What helped make your decision? HELP

[amanda_rensch]

Congratulations to everyone for working so hard on applications, being accepted, and making a graduate school decision!

I was accepted to 12 schools. I have already declined my offers from UCONN, University of Tennessee, Boston University, and Penn State. However, I have 8 more I am still so unsure about. There are pros and cons about each school, but I don't know how to rate one next to another. I would love to hear from anyone on what helped make your decision, what were the leading factors? What were your top priorities? I'd also like to hear from anyone who knows ANYTHING, good or bad, about the schools I was accepted to!

[estel]

Hi! I would say cost is a good way to initially narrow it down-- calculate the full program cost for each of the schools you're still considering and if there's any that are super astronomical, throw them out. Here are some other things to consider:

• Cost (including rent, moving costs, etc)
• Location
• Clinical education model (is there a campus clinic? etc)
• Clinical placements (how many placements do you do, and where?)
• Externships available (how many externships do you do? what sort of facilities do they offer externships in?)
• Assistance finding CFY / jobs (what sorts of connections do they have? how well-reputed are the program?)
• Opportunities for specialization (is there a bilingual certificate or anything that you're interested in? are there any elective options?)
• Ability to start clinical work immediately (do you start right away in a clinic or do you not start until 2nd semester?)
• Distribution of courses vs clinical hours (is it like, mostly courses 1st year and mostly clinic 2nd year, or is it more distributed evenly?)
• Praxis pass rates
• On-time graduation rate
• Post-graduation employment rates
• Perceived organization of the program (do they seem organized/disorganized?)
• Research opportunities (if you're into that)
• Cohort size
• Opportunities for TA/RA positions, hourly jobs, etc

You probably don't want to go through that whole list for each program, but cost is a good way to narrow it down initially!

[heyheyhey42]

20 minutes ago, estel said:

Ability to start clinical work immediately (do you start right away in a clinic or do you not start until 2nd semester?)

Hi, do you have an opinion about which one is better? I'm a bit nervous about jumping into clinical work right away, but I feel like it would be good to have as much experience as possible.

[estel]

On 4/3/2020 at 10:27 PM, heyheyhey42 said:

Hi, do you have an opinion about which one is better? I'm a bit nervous about jumping into clinical work right away, but I feel like it would be good to have as much experience as possible.

I think that’s a matter of personal preference! Personally I definitely want to get into clinic right away. 

[Cece93]

For me most of the programs I was deciding on were really similar. The only real difference was location and rank. For rank I looked at Praxis pass rate above all and didn’t really pay attention to rank. The higher ranking schools were places out of NY state and that brings me into the most important part, debt. Debt was my BIGGEST defining factor. I was accepted into one SUNY far away, but some NYC private schools close. At the end of the day I wasn’t willing to pay over 60k for only tuition when a SUNY education was right there and people had nothing but good things to say about the program. Cohort size was also important. I do horrible in bigger classes. Also, they have externship opportunities all over America even Canada. I’m excited! I only have to be away for 1 1/2 years and do my externship my final semester. I did my prerequisites online and only have experience with speech in schools and center based ABA so I wanted a place with wide opportunities and research. The school I picked has experience with transgender voice modification which is an interest of mine right now.