Weird Timing For My Applying: Do I Still Have A Shot?

[Puffer Fish]

Hey guys, I'm new here.

 

I'm applying to Speech Pathology programs, but my undergrad doesn't have an SLP program so I don't have any prerequisites. The only things I really have "going" for me are that my degree is in linguistics and I'm currently interning under an elementary school speech therapist. My GPA is 2.9 and I still have this semester's grades to go. I'm going to try to get an observation with an SLP near where I live after I graduate in December, but that wouldn't be on my application(s).

 

As a result of not having any prereqs, I'm currently applying to like...one, maybe two programs, because they have an existing pre-grad deferral program.

Everyone's talking about applying to 7 to 15 schools, and here I am with 3 or maybe 4 schools I want to attend. Am I setting myself up for disappointment with this? My school choices are slightly constrained by geography; I'd like to stay on the US's east coast within at least 6 hours' drive of DC, so I can't apply to Idaho or anything ridiculous like that (no offense to any Idahoans though!).

[juilletmercredi]

Perhaps.  I think you should go into this with the knowledge that your chances are lower because you don't have the prerequisites, and you are thus limiting yourself to fewer programs without a limited geographic range.  That's okay, as long as you know that upfront.  In the mean time, you should try to take some of the prerequisites inexpensively at a local public university so that you can apply to more programs in the future.

 

But 6 hours' drive of DC is a pretty big range.  That's pretty much everything from New Haven to Charlotte, and as far west as Columbus, OH.  There are a LOT of universities in that range!

 

University of Pittsburgh, UNC-Chapel Hill, Ohio State, UMD-College Park, Penn State, Temple, UNC-Greensboro, Gallaudet, GWU, Teachers College at Columbia, UT-Knoxville, Duquesne, Appalachian State, CUNY-Hunter, CUNY-Queens, Howard, Kent State, Loyola Maryland, St. John’s, West Virginia University, Case Western, CUNY-Brooklyn, East Carolina University, Hofstra, Ithaca College, Old Dominion, Towson, University of Akron, Adelphi, CUNY-Lehman College, East Tennessee State, Southern Connecticut State, SUNY Geneseo, Montclair State, Seton Hall, La Salle, Bloomsberg University of Pennsylvania, Cleveland State University, East Stroudsburg, Hampton, Kean University, LIU Brooklyn, North Carolina Central, SUNY-Fredonia…they all have SLP programs and they are all within a 6 hour drive of DC (+/- 15 minutes, but most are well within the drive.  Penn State is only a 4-hour drive from D.C., for example, and they have a great program!  Pittsburgh is also about 4 hours and that's a top 10 program.)

[Puffer Fish]

This time around I think I'm only really applying to Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and West Virginia University because they both have a prerequisite track of the program as far as I can tell through emailing the departments. If I don't get into either one I might try to do prereqs at Pittsburgh or something.

Thanks!