esopha

If he gets into a program, he's just as qualified as anyone else in that program. Not speaking directly to you, but I generally really dislike discussions of whether being of a certain background makes you more likely to get into any competitive program. The thought that there are going to be two identical candidates, both with the exact same types of experience, but different demographics is just a strawman. This is very, very unlikely to ever happen. There are oodles of qualified candidates for a very small number of positions, and the fact is that admission isn't guaranteed for anyone. Also, we have no idea what ad comms are looking for in terms of their class compositions. They probably are looking for diversity. They're also definitely looking for academic ability. The spots in a program don't "belong" to anyone - no one "beats" anyone else out of a spot because it's not like they're competing one-on-one for spots, you know? I mean, I'm a minority in SLP, but not a minority in higher ed by any means (queer Asian woman). Do I think I have an edge? I don't know. It's impossible to know. But it also doesn't matter, because the upshot of all of these conversations is trying to stare into a crystal ball to see the future, when all you can do is do your best and apply. (That said, if someone rejects me because of my demographics, I'll gladly do a happy dance, because I don't want to go to that program. Hear me, universe? I'd rather have the rejection! Don't listen to my begging in two months when the anxiety catches up to me, lol.) A problem that does exist is worrying so much about being a competitive candidate that you narrow your interests and application into being some kind of application-robot that indicates no personality whatsoever. Ad comms can certainly tell when you're parroting exactly what you think they want you to hear.

I just have three more apps left! And my rec letters, of course. I'm going to put some serious time into it this weekend. I just want my parts to be done...

The one-page guideline is for people with little work experience, like recent college graduates, or people who have been in the workforce for less than 5 years. I would include all your relevant experience, but remember that ad comms have to read approximately one billion applications, so I wouldn't go over 2 pages.

I feel your pain. I'm starting to wonder when I should remind my recommenders... considering I sent them everything in September. :(

I've tried to keep mine under 2 pages. For a document like this, the 250 words per page thing doesn't really apply because I assume you're taking up all of the real estate on the page, right? The 250 word per page rule is very general and academic works rarely adhere to it* (it's usually more like 310 words a page, in my experience, though that's not how my SOP ended up being). BUT, since the rule of thumb exists, I try to keep to 2 pages without counting the words. My SOP is around 800 words as well. Keep the margins standard and you should be fine. *Source: I used to work in academic publishing.

I wasn't able to go, either. I don't think it will count for very much in the application process, but it would be nice to have the opportunity to scope people/buildings/the faces of the grad students out.

Title IX has always applied to other aspects of education besides athletics (in fact, the original legislation doesn't mention athletics at all, but since athletics is a high source of income/publicity for a lot of schools, changes to athletics programs were highly visible), but I didn't realize that discrimination against pregnancies applied under Title IX. If it does qualify as a TitleIX violation, there are specific organizations and pro-bono legal initiatives that might be useful. Know Your IX is one of the better known, but it focuses on sexual assault. However, they may have options for students who are reporting other types of T IX violations.

I withdrew from a historical linguistics class my senior year, which was a class for my minor. I ended up taking a class about the evolutionary foundations for language instead. Potentially a turn-off for an ad comm, I guess, but I'm not too concerned. No one's transcript is perfect, so don't worry about it. :)

It's unfortunate that EEOC rules don't apply to graduate schools. If someone had made that kind of comment about a pregnant woman in the working world, that would be grounds for an EEOC claim. However, if what you're talking about is just the culture of the program, as cruddy as it is, you probably can't change it. There are ways to file a complaint that will be more successful than other complaints. Look for granular, concrete details that you can use - the professor's comment about your pregnant colleague is one. PRAXIS pass rates (the actual test, not the practices) are used to determine accreditation, I believe. I imagine things like completed externships, program completion rate, and time to degree would also matter. If your program is truly toxic, I doubt everyone is going to be graduating in 2 or 3 years and going on to get jobs. Oh, and consider job placement rate as well. If you write a level-headed, professional complaint citing the issues with the program that go beyond your "unhappiness," even though that's obviously an important concern, you'll likely be more successful. The fact of the matter is, no one can tell if someone's individual unhappiness is because of their own attitude or because of real issues with their environment, which is why you have to remove yourself from the equation when you talk about these kinds of things and/or push back in any professional setting. If you lodge a complaint that indicates that a program may not be up to snuff in ASHA's eyes, or that a program is producing subpar clinicians, that would be something that would get notice. I guess the choices you have to make are whether you want to stay with the program or not, and whether you want to file a complaint if you do. Those are all pretty sucky choices. I'm sorry you have to deal with this.

Pittsburgh has a medical focus, I think. I remember seeing it mentioned on their website.

I think the best thing to do might be to contact the advisor for non-degree seeking students and let her know you're having issues. I don't remember what my registration page looked like, unfortunately, but it was very bare bones.

Hi Kate, you're filling out the wrong application. Follow the steps on that page exactly, including selecting which application to fill out. It's easy to blow by the non-degree seeking option, which is what I did the first time around.

How old will you be when you start school? If you qualify as an independent student, it doesn't matter how much your parents make https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/fafsa/filling-out/dependency Also, if you qualify as independent, avoid giving them any information about your family's financial status. You start to file FAFSA in January of the year you want to go to school (so Jan 2016 for Fall 2016 and so on). Scholarships given by schools are generally given out as part of the standard admissions process, unless there are specific instructions on the school's website. Make sure you indicate that you want to be considered for financial aid in your applications.

If anyone else is applying to MGH, I got an email about an online seminar about the SLP program. I think I can just forward it to anyone who hasn't gotten it and is interested in attending, so PM me if you want it!

I sent off another application last night! How is everyone else doing?

I hope they're using really nice paper. Do any of your schools take unofficial transcripts? I only had to buy two - one for me (for the unofficial transcript schools) and one for CSDCAS, though I see you mentioned none of your schools are on CSDCAS.

I think schools will probably want to see your fall grades, especially if you're applying straight out of undergrad. Someone else might have more of an idea than me, though. I didn't major in com dis, so I might be totally wrong, too!

I did my 500 word SOP first, sent that in, and then expanded it. They ended up being completely different essays. My current SOP is about 700 words long, but it fits on two pages double spaced, so shhhhhh no one tell.

300 words is so short!! I feel your pain. I would go right into the meat of your passion for the field, and maybe not talk too much about your relative. There's so little space in 300 words. Unrelated: I just learned that CSDCAS is pronounced "sid-cass," not C-S-D-CAS, like I've been saying. Whoops.

I think the FAQ says something about resumes and that if your school wants one, send it to the school instead of CSDCAS.

I glossed over some grades in my SOP by basically going "While I took this and this class, I was also working at my part time job X hours a week and helping so-and-so Professor with project Y. My dedication to blah blah job and the research project indicate my interest in the SLP field by..." So I basically gave the reason that I had the issues without drawing too much attention to them. I hope that helps!

I'm just going to assume/hope that its reputation precedes me, ha.

Congrats on getting married! I'm also coming from out-of-field and yeah, the discrepancy between the amount of experience I have in the field vs. the stellar experiences everyone else seems to have weighs heavily on me a lot, but try not to worry about it too much. I figure since we're coming from different backgrounds, our resumes are going to reflect our experience in those different backgrounds, and it's not going to be a one-to-one comparison between candidates like us and the candidates who have tons of background in the field. It's just not possible. I also went to a school that's pretty famous for grade deflation and haven't had enough time to rack up the observation hours and volunteer time that I've wanted to, but I figure I can't change the circumstances that made my application what it is at this point. Just focus on putting together the best app you can, and worst case scenario is, you get lots of time to think of new ways to volunteer/improve your application to make it stronger for the next go-around.

Yup! Just did. They were also in my city for another grad fair and asked me if I wanted to drop by their booth.

Aaaaaand it was just undelivered. SO CLOSE, SO FAR AWAY.