lily48slp

I can speak a little bit to a few of your schools. I did my post-bacc at the University of Iowa, and I was accepted at Iowa, Portland State, and Minnesota-TC. (I decided to go with Iowa and will be starting this fall!) Since you're interested in fluency, I will say that Dr. Zebrowski at Iowa is amazing. I've already taken her intro class and it was one of the best I took during my post-bacc. (It's a required class for grad students too.) She has extensive research and clinical experience in the field of fluency. She has so much to say that gives you a good history of the study of the disorder (which helps you get to know the important research in the field and how that has shaped our understanding), and she was great at conveying the nuance in our current understanding. You may not know, but Iowa was where the first graduate program in speech-language pathology was developed, and its early roots were in the study of fluency disorders. It's a fantastic place to study fluency because of the legacy of the research that has been done there in that subfield. I don't know as much about PSU and U of M-TC specifically about their fluency curriculum. However, I did notice that both Iowa and Portland State have summer fluency camps for kids who stutter. I'm not sure if the design of the camps are exactly the same, but Iowa's camp generally draws a group of kids around 10 years old and they work with the grad students during their summer term between the first and second years. I've heard great things about the experience from the grad students who have done it. As far as getting in goes, I'd say your GPA is good! (The competitiveness seems to depend so much on the year, the school, and the rest of the applicant pool though...for example, I heard that PSU had 900 applicants this year and many were 4.0s. As another example, Iowa gets fewer applicants because it is in the midwest, but accepts a smaller cohort and also tends to get applicants with high stats. Check ASHA's EdFinder if you haven't already for more specific info.) At the "how to get into grad school" talk at Iowa we were told to aim for GPAs above 3.5 and GRE scores above the 50th percentile (but the higher you can get, the better, obviously). They said that letters from academic references were generally better than other sources unless you had a good reason to think that the non-academic one would have a lot more to say about you and/or could speak directly to your potential in a grad program. They also mentioned to be on the lookout for signs that a potential reference didn't feel comfortable writing a strong letter for you, and to be prepared to go with someone else if that was the case. Iowa City is significantly smaller than the Twin Cities area or Portland, but UI's program is well-connected so I wouldn't worry about being at a disadvantage for clinical placement opportunities at UI compared to the other two. You are also allowed to go anywhere in the country for your clinical placements in the last semester at Iowa. Between that and the size of the TC and Portland areas, I think you can count on being able to secure an external placement working with fluency disorders at any of those schools (in addition to experience at the on-campus clinics at each one). Hope this helps...and hopefully other people will chime in about the other schools!

Hi all, I wanted to share this post that I found on Reddit (in the SLP subreddit, which I highly recommend checking out btw) that is impacting how I'm looking at the loans I'm facing for grad school: https://www.reddit.com/r/slp/comments/5awlfz/frustrated_husband_of_a_slp_with_some_questions/?st=j0y2lvwq&sh=a2f635fb One of the most important takeaways for me was realizing that the salary stats we've all referenced from the Bureau of Labor Statistics are skewed for SLPs in schools. Their reports take an hourly wage and multiply it as if it were a full-time, yearly salary (when it's actually a school-year salary). As one response mentions, "the BLS data is skewed because school salaries are being annualized. In other words, a 45k salary working roughly 1600 hours a year looks like 58k once it's been annualized using the 2080 work hours per year factor." Similar problems are mentioned for some other settings where SLPs are paid by the visit. (Caution: clicking link may induce anxiety!! But I hope you found it as helpful as I did.)

Here's a Reddit post that got several responses about the job market for SLPs (2-year-old post, but should still be fairly accurate): https://www.reddit.com/r/slp/comments/2k891i/honesty_about_the_slp_job_market/?st=j0y2x1fu&sh=e2f02d8c The general consensus seems to be that medical (& more generally adult) settings are somewhat more competitive than schools, but that it varies a lot by region of the country. So it sounds reasonable to count on working in that setting if you have a little flexibility or live in the right area, but since you'll be working with all populations through grad school, I would say it would be a good idea to aim for diversity of experiences.

Thank you all so much for your insightful answers! I read every one of your posts carefully and it's a breath of fresh air to have outsiders look at my options. I encourage other people with similar dilemmas to keep posting in this thread if it's helpful. It doesn't surprise me to see how many of you think I should go with the most affordable school, as cost is a big reason why I found myself asking here in the first place. The perspective from Crimson Wife about the long-term cost is definitely something I'm still considering, though. I have a long-term SO who has no debt and he's encouraging me to choose the better interest fit, but sometimes it feels hard to justify. plume, great idea about the Facebook groups. I'm not able to visit one of the programs right now due to distance/cost, but I want to know how the students feel about it! Paslp, I wouldn't have thought about the disorganization in therapy prep and lack of help getting externships. I'm a little taken aback that some programs would be so hands-off. I'll be thinking about those points for sure. I'm leaning towards Program A for now, mostly because of cost (I do have undergrad debt as well and it's weighing on my mind), but I'm still thinking wistfully about Program B. A is actually my undergrad institution and my family live around there, BUT I have other family around B and it's in an area I'd much rather live in long-term, so I'm torn in that respect too. I know I used to try to find out what other people ultimately decided when I lurked here several months ago, so I will update with my final decision (and maybe the names if people really want to know)!

I feel very fortunate to have choices about where to go next year, but I'm going crazy trying to make a decision. Can we discuss how you all are considering cost vs. areas of interest in the field vs. program prestige/ranking? I keep hearing that rankings don't matter in our field, and I'm especially inclined to believe that after seeing that the only basis for them in the U.S. News & World Report (per their methodologies page) is peer assessment surveys that had a measly 33% response rate. (!!) But I keep wondering whether those respondents' knowledge of the curriculum, faculty, or facilities might still be important. Personally, I think I'm down to Program A and Program B. Program A is: very highly ranked, costs less, but doesn't have any curriculum or clinic experiences in multilingual/multicultural assessment and intervention, which I really want to do. Program B is: about 23k more than Program A, ranks about 70 spots lower (fwiw), and has multilingualism/multiculturalism as one of its biggest strengths that permeates the rest of the research and curriculum in the department. Part of me is telling myself to suck it up and be glad that I got into Program A, and just go there. But I'm not sure if that will put my whole career on a different trajectory. I'd love to hear how others are weighing these factors! What do you all think? Would you pay more to go to a less "prestigious" school if it matched your interests better? Or, taking ranking out of the equation, how much more money is too much to go to a school that seems like a better interest fit? Is anyone else in the middle of a similarly tough decision?

I've been accepted, but I haven't decided where to go yet. I wondered the same thing as you but was confused because they refer to it as a "certificate program," which seemed to imply that it's not only funding-dependent. I'm probably just reading it too optimistically because I want to know before committing! Ha. I'll post again when I hear back!

I was accepted, but it's hard to say what any school is looking for just based on one admissions decision. Someone on the results page from another year had this to say: "I am an undergrad at ASU right now and for those of you who are curious, I thought I'd share a bit I know about their admissions process since I am a research assistant in their clinic and I sort of know the dean of admissions. So basically the man that makes the final decisions takes the process very personally. He is really well known in the field and all of his friends are top professors and researchers at other schools. It seems like what matters most to him is WHO is recommending you. So the only way to have a real "in" is by working under someone at your university who is really important. And he said during his lecture of an undergrad course that there were 380 applicants and 120 of those had a 4.0 GPA. Essentially making it one of the hardest places to get into. (And he's really slow at getting things done because he is so thorough, so thats why ASU is so late with everything)." Obviously it helps if you have high stats, etc. But I think this is important advice -- remember, you don't have to ask the same people to recommend you to all of your schools, so you might want to choose more well-established faculty at your program as your recommenders if you can since it sounds like it matters a lot here. Also, their personal statement requirement limits you to only 300 words, so it's likely you'll have to have a whole other version for ASU that's shorter. Make sure you have someone else read through your final draft, because after staring at it so long and cutting it down, it's easy for it to sound choppier than you think. Hope this helps!

Does anyone know anything about ASU's multilingual/multicultural program (PrISMS) this year? Their webpage (https://chs.asu.edu/programs/schools/department-speech-and-hearing-science/multilingual-multicultural-program) lists a deadline of 6/15/17 to apply, but mentions that they only got a grant for 30 people and it started last year. Also, are the spots in the program limited, or just the funded spots? (i.e. Is anyone in the program without being funded?) As someone wanting to work with multicultural populations, I can't see myself committing to a program before knowing if I'll be able to get those classes and clinic experiences. Anyone else in the same situation? I'll be emailing the department too, but I wanted to see if anyone here had information.

I also agree with Crimson Wife. I would also add that some "college towns" (small cities with a large university like Madison or Iowa City) can be a lot more diverse and vibrant than other cities of their size because of the community that the university draws, but I often see people from larger cities dismiss them because they think they will be boring. You might want to consider the clinical structure of the program in addition to your location - do they have an in-house clinic? Can you go anywhere for your externship or do they prefer that you stay in the area? Are there major hospitals or other special facilities nearby? Are there pockets of diverse populations somewhat unique to that place (e.g. Muslim communities in Michigan or East African immigrants to the Twin Cities area)? All those factors might influence the type of student life and clinical diversity that you are able to access, and they might make some less expensive options more attractive at a second glance.

I second calling them, but I don't think you need to worry. It sounds like you did everything right.

I applied to Memphis! I've been struggling to find first-hand information too, so if anyone has any experience with the program there, I would love to know!

From what I've heard from my professors and other people on this forum, it sounds like GPA is one of the ways to do the initial sorting of applications, especially for schools that get a lot of them. I would think (but I don't know) that a lower GPA would contribute to someone initially being sorted in a lower tier but a factor like a very difficult school could push them up in the rank when looked at more closely. I'm just speculating though.