Portland State University Fall '16 Admits!

[Gingiestrong]

Hey ya'll! First of all, congrats to everyone who has been accepted so far! I created this thread with the hope that we could all share any info that we have on the program, as well as Portland in general. 

Will anyone else be attending one of the upcoming information sessions? I'm hoping to go to the one on the 29th, but it all kind of depends on if I can afford airfare, hotel, etc. 

[hkates]

I'm planning to attend one of the info sessions, haven't decided which one yet. I live in Portland, so it won't be tough for me to go to either one. I'm seriously considering this school, since I already live in the city and I am very interested in their bilingual program. Working with bilingual and multicultural clients is one of my major interests. What about you? What made you apply to the program?

Portland is a wonderful place to live, small enough to navigate easily but big enough to have a lot of fun things to do. It's also a great place if you like getting outside. Finding a place to rent is challenging, though. There's a lot of young people here and the market is competitive. 

[Gingiestrong]

I mainly applied to the program because they have so many specialty tracks, and my friend told me they have one in medical speech-language pathology, which is something I'm very interested in. Not sure if this is true or not, but I guess I'll find out at the information session! I'm definitely eager to learn more about their clinical placements, since it sounds like they have quite a few affiliations throughout the city. 

I've only visited Portland once, but it seems like a great place to live, especially for young people! Although it'd be convenient to stay in-state, I'm honestly ready for a big change. I was raised in Arizona and I'm kind of over the constant heat/blistering sun and the close-minded, bitter humans that seem to inhabit most of the state lol. Do you have any suggestions for housing? I've been browsing apartments in the downtown area and needless to say, I can't afford it! I have no idea where to even start looking. 

I'm for sure attending the information session on the 29th, so maybe I'll see you there! 

 

[msiller]

Hello! I am hoping to attend the information session on the 28th!

A good friend of my started the SLP program at PSU last year and has since been sharing with me her experiences on the program. One of the things that I really like is that there's a wide variety of elective classes. So, it's not just the ONE program but you can tailor it a little bit to your main interests by adding these elective classes.

 

[hkates]

Did anyone go to one of the visit days and want to talk about it? I went yesterday, and the impressions that I got were that the program is fantastic (I really like the elective options, the different specialty choices, and the variety of campus clinics), the faculty have varied and really interesting research tracks, there is a lot of connection with the community and great externship opportunities, the facilities are not the greatest (already knew that), and the students are exhausted. This last part worries me, since I have some serious commitments in my personal life. I didn't get the impression that the students were worked so hard at U of O, but then again maybe PSU is just really laying it out honestly while other places are sugarcoating the time commitment.

I'd be really interested to hear any other opinions. I think this is my first choice right now, but I also felt the same way about U of O after my visit there, and I'm visiting UW and Pacific this week, so maybe I'll just keep getting seduced after each visit day. 

[kc1m2l8c]

3 hours ago, hkates said:

Did anyone go to one of the visit days and want to talk about it? I went yesterday, and the impressions that I got were that the program is fantastic (I really like the elective options, the different specialty choices, and the variety of campus clinics), the faculty have varied and really interesting research tracks, there is a lot of connection with the community and great externship opportunities, the facilities are not the greatest (already knew that), and the students are exhausted. This last part worries me, since I have some serious commitments in my personal life. I didn't get the impression that the students were worked so hard at U of O, but then again maybe PSU is just really laying it out honestly while other places are sugarcoating the time commitment.

I'd be really interested to hear any other opinions. I think this is my first choice right now, but I also felt the same way about U of O after my visit there, and I'm visiting UW and Pacific this week, so maybe I'll just keep getting seduced after each visit day. 

2

@hkates I'd really like to hear more of your thoughts on PSU. I had noted several electives that interested me - do you know how many electives can be fit into the program? I'd also be interested to hear what in particular swayed you toward PSU over the UO? I am honestly worried about the program size - it seems so large. How do they accommodate that many students? What is their clinical training model like? Did you get any quantitative data on the students' workload? The one student I had been speaking with at the UO said that the first quarter of her first year wasn't too difficult but that she had 60+ hours of clinic and coursework per week during winter quarter. 

Edited March 30, 2016 by kc1m2l8c

[hkates]

21 hours ago, kc1m2l8c said:

@hkates I'd really like to hear more of your thoughts on PSU. I had noted several electives that interested me - do you know how many electives can be fit into the program? I'd also be interested to hear what in particular swayed you toward PSU over the UO? I am honestly worried about the program size - it seems so large. How do they accommodate that many students? What is their clinical training model like? Did you get any quantitative data on the students' workload? The one student I had been speaking with at the UO said that the first quarter of her first year wasn't too difficult but that she had 60+ hours of clinic and coursework per week during winter quarter. 

@kc1m2l8c I'm going to PM you about this, cause I have a whole lot to say, but here I'll just say that my overall view of PSU is that the program is excellent and the quality of life of students in the program is not. The facilities are not anything to get excited about, and the students seem to have a lot of work, especially in the first year. But, that said, I've yet to talk to a PSU student who is not very enthusiastic about the program, and I think that's what makes all the difference. If you like what you're studying, and are able to direct your studies in the way you want, and have access to lots of different externship opportunities, being overworked and in a basement facility doesn't really matter that much. 

And I guess what's swaying me towards PSU (instead of UO) is that what really drew me to UO is the facilities. They are sooooo nice. And although I was very impressed with their program, it doesn't just capture me the way PSU's does. I'm really interested in bilingual speech language pathology, though, and this is a big strength of PSU's program. 

[Gingiestrong]

On 3/30/2016 at 9:00 AM, hkates said:

Did anyone go to one of the visit days and want to talk about it? I went yesterday, and the impressions that I got were that the program is fantastic (I really like the elective options, the different specialty choices, and the variety of campus clinics), the faculty have varied and really interesting research tracks, there is a lot of connection with the community and great externship opportunities, the facilities are not the greatest (already knew that), and the students are exhausted. This last part worries me, since I have some serious commitments in my personal life. I didn't get the impression that the students were worked so hard at U of O, but then again maybe PSU is just really laying it out honestly while other places are sugarcoating the time commitment.

I'd be really interested to hear any other opinions. I think this is my first choice right now, but I also felt the same way about U of O after my visit there, and I'm visiting UW and Pacific this week, so maybe I'll just keep getting seduced after each visit day. 

I went to the Tuesday open house! Honestly, I was very impressed with the program and I literally just accepted my admissions offer this morning. In regards to the workload, I felt that they were being pretty honest about how stressful grad school is, and keep in mind that most (if not all) programs will be insanely time-consuming during the first year. I think a lot of programs try to avoid discussing the time commitment during visit days because there's a chance they may scare away admitted students, and the point of these events is to basically convince students to attend lol. This may sound super weird, but I would be kind of suspicious if I saw first year students that WEREN'T somewhat exhausted; I feel that being challenged to that extent is the best way to become prepared for this field! It would be terrifying to land my first job and realize that I couldn't keep up with my caseload, paperwork, etc. because I wasn't pushed enough during grad school. 

I guess the selling point for me was the fact that PSU has the largest number of clinical affiliations in the community that I've seen thus far. To me this means that we may be more likely to get placements that match our preferences, whereas a lot of programs are limited in this aspect and you kind of end up being placed in a setting that's the complete opposite of what you wanted haha. I feel that off-campus placements/externships are super important when it comes to gaining real-world experience as future SLPs, and PSU's program has so many options! Just my opinion though. 

If you end up deciding on PSU, let me know! I'm considering making a FB group soon if one hasn't been made already. 

[hkates]

21 hours ago, Gingiestrong said:

I went to the Tuesday open house! Honestly, I was very impressed with the program and I literally just accepted my admissions offer this morning. In regards to the workload, I felt that they were being pretty honest about how stressful grad school is, and keep in mind that most (if not all) programs will be insanely time-consuming during the first year. I think a lot of programs try to avoid discussing the time commitment during visit days because there's a chance they may scare away admitted students, and the point of these events is to basically convince students to attend lol. This may sound super weird, but I would be kind of suspicious if I saw first year students that WEREN'T somewhat exhausted; I feel that being challenged to that extent is the best way to become prepared for this field! It would be terrifying to land my first job and realize that I couldn't keep up with my caseload, paperwork, etc. because I wasn't pushed enough during grad school. 

I guess the selling point for me was the fact that PSU has the largest number of clinical affiliations in the community that I've seen thus far. To me this means that we may be more likely to get placements that match our preferences, whereas a lot of programs are limited in this aspect and you kind of end up being placed in a setting that's the complete opposite of what you wanted haha. I feel that off-campus placements/externships are super important when it comes to gaining real-world experience as future SLPs, and PSU's program has so many options! Just my opinion though. 

If you end up deciding on PSU, let me know! I'm considering making a FB group soon if one hasn't been made already. 

I agree with everything you said here, especially about externships. The more people I talk to about various programs and options, the more it seems that externships are one of the most crucial elements of this educational process. And PSU seems like they have many, varied, and long-standing connections for externships. Not to mention the option of doing 3 externships, none of the other programs I applied to have this option. There is a very high chance that we will be classmates! I will let you know my final decision. And I would join a FB group if you make one!

[Gingiestrong]

For anyone who's thinking about accepting, here's the FB group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/550489598462023/