help! BU, NYU or Brooklyn College!! :(

[roxthespeechie]

I've been fortunate enough to have been accepted to multiple programs. My top three choices are: Boston University (BU), New York University (NYU) and Brooklyn College (CUNY). Does anyone have any opinions or suggestions in helping me make this decision? I live in the New York City area, so tuition at BU would be out of state and I unfortunately was not offered any scholarships And Brooklyn College is sooooo cheap and would not require a move. I'm leaning towards being a medical SLP, but I'm still unsure yet, as I still want to get a TSSLD and have a school option as well. If there are any current graduate students in either of these programs, or if anyone has any additional input - I'd greatly appreciate it!! 

Edited April 3, 2019 by roxthespeechie

[waffles19]

BU is a private university so there’s no in and out of state decrepncy I think. If Brooklyn College has clinical opportunities in medical settings, I would most definitely go there!! Think of how tedious figuring out the logistics of moving will be and how much debt you’ll be in if you go to the other schools. Doesn’t seem worth the hell you’d put yourself through after graduation trying to pay all it off (just to get a very similar position and wage as if you went to brooklyn). 

Edited April 4, 2019 by cakcak

[roxthespeechie]

14 hours ago, cakcak said:

Doesn’t seem worth the hell you’d put yourself through after graduation trying to pay all it off (just to get a very similar position and wage as if you went to brooklyn). 

I'm torn because half the people I speak to advise me to go to Brooklyn College because of it's price, however I'm not sure how they are with clinical placements. I do know hospitals are a possibility, as they mentioned they work with each individual student, but I'm not too certain. My mentor is persuading me to go to BU, because she claims I'll have better externship opportunities and that it's less competitive. However, I'd also have to go through the trouble of changing license back to New York and have a ton of debt to pay back. 

[waffles19]

7 hours ago, roxthespeechie said:

I'm torn because half the people I speak to advise me to go to Brooklyn College because of it's price, however I'm not sure how they are with clinical placements. I do know hospitals are a possibility, as they mentioned they work with each individual student, but I'm not too certain. My mentor is persuading me to go to BU, because she claims I'll have better externship opportunities and that it's less competitive. However, I'd also have to go through the trouble of changing license back to New York and have a ton of debt to pay back. 

I guess it really comes down to what your greatest priority is! Is the most important thing that you get the best clinical experience/education or is having a much lesser financial burden for the years after graduation? I totally understand the dilemma because I was dead set on going to either MGH or Northeastern because I wanted the best education and clinical options but I had a change of heart after crunching the numbers meticulously and realizing, to me, it wasn't worth putting off buying house, children, traveling etc. and having to live far away from my partner. It still pains me a little inside because I very much believe that expensive experiences can most definitely be worth the money (even if it's just because of the intrinsic value of something), but I know everything will work out and I'm sure I'll be thanking myself after I graduate for being 60,000 less dollars in debt. I think you should reach out to the program directors or current students and ask them exactly what clinical opportunities are available at their programs and the quality of the supervising- get all the specific info you need first hand. (sidenote: because of the way medicare works in MA, there are barely any medical CFs. This also impacted my decision a bit. Not sure if it wold matter to you!)

[samiamslp]

Please make sure all schools help you to find externships! A while back, I had heard negative things about Brooklyn in how much support they gave students with finding placements. I remember one girl having an issue with finding a placement and her being stuck because of it. I don’t recall the exact scenario and it was a few years ago, but it did make me feel slightly wary of applying to Brooklyn’s program. That may not fair— it could definitely have been all the girl’s fault, who knows— but I would get the scoop from Brooklyn about how they do placements before committing! I know from their open house that  BU is excellent at working with you to find the placements you need, but I don’t know much in that area about the other two, and you definitely want to be certain that’s one thing you don’t have to worry about in the middle of grad school!

[roxthespeechie]

On 4/4/2019 at 7:47 PM, cakcak said:

I think you should reach out to the program directors or current students and ask them exactly what clinical opportunities are available at their programs and the quality of the supervising- get all the specific info you need first hand. (sidenote: because of the way medicare works in MA, there are barely any medical CFs. This also impacted my decision a bit. Not sure if it wold matter to you!)

Thank you so much for all your input! I've spoken to a handful of SLPs actually, and they've all advised me to go with the cheaper option, because of the very similar position and wage at the end of it all. Most say that where you got to graduate school doesn't necessarily matter, but that letters of recommendation and your placements matter more. Also, I had no idea about medicare in MA! was under the impression that BU had affiliations with nearby hospitals, and getting a medical CF coming from BU was easier? 

[roxthespeechie]

On 4/4/2019 at 9:59 PM, samiamslp said:

Please make sure all schools help you to find externships! A while back, I had heard negative things about Brooklyn in how much support they gave students with finding placements. I remember one girl having an issue with finding a placement and her being stuck because of it. I don’t recall the exact scenario and it was a few years ago, but it did make me feel slightly wary of applying to Brooklyn’s program. That may not fair— it could definitely have been all the girl’s fault, who knows— but I would get the scoop from Brooklyn about how they do placements before committing! I know from their open house that  BU is excellent at working with you to find the placements you need, but I don’t know much in that area about the other two, and you definitely want to be certain that’s one thing you don’t have to worry about in the middle of grad school!

I completely agree that placements are really important and not something I want to worry about while in grad school. I spoke to a couple of students who currently attend Brooklyn College and some of them loved the program and faculty, and some said it was okay but really difficult. In regards to placements, I've heard of a few people who actually got placed in Hospitals (which I'd love to do), so that was a plus. Another student told me that placements there were tricky "if you didn't know where you wanted to be placed," but since I want a hospital, I was told I'd be fine? But once again, I'm not tooo sure. 

[samiamslp]

3 hours ago, roxthespeechie said:

Thank you so much for all your input! I've spoken to a handful of SLPs actually, and they've all advised me to go with the cheaper option, because of the very similar position and wage at the end of it all. Most say that where you got to graduate school doesn't necessarily matter, but that letters of recommendation and your placements matter more. Also, I had no idea about medicare in MA! was under the impression that BU had affiliations with nearby hospitals, and getting a medical CF coming from BU was easier? 

MA is tricky in general right now for a CF since there's not a provisional license in that state. They are trying to get laws to change so that CFs can have more opportunities and bill insurance for their services-- my understanding is that currently CFs have to do it through their supervisors. BU would definitely provide more opportunities than many other grad programs in MA, but while there is no provisional license in place, a CF in a medical placement is harder to find in the state. If you don't plan on pursuing a CF in MA-- like if you'll be coming back to NY to do it-- I don't believe this will affect you, though!

3 hours ago, roxthespeechie said:

I completely agree that placements are really important and not something I want to worry about while in grad school. I spoke to a couple of students who currently attend Brooklyn College and some of them loved the program and faculty, and some said it was okay but really difficult. In regards to placements, I've heard of a few people who actually got placed in Hospitals (which I'd love to do), so that was a plus. Another student told me that placements there were tricky "if you didn't know where you wanted to be placed," but since I want a hospital, I was told I'd be fine? But once again, I'm not tooo sure. 

I think you'll have connections to hospitals with all of the schools! The question is how strong the connections are and how impressive/successful the hospital and hospital setting will be. Are you looking for something specific in the hospital setting? For example, if you want to pursue voice, my understanding is that BU will have better connections/placements specific to this than Brooklyn. How much say do you have with your placements in each school? You want to make sure it's a school where your needs and desires for a specific setting will be met, and you will have a role in the placement process. 

[waffles19]

3 hours ago, roxthespeechie said:

Thank you so much for all your input! I've spoken to a handful of SLPs actually, and they've all advised me to go with the cheaper option, because of the very similar position and wage at the end of it all. Most say that where you got to graduate school doesn't necessarily matter, but that letters of recommendation and your placements matter more. Also, I had no idea about medicare in MA! was under the impression that BU had affiliations with nearby hospitals, and getting a medical CF coming from BU was easier? 

Believe me I thought the same thing! A poster on here mentioned the CF circumstance to me and then when I went to the MGH open house I talked to the program director about it for like 20 minutes. She confirmed what the poster had written to me that medical CFs in MA are far and in between and the ones that do exist are very competitive. The problem is that facilities can't bill Medicare for CF SLP services in MA. Here's a short write up about it https://www.swallowstudy.com/its-a-jobs-issue/ and the problem is still the same now. The director basically told me if I wanted to stay in MA to do a school CF for 9 months and then work in a medical setting or go out of state. That's not to say they don't have connections to medical CFs in other states though. 

Good luck on your decision  

Edited April 9, 2019 by cakcak

[roxthespeechie]

On 4/8/2019 at 8:16 PM, cakcak said:

Believe me I thought the same thing! A poster on here mentioned the CF circumstance to me and then when I went to the MGH open house I talked to the program director about it for like 20 minutes. She confirmed what the poster had written to me that medical CFs in MA are far and in between and the ones that do exist are very competitive. The problem is that facilities can't bill Medicare for CF SLP services in MA. Here's a short write up about it https://www.swallowstudy.com/its-a-jobs-issue/ and the problem is still the same now. The director basically told me if I wanted to stay in MA to do a school CF for 9 months and then work in a medical setting or go out of state. That's not to say they don't have connections to medical CFs in other states though. 

 Good luck on your decision  

Thank you for this information! I know I want to come back to New York City to complete my CF year, if I do go to Boston. The question is though, I'm not sure if someone from New York would be impressed with my BU degree? (since it's a ton of money) or if they wouldn't care, and it'd be the same as if I got a degree from Brooklyn College. 

[roxthespeechie]

On 4/8/2019 at 8:14 PM, samiamslp said:

I think you'll have connections to hospitals with all of the schools! The question is how strong the connections are and how impressive/successful the hospital and hospital setting will be. Are you looking for something specific in the hospital setting? For example, if you want to pursue voice, my understanding is that BU will have better connections/placements specific to this than Brooklyn. How much say do you have with your placements in each school? You want to make sure it's a school where your needs and desires for a specific setting will be met, and you will have a role in the placement process. 

Yeah. Another one of my concerns is I'm leaning towards medical speech now, but I haven't necessarily been exposed to it, so I don't want to accumulate such a large amount of debt.. for no reason?? But I also don't want to regret not attending either. But thank you so much for this input! 

[zurako]

If you want to get a medical CF in NYC definitely stay here for school. A lot of times people get their medical CF from doing well and making connections at their medical placement.

Also it's much easier to get TSSLD by graduating from a NYS school because the school handles a lot of the paperwork for you.

Edited April 14, 2019 by zurako

[bibliophile222]

One thing you might want to be wary of with Brooklyn is that they're currently accredited but on probation due to poor Praxis pass rates. The most recent figure was 75%, which is pretty low. The good news is that it looks like they're improving (a few years back the pass rate was only 52%), so hopefully they're changing some courses around so students get all the knowledge they need to do well, which is pretty important! I'm not saying not to go there, but there's a chance you may need to do some independent research in some areas that the curriculum might not cover in great enough detail.

[roxthespeechie]

3 hours ago, bibliophile222 said:

One thing you might want to be wary of with Brooklyn is that they're currently accredited but on probation due to poor Praxis pass rates. The most recent figure was 75%, which is pretty low. The good news is that it looks like they're improving (a few years back the pass rate was only 52%), so hopefully they're changing some courses around so students get all the knowledge they need to do well, which is pretty important! I'm not saying not to go there, but there's a chance you may need to do some independent research in some areas that the curriculum might not cover in great enough detail.

Are you talking about LIU Brooklyn or Brooklyn College? Because I know LIU Brooklyn is currently under probation. But according to brooklyn college’s website, their praxis pass rates are 100% and employment rates are 93%. But I totally agree, those stats are important and going to an accredited ASHA school is important. 

[roxthespeechie]

4 hours ago, zurako said:

If you want to get a medical CF in NYC definitely stay here for school. A lot of times people get their medical CF from doing well and making connections at their medical placement.

Also it's much easier to get TSSLD by graduating from a NYS school because the school handles a lot of the paperwork for you.

Is a medical CF in New York a possibility? I’ve heard that it’s one of the 9 states where it’s not possible 

[zurako]

@roxthespeechie It's competitive but yes definitely possible! There is a CF at my current placement right now

Edited April 15, 2019 by zurako

[bibliophile222]

3 hours ago, roxthespeechie said:

Are you talking about LIU Brooklyn or Brooklyn College? Because I know LIU Brooklyn is currently under probation. But according to brooklyn college’s website, their praxis pass rates are 100% and employment rates are 93%. But I totally agree, those stats are important and going to an accredited ASHA school is important. 

Whoops, my bad. I was thinking LIU Brooklyn. Never mind!