slp2023

Throughout the past few weeks and days I have declined from: Indiana University, University of Maryland, Ohio State, Eastern Michigan, Edinboro, La Salle, and Penn State. Hope this will help those on waitlists still considering these places!

@d_slp_2021thanks for the advice! I actually took a gap year this year, so I am thankful to be in a slightly better financial situation than I would have been going straight from undergrad to grad school. I really don't want to spend another year working and I'm excited to get back into the classroom and clinic, so I'm not really considering deferring but I would suggest this to anyone who maybe has not taken some time off for themselves post-undergrad yet! But I am definitely looking at scholarships and hope that maybe funding comes up along the way. Thanks and good luck at your program!

I'm just writing to see if anyone else has run into this problem for this year's admission cycle. I knew I really wanted to receive a GA position or fellowship to try to help with the cost of tuition, so I spent hours online researching programs and attending open houses throughout last semester. I double checked with every program that I applied to and they all stated that they have usually 3-5 positions they offer to students ("usually" being an important word here, but I did not think I had any reason to be skeptical). While I was ecstatic about the acceptances I received, I have become pretty frustrated within the past few weeks due to most programs coming forward to say that they no longer have funding for master's students or that they only have a fraction of positions to offer. There was one program in particular that has an amazing AAC fellowship and I was told in November that they interview about 5 students and are able to accept 2 students a year into the program. When I asked about the program again once I was accepted late February, I was still told that they were planning on inviting students to interview within the next weeks. When I attended the Open House last week and again asked about it, I was told that they were "crunching numbers" and that they were not sure if they could even offer any students the fellowship. Or, there was another fellowship I was excited about and thought I had a good chance at receiving it until I learned that preference is given to bilingual students (which is totally appropriate for them to look for, I just wish I would have been informed of this information BEFORE I applied to the program with the hopes of receiving the fellowship). It is just annoying how some programs give false hopes about funding and then let students down only weeks before we have to make a decision about where to attend. I understand the pandemic has caused some financial problems at universities, but tuition was not lowered at a majority of schools so why are students the ones who have to suffer because of funding cuts? There were some programs I was very interested in but did not apply to because they were upfront about not having funding for masters students, but it would have not made a difference financially because I would have been in the same boat as I am now with many programs, so I feel like I missed out on some amazing opportunities. Sorry about bringing up this topic that really does not have any solution, I just needed to rant a little bit since April 15th is coming up and it has been a stressful time. Again, I feel very fortunate to have been accepted into graduate programs and I know more funding sometimes becomes available during the summer or fall, but I don't know if I can accept an expensive program without knowing for sure if I will receive assistance.

Congrats on the acceptances! So I personally did not apply to Moravian because I noticed that it is not accredited by ASHA yet and is only a candidate. I believe that only getting a degree from an ASHA accredited program will allow you to become a certified SLP through ASHA (CCC-SLP) and to be able to observed as a clinician. This is just what I was told as an undergrad student, I am not completely sure it if actually makes a difference career-wise if a degree is received from a program that is not accredited and maybe someone else on the forum can help answer that question!

Congrats on the acceptance! I went there for undergrad and as a CSD major I had a lot of classes with track 2 students. I really loved all of the classes and all of the faculty that I came across as an undergrad were very helpful (esp. Dr. Roush in the Audiology dept, gunna miss her the most!). I also think UVA is an amazing option for students who did not major in speech and I think it is nice they have a program for it instead of just suggesting a post-bac program to get caught up. I am personally looking at schools that have more research opportunities and to just have a change of scenery, but as an undergrad student I loved it. Charlottesville is also an amazing city with a lot of cool restaurants and shops Best of luck!

Same! I went there for undergrad and I appreciate how many track II students they have to bring different perspectives and experiences to the program.

I noticed this too! I had an interview with a different school the same day as my UVA one and heard back from the other program a week later, so it is weird how UVA seems to be taking longer this year

So Edinboro is a really small town (I think with only like 5000 people?), but it is super close to Erie, which is a lot bigger (like 95,000 people). I'm from Erie but work in Edinboro and it is about a 15-20 minute drive on the highway. Going from Edinboro to Erie, the first exit in Erie is near the mall and Peach Street with the majority of stores and restaurants. And an extra ~5 minutes on the highway can take you to downtown Erie (with more restaurants and the main hospitals) and other parts of the city like the lake. So, even though Edinboro is smaller, if there isn't something here that you need it will probably be in Erie. I haven't explored Edinboro that much yet because of the pandemic, but I had friends who went there for undergrad and its a cute town. There's a lake here that's really pretty that I drive by everyday. There are also a lot of local restaurants and shops, like a bagel shop that is amazing, and I think a couple of bars. There are also bigger chains like McDonalds, Dunkin, Sheets, and Walmart. I've only been inside the school once for an event but I've never visited the slp areas of the campus (but I think they sent a tour video in one of the emails). I do think that their slp grad program is really great and it seems like they have an awesome set of faculty, but I do not love EU as a whole (mainly just their undergraduate school). Specifically, I know that they cut a lot of undergrad programs within the past couple of years due to financial problems, but a lot of these programs were Arts related so I think they were not as popular. However, I think that they mentioned that they are doing a merger with two other small PA schools which is probably helping with financial problems. But I mean I think the SLP program gives out a lot of GA positions and I'm not too worried about this department in particular and I am trying to only focus on their grad program instead of the school as a whole. The main con for me is that it is very close to home and I went out of state for undergrad so I am not sure if I would love the location, but if you are an out of state student this shouldn't be a concern haha. But I'm still considering EU and I love how responsive and welcoming their faculty have been and I'm looking forward to the open house and if you are still considering it I would definitely try to visit Let me know if there is anything else I missed or needs emphasis!

This is mainly for the poster who had questions about Edinboro/Erie, but if any other accepted students for EU 23 have questions feel free to leave them too!