Observation Hours for Grad Application

[slptobe!]

Hi everyone! 

I had a quick opinion question for you all. Grad school apps ask for 25 observation hours, which I got during a class at CU. However, I'm also going to a therapy abroad trip in August where I will get 25 more hours and I've been volunteering with a speech therapist over the summer that could count as more hours. Do you think it's worth it to submit all the extra hours even though I don't need them when the time comes? It sounds silly, but it almost feels weird to not do it. I'm trying to get all the boosters I can get for my applications to help with any chances of getting into schools. I don't even know if it would make a difference/matter at all to the people looking at my application. Let me know what you think, all thoughts welcome! 

[Jordyn_M463]

I would submit them anyway. If you have over 75 hours (I believe) they can start counting towards your clinical hours you need during grad school. It wouldn't hurt showing the schools you are already invested in the program. 

[AlwaysaFalcon]

You can try and submit them and see what they say,  however I know that some programs might count hours only if it's during the school year (during undergraduate) so just a warning! But either way that's going to be a great experience for you that you can talk about in your letter of intent!  

[slptobe!]

Awesome! I didn't even know there was a chance they could apply towards clinical hours. It's worth a shot, even if they aren't accepted! Thank you! 

[thespeechblog.com]

I think it definitely can't hurt to get those hours on your application. 

As for helping, I think the number is probably not terribly important once you've hit the minimum. What is super important though, is how you use your experience gaining those hours to write an awesome personal statement and hopefully get a strong letter of rec. Does that make sense? Imagine you have 2 candidates: 1 has 1,000 clock hours and a boring personal statement that reads like everyone else's. The other has 25 hours but writes a burning plea illuminating her life's journey to uplift the downtrodden and support those left behind. See what I mean? When you get back from your trip, take some time and reflect on what made you learned from the observations and use that in your personal statement. There's some ideas about how to do that in my blog and there's a bunch of resources online with similar advice. 

Good luck! 

[Rorororosy]

I would try to submit them! Especially if they are in categories that you could not get in grad school, e.g. Modalities! 

[StPaulCCC]

On 7/2/2018 at 12:35 PM, slptobe! said:

Awesome! I didn't even know there was a chance they could apply towards clinical hours. It's worth a shot, even if they aren't accepted! Thank you! 

Actually, observation hours do not roll over into clinical clock hours (though that would be great!). Clinical clock hours only relate to direct client contact with a supervisor and the stipulations are a bit more strict.  

[CBG321]

The above poster is 100% correct. Some undergrad programs let their students get some hands on clocked hours specifically through their own university to ensure they meet ASHAs standards.  Those clock hours as long as they're verified by your undergrad univ can be put towards your clinical hours there is a cap on how many they can accept too.

Observation outside of the university doesn't count for most programs ASHA gets more strict every year.  I had tons of hours both observing and hands on none officially counted bc they were outside of my program.  One was even supervised by an on campus professor still did not count ?.

In my experience my grad school therapy was completely different and I strongly believe none of them should have been counted bc the quality was not up to what you learn as a graduate.  Great for a statement of purpose though!!!!

[bibliophile222]

3 hours ago, CBG321 said:

Observation outside of the university doesn't count for most programs ASHA gets more strict every year.  I had tons of hours both observing and hands on none officially counted bc they were outside of my program.  One was even supervised by an on campus professor still did not count ?.

That sucks! I'm glad my program didn't mandate that observations be done through an official course/university, and I think it's discouraging to hear they're becoming harder to get because it makes it that much harder for nontraditional students. I did my post-bacc online, and they did have an observation course with online videos, but I only got 11 hours out of that and needed to get the rest on my own. A change to course-only observation hours provides yet another difficult hurdle for non-CSD majors. Here's hoping that trend does not continue.

[CBG321]

19 hours ago, bibliophile222 said:

That sucks! I'm glad my program didn't mandate that observations be done through an official course/university, and I think it's discouraging to hear they're becoming harder to get because it makes it that much harder for nontraditional students. I did my post-bacc online, and they did have an observation course with online videos, but I only got 11 hours out of that and needed to get the rest on my own. A change to course-only observation hours provides yet another difficult hurdle for non-CSD majors. Here's hoping that trend does not continue.

I'm a post bacc student myself!   We watched a lot of videos too then would go over what we were looking at and why it mattered haha.

I'm actually all for it I think better quality observation equals better prep but I do think grad school itself is the most important piece.  I'm all for it bc one place I observed off campus was amazing and I still want to emmulate this SLP the other was a complete waste of time and that can't be regulated off campus outside a program.  

Not every SLP is a good observation opportunity. That doesn't mean every program based one is either but at least there's a formula to what they're trying to teach!  

I do think if they switched the requirements the post bacc programs would need to pick up the slack and arrange those opportunities for you.  You're paying so they should provide all 25 hours imo!  Or give you a list of people to observe with independently!

Edited July 16, 2018 by CBG321

[slptobe!]

Thank you all so much for the information! I feel like it couldn't hurt my chances to submit them when the time comes, but I won't be bummed if they don't count towards anything because I was going to do the observations regardless. And the experiences like many of you mentioned could be great for a letter of intent. At least I won't be short hours!