MS in Speech-Langauage Pathology

[SarahM]

I would like to know my chances of getting into graduate school for a Masters in SLP. I will be applying for fall, 2012. I have a 3.94 GPA, excellent recommendations, a strong resume, etc. The only problem is that I got a combined score of an 850 on the GRE. I got a 4.5/6 on the writing section. I only took it once. I'm a hard worker and an excellent student. Will I still get into graduate schools? Should I try taking it a second time?

[Hopeful SLP]

It depends on your program. Some programs would not look at an application with an 850 combined GRE, but there are others out there that do not even require applicants to report GRE scores.

[lalabooks]

I'm in the same boat as you SarahM. I have excellent stats except for a poor GRE score. I debated taking it again but now it is getting late in the game to do so. I also have not studied for a second test and would not want to take it again and get a similar score. Getting a similar score would just lead the committee to believe that is what kind of test taker I am and score I deserve and I would not want that. I know the reason I did poorly to begin with. At this point I am going to just have faith that committees take a holistic view of candidates and not just look at numbers. If I don't get in anywhere, then I will know I have to study hard and get a better score and apply next year. Believe me this topic as been the bane of my existence for the past couple months. I hope that helps. Where are you applying if you don't mind me asking??

[Andreamia]

Some schools do not care so much about the GRE as others, especially in the SLP grad program. One of the schools I'm applying to does not even require it. My scores are (480Q and 490V, 4.0W). I took it twice and my score from last year was worse. The GRE is such a poor representation of how a student will perform in grad school... I had one of the lowest scores in quantitative and have A's in all my college math classes for example (yes, it's a good prestigious university that provides an excellent education).

It irritates me when people post that 1100, 1200, etc. are terrible scores because they are NOT for this program. Atleast, for the majority of SLP schools anyway. Maybe it's because I'm applying to schools that are not in the top ten... Not sure. But maybe some of the posters on here shouldn't stress themselves trying to apply to schools beyond their reach. It's not the end of the world to apply to a program closer to one's potential. As long as we get accepted right? Grad school is just one of the beginning steps to the rest of our career.