slpcandidate

I also took a year off from school after graduating (graduated in 17'). Currently I am a first year graduate student at East Tennessee State University! Looking back I'm very glad I took the time off from school to help build my resume and gain related SLP experience. I worked as a paraprofessional in an elementary school with a student who had a dual vision and hearing loss. Because of my low undergraduate gpa (3.4) I truly believe this experience directly helped me get accepted into the competitive graduate program. Last year, I also applied to over 20 different programs (I was terrified of not getting accepted anywhere because of my low gpa) and since I wasn't in school at the time, I had more time to complete and focus on creating the best applications I could. Overall, I truly believe taking the year off was beneficial for gaining related experience, creating stronger personal applications and it's helped me now as a first year graduate student, especially in regards to clinical work. Do whatever you feel is best for you, however I'm proof that even if you take a year (or two) off from school you can still get accepted and may even have better success and experience in your graduate classes and clinical's than your classmates who went straight into graduate school. Finally, just know it's not the end of the world if you apply and don't get accepted your first time. Sometimes taking a break from school is healthy for you mentally to recharge and regain that passion for the great field of speech language pathology! Good luck with everything and I know it'll all turn out the way it should in the end!

I also wanted to comment on your post since I recently went through a very similar situation this past year as I was applying to graduate school. Just want to let you know that there is hope and I wanted to offer you some super tangible steps to get to that desired acceptance. Personal Background Info: Major: Communication Sciences and Disorders graduated spring 17 Cumulative GPA: 3.398 GRE Scores: Verbal 150 Quant 148 AW 4.5 Lot's of experience working with children and individuals with special needs Since you have an overall GPA of 3.32 and I also had a 3.3 it can be very difficult to know where to begin with the daunting application process. Here are some chronological steps you can take to help strengthen your application. As previously mentioned try to increase your GPA as much as you can while you are still a student. If you have below a C- I would highly recommend retaking those classes. I ended up retaking 6 credits senior year and it did help increase my GPA slightly. Not sure if you've already taken the GRE yet but study as hard as you can for that exam! Low GPA but high GRE scores can significantly help increase your chances for getting in. . Go to ASHA's edfind and make an excel spreadsheet of all 250+ SLP grad school programs across the country. Make sure you write down the average accepted GPA, GRE score and their stats for number of applicants, number of admissions and target class size. You can use this data to organize a list for schools you have a higher chance for getting in by taking the number of admission offers divided by the number of applications and get a percentage. Use this info to help narrow down your choices for where to apply. Now pick your top 25 schools and apply to all of them regardless of location! I know 20+ schools will be extremely expensive and a lot of work but you need to increase your chances for getting accepted! I also strongly believe you will have better outcomes when you apply out of state! I literally applied all over the country! Consider taking a gap year after your undergrad to increase your application. I highly recommend working with children and individuals with disabilities. I took a year off to work in a school district as a paraprofessional and I strongly believe that helped my application stand out. Start applying as early as possible. Filling out and completing applications takes a long time so if you can get your application done sooner I think that will also help increase your chances. Remember that a waitlist is still a good response! I ended up getting waitlisted for 13 different schools and so far I have been accepted into 3 of those! So do not be discouraged when you get a waitlist! Last but not lease you mentioned that your a Christian! I am too so keep praying that God will reveal your future to you and trust in his faithfulness! Alright, I hope you found this a little encouraging. Feel free to reach out if you have any other questions. Good luck to you!

I have recently applied to graduate school for speech language pathology. I am currently wait-listed at two schools. I am wondering what you recommend pursuing during your gap year to increase your application and chances for grad school when I reapply next year. My GPA (3.3) and GRE scores are very low. I am already planning on retaking the GRE this summer and I am considering retaking classes to increase my GPA. I am wondering what you've done as far as employment goes for gain experiences in related professions. For example, have you become an SLPA, paraprofessional, PCA, etc... Honestly, I'm just looking for various ideas to gain more experience since I am very passionate about the field of speech language pathology and I am hoping to get accepted next year. Thanks for any ideas or recommendation.