George Washington University SLP

[Born2Speechify]

Hello folks! I am thrilled to have been accepted to GWU for speech. I am going to the open house at the end of March, but I would love to get some feedback from current or graduate students. Or even hear from other folks who know of the program! Any "insider info" would be terrific. It's time to start thinking of making a decision, and frankly, it's stressing me out. Thanks in advance!

[samiamslp]

 

3 hours ago, Born2Speechify said:

Hello folks! I am thrilled to have been accepted to GWU for speech. I am going to the open house at the end of March, but I would love to get some feedback from current or graduate students. Or even hear from other folks who know of the program! Any "insider info" would be terrific. It's time to start thinking of making a decision, and frankly, it's stressing me out. Thanks in advance!

Hey there. I know the feeling! I'll be there for the Accepted Students Day on April 5th!

[lilyslp]

19 hours ago, samiamslp said:

 

Hey there. I know the feeling! I'll be there for the Accepted Students Day on April 5th!

In the same boat as you all. I hope to go to the Accepted Students Day as well but unsure if I'll be able to yet. If I don't, I may reach out to you all to see what I missed! 

[Born2Speechify]

4 hours ago, lilyslp said:

In the same boat as you all. I hope to go to the Accepted Students Day as well but unsure if I'll be able to yet. If I don't, I may reach out to you all to see what I missed! 

Absolutely! Also, I didn't know about the Accepted Students day - where is that info? Unfortunately, I'm not going to be make it either way. So I will also need the low-down!

I am doing the open house on March 29. Are either of you going to that?

[samiamslp]

19 minutes ago, Born2Speechify said:

Absolutely! Also, I didn't know about the Accepted Students day - where is that info? Unfortunately, I'm not going to be make it either way. So I will also need the low-down!

I am doing the open house on March 29. Are either of you going to that?

I won't be there, since I'll most likely be there a week later! I got this email-- I want to find out who from the SLP program will actually be there, but it's pretty cool!

[lilyslp]

21 minutes ago, Born2Speechify said:

Absolutely! Also, I didn't know about the Accepted Students day - where is that info? Unfortunately, I'm not going to be make it either way. So I will also need the low-down!

I am doing the open house on March 29. Are either of you going to that?

GW Graduate Admissions emailed it out on 3/1. If you message me your email I can forward it to you! I believe it's a gathering for all accepted graduate students and not just specific to CSD (someone correct me if I'm wrong!) - is the open house department specific? I think I must have missed the announcement for that. 

 

Edit: thanks, @samiamslp for posting that! 

Edited March 5, 2019 by lilyslp

[samiamslp]

Just now, lilyslp said:

GW Graduate Admissions emailed it out on 3/1. If you message me your email I can forward it to you! I believe it's a gathering for all accepted graduate students and not just specific to CSD (someone correct me if I'm wrong!) - is the open house department specific? I think I must have missed the announcement for that. 

Yes, you're correct. I'm not sure if the open house is CSD only, but it's on their website-- I didn't get an email about it. 

[lilyslp]

On another note, if you all end up visiting and talk to any current students about housing options, please share! This is one of my concerns (expense, availability, and distance from campus). My friend at GW Law visited DC multiple times before school started but all of the places she had looked at became unavailable on short-notice, and it seems like that's just how it goes. She luckily found a place a couple of weeks before she moved (expensive but close to campus). I'm not from a big city, so housing being so unpredictable isn't what I'm used to at all - but worrying about running out of options may be silly? 

[Born2Speechify]

20 minutes ago, samiamslp said:

Yes, you're correct. I'm not sure if the open house is CSD only, but it's on their website-- I didn't get an email about it. 

Aha! I just went back into my email and sorted it out. I did get the admitted students email, I don't know how I missed it. Thank you for posting the screenshot! As for the open house, I emailed them asking if it was possible to visit in early March. Dr. Hancock suggested attending the March 29th open house (see below):

"https://speechhearing.columbian.gwu.edu/ (see the right side of our webpage) for our program's open house. This is the best opportunity to hear about our program and talk to professors and students in small groups, as well as see the department."

[Born2Speechify]

1 minute ago, lilyslp said:

On another note, if you all end up visiting and talk to any current students about housing options, please share! This is one of my concerns (expense, availability, and distance from campus). My friend at GW Law visited DC multiple times before school started but all of the places she had looked at became unavailable on short-notice, and it seems like that's just how it goes. She luckily found a place a couple of weeks before she moved (expensive but close to campus). I'm not from a big city, so housing being so unpredictable isn't what I'm used to at all - but worrying about running out of options may be silly? 

I don't think that sounds silly at all - cities are a bit nuts in general! And in my opinion, DC craziness ranks right up there with NYC, LA, & San Fran. It's good to start looking now just to get an idea of what's around. I know there are facebook groups regarding housing where people post searching for roommate/apartment stuff. Would be worth checking into!

[Laurenf131]

As someone who is completing their undergrad in the DC area, I have heard some mixed things about GW's program. This is what I've heard from GW itself and from master's students in the area.

Pros: their eight "tracks (sub-clinics) give you exposure to all types of disorders before you do your externships, the professors are friendly

Cons: they doubled their cohort size a year or two ago and people are falling through the cracks because they didn't really plan for class sizes and external placements. 

I'm not going to lie, D.C. is an expensive city to live in too. While GW could be more expensive for a private school, the cost of living mixed with private school costs are still something to consider when tied to the mixed reviews. 

[samiamslp]

20 hours ago, Laurenf131 said:

As someone who is completing their undergrad in the DC area, I have heard some mixed things about GW's program. This is what I've heard from GW itself and from master's students in the area.

Pros: their eight "tracks (sub-clinics) give you exposure to all types of disorders before you do your externships, the professors are friendly

Cons: they doubled their cohort size a year or two ago and people are falling through the cracks because they didn't really plan for class sizes and external placements. 

I'm not going to lie, D.C. is an expensive city to live in too. While GW could be more expensive for a private school, the cost of living mixed with private school costs are still something to consider when tied to the mixed reviews. 

This is very helpful, thanks! I saw someone saying that about the negatives of the cohort doubling on here, but I wasn't sure if that just one person's thoughts or a general consensus. Will definitely have to consider that. Do you think it is weird if I ask faculty about if they feel similarly when I go visit? 

[Laurenf131]

16 hours ago, samiamslp said:

This is very helpful, thanks! I saw someone saying that about the negatives of the cohort doubling on here, but I wasn't sure if that just one person's thoughts or a general consensus. Will definitely have to consider that. Do you think it is weird if I ask faculty about if they feel similarly when I go visit? 

I think you could phrase it like "I know your cohort recently doubled. Has that had any effect on clinical placements and class sizes?". They'll probably tell you no and that everything is great because they want you to come to their program but it couldn't hurt to ask!

[samiamslp]

9 hours ago, Laurenf131 said:

I think you could phrase it like "I know your cohort recently doubled. Has that had any effect on clinical placements and class sizes?". They'll probably tell you no and that everything is great because they want you to come to their program but it couldn't hurt to ask!

Thanks, yeah! They probably will, honestly, but it's worth a shot!

[acslp]

Hey everyone! I was waitlisted a few weeks ago by GWU. In their letter, they stated that they don't rank their waitlist, and instead they re-review their pool of waitlisted applicants. They also mentioned that applicants are welcome to submit additional letters of rec, transcripts, etc.. Has anyone done this? Would it help my chances? I really want to get in!

Also, if anyone has gotten off their waitlist please let me know if you did anything like send in stuff or they just contacted you after a couple of weeks.

Thanks so much!!

[jchen25]

Hi! I was accepted off the waitlist a couple weeks after I received notice about being on the waitlist. I was definitely surprised since I didn't send in any additional documents!

[14SLP14]

hi! I also am unable to attend the open house. Online it said that if you were an undergrad in CSD, the program would probably take you 5 semesters including summers. But that would just be one semester, correct? Because a summer is considered a semester? I know it's 42 credit hours total but that seems a bit low compared to other schools!

[samiamslp]

4 hours ago, jlSLP said:

hi! I also am unable to attend the open house. Online it said that if you were an undergrad in CSD, the program would probably take you 5 semesters including summers. But that would just be one semester, correct? Because a summer is considered a semester? I know it's 42 credit hours total but that seems a bit low compared to other schools!

If you have the prereqs done/did CSD undergrad, it's 5 semesters, with only one summer: fall, spring, summer, fall, spring. I think they must do their credits differently, because I was also surprised about it only being 42 credits. I will be there on Friday for their Accepted Students Day, so I'm hoping to ask about that then. 

[14SLP14]

Did anyone visit? Did you like the clinic? I cant find any pictures or anything online!

[samiamslp]

5 hours ago, jlSLP said:

Did anyone visit? Did you like the clinic? I cant find any pictures or anything online!

Yes! The clinic itself could be a bit nicer looking, to be honest- it's in a basement under one of the buildings where we'd be having classes, so the lighting is not the best. However, I think in many ways the ability to pursue the eight different tracks (generally two per semester) and the experiences we'd get from that pretty much make up for clinic appearances. We'd generally be doing two tracks at a time the first three semesters and then one track while doing our first external placement. So, we'd get so much of a variety of experience, from autism and AAC to child language to fluency to voice, etc. So while I've seen nicer-looking clinics, I'm super impressed by the opportunities of what we can do within the clinic!

[14SLP14]

5 hours ago, samiamslp said:

Yes! The clinic itself could be a bit nicer looking, to be honest- it's in a basement under one of the buildings where we'd be having classes, so the lighting is not the best. However, I think in many ways the ability to pursue the eight different tracks (generally two per semester) and the experiences we'd get from that pretty much make up for clinic appearances. We'd generally be doing two tracks at a time the first three semesters and then one track while doing our first external placement. So, we'd get so much of a variety of experience, from autism and AAC to child language to fluency to voice, etc. So while I've seen nicer-looking clinics, I'm super impressed by the opportunities of what we can do within the clinic!

This is super helpful, thank you!!! Did you/anyone also happen to ask about the large cohort size? 

[samiamslp]

6 hours ago, jlSLP said:

This is super helpful, thank you!!! Did you/anyone also happen to ask about the large cohort size? 

Yes! What they do is they split each incoming class into two cohorts. So even though there are around sixty people in your year, you'd only have about thirty in your cohort, and those would be the people that you are in class with and working with in clinic. So the courses and experiences in general are with those thirty people, which I think is much more reasonable in terms of getting to know each other and building strong relationships with faculty. 

[14SLP14]

Yeah that's a much better size haha! I really like that they offer the different tracks per semester because I've never heard of that before! But I'm hesitant to commit without having seen the clinic  

[slp2beLA]

56 minutes ago, jlSLP said:

Yeah that's a much better size haha! I really like that they offer the different tracks per semester because I've never heard of that before! But I'm hesitant to commit without having seen the clinic  

It has lots of resources!! There are a bunch of clinic rooms, audiology booths, supply closet, sensory closet, etc! of course, all university clinics don't get a lot of funding unless its through donations or the tuition is steep lol but honestly it's pretty good! I visited and toured and wish I took pictures but the description is all i can do for you. I hope it helps!

[samiamslp]

Does anyone know what a typical schedule would look like, in terms of how many hours are spent in classes and in clinic at GWU? I'm trying to see how it compares to the other program I am deciding between and would be grateful for any info you all have!