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Utah State and University Wisconsin Eau-Claire have online courses for Articulation Disorders

I've never heard of that combination happening before at the undergraduate level.

Is there an opportunity to co-author the results of your research? Are you gaining academic credits for the position? If not, I think that's asking way too much to volunteer.

Hey marshmallows, For the NSERC (National Sciences & Engineering Research Council) summer research award, the Canadian government will send the money to a professor who holds an NSERC grant. They will use that amount (~$5000) to pay you as a RA and supervise your own study (or if you choose to work on theirs). Personally, I'd design my own study so it looks better in your LOR Some profs contribute as well. I know some McGill professors contribute ~$1200 additional to the $5K.

Hey eggfish, first of all, I want to commend you on your 4.0. Admissions committees will consider you first , assuming you maintain it and you earn good GRE scores. Scholarships and RA/TAships are also awarded based on GPA/GRE. I wouldn't worry too much about getting enough experience since schools do not generally weigh it as heavily. I worked as a behavior therapist for a child with autism and as a TA for one of my courses and to be honest, admissions never considered it. However, if you want to get some experience while still maintaining your 4.0 in the school year, you can try working in the summer camps that allow you to work as a caregiver/counselor for children with disabiliies. The Easter Seals is well known all over and often supports speech and language disordered populations. They offer lots of positions every summer. Just type easter seals camp counselor or jobs and many will come up. Here's one in Wisconsin: http://camp.eastersealswisconsin.com/content/camp-staff-positions-easter-seals-camps

Don't feel discouraged. It's important to take things one step at a time. Right now, your main priority is to keep up your grades to maintain your momentum. If you're a sophmore, start looking into which professor you may wish to do an independent study or a thesis. I would read up on their lab publications and if their studies align with a topic you wish to explore, send them an email asking if they're taking any students for an independent study or research praticums. If they don't respond, send a second along the lines off, "Hello, my name is...I'm not sure if you received my previous email." If there's no response, visit during their office hours. If they're far away, give them a call. If there's no callback, I wouldn't go any further and try others. When I was searching for observation hours, I emailed the speech pathology departments of nearby hospitals. You can find their contact info from the websites. If there's no response from emails, call the phone number. Many places were very responsive and open to observations. I also called a list of SLP's from the Speech-Language and Audiology Canada website and the ASHA directory: http://sac-oac.ca/public/find-professional http://www.asha.org/proserv/ I would just put your city and province and not check off the boxes for specific age range. I earned more SLPs to contact. I would call directly and leave a message. I got better hits that way. Private practices have secretaries who screen out inquiries. I called 25-30 people everyday. I prepared a script and rehearse it a few times in case I needed to leave a message. I also called local organizations like the Canadian Hearing Society, Autism Ontario, Brain Injury Assocation which are likely to employ SLPs. I would say that finding SLPs to observe was challenging because some patients and therapists don't feel comfortable being observed because they feel anxious, distracted, it's just natural. If you're not getting hits, don't take it personally. This is why I encourage you to be persistent and keep calling until you reach out to someone who is willing to mentor you. For actual volunteering, you have some options: 1) Some hospitals have communication partner programs for people who have aphasia or feeding assistant for those with swallowing disorders. In these cases, the volunteer dept. of the hospital would be in-charge of screening so inquire if the offer volunteering opportunities in speech therapy. An SLP usually trains volunteers. If you're in Toronto, the Aphasia Institute and the Runnymead Health Centre offer volunteering positions all the time. 2) Now that summer is approaching, there are speech therapy camps that take place around the country. I am not sure where you are, but some places you can check out: In BC, there's a stuttering camp. Contact BCAPS for more information. In Ontario camps, the Ontario March of Dimes has an aphasia camp in Brantford. Autism Ontario also has a speech therapy camp in Hamilton. In Burlington, there's a hippotherapy speech camp where the SLPs use horses to stimulate communication for their clients. It's really neat. Type "speech therapy camp" or "speech pathology camp" with your province and see what comes up. The advantages with the camps is you can also use the volunteering hours for your observation hours. You will have more than enough to meet the 14 hour clinical requirement for UofT. 3) There are many outpatient rehab facilities funding by the government. Here in Ontario, the government funds regional organizations and the money is used to provide therapies (including SLP). An example is the Children's Treatment Network up in Newmarket, ON or the KidsAbility in Waterloo, ON. See if your province has them.

I think it depends on the type of setting. If you're going for a school position, I don't think it matters much. However, if you want a CFY that deals with low incidence communication disorders - fluency, voice, clefts- that's probably more difficult to obtain if you hadn't had any hands on experience/contact with actual clients. My mentor who works at a large metrpolitan hospital said that his employers place a greater emphasis on where you completed your CFY when they hire.

I would try to maintain straight A's in the prerequisites (e.g. phonetics, anatomy, linguistics, developmental psych, neuroscience) and in your last 2 full-time years of school. The advantage of maintaining B+ to A average is you are eligible to apply for summer research awards if your university offers them. I would also recommend taking a research course taught by a professor who has a lab in sophmore/junior year and then carry out a thesis in your senior year. These courses are GPA boosters too I did full year independent study, presented 3 posters and co-authored a paper when I worked at an outpatient pediatric rehab. You can use them as academic references as well. I only had about 174 contact hours in SLP (observation/volunteering). One girl who got in UofT only had 25 hours of observation so IMHO, I don't think clinical experiences help much. I would try to see if you can take a course for credit with a professor (prefrrably a chair) of the school that you are planning to apply. You can do this in the summer as an elective. I would also try to apply for a summer research award and use the grant to conduct a study with your professor. My classmate got funding for summer student research with the chair at UfT who she used as one of her references and she got in. She still had amazing grades, but knowing someone who can vouch for you will help.

Hi twinguy, did you get a conditional or unconditional offer at JSU and GVSU?

I can see by the way you articulated your goals and your writing that you will have a very well crafted mission statement. With your vocology background, you may find some of the prerequsite courses easy to grasp (anatomy, speech science, acoustics, articulation, phonetics). You also have a very competitive GPA for NYC schools. It's never too late to enter this field. Go for it!

I can't speak for other provinces, but in Ontario, all the clinical supervisors of autism intervention programs are psychologists who oversee a lead behavior therapist (who oversee the frontline workers). The autism cases are very long and many families choose to opt for the direct funding option from the ministry as opposed to a an outpatient rehab center which also has waiting lists. There aren't a lot of clinical psychologists whose focus is only autism. My mentor also works with a lot of clients who have communication disorders and sometimes need further counseling beyond his scope in between sessions and they're usually referred to clinical psychologists. I don't think the jobs will go anytime soon. I never understood why that act was passed in the first place and why the CPO did not fight to keep their duties. Psychotherapy is in the scope of other professions (OT, mental health nursing, social work). To me, this will add more confusion for those who make referrals for clients for counseling.

It's great your working ahead in your SOP. At first, I experimented using headings but found they clutterred the page and used lines that I could use to expand on my life story, so I dropped them. To personalize, talked about the research of some of the professors, specific courses that I found were unique for the program and how they all related and would help my future goals. This is the part that took up a lot of time to do. It also helped me narrow down schools. In my one of my SOPs, I was not feeling the research of the faculty at all, but still forced myself to finish it (since I already paid the application fee). I think the admissions felt the disconnect so I was rejected lol

Congratulations!!! I was accepted in Michigan too I read the aphasia treatment is top-notch at Wayne.

Congratulations! I'm curious what made you decide to not attend the schools you were accepted to?

I would definitely ask now so you can give them time and avoid or anticipate unforeseen events. In my case, my LOR did not respond for 5 months after agreeing to write. I ended up having to go to visit in person to see what's happening and low and behold, LOR was buried in projects. It was sent 3 weeks before the deadline :S My second LOR finished/sent it 1 day before the deadline. So, the earlier the better.

Is there any extenuating circumstances that led to it? If so, you may try to seek an appeal to the dean to turn it into a W.

Not a problem as long as your bachelors cumulative is a 3.0 or above, you still have a chance. There were a few people who were retaking in my cohort as well and they already got in the program at NOVA. You will be very well prepared to manage difficult behaviors with your experience working with those populations. I really feel any experience is valuable, as long as you enjoy it and can talk about it with passion in your personal statement.

Hey guys, I just found out U of Saskatchewan is planning a program, but it's still a work in progress pending funding. It's something to watch out in the future: http://www.medicine.usask.ca/pt/100714%20FAQ%20re%20OT%20and%20SLP%20programs.pdf http://www.medicine.usask.ca/pt/occupational-therapy-and-speech-language-pathology-programs.html

I have to satisfy a few prereqs over the summer. I'm now stressed how I'm going to squeeze summer traveling in between. Maybe I'll travel for 1 week before classes begin and 1 week after they end to spread it out. There are a couple of documentaries I'm looking forward to watching this summer: 1) Do I Sound Gay? - This is a documentary about the stereotypical gay lisp. It premiered at a few film festivals last year and received positive reviews. 2) The Boers at the End of the World - This follows the descendants of the Boers of South Africa who moved to Patagonia, Argentina after the Boers lost the war against the British. There's supposed to be some changes in their Afrikaans dialect. It's interesting if you're into multicultural isseus in language.

If your cumulative in your first bachelor's is equal to or greater than 3.0, it's still okay to apply. In your situation, you should be okay. If it's below, it's risky to apply because 2 of my classmates who had less than 3.0 GPA in their first bachelors didn't get in. I can attest from witnessing my classmates' experences to answer your second question. My classmates who got in graduate schools already had a 3.0 and above GPA in their first (non-CSD) bachelors. They did extremely well in the USU courses with GPAs ranging in 3.9-4.0. I think they were able to prove to the admissions of their ability to excel in the CSD subject. This made their applications stand out.

One of my classmates who had a first bachelors in CSD had to retake a few courses at USU. She was accepted at NOVA, but this is after 3 years of persistent applications. Make sure you have a 3.0 or above though in your first bachelors or else it might not be considered as noted in the results pages.

I understand your concerns about the expenses of graduate studies. By any chance do you speak Spanish? If you do, there are many bilingual programs (like Texas Christian University) that offer funding in the form of scholarships, GA/TA-ships. They are very very generous espcially Texas schools. It might be something to check out.

Yes, one of my classmates at USU was accepted at NYU. He's a singer

Congratulations sab236 and everyone!

There's the referent I over-analyzed it haha