Elska

Hi! I came from CSUF's undergrad program, so I may not be much help here, but I also found that a couple of the courses they listed had material that was all covered in one course for me as well. What I did was selected the class that best matched and listed that as the equivalency class. Because of that, my chart was not full when I submitted my application. They didn't have any issues with it, so I'm sure the 30 units is what applies here. About CSUF, just make sure you have 8 CSD courses completed at the time of applying. This is done so that undergrads/post bacs who take their last classes the spring semester can list the remaining classes as "in progress" or "to be taken". Grad students who come from a school other than CSUF typically have to take or retake undergrad classes during their first semester because their program is missing classes or the class is not fully equivalent to CSUF's course. Voice and Fluency are commonly retaken, but I've heard of grad students taking Aural Rehab too. Knowing how finicky the program is, I suggest not taking those classes before entering grad school (if you're strongly considering CSUF) because chances are, they won't meet CSUF's standards and you'll have to retake them anyways. It's much easier to just take them for the first time during your first semester.

Hi! Off the top of my head, I know that San Francisco State has an AAC specialty track and an autism specialty track, but their specialty tracks add on an extra semester. Not sure if you could do both. Otherwise, I think your best bet would be to search up programs on ASHA's EdFind and take a look at individual programs' listed specialties on there. Whatever program you end up might have seminars in those two areas (like mine). You could also look into programs near clinics that specialize or are known for working with that population and see if those clinics have taken grad students during their externships. Or, see how the school districts set up preschool SDC/moderate-severe special education and find out if they have SLPs that specifically work in those classes. Perhaps you could shadow SLPs in either setting. You're right, the leveling classes are competitive, and not every grad school has a leveling option. Since you have quite a bit of experience, I don't think it would hurt to take a shot at those leveling programs, especially if you did some shadowing/volunteering with SLPs. But, if you want to be able to apply to any grad school and want more recent academic references, I think a post-bacc is a smart way to go. Plus, since a post-bacc is a program, you know you'll be able to take all the courses you need and a general time frame of when you will be done. Here in CA, I haven't heard of people taking courses as a non-matriculated student, but that might be because our undergrad programs are impacted. If you were to become a SLPA, you might still have to take additional courses on top of the SLPA program depending on the grad school you are applying to, so it could potentially take longer than if you went the post-bacc route. Where I am, a lot of SLPAs get their undergrad degree in SLP, and then are either certified as SLPAs through their undergrad programs or go on to a SLPA program. That way, they have all the courses they need should they decide to apply for grad school in the future. I think you have a lot of good experience that can be very relevant, especially since you say you've worked with non-verbal children with autism. I got a lot of experience working as an instructional assistant in special education for the public schools and was able to shadow and assist SLPs. I know a lot of students will do ABA to get experience as well. If anything, maybe try and shadow some SLPs and/or find a place that takes volunteers and gives you exposure to SLPs. I suggest emailing programs you might be interested in regarding your question about academic references, since each program is different. I've heard that some programs may be more lenient on career-changers and would accept letters of recommendation from your workplace in place of the academic ones, but I've also heard that some people will just email their old professors, explain the situation, and ask if they would be willing to write a letter of rec. Offering to provide a portfolio of your work and an academic resume isn't a bad idea either. I'm not quite sure what AT certification is, so I'm not sure if it'll help or not. I hope this helps you out!

I second being an instructional assistant in a SPED classroom; I gained two SLP mentors and a ton of informal observation hours from it.

Be sensitive to the limits the school gives you! There's a reason why the school gives a particular limit, and those who give really small word counts (like 500 words) are looking to see how effectively you can sell yourself in a really short essay. Ignoring the word count gives the committee an easy reason to throw out your app. As you are editing, condense, condense, condense! Cut out the "fluff" and keep the meat of what you want to communicate to the committee.

It definitely gives you an edge especially if the programs you apply to has a multicultural emphasis, like some of the California schools. You definitely have to make talking about it a priority in your SOP otherwise the committee member who reads/skims it may not realize you are bilingualism. There was this bilingual girl who didn't get into my program who went and asked the head of the grad program why she didn't get in. She was told that one reason was that she didn't talk about her bilingualism enough and it got glossed over during review. Basically, she would have gotten stronger consideration if she had talked about it more.

Fullerton is still a 2.5-3 year program. A cohort system may be put into place for 2019, but nothing is set in stone, and there is no guarantee that the program would become a 2 year program (probably not). Also, if you are coming in from a different school, chances are high that you might have to take certain undergrad classes in addition to the seminars, bumping you to 3 years. The extra semester (2.5 vs 2) is due to the additional classes you take for the school credential, however, the biggest reason why it isn't a 2 year program is because they do not offer seminars over summer, only clinics. When I interviewed at Long Beach, they told us it was a 2 year program.

I ran into the same problem, so I researched the professors of each school and found at least one from each school who published research or developed a program that matched or were similar to my own interests and discussed why working/learning with/from that professor would further my own learning and future goals.

I only applied to 3 schools.

This! I'd also add that it is pretty standard to have some sort of SLP shadowing or therapy-related volunteering experience on the resume. Grades alone aren't enough, and you need to show that you've been proactive with getting outside experience in the settings or with populations you might be interested in. It's an easy way to boost the resume for balancing out grades, and lets you meet people who could write you strong letters of recommendations. You could also look into working as as special education aide in the schools, or becoming an ABA therapist to get this experience as well. Since the SOP is the pretty much the only place where you can infuse your personality in the app, be sure to take the time to write a show-stopping essay than will convince the committee that you deserve a spot. I think when a school is deciding between two applicants with similar stats, the SOP becomes one of the biggest deciding factors. Also, do your homework. Be open about location, and find schools that are willing to consider the full application instead of prioritizing GPA. Try looking into schools in the Midwest--they tend to be less competitive than those on the coasts. It's possible to get in without the 4.0, but you have to work hard and be flexible to make it happen. Good luck!

I currently work at a special needs preschool as an aide. It's a wonderful way to get connected to school SLPs. It also enabled me to do a lot of SLP observations since part of my job is to assist the SLP during group speech and sometimes during individual sessions.

CSUF

Yeah, exposure is good! As long as you can get something out of it that's meaningful, then it's a good experience. In my experience, the SLP will narrate what she's doing during therapy and why, so even though it's not necessarily "hands-on", you still get to see how an SLP thinks and what she is looking for during sessions. Even if she doesn't tell you right away, she might frontload you with what the goal of the therapy session is, or perhaps she might take a few minutes after the session to talk about it with you. Ultimately, your goal is to find key experiences to use in your letter of intent, so in this case, you could talk about the therapy techniques you were exposed to, and the populations you got to see in therapy. This could also be used to support your case of wanting to work with a certain population or pursue a certain specialty.

While I can't say exactly how many "hours" I've accumulated before applying (I have worked at special needs preschool for several years), I do highly suggest you try and build relationships with working SLPs by shadowing in at least the setting you're interested in working in, though it also looks good to explore different settings as well. This way you have a source for a letter of recommendation and show that you've see what a typical day of a SLP's life can look like. In general, it looks better to have a few strong, long-term volunteer experiences that directly/closely relate to SLP than a ton of short term activities that change every couple of months or so. For me personally, that was my job, off-to-the-side and during-work SLP shadowing, and being a student researcher and presenting at the California Speech-Language-Hearing Association convention. In my experience, while NSSHLA participation is good, it shouldn't necessarily be one of the biggest points of your application, unless you have some amazing experiences to talk about. At my school, even the NSSHLA president was stuck on a lot of waitlists and was rejected, though she did ultimately have a choice between two schools.

The biggest factor for me was cost, followed by what each program offered me in their curriculum. Location wasn't too much of a worry, as I had applied to two local schools and a school that my boyfriend was near. Based on these priorities, my undergrad school was my "top" school, as well as the closest one. Once the acceptances came in, I took a closer look at what each program had to offer, and decided that the other programs didn't have features that made extra tuition/COL/longer commute worth it. Even after deciding, sending rejection emails to the other schools was still super hard!

Congrats!!! Now you have quite the decision to make! And in only 24 hours too