bibliophile222

Yes, PhD programs tend to have a lot more funding available. The general rule of thumb is not to do any PhD program that doesn't pay for your tuition and give you a stipend. However, a PhD shouldn't just be something you do because it's cheaper. It's a lot of extra time, you'd need to complete the masters as part of it anyways, and it's for people who are more interested in research than being a practicing clinician. Most people who end up getting a PhD do a masters first, get their CCC, and practice for a few years before going back. It also doesn't necessarily get you more money, since you'd likely have to work for years as a poorly paid adjunct professor before getting tenure and a reasonable salary.

This will be super duper dependent on the grad program, the setting, and how many hours you need to get. A lot of medical programs require you to be there 5 days a week so you get as much exposure as possible and are kept in the loop. I had three external placements: the first was in a SNF every day but Wednesday, then I was in a school T-Th, then another school only T/Th because I was almost done with my hours. I got tons of hours at my SNF placement that saved my ass when COVID hit and my final placement ended 2 months early, so more days can definitely be super helpful! In all placements my days were decided without my input, but one or two girls adjusted their hours by talking to the supervisor.

This is pretty dependent on setting. For instance, I tried to negotiate in my district hire school job but got nothing because all pay and benefits are laid out in the union contract. You should always attempt to negotiate just in case, but generally in schools you're SOL. As far as other settings, you might have some luck on the SLP reddit. A lot of people in various states have asked about salaries in different states, and one user even made a website with a good amount of salary data sorted by state. As far as additional benefits you could try for, ask about stipends for materials, CEUs, and ASHA dues, plus, you know, actual benefits like health insurance or sick days. Sadly, not all places offer it.

This forum is mostly for prospective ir current grad students, do you eont find many practicing SLPs. If you haven't already, I recommend trying on the SLP Reddit sub.

Honestly, I would hold off on buying clinic materials and miscellaneous supplies until you see what your grad program has to offer. My grad clinic had tons of toys, games, totes bags, art supplies, and more. I did make good use of a clipboard with storage and a digital recorder with a USB drive. I bought almost nothing else for clinic all through school, and even now a year into my career. Now, for classes it all depends on how you learn/study/focus best. I used individual notebooks for each class and took handwritten notes with good pens. I also had a planner that broke down each day by hour. As far as clinic clothes, wait to see if your grad program has a specific outfit, like scrubs or a shirt with the clinic name, but chances are you'll be in business casual clothing. For women, that means a dress that's not too short or a blouse/skirt/slacks combo with shoes (probably closed-toe) that aren't sneakers. For men, a button down shirt and slacks should cover it. Don't expose cleavage or wear shirts that can expose your tummy.

Your best bet on breaking into this setting is to have an externship in one during grad school. You might want to look into medically-focused grad programs or programs that have connections with lots of different hospitals. Once you get to grad school, communicate with your placement supervisor that this is your preferred setting. Of course, even then it's still a super niche area and hard to start off in first thing out of school. When you're looking for a job, be willing to move ANYWHERE that will hire you, including rural areas or areas with lower pay. You'll probably need to start off in a related medical setting like adult in-patient or a children's hospital, and even those are hard to get as a CF, so be patient, because it might take you a few years.

Did your school tell which prereqs you need? I'm guessing that either there's one or two specific courses that your BA program didn't offer, and/or that they need further verification of your transcript (syllabi and course descriptions) to make sure you've done everything you need to. Definitely contact the school and see which courses you need and what they might require of you as an international student. If you do need to take some more courses, you might be able to take them online through that school.

UVM also has online prereqs, although I don't know if all of them are over the summer. If they are, they would be accelerated 5-week courses requiring at least a couple hours of work a day, so it might be really hard to do all of them at once. There are two summer sessions, so maybe you could do 3 in one session and 2 in the other? A mix and match approach from a few schools might end up working out for you.

This definitely depends on the program, but mine was as follows: 1st semester I had one client in the on-site clinic and 4 or 5 classes. Clients were scheduled around the daytime classes, which were T-Th. I also had to keep Fridays free for meetings and evaluations, but I only had one eval all semester. I only got about 15 clinic hours all semester. 2nd semester I had two clinic clients, one evaluation, and 6 classes (but some of them were only 1-2 credits). All but one class was during the day. At the end of this semester I had a total of about 50 hours. 3rd semester (summer) I had one online class, but it was a prereq so not everyone had to take it. It was condensed and required at least 2 hours a day of work for 5 weeks. I also had a medical placement 4 days a week (7:45-4:15), two clinic clients, and one evaluation. In addition to that, I was doing RA work and did some evals for that. My summer was BUSY! I got 190 hours, so my total at this point was about 240. 4th semester was definitely the roughest. I had placement 3 days a week at a school (8:30-2:30; I got to arrive a bit late because I had an hour commute) and 4 evening classes. I was also doing a research project and RA work, so I had very little free time. I don't think I had a day off from school stuff all semester. I got about 100 hours, putting my total at 340. 5th semester was easy for me because at this point I was almost done with my hours and we were done with classes. I just had an audiology block which was half a day a week for four weeks and placement two days a week at another school (7:30-3:00), so I had plenty of time to finish my research project, and had plenty of time to take the Praxis and apply for jobs. However, some students who needed more hours had full-time placements. Now, from what I've read, some programs are set up quite differently. Some don't have an onsite clinic, many only offer two externships instead of three, some might have 5 or 6 smaller placements or special tracks to move through. You might not start clinic in the first semester. Some might give you a full-time placement in your last semester even if you're done with hours. Some schools might still have classes in the last semester and others might have you finish all your classes before starting placements. Take anyone's schedule with a grain of salt because yours may very likely be different.

Great idea! The vast majority of people on Grad Cafe are applying or maaaybe in grad school, so there are very few actual SLPs on here to provide advice (although there is the Reddit SLP sub, where I'm pretty active.) I'm also a CF and am free for questions, although it looks like we're both school CFs, so we might not have very different insights on things. I recognize your username from when I was applying, and it's awesome to see that we both made it through and are real-life SLPs!

About half of my cohort was from Vermont, so I'm not sure how that affects decision making. I heard back on February 5th or 6th, but I believe the deadline was a month later this year, so decisions might have been pushed back as well. Good luck!

I graduated from UVM back in May and had an awesome grad experience! Pros: The professors were helpful, I learned a lot and felt prepared for the Praxis, there were some good research opportunities, the cohorts are small and the vibe was very chill and supportive, and student feedback is really important, so your chance of getting awful clinic/placement supervisors is a lot lower than it is at most schools because they ditch supervisors who get complaints. The only real cons are the price for out-of-state students and the fact that Vermont just doesn't have a ton of medical placements. Anyone who could go out of state for the summer was encouraged to so that the other students could get the VT placements. Be prepared to drive up to an hour (maybe more) for medical or even school placements. That being said, everyone who wanted a medical placement got one. As to the competitiveness, I think the main reason that it's lower is because it's in a small, rural state and people either don't have it on their radar or want to be in a bigger city. Oh, and cost almost certainly has something to do with it. Let me know if you have any other questions!

Some do, some don't. I applied to(but didnt atrend) Speech@NYU, and they specifically stated that they find placements for you. If they dont say so on the website, definitely call or email them and ask!

Ugh, I feel you! I finished my grad program in May, so thank God I'm not juggling that anymore, but I'm a brand new SLP starting my first year in a middle school. My task list keeps growing, I have stuff to organize and set up that I've never done before, I don't know where things are in the building because admin didn't realize that new staff should have a building tour, and I feel like it's just a matter of time before all the parents realize I have no idea what I'm doing. Also, do we have the same SO? Needy, clingy, works a pretty basic job that he gets way too anxious about, but also a total sweetheart who absolutely adores me. Annoying at times, but mostly wonderful. At least one of your spheres is going okay!

My program was a clinical masters program, so probably a bit different from yours, but one of my clinic supervisors was notorious for an insane amount of track changes and multiple drafts required for every piece of clinical writing. It was frustrating at first to make all the requested changes, hand it in, then have to make entirely separate revisions on the next draft, but it was something we just had to get used to. I feel like when writing for almost any professor there's an adjustment period where you learn their preferred style and tailor the writing to that style. Over time, I began to know what my supervisor was looking for and ended up with fewer and fewer changes as I went along. It was something I just had to shrug off and adapt to, just like for any other professor, and it made my writing stronger in the process.