trina

Did any one of you who got accepted to Purdue receive an admission packet in the mail from the Graduate School? I was told I would, but I didn't get anything besides the email from the department.

I got an acceptance letter from Saint Xavier by mail. But I live 45 minutes from the campus, so hopefully the rest of you should be receiving letters over the next few days.

Thanks again! This is all great information.. I wouldn't even have known where to start looking. I applied to the clinical Masters program in Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences. I'll be going to visit on Friday, and I'm pretty excited!

I heard from Rush today too. Was pretty surprised actually.. I didn't think my application was that competitive. Lol. Now I'm so confused. Purdue is still way cheaper, even with the $15k scholarship that Rush is offering. I guess I'll wait to visit, and then decide. @HopefulSLP, I noticed that the Rush scholarship is only for the first year.. any idea if this might continue in the second year if we keep our grades up?

I'm going to the Purdue open house on Friday, and I've no idea what to wear either. My work/formal wardrobe is so limited! And my email invitation doesn't say to dress comfortably either.. Any advice?

I'm not familiar with the NYU program, but I do agree with you on competition becoming stiffer the following year. Between last year and this year, most of the schools I applied to have had an increase in the number of applications. The allied health professions are becoming increasingly popular. That being said, you might have a better chance at public schools or other more affordable schools next year if you manage to do enough to increase the competitiveness of your application. Perhaps, you could try and find a research position in a lab, an SLPA job, or some sort of volunteer position that may lead to better LORs and a stronger SOP? Personally, I find the $94,000 price tag extremely expensive given that the median annual income for SLPs is only something like $63,000. I'm crossing my fingers for you anyhow.. You still have 3 more schools to hear from! Hopefully, it's all good news, and those schools are cheaper too.

@CityFlips, thank you so much for all that information! Really helpful. This might be a dumb question, but is that $250 parking permit for the entire academic year? If so, sounds like a pretty good deal. And is parking easy to find? Are there designated parking areas, or is it street parking? I'm hoping to find an apartment in West Lafayette.. I've been doing some research, and I really like Blackbird Farms and Franklin Park. But I will probably have to find a roommate first to defray the expenses. I live in the Chicagoland area now, so the weather isn't going to be a big deal for me. And I'm not much of a party animal either.. but I love the restaurant scene in Chicago.

I love Chicago! (Horrendous traffic notwithstanding.) Driving in Chicago scares me. I feel like everyone on the road is always so impatient and I'm getting in their way just by being there in my car. Lol. But I'm so envious of all of you who are going to go to school in Chicago. I'm almost 70% sure that I'm headed to Purdue. But we'll see.. If I do, it's going to be quite a change for me -- moving from Chicago to West Lafayette, Indiana.

Unfortunately, no. That completely slipped my mind. I hope it's by email, though. Snail mail would probably extend our waiting period by a couple more days.. the way she put it, they were only going to have decisions ready at the end of next week. (As opposed to decision letters, i.e. the administrative part of it.) Is SXU one of your top choices? I notice that you've been accepted to some great programs already.. I do want to go to the Rush open house on 6th April, but I've got a test that afternoon for one of my classes. I'm not sure if it'll be worth the hassle of trying to get out of it -- my instructor isn't very good about rescheduling and stuff. I might email them to ask if I can visit on one of my free days.. but I feel like the open house meant for a group of admitted students will be so much more informative than a personal tour.

so.. i was a little bored, and decided to call the graduate secretary at Saint Xavier to ask about decisions. she said that we would probably hear something at the end of next week hopefully. apparently, they have over 400 applicants, and it's taking them some time to go through all of it.

congratulations! and maybe your invitation just got lost in the mail?

thanks for this! i didn't get accepted to Northwestern.. but i saw it coming anyway. i just wanted to know for sure and not be kept in the dark till june or something. congratulations to you! you've got some great acceptances! any idea where you will be headed in the fall?

thanks for this! i want to know about SXU too. i'm already assuming that northwestern will be rejecting me, based on the non-invitation to their open house. lol. they send out letters by post, right? so it might be next week by the time we hear.

I wouldn't worry too much about the rankings. If you read the methodology, rankings are based "solely on the results of peer assessment surveys sent to deans, other administrators, and/or faculty at accredited degree programs or schools". Respondents are required to rate the academic quality of programs on a scale of 1 (marginal) to 5 (outstanding), and this is then averaged and ranked. The response rate was only 31% for the latest survey. Yes, while that has some value, i.e. what some academics think, it really doesn't say that much about the program itself. And the differences in scores are so minor too. I would go to any accredited school that I've visited and liked, and heard good reviews about from students. After all, we're not talking about law school here. We're all going to graduate and find the same jobs regardless of the ranking of our schools. The only exception would be if you were interested in pursuing a PhD later.

Why don't you give it a shot and apply next year? Target schools that might be less competitive, or take in more students.. In the meantime, you could volunteer and do SLP-related work, and have those people write you recommendation letters. It probably won't be easy.. but if SLP is what you want to do, then try your best to get back into grad school. Your undergraduate GPA is probably pretty good, considering you got into a top 5 school. So if you could explain your graduate GPA and your time at your top 5 school with a positive spin in your SOP, you might still stand a chance.

when i spoke to dr. kempster last year, i was told that they had about 5 scholarships to give out, amounting to $15,000 each. i'm curious if anyone has been offered these scholarships yet. i love the medical emphasis at rush and all their awesome medical placements, BUT i'm not sure if i want to graduate with that much debt. purdue will cost me a third of that.. but i haven't actually spoken to any grad students about whether they like the program. does anyone out here know anything about the purdue program at all? i just haven't heard anything about purdue at all, good or bad. anyway, i'll probably decide after attending the open house for both schools. when i applied, i didn't even think i'd have a choice. i was just going to attend the only school that accepted me.

congratulations! i totally get how it feels to keep waiting for that one acceptance. have you already taken prerequisites, or will you be doing a longer program?

nope. i didn't. they're probably trying to get you to accept. or offering a scholarship. =) i remember your stats being very impressive. do tell us how the phone call goes.

I didn't get an email either. I checked the admissions status on CLAWS, and it still only says Application Complete. Seems kinda early to hear back from SXU, though.

thanks! i'll take you up on your offer. ideally, i'd like to find a roommate and rent a two bedroom apartment in west lafayette.. but does it get too crowded with undergrad students in west lafayette? what are some good areas to live for grad students? i've heard that some grad students prefer to live in lafayette. would that entail driving to class, or do the public buses extend to lafayette as well? alternatively, i'm also considering purdue village, although it seems pricier. do you know anything about purdue village, or maybe even hawkins? i'll probably get a better idea after i visit the campus in 2 weeks.. but i'm just curious about what it's like in west lafayette. did you ever feel like it was out in the middle of nowhere? (i've got another offer from a school in chicago, but purdue is way more affordable, so i'm pretty confused.)

I think it depends on what you want to do after that. If you're not looking at getting a PhD or doing great research with prominent faculty, the smaller program would probably be good enough. I don't think SLPs make that much money.. so programs like Northwestern are just seem insanely expensive for an SLP Masters degree. 40k is reasonable, though. (and if it's UIUC, maybe you'd find some sort of assistantship to cover most of tuition?) as a general rule of thumb, I've been told that your tuition shouldn't cost more than what you expect to earn annually upon graduating.

Different schools have different deadlines for FAFSA. Some of them are as early as February 1. Check with your schools.. and try and get your FAFSA filled out in the meantime too. I haven't done my taxes yet, but I used estimates for mine. Yup, you still get to do your clinical externship. In most schools, the thesis replaces the comprehensive examinations - which are usually held in the spring of your second year, I think. I'm pretty interested in doing a thesis, but I don't have much research experience.. so I'll probably figure this out a little later. I might try and get a research assistantship and see how that pans out before deciding what to do.

Please keep us posted! I'd really like to go to Rush, but it's just way too expensive at this point. Rush costs twice as much as in-state tuition for Purdue. Plus, it seems like assistantships are easier to come by at bigger state schools. I'm just grateful for even having a choice at this point, though.

i think you should. especially if you're only going to be talking to the graduate secretary.. the worst she can tell you is that she doesn't know anything. worth a shot. i haven't heard from rush yet. and i'm manually refreshing my inbox repeatedly (even though gmail does this automatically), instead of studying for a neuroscience test i have tomorrow.

you're right.. they are late this year. last year, people had decisions as early as march 4th. but they did send out rejections on february 15th this year, so it looks like they're taking a different approach in making admissions decisions. i was getting so annoyed with their join us on facebook messages. those almost gave me a heart attack last week when i was hoping for a decision email from them. i haven't gotten any this week, though. i wish all the schools had the same deadline for submitting applications, and then would also notify applicants on the same day.