twinguy7

Just from my experience and the school I went to, It seems most schools are busy with their current students and teaching classes, etc. Most schools go over applications during their spring break which is why notices vary by school. Spring break is the only time they have free to take the needed time to look over applicants, etc. And just think, if your teaching, grading papers, answering students emails, etc. throughout the school year and have a week off for spring break..... would you wanna take a day or 2 of that break to look over applicant files, etc? Well they do! These professors are very busy. And after they decide on who to send offers to and waitlist offer to, they have to send that information to the department secretary who does all the mailing and emailing most of the time. Its definitely a crazy process. And I agree, having gone through it in the past, its just anxiety setting in. I wanted to know and I wanted to know now! Thats the society we live in today, information at our finger tips but when it comes to grad school responses it doesn't work that way. Hope you all are keeping busy, but I know its more like checking emails, grad cafe and the mailbox as often as possible!

@Akon I second everything you suggested! Congrats by the way! @SLPtalk If you look at my signature you will see my GPA overall was 2.77. My last 60 was something like 3.35. I took a year after my undergrad to work as an SLP with a credential waiver in CA and also worked with kids and adults on the spectrum as well as shadow at a SNF for the summer to get well rounded experiences in all settings an SLP works. I think the best shot is applying to brand new programs. They will take a look at you because other applicants may be scared off because of the candidacy for accreditation. ASHA has programs listed that are newer but the newest one I know of personally is Cal Baptist University in Riverside, CA. Also, helps to email the program directors and be up front and honest with them and thy will get to see your name a few times through email correspondence. GOOD LUCK!

I see your from Virginia, but if you want good experience in the school system, California hires SLP's with just bachelors degrees on "credential waivers". You can get hired straight through the school district and they get the waiver for you and they pay you around $40-50k to work as an SLP. There are a lot of districts in Southern California especially who will do this because of the huge shortage still. I did it the year after undergrad and it was a huge learning curve the first few months but was good. Even with a Masters degree now its still a learning curve within every district because each runs things differently or uses different software. Hope that helps.

If your needing to ship stuff in boxes, greyhound is the cheapest. They ship the boxes on the bottom of their buses. I shipped 30 boxes for like $300.

Generally you might have to wait until after April 15th and everyone has gotten all of their replies from all of their schools to start knowing about waitlists. Some schools give a deadline to respond to an acceptance before April 15th which would make it possible for waitlisters to be contacted earlier than April 15th. Some examples: GVSU gave a deadline of April 15th to notify if your would accept your admission to their program. I had a classmate who was taken from the waitlist pool the first week of May in that scenario. Idaho State gave people a week to respond to admission letters and so weekly they were taking a new batch from the waitlist pool to send offers of acceptance. so in that scenario waitlisters were updated weekly. Hope that helps! All depends on what deadline the school gives their admitted students to respond to acceptance offers.

@slpfall14 @Allegro8032 @ElKel87 @jpiccolo Most people seem to not know about the 5 year loan forgiveness program for SLP's in schools. Here is the summary for qualifications: Teacher Loan Forgiveness The Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program is intended to encourage individuals to enter and continue in the teaching profession. Under this program, if you teach full-time for five complete and consecutive academic years in certain elementary and secondary schools and educational service agencies that serve low-income families, and meet other qualifications, you may be eligible for forgiveness of up to a combined total of $17,500 on your Direct Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans and your Subsidized and Unsubsidized Federal Stafford Loans. If you have PLUS loans only, you are not eligible for this type of forgiveness. Here is the site: https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/repay-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/teacher SLP's qualify under Special Ed teachers. As long as your in one of the qualified low income districts, all you need to do is fill out the paperwork at the end of the 5 years and they will forgive up to $17,500. Just another option, I know the 10 year program forgives the entire debt remaining so this option is better for people with like $40k in debt or less probably.

@Gabby45 sure, whats your email address?

Hi @Lor780, I did just what you said. I told them my stats and my story and asked if there were students who were accepted to their programs with my stats and experiences. Most replied with the honest truth and some helped and told me of schools they thought accepted people like me.

CONGRATS!!!

I took the Praxis during my 2nd semester in grad school and passed. I used the yellow and purple praxis review book. I also have 2 praxis practice tests in PDF format if you would like them, email me @ twinguy7@hotmail.com

I would say the best thing I did was EMAIL every program I wanted to apply to and had back and forth conversations with the program directors. There ended up being very nice program directors who steered me in the right direction as far as what schools to apply to, etc. I also would say apply to as many schools as you can from those emails and feedback you get from them. I know money can be a problem with applying to a lot of schools, but if you really want to get in sooner, the bigger the net the better the possibility of getting acceptances.

Get any job related to servicing kids like a paraprofessional or teachers aide in a school district or after school program. also since you would rather work with the medical side you could try any job related to servicing in the medical field like a tech. Also if you can't find a job related to the field in someway, then just try and shadow or observe/volunteer with an SLP at a SNF, School or Hospital.... even if its just like 4 hours a week. goof luck!

Yes, but other newer programs would probably be even less competitive. It all depends on how you define competitive. In the SLP grad program world, I;d say less competitive is where you don't have to have the highest GPA's, GRE's, etc. GVSU looks more at the experiences you have and the person you are.

@hopefulspeechie16 Riverside has about 2 ghetto areas in a city of 300,000+ people. CBU is somewhat close to one of those areas but it is on the opposite side of the freeway and students would never be close to that area. As for the program not being impressive, that is fine. A new program will not be a great program no matter what. The purpose of posting this is for people who just want to get into a program. This is a great opportunity for those people who have applied a couple times to grad school and haven't been able to get in. I've said this before, no matter how good or bad your grad program is..... getting into the job field is a WHOLE new learning experience/process no matter how well you were so called "prepared" by your grad school. After personally being through the process, I feel grad school is just a certificate to get you into the field and get you a job in the field, the REAL learning starts ON THE JOB. Hope that makes sense! All who are looking for a place to get in, apply!!!

Grand Valley State University.

For anyone still interested there will be an information session Thursday, MAY 5th for this program! To register to go click this link: https://calbaptist.secure.force.com/events/targetx_eventsb__eventsplus_results?eid=a0Jd000000U7KQKEA3 This is in Riverside, CA at Cal Baptist University. The session goes from 5:30-7:00pm

Paperwork isn't difficult. Just have to figure out the paperwork needed for the state where you plan to practice in. All you need is a letter from your grad program that you met requirements to work in that state and it is enough to get a job in other states outside the state where you got your program.

Accreditation is awarded after 5 years but the pre accreditation status still gets you a degree and yes you can take the Praxis ad get your CCC's after going to a pre-accreditation school. I am in my CFY now in SoCal and to be honest, jobs could care less about where you attended school. All they want to know is that you have a degree.

I just wanted to let everyone know that there is a new SLP grad program starting in Riverside, CA at Cal Baptist University(CBU). I got an email from them today stating the following: In studying our internal time frames and personnel availability for processing applicants for a projected fall opening, our faculty has decided to open applications April 7, 2016 and close them May 20, 2016. A link to the application will be made available on our program webpage on April 7, 2016. We will be reviewing applications and selecting students for our first cohort of the SLP Master’s Program in early summer. All students who apply and receive acceptance offers need to keep in mind that actual enrollment in the program will be contingent upon the final approval from the accrediting body, CAA, for our opening of the master’s program. CBU must be awarded Candidacy status for accreditation before it can enroll students. We would not have this final notification until early July. We thank you for your interest in applying to the new master’s program in speech-language pathology here at CBU. We hope this update is helpful. Sincerely yours in Christ,Dr. Candace VickersProgram Director, Associate Professor, Communication Disorders

Thanks for your comments. As far as interview questions I had 2 different interviews. One was a phone interview and another was a Skype interview. Some questions I can remember are: 1- Why our school? 2- Think of a time where there was a conflict at work/etc., how did you handle it? 3- Grad school will be tough, how do you plan on managing studying, personal life and work? 4- What go you into the field? If I can remember more I will post them but thats all I came up with right now

This is just my experience and also experience of helping out with 3 different grad school interview rounds while I was in grad school so take it for what its worth. It's also just what my grad school was looking for so again take it for what it is worth. My grad school did off-site externships for every semester of grad school so they were looking to see what the applicants were like a far as interpersonal communication skills. Since every semester the students would be working with other professionals within the community, they wanted to find applicants who can easily get along with others and who are down to earth. They also wanted to see how the applicants would respond to adversity and different situations that might come up in their off campus externships. So to sum it up I think grad schools want to see how the applicant is in person and how personable they are. Hope that helps!

I just graduated from GVSU and I would contact Dr. Macauley or Dr. Karasinski about this matter. They both would let you know what to do. But if I had to guess I would say you would probably send to Allendale still as that is where the main campus is and admissions, etc.

Grand Valley State University is 4 semesters also

Yes, definitely apply to mid west schools