ImHis

Hi guys!
 
I'm observing a bilingual speech therapist in my town and I want to give her simple and sweet christmas gift for letting me observe her work.
 
Any ideas? I thought this card was cute: https://www.etsy.com/listing/200235325/thank-you-card-for-speech-therapist-5x7?ref=market
 
...but I'm not a parent of any of her clients...
 
Any ideas?

My schools are very specific about the content for statistics (parametric and non-parametric tests, not a research methods course). I took a lot of psych courses which covered my behavioural sciences requirements.

The physical science requirement was listed as either a general chemistry or physics according to the ASHA 2014 standards.
 
All the schools I'm applying said these ASHA prerequisites have to be a B or better and they can be also taken from a community college or university level. You seemed to have fulfilled the requirement with your gen chem 1. HOWEVER, it's the graduate school's final decision if a course also meets the physical science requirement.
 
For now, maybe it's best to send the course outline to your prospective school program coordinators to confirm if it matches with they need.

I like the flow and your writing style. I have some suggestions about this paragraph:
 
Though I lack research experience, I believe XXX University will provide me with good opportunities of research in my interest areas such as Project Controls, Building Information Modelling, Project Information Management, Risk Analysis etc. The work of Prof. XXX with the XXX group and some of the projects pursued by Prof. XXX have impressed me. I’d certainly relish the opportunity to work under such renowned faculty and contribute to the industry.
 
1) I would remove "Though I lack research experience" since you discussed your Evaluation of Municipal Solid Waste Management Practices in Pune City project.
Unless your school requires extensive experience, to me it downplays your qualification. Directly state, "I believe XXX University" instead. It's more resolute and confident.
 
2) Remove etc.
 
3) You might want to elaborate more about what impressed you about these professors' research
 
Good luck!

The key is.... be an advocate for yourself and don't be afraid to fall flat on your face in front of your adviser.  Your adviser's job is to help you get back on your feet and steer you in the right direction.  A good adviser won't get upset as long as you tried and don't make assumptions about what s/he wants/expects of you.

You can still make up the grade. However, if you're worried, I'd talk to the teacher. If they gave you that point then I would think that they would be willing to work something out with you. Maybe you can ask for some tutoring? Or maybe there's a way to make up the bad grade.

I would say not to worry, just go ahead and push through. Don't give up for a 60 that's 20% of the grade. Once I got a 9.5 out of 70 in a midterm and I stayed in the class (the average was 27). But yes, talk to the professor, maybe get a tutor, and work harder. 

I'd advise you to shadow some RNs and some SLPs and decide based on that which field is a better fit for you.

wishingwishing; accepted into Baylor with a 38k scholarship! I accepted my offer and declined UTD, so hopefully this will help you out!

Thank you TakeRuk for your perspective. One of the schools I looked at does publish these results but not all schools do. I am very weary about putting it down because of the articles I've been reading invovling stereotypes with Asian Americans and their overrepresentation in some institutions despite being considered as a minority in all the cohorts I'm planning to join. Did you put yours down?
 
 
I am going to ask my advisors what is their take on this.

At my university, we didn't have this section in our applications. Did you leave your race blank even if it was optional? I'm concerned it'll affect my chances on my admissions.

I think it's worth noting that over 90% of SLPs are white, and many programs actively recruit minorities... and this only matters if the program is dishonest and really does look at the page where you check off your race.
 
Ideally, the race information is kept separate. Meaning that when you submit your online application, the race page goes to a central office for statistical purposes, and the rest of your application goes to the admission committee... so no one knows if, and how, you filled it out.

I forgot to say that the example I wrote above is supposed to be an example of one way the data might be used, not to mean that it's the only way the data is used! That is, my point is that it's for statistics/compliance, and "should" not be used to admission decisions (although I can't say for sure how good schools are at keeping this information separate from your application and what unconscious biases professors may have!). Note also that in many cases, a person can also guess at your race/gender/etc. from your name and other information in your application anyways.
 
I did not report my race because I am not American and the applications for my schools (in 2011 at least, not sure about now) did not allow me to report race if I was not American. This is because compliance with federal laws only require tracking of these stats for Americans, not international students. 
 
If I was American, I would report my race (in Canada, I always chose to disclose that I am Asian-Canadian). I think that these statistics are very useful for organizations supporting minorities to help make policy changes. It's very important to have data/numbers to back up qualitative arguments. Also, please note that so-called "over-representation" in college student populations does not preclude under-representation at later stages of career. For example, while there are many Asian students in my Californian school, Asian students are still considered visible minorities because in almost all fields, there is a very large and noticeable lack of Asian professors. I notice this almost every time at almost every scientific conference. The list of invited speakers, the people who ask the questions after talks, the majority of the faces in the room are Caucasian males so pretty much every other group of people are visible minorities in my field. Another example is that I grew up in a city full of immigrants (80% of the population do not speak English as a first language). However, I was still eligible for and received a fellowship for visible minorities in my Masters program in eastern Canada. In my opinion, at the graduate level, schools care about training a diverse set of students so as I said above, your minority status in a professional field is not necessarily the same as your minority status in other aspects of life.
 
In my field, I do feel that demographics are changing and my field is becoming more diverse very fast. In terms of gender, the cohort of young professors aged 30-40 is much more diverse than the cohort aged 50-60. So I am happy that schools are implementing policy changes that are leading to more diversity. In order to do this, proponents of diversity need stats and numbers and data to help identify areas where we are losing diversity. 
 
Of course, I do not mean to make anyone feel bad for worrying about their own interests and not disclosing their race / other minority status. I respect everyone's privacy and right to withhold that information. I only intend this post to show/explain the good/usefulness that can come out of these types of questions and why I would personally choose to disclose it when I can (i.e. in Canada).

Don't even get me started on how not 'easy' this solution is. I think you know yourself it's not an easy solution. 
 
To answer your original question, I think your therapist has it right. Hang out with happily married/dating people and try to have fun with them in the moment. I think it's normal to sometimes want what someone else has, but you also need to learn to move past it. Unless we are talking about someone who constantly only talks about their SO, conversations will revolve around lots of things, including loved ones, and that's just a normal part of life. You have to get used to talking with people about their lives, if you want to have any friends at all. So, just get started, and soon enough you'll get used to it and it won't be a problem anymore. It might help to just stay in the moment and not constantly compare yourself to the person you're talking to. You're different people with different backgrounds so it doesn't make sense to expect that you'll be in the exact same place in life in every respect, and the fact that someone is married is just not relevant to the situation where you're just hanging out with them and having fun. You need to learn to not think about it all the time. 

I'm not a psychologist, but I am certifiably crazy (ask my therapist!) so my question to you is this:  What exactly are you hoping to fix by getting married and having children? 
You seem at least marginally self-aware so you should know that this:
is an EXTREMELY unhealthy thought.  That right there is liable to get you into a mess of a situation that would be more harmful than it would be fulfilling. 
I think the problem that you have with being around happy couples is just a symptom of a bigger problem.  You really need therapy more than once a month.  Talk with the counseling center.  They are normally willing to bend any rules they have for people that show true need.  And I think you really need more intense therapy to become comfortable with whatever it was in your life that hurt you so bad that you think only a husband and child can fill it. 
This is obviously all just my opinion, but if you are serious about getting your mental state healthy again, you might want to think about these things.   

I go straight from my day job, so business casual for me - nice pants, collared shirt (although I do have a preference for colorful Hawaiian/Tropical prints)

Life is what happens while you are making plans.
 
It just doesn't make sense to avoid getting into a relationship because it may not "work out" (easily) several years from now. You also can't evaluate a potential relationship with someone you just met in terms of what might happen several years down the road. It puts an unfair burden on the other person and it's just looking at things from the wrong perspective. Life is happening now, not later. If you are planning on a life in academia, you won't be in permanent place for a very long time. You are looking at 5+ years in a PhD program, plus 1-3+ years as a postdoc (perhaps 5+, depending on the field), and then perhaps a TT job, which may not be your last. But even if you're just in school for 2 years and then get a job, who's to say that that job will be for life and you'll never move? And who's to say your partner won't need to move away for school or for a job? 
 
Having to move for jobs will force you to evaluate your relationship and actively *choose* to stay with your partner, if things are good. Or it may speed up the end of a relationship that was slowly dying anyway. If you choose to keep the relationship, you may have to make some sacrifices for it. You have to be aware of it, but keep in mind that juggling a career and a personal life always involves work and some sacrifices. You have to decide whether having a relationship is important enough to give up some advantages of being completely unattached and able to move around. It's a choice. If you choose the relationship and work at it, I personally believe that things will work out, one way or the other. I can't tell you how, but since I see it happening around me all the time, I know it's possible. And if it ends up not working out, I think it's still better to have tried. Anyway, that's how I live my life. I just moved for a postdoc and I know I'll move again at least once soon, and my partner is also an academic, so things aren't easy. But I wouldn't give the relationship up just because I don't know yet how it'll work out. Life is not just about the end result, it's about the process, and having someone to share my life with is more important than the complexity it adds to my choices on the academic job market.

I know right! Hopefully these schools understand that people don't know what they're doing freshman year!

I appreciate your response, something that I have difficulty doing is forgetting about the work so far, and focusing in on what is important now without freaking out about the future. I feel as though (in the event I enjoy CSD) that once I start working on classes pertaining to a major I am confident in, I will do well. Only time will tell. Again, thanks for the reply.

I can understand your sentiments. Fortunately, you still have a lot of opportunities to raise your GPA. The greatest advice I learned from people who were accepted is that your preparation is not a race. You are competing against yourself. For that reason, I would strongly concentrate on those CSD courses over anything else. If you need to go part-time to maintain the 4.0 in CSD, there is nothing wrong with it. Those are very high stakes since admissions told me they weigh them the most and more scrutinized if you are a CSD major.
 
Drop the courses that are not required by ASHA or most schools.  If you want to be more marketable, maybe take Spanish but your priority is to focus on those CSD. If you feel that you are starting to slip in your classes, be very assertive, bug the prof and say NO to any distraction/activity. If you don't need to work, do not work. If you need to, cut down on your hours.
 
I noticed you listed a lot of plans for extra-curricular activiites. It might be a good idea to first shadow different areas before making a commitment. Also, examine and reflect where your interest/motivation was in your classes to help you decide. I LOVED research and interacting with adults and applying everything I learned from my anatomy, psychology, audiology and acoustics and so I worked with an SLP who specialized in medical rehab and just did sporadic observations of articulation and child language. I understood everything he was saying when he was telling me about why a certain maneuvre is being done. All I can say is it was enchanting to see everything come alive. So, if you do finally decide to materalize your plans, make sure it is one that will enjoy and show some passion. You'll know it becasue it'll be a hobby, you aren't wasting your mental resources. It is one part of your profile from where you might also request a glowing LOR and expand in your personal statement so make it memorable and worthwhile

I completely agree! If I could just erase everything before Winter 2013 I'd have a 3.5, and sleep a lot easier :/

It took almost the whole day for me to put all the grades for my first degree. I wanted to go back and shake myself as a freshman. Ugh!

I think you need to first assess your learning style and your life situation. For example, are you someone who prefers to study the concepts on your own? Or do you prefer to attend a class and get feedback immediately during class discussions from the professor or work in groups to finish homework with your classmates?
 
In terms of your daily schedule, are you available to attend day classes and will you be able to accommodate your other obligations at home or school? If you attend online, you have the option of watching the lectures in your own time.
 
Are you more hands on, visual or auditory learner?  The advantage with online learning is the playback of videos. Some on campus classes do not allow students to record lectures. Also as an online student who is a hands on learner, I struggled a bit especially when I was learning the protocols for some assessment techniques. Thankfully, I was able to get in touch with an SLP who took me in and showed me how certain procedures are done to get a visual. There are also Youtube videos but it's not comparable to magic of watching a real live session to show you how an assessment/therapy is performed. On the other hand, if you do enrol in an on-campus, you will have immediate access to clients/mentors and observation hours. 
 
Finally, I want to advise that there are schools that do not accept online courses. CSU Chico for example does not according to one of my classmates who took the USU program a few years ago. Since online courses are very recent, there is an underlying view that online students do not have the "soft skills" that are necessary to be a well-rounded clinician. I disagree in the same way that I disagree with how some employers/faculty feel that introverts should not work in the field. Everyone will be completing their externships anyways. I think that it all comes down to confidence and your ability to provide rationale for why your treatment choices will make a difference in the lives of your patients. We will always be learning and applying the same theories/skills that we gathered from our mentors and past experiences to mold our own clinical bedside identities.

In my field, when it comes to personal interactions, professors treat new students with the same respect they would treat anyone else. That is, they don't hold their "rank" over other (more junior) professors, or postdocs, or students. So, something like ripping up homework, or personal insults would be completely inappropriate and unacceptable. That said, although my field (and I think much of science) do have the approach that ideas are only judged on academic merit, not personality, most profs will be more skeptical of a "crazy new idea" from a grad student than if it came from an established faculty member. That is, I do second Eigen's statement that respect for one's academic abilities is something that is earned over time. But, basic person-to-person interactions respect should always be there, no matter your academic reputation/rank.
 
I have no idea what the norms in your field are when it comes to things like ripping up homework / respect for one another etc. In my opinion, this should have no place in any university no matter the field. Even though I know I am an outsider to the field, if this kind of action is normal in MFA programs, I would advocate for the University to take actions against this program to not allow this kind of action. I understand that some fields just do some things differently, but I would argue that no field should have the privilege of professors destroying their student's work.

That's what red ink is for. But, such comments can actually be constructive and can help a student to grow and learn from mistakes. Completely destroying a piece of work just sends the message that 'this is bad' with the implicit message 'you are bad' I just don't see it as possibly being constructive.
 
I also do think that even though graduate students exactly colleagues of the professors, we are certainly not undergrads anymore and most of us have professional experience. I've personally made decisions for companies worth tens of thousands of dollars (and more) and I would get quite upset if a professor isn't willing to trust my judgement considering outside of the ivory tower I'd be a well-educated professional.