slpmayb2123

I have friend who have gotten in with lower GPAs. However, they were wait listed first.

Unfortunately, GPA and GRE scores are a big component of the admissions process everywhere due to the competitive nature of the field. You will be hard pressed to find a school that disregards your GPA, even if it is not "recent and relevant." I have a friend who received her first bachelors in the mid-90s and that 3.0 got her rejected many places despite a 4.0 post bacc. With that being said, your last 60 is not markedly greater than your cumulative GPA. Also, a lot of schools have a 3.5 cutoff, even if they don't explicitly state this. I know my institution does. What are your GRE scores like? Do you have relevant experience? Consider bolstering these aspects of your application, it will always help and never hurt. I'm sorry that you are feeling discouraged by the SLP graduate school process. This field is deceivingly more competitive than my institution let on, and it's a rough thing to come to terms with for sure. I really struggled with it too.

Stats: Overall GPA: 3.58 Last 60 GPA: 3.72 In-Major: 3.75 (I Only had 1 semester that counts as in major though before applying!) GRE: 158 V 154 Q 5.5 AW Work Experience: Local ASD center management intern for summer Student library assistant for 2 years Paid undergraduate research assistant for College of Engineering for 7 months Office of Disabilities student worker Nanny + "nanny" at 2 geriatric private homeowners Relevant experience: NSSLHA elected community service chair Secretary, executive board member, fundraising head of ASD advocates organization on campus 9 months as undergraduate research assistant for SLP professor, 6 months for another SLP professor Shadow at early intervention clinic volunteer at pediatric language clinic volunteer at 5 different autism organizations locally assistant in 2 special education public school classrooms creating and implementing lesson plans English tutor for first generation and/or low-income college students Volunteer for university's leadership and service program Volunteer at non-profit for low-income women and children; reading to women I listed all my of my experience to show that sometimes with a “lower” GPA (I hate calling a 3.5 low, ugh) it helps to apply to schools that appear to value other aspects of the application as well. I also got a strong 6 recommendation letters, which I believe helped my case. All that being said, I do not recommend doing all this at once. I was so stressed out trying to overcompensate for my GPA and C- in some premed class I took when I was 18. With that being said, I will be at East Tennessee State University next year! If anyone has any questions about the area I would be happy to answer them as I grew up in Johnson City, though admittedly I haven’t lived there for half a decade… I’ve heard it’s much more hip now overall J I was planning on taking a year off due to financial constraint, but could not resist ETSU’s low tuition and low cost of living.

I'll echo what everyone else said. I know people who have gotten into programs with your GPA and without your awesome experience- the only difference was the GRE scores. Magoosh was the best $90 investment I made. Make yourself a schedule and follow it religiously, taking many, many practice tests from GRE ETS's Powerprep, Manhattan, Kaplan, etc. My friend had the same verbal score as you and improved it with a combination of using Magoosh for honing her reading comprehension skills/time management, and doing Memrise Barron's 333 High frequency word list activities. As for math, I would say you need to invest in some sort of baseline education to ensure you have the foundations necessary to understand the questions. Magoosh did this for me and raised my score from a 144 (March, no studying) to a 154 (August, studying all summer.) Also, you may be experiencing test anxiety like a lot of people have mentioned. I would suggest doing practice tests in public/pretend proctored environment until you feel more comfortable with the GRE overall and more familiar with the whole system.

I think you are overthinking it. You have great stats and experience. A 4.0 is a big deal! But if you really feel that your lack of research is going to hold you back for UTD, then there is still time to get involved since you are applying in 2018. There are no sure routes to getting in, but you have done everything right so far. So if want to do research, do it. Just make sure that you don't come across as only wanting it as a resume booster, professors may be weary of that. No one can tell you in definite terms whether or not research will be the determining factor for entry, but just remember... you are already a competitive candidate!

Personally, I would retake. Ideally, you want your in-major GPA to be over a 3.5 too. If you have a strong GRE it may be not as big of a deal. But like @Paslp said, it really depends on where you are applying and won't dramatically improve your CSDCAS GPA.

Tiers really don't matter in SLP as they do for fields like medicine. I know that at my undergraduate institution, they organize incoming applications by GPA and GRE and first review the top 25% of applicants. My institution is in the top 50 of all SLP MS programs, so that may contribute to their emphasis on quantitative measures of success, but understand that most schools do have a weed-out system. I have heard of schools automatically having a 3.5 cut off, but I don't know if any school would outright admit that.

@Quickmick This was posted in the Speech-language Pathology graduate program board. For SLP masters program, funding is not common and entrance is highly competitive. She isn't referring to the difficulty of funding, but getting into a MS SLP program.

Getting the scores and NOT getting in... while competitiveness of GPA/GRE is valued on a case by case basis at schools, applicants on this forum speak of how competitive it is generally speaking overall within the field. I don't mean to deter you in any way, but understand that being told your stats are good/you have a good chance of getting in is not the same as getting in. (I have classmates that have learned this the hard way, eeek.) Like many applicants and yourself, I too have spent a lot of time speculating about whether my stats were good enough. The reality is that "good enough" is relative to where you apply, and while some schools are less competitive than others, a rule of thumb is that the higher your stats are, the more competitive of an applicant you are. We just have to apply and see the results to truly gauge where we are at!

Statistically speaking, yes, there are plenty of people who don't get in. Applicants with degrees in CSD/SLP, good GPAs, and good GRE scores aren't guaranteed a spot just because they fit a program's qualifications... it's just a reality of the field. Super competitive. I know a few people who have applied to 3 - 4 cycles with lower stats (<3.4/ GPA, <295 GRE) and never gotten in. While this is partly due to not applying broadly/researching schools that accept those with their statistics and backgrounds, it's also because it's just that competitive, sadly.

There are some that don't require GRE maybe (I'm not sure, but I've heard they exist,) and some that don't require prereqs (but you take them in your first year of the masters, if admitted) BUT I have never heard of a school requiring neither. To be frank, SLP is very competitive and will only continue to get more competitive. With a lower GPA, things like a high GRE score and taking the prereqs and doing well bolster your chances of getting in.

What is your in-major/SLP GPA? While I can't speak regarding any of the schools on your list, I will say that you probably know your GPA is low. I knew mine was average, so I took the GRE again. If this is a financially viable option for you, I would take it again. I made a 306(?) this first time I took it but had a personal goal of making >310. So after another month of studying GRE materials only (during the summer) my score increased to a 312. Your GPA is a static facet of your application post graduation, but you can always increase your GRE score time and $ willing... and given your past scores both being above 150, I really think you have the potential to do even better

I am applying to only one school this cycle, so essentially a gap year. Stats- GPA: 3.56 now, 3.6 after this semester's grades are in. GRE: 312; 154 Q 158 V 5.5 AW. I have a relatively strong resume (research, internship, volunteer work, leadership positions in NSSLHA and relevant clubs). I have 2 reasons why I am only applying to one school this cycle: 1. Finances. I don't want to apply to a bunch of schools I wouldn't be happy at (living in poverty)/COULD NOT afford at all. 2. My GPA will be higher when I graduate. I will bolster my resume in the gap year. So overall, one year off could allow for a higher chance of getting in, so long as you use the time wisely. Honestly, whether or not you get in depends on where you live and where you want to apply. Look at Asha Edfind and look at the stats of people on here who got accepted and rejected. I know a lot of people are infinitive optimists on this forum, but to be honest, a lot of schools have a 3.5 GPA cut off. Some don't. Apply to those. Taking a year off could do nothing but help you (higher GPA, improve your GRE score, get more relevant experience) but if money and geography aren't of concern, then do some research and apply to schools where students with your stats were accepted in the past 2 years or so. Hope this helps!

You are competitive in every aspect but your GRE score. I know you said that you aren't sure if your score will improve much, but I thought the same and mine went up 7 points between the 2 attempts. Here is what I did: I looked over vocabulary. Just seeing a word and its meaning once or twice will make a big difference in contrast to just taking a shot in the dark in a lot of the vocab-oriented verbal questions. I also drilled math questions. Past a certain point you simply can't keep watching tutorial videos for problems, you need to do them in a timed setting over and over again. Doing this helped me take control of my poor time management in the quant section. Finally, regarding the AW: you need to make at least a 4, I think. I made a 5.5. Here are some suggestions: read the whole prompt. (no brainer, right?) then make sure you answer every aspect of the prompt fully in the discussion. Vary your sentence structure. Vary your vocab usage and avoid repetition. Avoid "I believe, I think" in the event that you must use first person language. (avoid if possible.) Counter your counters to bolster your argument while providing a multifaceted perspective of your subject/argument. Take the last minute to scan for obvious errors. I hope this helps. I get a lot of test anxiety and attribute that to my lower score the first time I took the test. Don't view your second round as a 4 hour span that will make or break you but rather an opportunity to improve.

On thing I would do is ask the schools you are applying to how they weight the AW score. Perhaps both of the schools I asked were just smaller, but.... One of them weights AW first in their admissions process. Another said they don't consider it at all so long as it is not dismal.