Since I'm in the program at Western, I thought I would clarify some things about clinical placements.
Your first clinical placement will be at the in-house clinic from January-April of your first year. It could be in pediatric speech and language, fluency, voice, or neuro depending on your individual trajectory (which you will have an opportunity to discuss in the fall with our Clinical Placement Coordinator)
The second placement for the majority of students is a full-time external placement (may and june). This can be in London, your home town, or wherever you would like to go. We do have some issues getting placements in the GTA, but that is because the U of T gets priority for their student's placements in those areas. It's not impossible to get a placement in the GTA, but it is tricky. The remaining students remain in the in-house clinic and do a full-time placement and have the option to assist with our summer fluency camp. Whether you stay in-house or go external depends, once again, on your individual trajectory.
In the fall of your second year, you will do your second in-house clinic placement. If you were in-house during the summer, you will have an external placement in London or the surrounding area (depending on your access to a vehicle)
New for our class in 2017 will be the full-time month long external January placement. This replaces the former January-April placement in second year. This allows for even more full-time experience. This can be done anywhere in Canada, and since most people go home for winter break, most are opting to stay in their home town to do this placement.
Then there is a condensed final semester (February - April)
And of course, there is one more final full-time external placement once you are done classes.
Our clinical placement coordinator does an excellent job at working individually with students to build a placement trajectory with their interests in mind. You will get a very balanced clinical experience and the opportunity to work with many different populations. Also, the in-house clinic is a fully functional clinic, meaning that you work with real (not simulated) clients in a structured and supportive environment.
Hey everybody! When I got a call from Western this morning, I asked the person calling a bunch of questions: (a professor who I am sorry to say I cant even remember the name of, I was so shocked to get the call):
Here is what she said about the focus of Western versus Toronto: Western has always had a reputation of being strong in child-language while Toronto, speech and motor. Western has 3 profs right now doing child language and autism research alone. She also said though that they have great profs and classes in the all the other field areas.
In terms of how they pick applicants: They take GPA very seriously, especially prereqs. She said that most applicants are arts students and are strong in their ling and psych, but they also want to see good grades in the sciences (human phys and anatomy) because medical SLP is tough. They look very closely at the clincal references and she even mentioned a few details from mine = shows that every question they ask your references they actually care about. They also care about the academic references because she said that they dont want students that only have high grades, but also those that profs can speak to about their strong overall character and people skills. Lastly, they look at your letter of intent to see if you have strong writing skills, which they want, and if you seem to have a sense of what you are getting yourself into haha, her words. They dont want students to be accepted and then really struggle she basically said.
So ya! I know all of you know the admission requirements, which I pretty much just listed here, but I thought her details on them were helpful and will help someone else out!
Hey! You could apply to a school that is a minority serving institution. I know UT El Paso, UT Rio Grande Valley, and TAMU Kingsville are schools you could apply to and have a good chance of getting accepted into. Good luck!
