SomedaySLP

I'm moving from the Denver area to Seattle to start my MS program in speech-language pathology. I'm driving, which will take 2-2.5 days depending on how cooperative my 100lb. dog decides to be on the trip. I'm leaving on September 8th, arriving on the 9th or 10th, followed by orientation on the 21st and classes beginning Sept. 24th.

I think 10 is a good number, but I would maybe re-think which 10 you apply to. All of the ones you have listed in your signature are typically very tough to get into. Have you taken the GRE yet? If you have really high scores on that, plus some sort of special experience or skills (bilingual, for example) then you might be safe only applying to those schools, but otherwise I would maybe throw in one or two that typically have higher acceptance rates. That said, I applied to seven schools and got into six of them and could definitely use the money I spent on applications now that I'm about to actually be paying for grad school. I'm still happy I applied to several though, as I'd REALLY be kicking myself if I had only applied to a few and had to go through the application process all over again. Feel free to PM me for advice through the application process if you need it. This forum was very helpful for me when applying, but I think it could have been even moreso if there had been more people who had gone through the process before to offer their advice.

Just wanted to say congrats on your acceptance!!

Oooh, I second this. Didn't think of mentioning winter sports, but I love snowshoeing too, as well as cross country skiing (I'm not big on downhill skiing or snowboarding though...a sin for a CO resident, I get lots of flack for it ) Eldora ski resort is very close to Boulder if you're into that stuff. In the nicer months, hiking the flatirons is very close by, a good workout AND full of gorgeous views to boot. There are also bike lanes and paths everywhere in Boulder and cyclists and pedestrians pretty much rule the roads (annoying when you're driving, convenient otherwise) so if you like riding a bike for your exercise, it's extremely bike-friendly as well.

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by the climate in CO. It's rare that we have extended periods of time of freezing temperatures. The winters are really weird here, you could get snow in the morning and be running in shorts by the afternoon. While you will get some big snow storms (usually only a few a year that accumulate to more than a few inches, though it varies by year. And obviously if you're in the mountains you'll get more, but not so much in Boulder), usually the snow is gone by the next day or two, due to the amount and intensity of the sunshine we get. It's not at all uncommon to have two week periods of 70 degree weather mid-winter (though also not unheard of to have a blizzard at the end of April...) and pretty common to have a day where you're bundled and trudging through snow and a day when you can go comfortably without a coat within the same winter week. It's nothing like the cold, wet, sunless New England or Midwestern winters at all. I personally hate the snow and cold and I love living in CO and am dreading leaving it. I exercise outside regularly, as do most of my friends, and the weather rarely becomes an issue. On those occasional times per year when it truly is too cold or snowy, I just suck it up and go to the gym (or take a cheat day ) but I guarantee you it will not be a season-long issue, just a few days here and there. If you need any suggestions on living in Boulder (or the SLP program, since I see that's your program as well), feel free to PM me.

I didn't, but I've heard of many of people who have and had good experiences. If you go to livejournal.com/speechpathology and look at the posts tagged USU/University of Utah you'll find lots of information and people who went through it (if you make a LJ account you can pose your own questions too, people are typically very helpful and knowledgeable on that forum). Many of them got into great programs and I've never heard of schools looking at anyone differently because they did online pre-reqs rather than brick and mortar courses. It seems most programs like having students with backgrounds outside of SLP as it adds some variety in perspectives and experiences to their cohorts, so if you get your pre-reqs, your Spanish background will be a huge plus on your application!

Oops, didn't see your reply. Sorry for the delay! Bilingualism is a growing area of the SLP world and research in that area is growing, if you're interested in the research side at all. There's lots of cool stuff looking at both simultaneous and consecutive L2 learners, usually working with little kids, but there's also really cool research in bilingual aphasia, working with bilingual adults who have suffered a brain injury. Beyond research, as a bilingual clinician I've heard you can make as much as 10k/year more than a monolingual clinician if you're in an area with high demand. Ethically, it's best to provide therapy to people in their native language and with the Spanish speaking population in this country growing, the need for bilingual SLPs is huge! Every time I tell someone I'm bilingual in Spanish they pretty much tell me it will get me my pick of virtually any job I want. I'm sure that's a stretch but it's definitely a bonus in this economy to know your chances of employment are very high. As far as how I decided on SLP, it was kind of by accident. I started as a Spanish literature major because I'd always enjoyed Spanish classes and it came very easy to me. I just never really saw myself as a teacher. I started getting into Spanish linguistics in my elective courses and found it very interesting, so I added a linguistics major. I liked it, but still didn't see how I wanted to apply any of it, as I didn't see myself pursuing a PhD in linguistics. Some of my LING classes were crosslisted with the Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences (SLHS) department so a lot of my classmates were SLHS majors. I started looking into it and it was kind of that "ah-ha" moment. I could really see myself working in that field. So I added SLHS as a third major (they had a lot of crossover and I liked all of them so I figured I'd keep them all, haha) and I haven't really looked back since. I got really involved in research and realized I particularly like the medical side and see myself working with adults with neurogenic communication disorders. I also see myself eventually getting either a PhD or a clinical doctorate at some point, but I feel like I need more experience to really narrow down the specifics of what I'd want to research for half a decade of my life I got an assistantship offer from Towson University, a smaller school in Maryland (where I'm from originally) and a scholarship from University of Washington-Seattle, which is where I decided to go. I got accepted to their medical track which is exactly what I'd like to do so it was pretty much a no-brainer after I got accepted. One of their professors works in the area that I think I'm leaning most toward if I do a PhD (Parkinson's disease) so it was a really good fit for me all around. SLP is a great field with pretty much limitless job possibilities. People work in schools, hospitals, home health, early intervention, private practice, traveling positions, skilled nursing facilities, etc. etc. treating everything from people with autism or articulation/language/fluency disorders, to people who have had strokes or traumatic brain injuries, individuals with hearing loss, accent modification, swallowing/feeding disorders, etc. There is also the opportunity to work in research or to pursue a PhD and go into academia (there is a HUGE lack of PhDs in the field so the job prospects are actually not bad compared to job placement rates in other fields in academia, from what I've heard). A clinical doctorate sets you up to be a clinical supervisor in a university, or can give you leg up to a director/managerial position in a hospital. There are so many facets this degree sets you up for, which is really appealing to me. If I ever get bored and need a change in life, I can work in a different little subfield and it's like a whole new job Good luck with your decision!! Feel free to send me a private message at any point if you have any questions about SLP now or down the road, I'm happy to help if I can.

Like most fields, the funding for SLP programs tends to be reserved for the PhD students more than the master's level applicants. At the schools I applied to, I was offered an assistantship that would have waived the tuition plus paid a stipend for the first year at one school, and a 10k merit scholarship at another (most schools I declined admission before funding info was sent, as I was accepted to my top choice fairly early in the game and knew I would go there regardless). It's not uncommon to not receive any sort of direct funding though and most people, myself included, will rely heavily on student loans. Each school will vary in the amount of money they can throw around to fund MA students, so it's worth looking into that once you have decided on your schools of interest. In-state tuition can be very helpful if you have schools that fit your interests within your state. Presenting some sort of SLP research would definitely be a bonus on your application, as it's not something many undergrads in our field get the opportunity to do. If you can't or it would be a serious stretch, I wouldn't worry too much about it though. Having research experience of any form will only help you, even if you just volunteer in a research lab (pysch depts often have language-related research going on or if you have linguists in your Spanish dept they might have something going on that would lend itself to SLP). As far as taking an extra year after graduating, there are actually many options to get your pre-reqs done. While you're in undergrad, you can get many of the ASHA (American Speech-Language Hearing Association, the body that certifies and runs the regulation of the SLP field) general-ed requirements (biology, social science, math, etc...check asha.org, it's four courses I believe) if you haven't taken them already. You can also likely take courses like phonetics, language development, etc. through different departments that your school does have (psych, linguistics, child development, etc.) if you have elective room. I would compile a list of schools you're interested in and look at the courses they require and see if your school offers any of those. Other options include applying to three-year MA programs, where you spend your first year doing pre-reqs or "leveling" as it's often called, before diving into grad-level work in your second and third years. The major downfall of that is you often are charged grad-level rates for the full three years which can be more expensive, depending on where you go. There are also post-bacc programs that offer SLP coursework, you could see if any universities in your area offer that. The downfall there is you typically have to apply to post-bacc programs (which can be fairly competitive) and then apply again to 2 year programs (very competitive). I've spoken with lots of people who took their pre-reqs through Utah State University's online pre-req program if you'd be interested in doing online. The benefit there is the courses are fairly inexpensive as they charge all distance learners an in-state rate. You could also probably take some of those courses during summers in your undergrad program if you wanted/were able, which could cut down on the time between undergrad and grad school. As far as advice to bettering your application: keep your GPA high, and study your tail off for the GRE. Make strong connections with faculty members as an undergrad who will then be able to write you top-notch letters of recommendation. If you have opportunities to research, take them. Same for opportunities to volunteer/work with populations SLPs might serve (children with disabilities, the elderly, etc.). Start writing your statement of purpose early and have as many people read and edit it as possible before submitting. I'm not sure what your specific interest areas might be as far as what area of SLP you'd like to work in or what your career goals might be (more clinical versus research versus academic or some combination) but if you have an idea of any of that, feel free to let me know and I can point you in the direction of programs that might be a good fit for you. I spent almost two years investigating different programs and am helping my sister form her list of schools to apply to currently so I feel like some crazy database full of now-useless-to-me SLP program info these days

Just thought I'd chime in on this point. You're correct that bilingual SLPs are in high demand. It also sounds like your interests would align well with SLP. Also, there is currently a shortage of PhDs in the field, so if your ultimate goal is to end up in academia, it's a decent field to go into as far as job opportunities go. I had a similar profile as you. I originally thought I wanted to be a Spanish teacher but something about the fit of it just didn't seem right. I wound up triple majoring in Spanish Literature, Linguistics, and Speech Language and Hearing Science (the undergrad major for SLP at my school) sort of by accident. I liked my Spanish linguistics courses so I added the ling major, but still didn't see myself being a linguist. I took an SLP course as an elective and LOVED it. It combined all of my interests and gave them a practical application. The job market is strong compared to most fields these days and being bilingual just makes you a stronger applicant. I plan to go on for either a PhD or clinical doctorate in SLP, haven't decided which yet but I hope to have that figured out once I get moving through my MS program. That's one of the things I really like about the SLP field, there is an almost limitless number of avenues you can take within the field. I will warn you though, it is extremely competitive to get into SLP master's programs! If you check out the SLP thread on this site (in the life sciences forum) you'll see that many people apply to around 10 programs and many come up empty handed. The typical acceptance rate seems to be around 10%, with more competitive programs <5%. You seem like a strong student, so I'm sure you have a good application profile, but just something to consider when picking where and how many programs to apply to, should you take that route. Good luck with your decision! If you have any questions about the SLP route, feel free to send me a message, I'm happy to help

My program starts in near the end of September, so I'm staying at my job until sometime mid-late August. It actually works out well, as I work in a research lab in the same field and the grant I'm on ends Aug. 31st, so I would've been temporarily out of a job anyway My supervisors were some of my LOR writers and have gone through nearly every step of the process with me (and talked me down from the application-panic ledge more than a few times) so I didn't really have to tell them I was leaving, they already knew. While I have noticed a slight decrease in my motivation levels since getting into school (I think I'm more distracted by planning my move than anything), I do plan to work with my current colleagues and supervisors again after I graduate so I can't really slack too much. Plus I really do love my job, which helps.

There is no need to switch majors if you're doing something you enjoy. My advice would be to continue acing your classes and if you have elective space, consider choosing courses that might fulfill some pre-reqs for grad school (lots of schools offer phonetics, language development, etc. in other departments like linguistics, psychology, child development. If you don't see any courses by those names you could inquire with the departmental advisors and see if they have a course that's just called something different but essentially the same thing). Honestly, I think your Spanish education major will be helpful, especially if you're fully bilingual. I would emphasize that on your applications: both being bilingual and having experience working with multi-lingual/-cultural populations. I've been told that's a huge plus and it was something I emphasized on my applications as well (one of my majors was in Spanish with an emphasis in hispanic linguistics, and I had experience teaching adult ESL classes), and I had decent luck this past applications season. You could look into research positions at your university that might lend themselves to SLP. Your education department might have something relevant, or check in the psych/ling depts. Any research experience typically looks good to admissions committees and can help lead you to a strong LOR if you make a good connection with your advisor. Same goes for volunteer/relevant work experience. I would look into applying to three year programs or take a year after you graduate and do the pre-reqs through a program like Utah State University's online SLP pre-req program, or something in your home state. Three year programs are nice since they get you into a program, but it can be more expensive since they usually charge graduate rates for the full three years, including your pre-req or "leveling" year. Good luck! It's a grueling process but worth it once you get accepted! (Hopefully it will still feel worth it after I actually start the work for grad school ) Feel free to message if you need more advice along the way, I'm happy to help if I can.

AT&T is kind of spotty in parts of CO. Verizon seems to have the best coverage state-wide. I had it in Boulder and never had any trouble, but my friends with AT&T and especially T-Mobile tended to have more issues.

Will you be moving back to an area that has a university nearby? You could contact that university and see if they have any positions available to non-students. Otherwise, I work in a research facility that is affiliated with a university within my state, but is in a different city and not run by university faculty members and they hire non-students all the time...maybe you can look for something like that? I don't know how common that actually is though...

Now that the acceptance deadline has arrived, anyone else headed to UW in the fall? Id love to connect with future classmates

Yay!! I'm in Seattle now and it's been kinda fun exploring the city knowing I'll be moving here in a matter of months. Do you know anyone else heading to UW in the fall? Congrats on making the decision final