bibliophile222

Which programs are you applying to? The process is heavily dependent on when their deadlines are (many programs don't even have interviews). Typically, if the school's application deadline is, say, December 15, it can still take a few weeks before they even start looking at applications, especially over the holidays. Of course, this is different if you are looking at programs that start in the spring. I'm sure they would get the ball rolling a lot earlier! Also, I don't want to totally ruin your life (like many other Grad Cafe-ers' lives, including mine, have been), but if you check out the Grad Cafe results page, you can search for your programs and see when people have traditionally heard back. I probably checked it five times a day when I was waiting, so it can be dangerous!

Today I tried to twist off the metal top part of my pen with my front teeth and ended up grinding a small chip in one of them. It's not noticeable, but there's a rough edge now and it's driving me crazy. And no one to blame but myself.

I am not able to open your document, but a quick Google search brought me to this https://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/prepare/analytical_writing/argument/sample_responses for an argument essay and this https://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/prepare/analytical_writing/issue/sample_responses for an issue essay. Each section provides sample essays with different scores and explains why they were scored this way. If you can't get a teacher or tutor to look over your writing, even a friend or family member may be able to provide some feedback--even if they're not skilled writers, they can at least tell you if they found your writing clear, thoughtful, and logical. Good luck!

I just got the invitation to the wedding of my favorite cousin, who I haven't seen in a couple years. And it's over winter break, so I won't be stressed out!

Yeah, I got my LORs from online professors from my linguistics undergrad. I'm not sure that they even remembered me, but each one had given me good grades (and in a couple cases exuberant praise) for my writing. I sent them a couple paragraphs about me, my experiences, and my goals, and then sent them each one or two class papers as a writing sample. I'm guessing the letters weren't nearly as good as they would have been if they had actually known me, but they served my purposes. They were all perfectly willing to write letters, even if they might not have known what to say in them!

Yeah, I'd just go with anything fairly new. You don't want it to crap out on you the night before a paper is due! Other than that, all you need is WiFi and a word processing program. I would recommend decent audio so you can hear the lectures--it's annoying to have the volume turned all the way up and still have to be perfectly still so you don't miss something. Personally, I have a Lenovo Yoga 2-in-1 and I absolutely adore it. It's super light and portable, great battery life, great audio, and durable. I dropped it on my wood floor the other day and it was fine!

I have another plug for Goodwill: I got a dresser from them a couple months ago for $25.

Lots and lots of loans. Sad but true. My boyfriend works, which helps, but housing isn't cheap here so must of his income goes to rent. Loans are terrible, but they are the only way I could get through my program without going insane from overwork. My ~5 hours of work-study a week is all I can handle.

I haven't done any externships yet, but we were talking about them in class the other day, and our professor told us that medical placements are typically 4-5 days a week. This is because they like for students to be kept in the loop and get into the rhythm of the hospital--I guess it seems to be more effective. It is rough that he has to take classes for this--our medical placements will be in the summer and (if desired) our last semester, when there are no classes. I wish him luck, that does sound exhausting!

If you do prereqs as a part of a post-bacc program, then it can count as a "certificate" program, making you eligible for federal financial aid (aka loans). As far as I know you cannot get aid for taking individual courses. I'm not sure if there are any schools out there generous enough to provide grants for individual prereqs or even a post-bacc, but I could be wrong. Good luck!

I'm at the University of Vermont-- my program doesn't have a specific autism track, but a couple professors (including the dean of our College) specialize in it. We don't have a CSD PhD, but there is a brand new interdisciplinary PhD program that includes CSD topics like autism-- not sure if this is quite what you're looking for, but might be worth checking out. https://www.uvm.edu/cnhs/doctor_philosophy_human_functioning_and_rehabilitation_science

I had to get up before 8 am on a Saturday so I can go practice administering and scoring some boring standardized language tests.

Yeah, you're fine... but if you haven't already I would ask your LOR writers immediately. I waited until about six weeks before my first app was due, and I had the hardest time wrangling them throughout the process. One wasn't submitted until a couple weeks after the deadline, and I had to keep sending reminder emails that were super nice and appreciative even though I wanted to yell at them. Definitely the hardest part of the process.

I'm a first year at UVM! I really like my program so far. The workload is intense, but our professors and supervisors are all very supportive. The cohorts are small, and we all have classes at the same time in one classrom. My cohort is all getting along really well, and because we're all in the same classes we've bonded pretty quickly. The only warning I can think of regards finances. There are no official GA/RA positions in the CSD department, or at least not as part of a financial aid offer. There are some work-study positions you can find: I'm a TA for an intro course in our college, Nursing and Health Sciences. Out of state tuition is also really expensive. I got a partial scholarship and I still took out a ton in loans. The rent in Burlington is pretty high, so either look into sharing a five-bedroom house, commute from 20-30 minutes away, or have a partner who is willing to support you! Other than money, though, the program is great. As to your other question, there isn't a specific medical track, but they do their best to provide everyone with a medical placement. Vermont is rural, so it may mean an externship in a rural hospital or SNF an hour away. If you are lucky and really advocate, though, there is the potential for a placement at UVM medical center, the largest hospital in Vermont and right on campus. Fingers crossed! I thought I should also mention how awesome Burlington is. If you haven't been, it's on Lake Champlain and surrounded by mountains and ski areas (Stowe, Killington, Smugglers Notch, Sugarbush, Mad River Glen, and probably others I'm forgetting, are all about an hour away or less). Burlington also has Church Street, a pedestrian-only road that has shops, restaurants, festivals, etc. UVM also has a nice campus with really pretty buildings. Overall, very good quality of life here, except for the freaking five-month winters. ?

Yeah, unfortunately that sounds about right. I know a lot of people's CSDCAS GPA end up lower than they had calculated.

I moved 3.5 hours away, so not crazy far, but it still required some logistics, like figuring out moving, etc. Finding an apartment was tricky: I took a week off of work in June and kept my schedule open. I used Craigslist and a local paper's classified section and went up twice that week. If you are moving, plan on it being more expensive than you expect and budget accordingly! As far as adjusting to a new place, it's been pretty easy. I'm in a cool college town that has a lot in common with the cool college town I was living in. I also moved a bunch as a kid, so I'm used to being uprooted. I really really really miss a couple restaurants, though.

I'm jealous! We kinda got shoved into the deep end of the pool to see if we swim (although it's not really that bad, none of our professors/supervisors want us to fail and understand that we're human!). One thing I thought might be helpful for people is an idea of what the assignments are like, since I was trying to find that out when I was applying. Again, this may vary from program to program so I can only speak to my experience. I was expecting some crazy long papers, but actually all our essays are only about 4 pages and the professors emphasize conciseness. Topics have included the usefulness of MLU vs. the IPSyn, differentiating types of reading disabilities, and why non-speech oral-motor exercises are mostly worthless (my words, but my professor's pretty adamant about it). We also have some practical assignments like dx plans for sample clients. I just finished a sample dx with a partner, and next week we're doing a simulation where we talk to the "parents" (actors) of the child to ask questions and share results. One assignment was simply writing a long term goal and two short term objectives for our projected treatment plan, which we would have had to do anyways. What makes the work tricky is there are so many moving pieces. Multiple assignments with multiple components, and lots of reading to keep track of. And then there's clinic paperwork. Each weekly plan/SOAP is 2-3 pages (single-spaced), and my projected treatment plan was about 6.5 pages. Making materials can also take a while--try not to go overboard if you can avoid it! Speaking of work, I'm actively procrastinating writing a paper right now that I really should start on. Whoops.

Tuesday: Class from 11:40 to 12:55, then from 1:15 to 2:30. I meet with my clinic supervisor at 3:30 and see my client from 4:30 to 5:30 Wednesday: Class from 8:30 (ugh!) to 11:15, then from 11:45 to 2:30. I do my SOAP/weekly treatment plan in the evening Thursday: Class from 11:40 to 12:55, then from 1:15 to 2:30. Friday: Mostly free. We had three all-day stuttering classes from 8 to 4 in August/September. Fridays are also reserved for diagnostics and any miscellaneous meetings (group advising meeting next week) Friday-Monday: Work, work, work, and more work! The workload is pretty intense, which makes me so glad I don't have clinic on Monday like some people in my cohort. However, next semester I think we have a couple afternoon/evening classes, and fall of the second year it's one evening class each Monday-Thursday.

Bumping this. I'm also a first year willing to answer questions. (I'm only about six weeks in but it feels like a lot longer!)

Really? That's kinda frustrating for all the out-of-fielders out there. None of the schools I applied to said the LORs had to be from CSD, which is great because I had just started my post bacc when applying, and my undergrad didn't have a CSD program. I wonder how strict they are with that rule, since it is pretty limiting. I know sometimes people have been out of school for years and have trouble getting any LORs from professors. Just another hoop for people to jump through...

Great advice! I have to disagree slightly, though. LORs do not have to be from CSD professors, just professors in general. I got my undergrad in Linguistics (online) and got LORs from three Linguistics professors.

Thank you! I used an app called Ready4 GRE, which has alternating verbal/quant lessons. The whole program took about 15-20 minutes a day for about 6 weeks. I was worried about my quant score, so I practiced pretty hard for that, because the whole time the app kept predicting I was going to get a 150. Turns out it was off by a bit! I guess underestimating the score is a good way to get people to study more! Unfortunately, I don't have any other specific tips. I've always been a good test taker, especially anything verbal, and I have a pretty large vocabulary, which definitely helped. I also don't get test anxiety, which really really helps! Still, as I've reminded people here before, stats aren't everything. Tests are my strength, but I was by no means the perfect applicant. Embrace your strngths, whatever they are!

I agree with the other excellent advice given. It sounds like there are two distinct issues that are affecting your experiences. The first one is that you are not making the social connections you were hoping to. I think this is pretty natural when entering a new program, and you probably just need some time to connect. I feel like this could be the case no matter where you went to school and might not be the best indicator of your fit within the program. I think not being challenged by your courses is a potential red flag. I think it does make sense that the first month or so might be review for you, but because some applicants are from out of field your program is making sure there is a level playing field. If there aren't any real assignments now, I'm assuming there will be major tests/papers due towards the end of the semester that you might want to already be planning for. Have you looked at next semester's courses? Maybe they will be all new to you and next semester will be nuts. I'd say give it a semester and see how it goes. If the whole semester is really easy, I might be worried about the rigor of the program. There is so much information we need to learn, and it shouldn't all be review. Still, different programs have different formats, so using your friends' programs as benchmarks might not be ideal. It sounds like you haven't lost your passion for the field, since you loved your undergrad program and sincerely want to be challenged. If the program is legitimately a bad fit then it might be worth transferring, but give it some time first. Enjoy the easy times while they last! I'm pretty swamped, and it's not the greatest feeling in the world.

I can't speak on behalf of Bridgewater State, but it sounds like the prereqs they're looking for might be the ones required by ASHA. ASHA requires a stats course but no other math course, so I think you might be fine there. I think the nutrition course might be sort of a gray area. I didn't see it listed explicitly here: https://www.asha.org/certification/course-content-areas-for-slp-standards/ but which courses will qualify are ultimately up to the discretion of the grad program. For instance, my program is letting me use my astronomy course for a physical science, which is awesome. I would contact Bridgewater State directly for clarification. If they don't accept nutrition for a bio prereq then some other programs also may not, but schools may vary. If you're interested in several programs it might be good to ask them all first.

Don't sweat it! Three semesters of research experience is three more than I had. Volunteering in something relevant can be just as important. There are so many pieces that go into an application. As long as most of those pieces are solid you'll probably be okay.