SpeechLaedy

@SLPstudent1996 I responded to your message

@SLPstudent1996They never gave an update. In May they said I was on the wait list, when I happened to inquire in August about it, they said the classes were full.

My GRE scores were lower than what's listed on ASHA's edfind for some of the CUNY schools I applied to but my GPA was within their bracket. Some of the schools refered me to the right people who gave me the appropriate responses to my question. They pointed out that "some" of my grades were not competitive as they require B or better in all prerequisite coursework.... ALL OF MY GRADES WERE B or better (mostly A's & B+'s) except for ONE bad grade in Physics of Music and Sound (C+). Mind you - in my Speech and Hearing Science classes I got A's in. GRE score improvement was mentioned which I'm not surprised about. But I was shocked when one of them said "Most of the letters of recommendation did not express your capabilities and potential as a clinician and successful professional; they were very generic." The professors I got LOR from were professors I've taken NUMEROUS classes from and who I am still in contact with. I discussed what I would like included.. and yet....they were GENERIC???! I don't know who to be upset with when I read that. One of them also said I did not complete a section of the application (Work Experience). UGH I am definitely upset at myself at that one because now I'll never know if I would have gotten accepted if they had seen the years of experience I have in the field. SMH. At this point in time I don't think I will be reapplying, but I have one more college to hear from (my alma mater) so I'll see what happens ? Haha.. I wish it was that easy and originally I thought it was. But there are a number of factors that go into where I ultimately decide to work other than my desire to work in a particular setting. So unfortunately, some sacrifices may have to be made for a while in terms of where I would like to work. Could you let me know what is SNF? And how is the PSLF significantly easier to achieve in the schools than hospitals?

That's a great idea as well! I don't know how I never signed up for care.com yet. I used to get paid $20+ per hour for one child I babysat in the city (big money + no tax deducted!) from one family that hired me off of teachercare.com - similar site. I'll look into that right now!

Thanks. And I better love it after all this money I'll have to owe ? I'm trying my hardest to plan the best way to pay this off though to help ease the stress. Because there's no way I can "forget" all the years I'll spend paying off this unbelievable amount of debt. Then factoring us wanting to have children, moving and getting a house, plus other life factors... It'll be a looming cloud of doom for me if I don't figure out how I will tackle this. So I'm looking into loan forgiveness, working in hospitals instead of my dream of working in schools, since SLPs make more money in hospitals, and a whole bunch of other avenues. I wish more people already in their careers who used this site would give their two cents on how they plan on repaying their debt but they have probably long forgotten about this site ?

Unfortunately, no. The CUNY schools I contacted basically said I needed to retake the GREs and one of my prerequisite classes to be a more competitive applicant. I really don't want to delay becoming an SLP any more than life has already, so I will have to suck up the 100K for time sake smh. If it was just the GREs I would've given it another shot. But retaking courses at this point?? Nuh uh. ?

Currently, I got responses from CUNY schools that there was no specific reason listed and therefore they had no pointers on how I can improve my chances the next time around. Another referred me to the graduate advisor of the program. We'll see what she says I guess ? this is not very helpful so far though. I'm trying to figure out if I should take the GREs again but none of these schools are responding ?

For those of you who asked or plan on asking schools you were rejected from how you can improve your application for the next term...What did they say? Did they give any details or just a generic sort of response? Also, who did you email? One person from the department (i.e., chairperson, dean) or the department's email (i.e., graduate admissions)?

Hmm! Okay I never thought of that. Thanks!! Hope it's not too late

What do you mean?

Is this possible? I've researched it and seen that it is I guess "possible" but in rare occasions it seems. My school is way too expensive, so if I could transfer to a SUNY/CUNY after the first semester of classes (12 credits), that would work much better for me and ease my loan anxiety. I looked up schools in NY to see if they have any info on transferring graduate credits but there is hardly any info out there on that. Would love to get some input on this and/or personal experiences regarding this.

I just spent a bunch of time scouring through the financial aid page and you were right. I actually don't need the full 50K for the year. I will need 37K of that to pay for tuition. Which brings it down slightly but it's still well over 100K ?. Moving out of state is no longer an option for us, unfortunately. So it's NY or nothing. I went to CUNY schools in my undergrad so I am much acquainted with their refreshingly low tuition. I'm wondering if transferring out of LIU's program would be an option, but from what I can tell, it's not a common thing to do since most institutions do not have a section in their faq addressing graduate transfer students. I'm trying to think of everything I can in order to escape this mountain o'debt so hopefully something good will come out of all of my digging. Sigh... Thanks a bunch for your input! I already interviewed for the GA position in the speech clinic at LIU. They should be getting back to me sometime next month. But it's nothing special monetarily, though. It's basically a terribly paying on-campus job ($10/hr with no effect on tuition) that is more beneficial for your experience as an SLP and networking. And after looking further into my financial aid page, I discovered I will be owing $120K instead of $145K. Still a lot but it meets maximum loan amount. I will have to call FedLoan to find out what the max is for sure. Thanks for mentioning that

So.. I actually came to the most JARRING reality today. I just went on myLIU to accept my loans (which I thought were 25K/year) and they are instead - 25K per TERM! Therefore, I will not owe 95K as I originally thought. Somehow I overlooked the actual cost of attendance, so in addition to the 45K i have already, 100K will be added once I'm done... making it a whopping $145,000+ worth of debt!!!!!!!! I'm about to cry and throw up all at the same time. I live with my husband who pays all the bills (except my credit card bills). My income which is less than 25K a year which is NOTHING can not pay for my monthly necessities AND the interest of these loans. I had to put my loans on deferment/forbearance recent;y for that same reason. I couldn't afford even the lowest monthly payments. I have never been a reckless spender, so I don't have the issue of having to budget and prioritize because I already prioritize. I don't even spend money on eating out more than once a month (if that). I don't go clothes shopping more than like every 5 years. SO when I say I can't afford this... I REALLY CAN'T! This is so disheartening though. I have no idea what to do now. Does this mean that I now have to apply to schools all over again and only apply to CUNY's/SUNY's? UGHHHHHHHHH ?????????????????????

I'm trying to figure out some sort of plan to pay off the $95K of debt I will owe after SLP grad school in NY. So I'm very interested to know how some of you plan to do so or how some of you already have done/are doing so. Some pointers would be greatly appreciated since that number is daunting to me every time I see it ?☹?

I'm a teachers assistant at a special education school. There are a bunch of integrated classrooms and the age ranges from birth-12. There are about 15 SLPs on staff and many other types of therapies. You get to go to goal meetings and meet with the team of educators/therapists to talk about how each child can make progress, etc. I've observed almost all of the SLPs there and have seen an incredible range of pathologies from doing so and also from when I started as a floater teacher's aide (I helped every classroom in the entire school within my first year there). I'm now a permanent TA in an 8:1:3 ABA preschool classroom and love that I get to see the progress of each child from the beginning to the end of the year. Truly remarkable. So I think doing something like that would be a great experience if there is anything like that available in your area. Wait, I just saw that you're in NY as well. Are you located on Long Island or in the city/boroughs?