slpnut

Does anyone know if all the UofA acceptances went out last week as the department had said they would? Have all of you heard from them?

Congrats!! I was just curious if you could post your stats please- thanks

Hi Aznslp! I know that in total there are 50 spots in the program. But I don't know how many became open after the first round of offers. I've seen on the results search that a few people got called yesterday off the waitlist. Maybe call PSU and ask where you are on the waitlist? Good luck

Oh wow, congratulations!! I don't know much about the UT program at all, so maybe it comes down to- do you want to be in Texas or Portland?

Ya I thought the info session was really helpful too! I even emailed some faculty afterwards to ask a few additional questions and they were all really great, except for one who still hasn't replied. Its nothing glamourous but I'm thankful for that fridge haha So I'm still waiting on one more school, but had to go ahead and accept PSU as the deadline was yesterday. Even if I get into Pacific off the waitlist I think I'm set on PSU- I think I'll have more opportunities there. What about you guys eiphos and squirrel??

Aww ya I know its been a tricky decision for a lot of people- I'm glad this info helped somewhat. Congrats on getting into PSU too

I've been talking to a 1st year PSU grad student and she's been able to give me a lot of information about how all of the clinical works for PSU. She said that you complete 3 different clinics in the 1st year in 3 areas- 1 pediatric, 1 adult, then another pediatric or adult (you can let the clinic coordinator know if you have particular interest in one area over the other and she'll try to make it work for you.) Once you have three PSU clinics under your belt (and are taken off probationary status), you are elligible for externshipships. She said that "Having clinic" means you have clients and will be assessing them, creating goals for the term, writing reports, making lesson plans, and administering treatment. And that you are not just observing grad students but it is more hands on. She also had an interesting take on the difference between the on-campus clinic and Pacific sending you out into the community: This is the way I look at it: at Pacific, you're paying for something you could have coordinated on your own as an undergrad/post-bacc. At PSU, you get right into it and get your feet wet in terms of working with clients. Pacific doesn't have their own clinic so they've chosen to have the first semester be structured observations in the community. PSU does have their own clinic, so the students are given structured guidance in a clinic setting. I see her point- in that many of us have already observed SLP's in their clinics, etc. as part of our experience to get into grad school. If thats what we are going to be doing with Pacific again, at least for the first term, its true, it is something we could even arrange ourselves to do right now. In terms of externships: It's different for the medical (hospital) placements, skilled nursing facilities (SNF), and schools. Most of the externships for hospitals have an application process (and possible an interview). The SNF placements and schools are based on your preference which you give to the clinic coordinator by ranking them. From what I gather it's highly likely to get the school and SNF placements you are interested in, it's the hospital placements where you may have your heart set on it and you don't get it. It's unlikely you wouldn't get any of your top choices. We're not just competing with PSU grad students for medical placements anymore, Pacific University (and some U of O I've heard) students are applying for them also. Hope this info helps you guys! It really helped me to understand the PSU program a bit better. And hopefully there will be some more good info at the session with the PSU chair this week.

Thanks for the info Great stats! Congrats again on getting into your first choice

Wow congratulations Speechie2013! Don't know if you've been following this forum, but we've all been anxiously waiting for some news from UofA haha How did they contact you- email or phone? And also, would you be willing to share your stats? Thanks and congrats again!

Congrats Morgan3! Did you already receive the letter or did you email to find out as well?

Thanks speechapp! I will contact UT if I don't receive the letter soon. Hopefully you hear some good news back from UT or UWO waitlist

Congrats on being waitlisted at UT ! Did you find out via postal or did they email you?

Thanks speechapp! I haven't received an acceptance email so I can expect a rejection or waitlist then I'm guessing.

I just got the same email. To clarify- some people did receive acceptance emails from UT today? Has anyone received waitlist emails from UT? My feeling was that if I was going to get an acceptance, it would be by email, so the fact that they are mailing me something means a rejection- what do you guys think? Congrats to all those accepted to UT and UWO!!! Any word on UofA?

Also where do we check for UT tomorrow?

Congratulations guys!!! I didn't get in, but not so surprised lol with my academic record I knew Canada would be hard. But I guess we shall see about UT and UofA.

I will add to the list of those "refused" by Mcgill

Squirrel- I agree about the happy tree comment haha I don't know what it is about them! I pay out-of-state tuition, so the difference between PSU and Pacific is really not much. Do you mean that at PSU you observe grad students, but at Pacific you observe certified SLP's? Someone recently mentioned this to me. Ahh its so confusing, but as of now I'm still on the Pacific waitlist so don't really have a decision to make yet haha I agree that Pacific seemed more pleasant than PSU so I'm really not sure what to think! Thanks for your feedback

So I heard back from Rebecca Field and she said they are not doing a summer and fall start. They are admitting 50 student, all of whom will start in Fall 2013. There will still be two cohorts though, I guess just meaning that you will take classes in a slightly different order- which could be good because you will be with the same 25 students throughout the 2 years, so then perhaps the larger class size of 50 wouldn't make a huge difference. No, I haven't spoken to any Pacific students outside of interview day and you are right that it could be that they were representative of those who really loved the Pacific program. I just feel that they were really genuine, and did give both sides of the story because a few of them did let us know there were issues with this being a new program and that they did have to go to the profs and say hey this isn't working- but the good thing was that it seemed the profs were very receptive to feedback. At PSU, I don't know how receptive they would be to student feedback since the program is already well established. I think it was just this really warm feeling and sense of community at Pacific- and I'm not sure if thats just cause it was interview day and they were on their best behaviour and feeding us brownies and cookies haha I agree that a lot of PSU students have great things to say about the graduate program and really enjoy it. I was also trying to compare coursework and it looks like PSU has more variety of children and adult courses, whereas Pacific seems to have more adult speciality? I am interested in working with children but I also want to learn it all and be versatile, so then PSU would be much better. Between Dr. Larsen, Dr. Costanza-Smith and Dr. Donaldson, they really know what they're doing when it comes to children. I'm glad you brought up practicums- one of the things I liked about Pacific was that observations, and all clinical is off-campus which brings a nice change in environments daily. Whereas with PSU you're mainly in Neuberger basement 5 days a week :S How do you think their clinical experiences compare? Someone was telling me that you do practicum immediately in the 2nd semester? Whereas at PSU they make you observe grad students for way longer? I am a bit confused about this. Great discussion

Your welcome!! Wow that sounds like some great stats so I'm sure you'll be hearing some good new soon! My ORPAS sub-GPA was calculated quite low at 3.2 something I believe. But my pre-req's were mostly all A's so not sure how they will weigh them out. I had a few bad classes in my last 20 courses :S And yes they did include the first semester of my post-bac but its only 4 classes so even though the grades were good, I don't think it made as huge of an impact. But we shall see!

Congrats Centcan and Junowhat!! I haven't heard anything from McGill, and don't expect to haha so good job!!

Out of curiosity- what are everyone's stats? If you feel comfortable sharing. undergrad degree, GPA, GRE, experience? I feel like the grades are really inflated in the states and a 3.8 here is not really hard to get like a 3.8 in Canada. So I'm wondering if I have a chance with the Canadian schools or not. I have an undergrad degree in Psychology (Canada) with GPA 3.05, post-baccalaureate in Speech and Hearing Science (in progress- USA) with GPA 3.91, 1.5 years in an SLP clinic volunteering, research experience during my post-bac, international volunteering experience, 306/4.0 GRE. As you can see my undergrad GPA is really low! Yet I still got admitted in the states because of the post-bac GPA- so not sure how Canadian schools are going to look at it :S Probably not favourably haha

Welcome AllThingsSLP! I emailed Noriko Major at the end of February to ask when we'd hear back and if it was going to be April 1st like the ORPAS schools. And she said it would be BY April 1st, so I'm guessing we will know soon!

Ya I agree with you Squirrel- if there is a specific area of interest we have, and there are faculty interested in the same areas then they could be great mentors. I don't think this would be hard to find, as they seem to be pretty even in terms of faculty who have a child emphasis and faculty with an adult emphasis. And also, as far as I know, no one has received waitlist info about PSU yet, just acceptances. So I got waitlisted for Pacific! I was really impressed with their program and faculty when I went for the interview, and just felt the program was more intimate. What do you think? There seem to be a lot of differences between the two programs and I don't know what I would do if I got admitted into Pacific- what would you do? Pacific: 30 student intake very new program- but may not have very established community connections? took some of the PSU faculty semester system located further away seems to be balanced in terms of adult and child emphasis nicer facility grad students seem to genuinely get along and be a family PSU: 50 student intake very well-established and recognized program- well affiliated in the community faculty may be less approachable? perhaps not as eager with students as pacific? quarter system central location balanced in terms of adult and child emphasis basement of Neuberger grad students don't seem as friendly?- anytime I've had to walk into the grad lab Thoughts?

I'm a one-year post-bac and while research isn't my primary interest, I have gotten involved in a couple labs. Profs seemed pretty approachable if you want to get involved. But for me, the research isn't the main concern of the grad program. I'm a bit more concerned about there being 50 students- do you think this is a negative? I agree, we've been taught by more adjuncts, but definitely the faculty that I've gotten to know have been very helpful and passionate about teaching.