions. I think this is my first choice right now, but I also felt the same way about U of O after my visit there, and I'm visiting UW and Pacific this week, so maybe I'll just keep getting seduced after each visit day.

I had to postpone it, and I'll be visiting next Monday. But I will be sure to post here afterwards.

I'm planning to attend one of the info sessions, haven't decided which one yet. I live in Portland, so it won't be tough for me to go to either one. I'm seriously considering this school, since I already live in the city and I am very interested in their bilingual program. Working with bilingual and multicultural clients is one of my major interests. What about you? What made you apply to the program? Portland is a wonderful place to live, small enough to navigate easily but big enough to have a lot of fun things to do. It's also a great place if you like getting outside. Finding a place to rent is challenging, though. There's a lot of young people here and the market is competitive.

I'm definitely going to ask about how choosing the adult vs peds track will affect future employment options. I understand the value of specializing, but at this point I'm not ready to limit myself. I've completed my prereqs but I feel like I still have so much to learn about the field and I want to let what I learn in grad school drive what area I ultimately decide to work in. My only certain interest at this point is working with bilingual/multicultural populations, and this can be done in basically any area. Yeah, I'm from Portland, which is part of the reason I applied to UW. I only applied to schools in the NW, I knew I didn't want to leave. I'm sure it would be tough to be far from your family during your studies, although it seems like we won't be having much time to spend with people anyway! People outside our program, that is

I know, I wake up every night and start stressing about this decision. I've received 4 offers of admission, which is incredible and I feel so lucky, but I never thought I would be in this position and it is stressing me out. It might sound superficial, but I'm struggling with the thought of turning down UW since it's ranked so highly. Like I'll be just kicking myself if I say "no" to the 3rd best program in the country in favor of somewhere with a less impressive reputation...but in the end, does that reputation really matter all that much? I've been talking with different SLPs about this, and the answer seems to be "no", but I'm still tempted by their stats. Ugh. Cost of living is high in Seattle, like you said, and it seems like public schools in general don't have a lot of funding to offer so I'm not getting my hopes up too high. But I'm visiting campus next week, and will be meeting with the woman I've been emailing about funding. I'll keep you posted on what I learn! What in particular drew you to UW's program? Do you know what area(s) you want to work in?

Did you know that they call Oregon "Beervana"? You're fiancé would probably be in his element here! Breweries around every corner. I've only passed through Salem, so I can't tell you much about it. I've heard nice things, though. Eugene...I've been there a few times, and it's never blown me away. It seems like a sleepy town, which is surprising given the fact that it's home to a huge (and very wealthy) university. But everyone I've talked to who lives or has lived there says it's a great city to live in, so there must be something to it. If you like being outside, I think it's a good place to be (although that can be said for basically the whole state. Oregon is gorgeous!) Right now I'm having mixed feelings about UW since it seems you have to make a lot of choices about the direction you're going to go before you even start the program (med vs core, adults vs peds). I'd rather get to experience all aspects of the field while I study, at least at first, and then narrow the scope after some time. But, maybe the visit to UW will assuage my concerns. I'll be there next Friday, and will be sure to post about it.

I hear you, I'd have to move with my husband to Eugene if I accept UO's offer and I'm worried about how he would settle in there. I think Eugene is big enough that it wouldn't be super limiting, but I suppose that depends on the field of work. It sounds like there are promising placements in Eugene if you don't want to move twice during your grad career; I didn't ask many questions about them, though, since I'm sure we'd move back to Portland for my externships. Living between the two cities wouldn't be a terrible option; you could settle in Salem, which is a pretty nice little city 45 minutes south of Portland. My aunt actually worked there for her whole career and commuted from Portland every day. I think I want to specialize in medical SLP, but I'm not 100% sure. One thing I like about UO is that you don't have to choose, the program preps you for both. I applied to the core program at UW because it does the same thing, though I'm concerned that core students don't get good shots at medical externship placements, which might be a dealbreaker for me. Something I'm going to ask about when I visit them. I think I saw in a previous post that you are interested in medical SLP. Any particular area of interest?

For sure!