bibliophile222

Fees definitely vary by program. Any CSDCAS schools have application fees built into the CSDCAS application. However, if a school has a supplemental application you may have to pay a fee for CSDCAS and the supplement (I did). However, one of my schools waived the application fee if I attended an online information session. Some schools may have priority deadlines with cheaper fees. In my experience the typical fee was around $60, but they ranged from $0 to $125. All this information should be somewhere on each program's website.

Oh yeah, I have another one: ask for LORs about three months earlier. Waiting for responses and repeatedly emailing was almost as agonizing as waiting for admissions results. I also should have started researching programs and the application process much earlier. I put it off until November and was scrambling.

APPLY TO CHEAPER PROGRAMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Seriously, I'm praying for a hefty aid package and dreading the thought of the additional 75K in loans if I don't get one. I'm going either way, but I'm going to have a full-blown mortgage by the time I'm done.

APPLY TO CHEAPER PROGRAMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Seriously, I'm praying for a hefty aid package and dreading the thought of the additional 75K in loans if I don't get one. I'm going either way, but I'm going to have a full-blown mortgage by the time I'm done.

APPLY TO CHEAPER PROGRAMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Seriously, I'm praying for a hefty aid package and dreading the thought of the additional 75K in loans if I don't get one. I'm going either way, but I'm going to have a full-blown mortgage by the time I'm done.

I got rejected with very high GRE scores, so the good news for most people (just not me!) is that they do look at more than just GRE. I have no related experience and meh LORs, which obviously weighed against me.

I'm also an out-of-field applicant, and the prereq courses that I took generally did a good job of introducing the topics and vocabulary for those who had no prior experience. However, my undergrad was in Linguistics, which has a LOT of overlap, so I was already on a firm footing with language development, cognition, grammatical structure, etc., so it would probably be a little tougher for someone with no prior experience. I think what's most important going in is to have at least a basic grasp of how language works in a typically-developing person. Maybe explore a bit on linguistic structures in the brain (Broca's area, Wernicke's area, etc), a bit on different types of speech sounds and how we create them, some basic anatomy of the vocal folds, and how young children develop language. I don't think this would take too much effort, just enough for an overall grasp of Language as a whole. I took a couple undergrad courses in communication disorders, which may or may not be a part of a post-baccalaureate program but are often required before beginning a grad program. My current post-bacc program does not go into great detail on various types of communication disorders, so learning more about them will be very helpful for grad school but probably not super important for prereqs. 

Yeah, I'm doing my pre-req classes online and working 50 hours a week, but none of that is keeping me from checking emails/portals/results page far too often. It's gotten to the point where even my zoning-out daydreams at work are all related to grad school. I think I just have to accept that this is how it's going to be for the next 2+ years of my life.

So good news, I just saw on the 2018 SLP thread that decisions should start being sent out next week. This is coming from a current undergrad
 
 

Thank you for the info!!!!! Now I can hopefully stop obsessing until next week. Slowest two weeks of my life... so far.

Thank you for the info!!!!! Now I can hopefully stop obsessing until next week. Slowest two weeks of my life... so far.

Last night I dreamed that I was rejected from the University of Washington. Fortunately I haven't applied there, so my dream self was merely confused.
In reality, so far I've been accepted at University of Vermont, rejected at Boston University, and waiting anxiously to hear back from Umass Amherst, Northwestern, and NYU's online program.