GandalfTheGrey

Not sure what your stats are, but Emerson and UNC Chapel Hill are two I considered that definitely have that reputation.

There's some great speech therapy-specific stuff from cafepress.com. Search terms like "linguistics," "speech," "articulation," "language," or "bilingual." My boyfriend has gotten me some really awesome mugs, tshirts, and office supplies from there that are now making my co-workers jealous!

fronting? In general though, as Sayjo pointed out, dentalized s and z are not usually describe using phonological pattern terminology. However, some schools of thought really like to apply phono terms to everything, in which case "fronting" would be an appropriate term.

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

Some hospitals advertise the procedure for applying for an SLP externship on their websites. It's not at all uncommon, at least in large hospitals (and other specialized facilities, such as residential schools for children with severe disabilities, autism programs, communication disorder-centered summer camps). Maybe start doing some research before your meeting with the advisor? When searching hospital websites, look under "training opportunities" or the like. You can also call the directors of SLPs at hospitals, etc., to inquire - I promise you won't be the first person to call, and they won't be surprised to hear the question. Worst case, they say they don't take students, you thank them for your time, and call the next place on your list. Good luck!

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.

Only count the classes you have completed (not the courses you are currently taking) and have grades in. The formula I've always used is: GPA= [4*(number of A's) + 3.7*(#of A-'s) + 3.3*(#of B+'s) + 3*(#of B's) + 2.7*(# of B-'s) + 2.3*(#of C+'s) + 2*(#of C's) + 1.7*(#of C-'s) + 1.3*(#of D+'s) + (# of D's)] / (total # of courses, including those failed) Overall: include all undergrad courses, as well as any post-bacc courses you have completed. SLP: Any courses you have taken that relate to SLP, whether in undergrad or post-bacc Recent 60: The last 60 credits you have completed. So if you've already completed 9 credits in your post-bac, you'll count those as well as your last 51 undergrad credits. Let me know if this doesn't make sense or if I misinterpreted your question.

I don't see any reason to pay more than you have to for a post-bacc. I don't think anyone cares where you do it. If you want to "make up" for not choosing the more selective post-bac, carve out some time each week to read ASHA journals or volunteer somewhere. Your application fees and master's degree will be expensive enough.

Try checking the results board: http://www.thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php?q=speech You should be able to scroll back through previous years.

Yeah, it's a pricey school. Is your daughter a member of NSSLHA (nsslha.org)? If so, she might consider paying an additional $10/year to join SIG 5, the Special Interest Group for speech science and craniofacial disorders. It would give her access to a discussion board as well as newsletters and research articles pertaining to her interests. I've been a member for two years and it's been a great way to stay on top of cleft research and treatment ideas and lurk on discussion boards run by the big names in the field.

There is no website for the course. The placement is at Shriners Hospital for Children on the cleft/craniofacial team.

Northwestern has a fantastic (and rigorous) craniofacial course and one student per quarter can get a cleft palate placement. Doing well in the class is a requirement for getting the placement.

When a graduate student provides services under the supervision of an ASHA certified practitioner, the ASHA-certified SLP is ethically responsible for those services and is legally considered the service provider even if the grad student is the only one in the room with the client. So observing an appropriately-supervised grad student absolutely counts towards your observation hours if the supervisor signs off. That said, I would strongly recommend observing experienced clinicians for your own benefit before you enter graduate school. When I observed graduate students, I found it easy to identify each clinician's areas of strength and weaknesses (often the weaknesses were most prominent if this was a first-semester clinician), while observing experienced clinicians gave me lots of ideas about behavior management, how to teach a complex skill, and effective ways to transition clients.

Just make sure that if you do turn down a school after accepting, you do it professionally. Usually a phone call to your primary contact person is very appreciated, and will maintain good relationships for the future.

Different schools have different requirements for pre-reqs, so you could look into schools that have minimal pre-reqs. For example, I know that MGH, Emerson, and Northwestern offer all of their prerequisites as summer courses, so you can get accepted without prereqs and then take them all the summer before you start. Otherwise USU is a great option as posters above have mentioned. Some schools require a post-bacc or comdis degree, while others require anywhere between 4 and 10 specific courses regardless of your major. (edited for spelling errors)

It doesn't matter at all. The degree type is determined by the university's policies regarding what constitutes an MA vs MS, which varies by school and has nothing to do with the rigor of your program.

Some schools, like Emerson, Northwestern, and MGH, offer prereqs in the form of a crash course the summer before classes start after you've been accepted. Utah State University is a good place to take courses online. Different schools require different prereqs, so I'd recommend choosing some schools to apply to first and then only take the prereqs you need.

If you feel like your Masters degree in special ed is going well, I'd say stick with that path for a few years. Save up some money, get good experience working in special needs classrooms and working in the school system. If you decide in a few years that speech is still what you want to do, you'll be a stronger candidate for graduate school with work experience to make up for your GPA on the low end. Having that great masters gpa in your current program can only help. Given the state of the economy and the cost of tuition, I'd advise against getting two consecutive masters degrees unless you have enough money that it wouldn't cause financial hardship.

Rachel Wynn is an SLP specializing in ethics and eldercare. She has a great blog post about approaches to observations here: http://graymattertherapy.com/power-observation-students/ The rest of her blog is also an excellent source of information about our profession.

One of the perks of working hard in speech science: You will forever be the life of the party when you can read spectrograms, and you will make physicists jealous. I didn't take Speech Science at USU but it was one of my favorite pre-req courses. You may have to study differently than for other classes - memorization might help less as you will actually have to understand the material. I found it helpful to talk about the material with someone, teach myself in the mirror, and play around A LOT with Praat, which is free software that lets you make and manipulate spectrograms (essentially pictures of sound). There are also a lot of great animations of speech science concepts if you google them that I found really helpful. Good luck and have fun!

You'll probably have to order the trascripts to be sent directly to the schools you are applying for. Check with the websites/admissions officers for individual schools to be sure.

I find this very odd (I'm not questioning you, Chandru1, I'm just wondering how common this preference is). It seems to me that having a focus shows you know what you want to do with yourself, and have a more focused reason for going to grad school other than "I want to help people and SLPs get paid well". I'm wondering if Pacific is okay with students having interests, as long as they don't come off as having to narrow of a focus? For example, maybe a personal statement devoted to why you want to work with preschoolers with autism is not what they want, but if your strong interest/experience working with preschoolers with autism led you to be interested in the field of SLP so you can learn more about human communication and how to diagnose and manage its disorders, that would be okay? That way you are highlighting your interests/skills without making your SOP about a specific focus you intend to maintain in grad school. I also applied to schools that requested we include areas of interests in the SOP, and for schools that offer specialty tracks, I would imagine the school would want to know if you plan to complete a specialty track. This might be a question that, like so many others, comes down to what individual schools want.

I think you should list and submit transcripts for EVERY school that has ever given you a grade. The grad schools can choose to ignore your transcripts for vet tech, but the last thing you want is to get in trouble for having omitted something from your application. Often, the reason people intentionally omit a school is that they cheated/got in trouble badly enough that it was noted on their transcript. So if you have nothing to hide, you should absolutely show them everything. (And if you do have a disciplinary record, better to be up front with it than to have a school find out after the fact and get your acceptance rescinded. If your concern is that you have something on one of those transcripts that you don't want grad schools to see, PM me and we can chat about ways to put a positive spin on it... but list all those schools.)

I'm an SLP grad student and I fully agree with Dedi. Stating specific goals shows that you know enough about the field to know what specific opportunities there are in addition to showing that you are motivated and dedicated. The way I structured my personal statement was starting general (Why SLP?) then moving to more specific (why I was interested in AAC and speech sound disorders) and then to school-specific (why my interests and background are a good fit for that school).

I've always found Virginia Tech's Career Services page helpful for cover letters, resumes, and general job search info. I'm sure resume advice for getting a job is perfectly applicable to grad school search - grad school is essentially going to be your job, just one that you pay for. http://www.career.vt.edu/ResumeGuide/Index.html