samiamslp

Carnegie Mellon University Computer Science, PhD (F20) Rejected via Phone on 10 Mar 2020 ♦ I 10 Mar 2020 5 papers leading author. Solved ENIGMA during WW2. Fought the Nazis bare handed.

I'm in my last semester of grad school and way past the point of applying, but I had a great week that's worth sharing: I took the Praxis, got my 375th clinical hour, and set up an appointment to fill out hiring paperwork for a long-term SLP sub position that will run from May to mid-June. It's been a looong time coming, but there is finally a light at the end of the tunnel! 

There are a few people in our cohort who live together and it works out fine for them! I think we have a mix of interests, but honestly the majority of people in my class come into grad school with no specific populations they want to work with (I really know of maybe two people who are interesting in swallowing disorders). Also, don’t count on getting medical placements and/or placements at specific sites you really want! The only time a medical placement is guaranteed is if you take the medical concentration. But that should not be the only reason you go for a concentration!

Hi! I'm at my second semester at IHP. I was choosing between BU and IHP (and some other schools) when I was making my final decision last year. I ultimately decided on IHP because of the focus on interprofessional education, the option for a medical concentration, and to expand my professional network. Anyway, I have some answers to your questions!
Some people opt to live in Charlestown, which is very close to school (can be a 10-15 minute walk depending on where you are) and others commute in. I take the T into North Station, which is about a 10-15 minute walk to campus depending on which building I have to go to. If you time it correctly, there is also the Partners shuttle that cycles between MGH (the hospital) and the Navy Yard (where IHP is) and those run early/late (convenient for the evening classes). I haven't run into any issues with my commute tbh. My commute is about an hour from when I leave my place to when I get to school. 
 
The first semester is pediatric-heavy, but you start getting into adult stuff in the second semester. I started grad school really wanting to do adult stuff, so I just had to push through the first semester and remind myself that it's better to get the ped stuff out of the way haha (the classes/professors were fun in the first semester!). In terms of CFs, I don't think it actually makes it "harder" to get one because of the extra semester. I believe you don't have to start your CF as soon as you graduate. It's just like applying for a job - you can do it any time.

I'm finishing up my last semester of grad school (not at BU) and just had to smile at this. Not to scare you or anything, but stressed out and tired is the name of the game in grad school! I wouldn't say it reflects negatively on BU. 

I think my favorites are the song lyric-based ones. I have been inspired to make a playlist. 
 

I second @musicalmini’s response. IHP does a great job with looking at students/applicants as a whole. There are many ways you can make a rockstar application that don’t involve numbers. Good luck!

Hello! Your clinical fellowship is completed after you graduate with your masters. It’s about 9 months long, it’s a paying job but you get extra supervision from a SLP with their CCC.  After you successfully complete your cf is when you can apply for your CCC. Hope this helps!

Yes!! But the form is ridiculous. It wants to know your CA driver's license number, the day you last voted in California, your last 3 California addresses, and on and on and on. I've lived in CA my whole life but was struggling with filling it out! 

That sounds amazing! Google tends to be your best friend with this stuff?
A quick search gave me these programs (blurbs following).
North Carolina Central University: "In addition to receiving top scores for Praxis exam pass rates, employment rates among recent graduates and on-time completion rates, we love North Carolina Central University because it’s home to a fully accredited clinic: the NCCU Speech and Hearing Clinic. Communications disorder graduate students here enjoy a variety of opportunities for specialized experience through the Assistive Technology for Infants and Preschoolers Program, the Augmentative and Alternative Communication Assessment and Consultation Clinic, and the Bilingual Clinic." 
Louisiana State University- Baton Rouge: "At LSU, SLP grad students get an unrivaled learning experience through flipped classrooms, simulated learning, interprofessional clinics, and will soon also get first hand exposure to telepractice. Students here learn to work with eye-tracking equipment, video stroboscopy, and state of the art augmentative and alternative communication devices. In fact, just last year the department invested $82,000 to update it’s ACC equipment. LSU grad students routinely present original research at state and national conferences and have a track record for taking home awards and scholarships. This program has it all."
San Francisco State University: "The purpose of Project Building Bridges is to prepare 60 fully credentialed Speech Language Pathologists to work effectively with culturally and linguistically diverse children with significant disabilities and augmentative communication needs, ages birth to 21. Project scholars will complete a Master’s degree in Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences in a two-year time frame, with a concentration in AAC and a focus on cultural and linguistic diversity. Scholar competencies to be acquired include: (a) culturally responsive AAC assessment; (b) culturally responsive AAC intervention; (c) collaborative teaming; and (d) development of AAC applications to support the language and literacy skills of culturally and linguistically diverse children and youth....The project will use evidence-based curricula and pedagogy carefully coordinated with substantial, mentored field experiences. The M.S. concentration in AAC will include: 1) two graduate seminars in AAC assessment and intervention; 2) an on campus clinic with a focus on diversity; 3) a one-week summer camp for children who use AAC; and 4) a school internship in a high need community agency or school serving children with AAC needs. 
Penn State University: "The AAC community at Penn State is one of the largest AAC-focused efforts in the world, with a wide range of  research activities, coursework,  and clinical experiences. Students at Penn State have the opportunity to: • participate in graduate level coursework on  AAC taught by nationally recognized faculty, •  assist in research projects designed to improve the lives of individuals with complex communication needs, and • provide clinical services to  individuals with complex communication needs  in clinical and community settings. Penn State students also have participated in our Global AAC Initiative, and worked with AAC teams in Mexico, South Africa, Eastern Europe, India, and China."
Nova Southeastern: not a blurb, but they have Carole Zangari (author of prAACticalAAC.org) as a faculty member (!!!!) and she is AMAZING with all things AAC. And she runs a lab there. i don't know much about the program, but if I met her, I'd be seriously star-struck?.
Temple University: Has its Institute on Disabilities, which hosts this amazing program during the summer for teens(?) using AAC. "Augmentative Communication and Empowerment Supports, or "ACES," is a program for young adults who use communication technology (speech generating devices or "SGD") transitioning from school to work, to help develop and refine their communication, including computer access and use for daily living/job skills." They stay on campus and I'm pretty sure the CSD students are the volunteers. In general, Temple has the Pennsylvania’s Initiative on Assistive Technology (PIAT), which provides training, AAC evaluations, device demonstrations, and AT consultations led by the CSD department. If I remember correctly, there is a specialty clinic that you can do as a grad student specifically in AAC, plus faculty are involved in AAC research. 
Some programs have AAC certification listed as for practicing SLPs, so I don't know if you'd be able to be certified as a grad student, but it would be worth a shot to ask the program directly. See the University of Memphis as an example.
Certain programs, like the University of Iowa and George Washington University, require you to have rotations in a variety of subfields of SLP, and the AAC track is one of those rotations. Other programs just have faculty members who are doing exceptional research about AAC (the three that I looked at are at Northeastern University, Temple University, Emerson University, and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee), so if there is a researcher who you know of from articles or whatever else who specializes in AAC, it would be great to see if they are doing research through a university, and if you would then be able to do research with that professor. If you're part of ASHA, you can check out who is writing and publishing in the AAC SIG. (I did that with literacy, the area I want to concentrate in, and now some of the people I've looked up to as top scholars in my area will be my professors in the fall... I'm seriously still swooning.?) A lot of the program websites are not the best and most up-to-date, so researching specific people in the field can be really helpful, and can lead you back to the school they work at and the programs they have at that grad school. 
Editing to add this reddit link I just found with additional programs to add to this list. Worth checking out. 
Best of luck on your search!
 

I hope this is satire. It must be, right?
(How do people go out of an interview and think, "If I don't get this, the school must be not only wrong but corrupt"?)
UC San Francisco (UCSF) Biomedical Sciences, PhD (F19) Rejected via E-mail on 18 Feb 2019   3 Apr 2019 report spam Only institution that rejected me after an interview. I was accepted into PhD programs at institutions that sh!t on UCSF's research as reflected by their higher ranking/prestige, so their decision seemed highly political. Therefore I must concur with an earlier post stating that UCSF's selection committee makes decisions based on politics instead of actual merit. #CollegeAdmissionsScandal2.0

?? Poor dude. There's no place like home?
University Of Toronto Computer Science, Masters (F19) Rejected via E-mail on 29 Mar 2019 I 29 Mar 2019 report spam Rejections from CMU, UIUC, UBC, UTA and now UoT. Only 3 colleges left. Decided to go big or go home. Home appears likely.

In case you haven't submitted yet, please apply! 149 is not a bad score, especially for the quant portion. Northeastern also looks at the whole application, not just at your scores, so as long as you really sell it in your personal statement, you definitely have a shot!
Also sidenote, if you have any questions about living in Boston for grad school, feel free to ask me about that as well?

I'm currently attending the IHP and I would say you have really good chances! Knowing the teachers here though, of course grades are important, most of what they take into consideration when picking the class is your essay (especially the diversity essay) and the letters of rec. They really care about people and not numbers. Good luck!

wow I love whoever this is ?

I'm glad I found this thread, it's making my 4 rejections feel a little less painful
 

For medical SLP, I suppose you could do the student training for MBSImP or LSVT Loud if you haven't already. Not sure about EI trainings--maybe Hanen? I'm also still in grad school.
FYI, you'll get MUCH more information and replies if you post this on the reddit SLP subforum. Most people on GradCafe are still applying to grad schools and won't have any advice for these kinds of questions. There is also an SLP page on GradCafe: go into the "menu" section and scroll down until you see Professional Programs. 

if you can open yourself to the possibility of matriculating at other programs, I would apply more broadly. You seem to have a great profile, and if you can channel what you've written in your post into a coherent and thoughtful SOP, you are a shoo-in somewhere. As you already know, the programs you're applying to are, by the numbers, some most competitive in the country. Those programs receive hundreds of applications and accept ~10-20% of applicants, many of whom are admits from their undergradute program; however, if you aren't willing to compromise and are hellbent on an elite education, then don't. 
Let's go concern-by-concern:
I'm concerned I didn't apply to enough schools/should apply to more. See above. Maybe I should be aiming a little lower. See above. It never hurts to have safety schools. I'm in my early 30s. I mean, it's fine but I'm a little scared about being in a cohort with fresh-faced undergraduates and not measuring up. Cohorts are creeping up in age. Think of what you were like at 21. You are every bit as worthy. My GRE could be better. The first time I took it, I did worse on the multiple choice and better on the AW, so it could definitely be worse. Admittedly I'm a lot better with quantitative reasoning when I'm not a total ball of anxiety, which is why I haven't forked out another $200ish in an effort to earn back that 5.5 and push my quant up. Maybe if I fail this round again I'll revisit that. *shivers* It's solid enough that it shouldn't barr you from admission. My SOP was SO HARD to write. As you may have noticed, I'm not very good at being brief. I'm concerned I didn't say everything I should have, or what I said may not have illustrated what I wanted it to.  If there's still time, there are a handful of folk here who are willing to revise SOPs, myself included. Send me a PM if you're interested! My old GPA is still haunting me like Moaning Myrtle and looking at it in CSDCAS was like that part in "What Not to Wear" when you look in the 360 mirror, but not getting a $5,000 shopping spree afterward. ;_______; It's not a big deal; admissions committees don't harp on decisions made a decade ago. The idea of getting rejected from everywhere again after all of the work and sacrifice makes me more than a little sick to my stomach. Limbo is a mediocre game at best, but it's absolute murder when it becomes what your life looks like for too long.  Stay strong, admissions season is mentally exhausting. Make sure to take care of yourself.

Your best bet would probably be to get in charge with the admissions office/whoever is in charge of prereqs since that course is so unique. Usually that would be split up into at least two different courses for undergrad. Best of luck!

Hey @Emehteg1! We're on vacation right now, so no guarantees that someone will answer, but please call tomorrow. I honestly think you should be fine, but it's worth it to double check. 
Best person to contact is Rachel Harshaw- she's basically in charge of everything CSD admissions. I'm putting her email in here too. 
Email: rharshaw@mghihp.edu Phone: (617) 643-5195  

I think my favorites are the song lyric-based ones. I have been inspired to make a playlist. 
 

I was also very overwhelmed when I sat down to write my personal statement. I had so many ideas that I wanted to put together but didn't know where to start; I just began jotting down any and all ideas I had and as I continued to write I figured out how to sequence it to make it sound great (and then scrapped that essay and redid it about 100x, no joke). Just ask yourself; why do I want this (admission to grad school/ becoming an SLP)? What have I done to achieve this? How will this specific program help me achieve this?
Good luck!

University Of Virginia Computer Science, Masters (F19) Rejected via E-mail on 5 Mar 2019 ♦ I 27 Mar 2019 wqnmlgb bye bye

University Of Virginia Computer Science, Masters (F19) Rejected via E-mail on 5 Mar 2019 ♦ I 27 Mar 2019 wqnmlgb bye bye

I think this is who @SoCali is suggesting? 
Rachael Walden M.S., CCC-SLP 
Clinical Director, Instructor, Academic Advisor, Clinical Supervisor
(775) 682-7016 
rwalden@med.unr.edu
You could also contact: 
Thomas L. Watterson Ph.D. CCC-SLP 
Professor; Chair, Speech Pathology and Audiology; Clinical Supervisor
(775) 784-4887 
twatterson@med.unr.edu
Best of luck!