Masters vs. PhD in Speech Pathology

[ninabobina27]

Is it worth getting your PhD in Speech Pathology? Also how much longer does it take to receive if you are doing your masters degree? I heard some programs allow you to start the program while you are doing your masters and you can finish within 3 years, including your masters degree. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!!

[slpfall14]

ASHA has a really helpful article about this. Hope it helps.

 

http://www.asha.org/Students/faq-pursuing-phd/

[lookwhoslp]

I don't think it's really that possible to do a PhD in three years including your Masters, as PhDs usually require a student to take other classes as well... not to mention thats research on top of classes (which is still do-able but takes up lots of time). I think most PhDs take and extra 2-3 years after your Masters, but that also depends on your study and how long it might take to gather data. 

 

It's worth it if you want to do research or be a professor... there's an extreme shortage of SLP PhD students (and people with them in our field), so it might be fairly easy to get in as long as you have a decent topic that matches a professor's interests. There's definitely plenty of faculty openings nation wide. As for doing it to get a pay raise, not sure about that...

 

I would look at prospective schools and see what their average length is when looking at their curriculum and such. Some have a MA-to-PhD track, but I don't think I've heard of them being 3 years total. If there's a school you really like but they don't have that track but do offer both a MA and PhD you can email them about your interests and see if they will let you do a combined thing.