MA Speech Pathology without ugrad major?

[seyeau]

Hi,

I'm currently a junior in undergrad and I'm planning on applying to MA programs in Speech Language Pathology next fall semester. My school doesn't offer an SLP or Communication Disorders major, but I'm a Linguistics major, with a 3.92 GPA. That being said, its difficult for me to find people/faculty who are knowledgeable about SLP programs, requirements, and generally what I can be doing to improve my application. I know a lot of applicants try to find work during undergrad related to the profession. My question is, for those of you who have done this, how do you go about doing it? Do I just call up SLPs in private practice out of the phone book? Should I contact hospitals? What do I say to them? Is the work you do like clerical stuff, or is it helping out/shadowing the actual SLP? How long/how often do you work? I'd like to try to do some work like this over the summer, so any help would be appreciated!

Thanks!

[TulipOHare]

On 3/9/2010 at 6:28 PM, seyeau said:

Hi,

I'm currently a junior in undergrad and I'm planning on applying to MA programs in Speech Language Pathology next fall semester. My school doesn't offer an SLP or Communication Disorders major, but I'm a Linguistics major, with a 3.92 GPA. That being said, its difficult for me to find people/faculty who are knowledgeable about SLP programs, requirements, and generally what I can be doing to improve my application. I know a lot of applicants try to find work during undergrad related to the profession. My question is, for those of you who have done this, how do you go about doing it? Do I just call up SLPs in private practice out of the phone book? Should I contact hospitals? What do I say to them? Is the work you do like clerical stuff, or is it helping out/shadowing the actual SLP? How long/how often do you work? I'd like to try to do some work like this over the summer, so any help would be appreciated!

Thanks!

Hi seyeau -- I applied last year and am in my first year of my MA this year.

Re: improving your application: There's all the common sense stuff, like making sure you write great essays and turn everything in on time and etc. Your major is just fine. I too was an undergrad Linguistics major at a school with no CSD program. About half of my incoming class was CSD majors -- other majors included psychology, linguistics, English, Spanish, music, business, biology, and art. Get a GRE score above 1200 if at all possible (this will smoke most of your competition, although how much the GRE matters varies greatly from school to school). Make sure you can get three excellent letters of recommendation from your undergrad profs. And, as you said, relevant work experience will help.

Re: relevant work experience: Anything having to do with linguistics, psychology, medicine, or teaching will be considered relevant. Since you've only got this summer and the next school year, there are two places I'd look for sure: (1) schools, preschools, after-school programs, programs for the disabled, or nursing/assisted living homes (many of my classmates had previous volunteer or work experience at these types of places); (2) research experience -- if your alma mater or a school close to your home does any research that's even tangentially relevant to speech or language, try to get in on it. For either of these, if you can't find a paying gig but can afford to go unpaid, by all means contact places and offer yourself up as a volunteer. You can certainly try calling private practices and hospitals. Tell them you're considering SLP as a career and ask if there is any work or volunteer work available for someone in your position, and that if there isn't, would anyone be willing to let you shadow or to meet up and talk to you about the field. SLPs are actually pretty nice about this and are generally happy to help if they have the time (they may not).

Re: requirements: These are standardized by ASHA, the organization that governs SLPs' professional certification. You can find out what you're required to study on the ASHA website or on any school's program's website. You probably have at least a couple of linguistics courses that would count toward these. Most programs also have a planned track for people who don't have any or all of the CSD undergrad classes they need.

Hope this helps. Good luck to you!