Questions from male applicant

[SC201]

I just graduated college and plan on applying for SLP masters in the fall to start fall 2017.  From what I've heard/read, I know the field is primarily made up of women.  Are there any guys on here that would mind sharing their perspective on applying or being one of only a few males in their program?  Out of honest curiosity, did you feel that being a guy makes you a more competitive candidate?  

Another question for anyone: if you apply further away from where you live, do you tend to get more financial aid?  I live close to Boston where there are some great SLP programs , but I am curious if people get more money to go to a school further away.

Thanks for your help!

[Jolie717]

1 hour ago, SC201 said:

I just graduated college and plan on applying for SLP masters in the fall to start fall 2017.  From what I've heard/read, I know the field is primarily made up of women.  Are there any guys on here that would mind sharing their perspective on applying or being one of only a few males in their program?  Out of honest curiosity, did you feel that being a guy makes you a more competitive candidate?  

Another question for anyone: if you apply further away from where you live, do you tend to get more financial aid?  I live close to Boston where there are some great SLP programs , but I am curious if people get more money to go to a school further away.

Thanks for your help!

Congrats on graduating - what was your undergrad degree?  If you are a CD undergrad, then yes, most would say you have a competitive edge as a male...as far as admissions to grad school goes, that is.  

In my experience, however, most of my male friends are insulted by the idea that they got where they are today strictly because of their gender.  As they should be.  Every single one of the guys I've sat in classes with, have studied with, and have given presentations with, are extremely hardworking and are deserving of the spot they earned in grad school.  As for those I don't know personally that got into other programs and didn't work hard but merely were admitted due to the "competitive edge" factor - um, good luck to them collaborating well with their peers and completing grad school in the top of their class, passing PRAXIS on the first try, and becoming successful and effective SLPs.  

We all desire diversity in our field.  But not at the expense of quality.

[Jolie717]

1 hour ago, SC201 said:

I just graduated college and plan on applying for SLP masters in the fall to start fall 2017.  From what I've heard/read, I know the field is primarily made up of women.  Are there any guys on here that would mind sharing their perspective on applying or being one of only a few males in their program?  Out of honest curiosity, did you feel that being a guy makes you a more competitive candidate?  

Another question for anyone: if you apply further away from where you live, do you tend to get more financial aid?  I live close to Boston where there are some great SLP programs , but I am curious if people get more money to go to a school further away.

Thanks for your help!

As to the second portion of your question, from my experience and others' experiences, financial aid has more to do with what your financial need is, firstly, and what you bring to the table secondly, rather than the distance you travel to study.  

That said, look into schools that are known for multiple TA/GTF spots, or funding, or grants and scholarships.  I did not do much research in this area, and regret it slightly.  However, I had to stay on the West Coast, so my options were more limited.

Hope this helps!

[wcslp]

I'm close to one of the male students in my cohort, and I have asked him this question before. His response to me was that, truthfully, you may get a very slight edge when it comes to admissions. However, if you factor in how competitive getting into grad school is, it doesn't end up helping much if you don't have the scores and experience to back you up. Faculty will probably remember your name/application more readily, but without the stats behind you, this won't matter at all. In addition, he confided that nearly every male undergrad in our program had come to him asking if they would get in because of their gender, and this is a point of annoyance for him. As Jolie717 said above, he was always pretty offended when they assumed he got where he was because of his gender (and rightly so), and that they would have it "easier" during admissions. Graduate school is insanely competitive regardless of gender.

As for financial aid, it was my understanding that there is rarely, if any, financial aid (in regards to FAFSA) for graduate students other than loans. I'm not sure if distance will mean anything, either. If you look up the school on Edfind, I believe you can see if they offer funding or not, but it will vary from school to school. It's best to ask them directly. 

[CBG321]

A male in my undergrad had AMAZING GRE scores talking 90th+ percentile in both qualitative and quantitative and a high writing score (can't remember the exact # but assuming 5+) he also had a good gpa I don't know the exact number but he was a good student so i'd say 3.7 or higher.  Anyway he did not get in this cycle because he applied to very competitive schools and cast a very narrow net to maybe 3 schools.  So he did not have the "male" advantage despite having good statistics, so based on that I'd say it's competitive for everyone.

That being said I can't account for his experience as one of the only men in our program.  Everyone know's you though usually!

[lexical_gap]

I am a male SLP who just finished my CFY. 

When I first got accepted into graduate school, there were some whispers of, "You only got in because ___".  Full disclosure, I am also an ethnic minority and was an adult returning student.

At first, it did bother me because I was being pinned to one specific attribute; whether it's me being male, a minority, or an out-of-field applicant.  Might I have had a *slight* advantage?  Maybe, maybe not.  Then again, any other aspect of my application could have given me a different advantage.  Maybe it was my GPA, my GRE, my essay, my LORs, my years of related work experience, etc.  I was not in those candidate admission discussions, so I could only guess why they decided to say "yes" to my application.  I could list 20 reasons why I was accepted and 20 reasons why I should've been rejected. Trying to figure out WHY I was accepted was futile.  Granted, that's easier said than done when you have an acceptance letter in your hand.

For me, I stumbled upon the profession after I got my bachelors in a different, but related field.  I couldn't go back in time to change my first degree to make myself look "more deserving".  I can't change my ethnicity nor am I going to change my gender.  However, all of those factors make up who I was a person, student, applicant, and clinician then and now.  The application process taught me how to package who I was, what I knew, and what I'd done into someone that the universities wanted to have on their respective campuses.  That process is true for everyone, regardless of credentials.

Once I started graduate classes, my cohort became my grad school family  We worked together, played together, laughed together, and cried together.  Every so often, I would get asked, "How does it feel being the only guy?"  It honestly didn't bother me unless it was implied that I should feel left out because of it.  When I received multiple group emails addressed to "Ladies" or when gender-specific events were planned, it sometimes felt like I was forgotten.  But I knew it wasn't intentional because the very next email would be about Taco Night.  If a group wanted to have a mani/pedi spa day, there was no rule that all 25 members of the cohort had to attend and enjoy it.  I just skipped that event and went to Taco Night instead.  Not a big deal.  One of my classmates actually told me, "We sometimes actually forget you're a guy.  You're just one of us, one of 'the girls'."  I took that to mean they felt I belonged there.

Sometimes, being a male had an advantage in clinic.  There were times where my classmates would come to me, "I have a little boy client this semester.  I don't know what kinds of toys 5 year old boys like or play with... help!" or "I have a teenage boy as a client. What are teenage boys into?"  Of course, I turned the tide right around when it was my turn, "I have a little girl client who likes princesses.  Can I borrow your princess activity"  

My university has a professor who researches transgendered voice and some students got to work with male-to-female transitioning clients.  While I was jealous that some of my classmates got to have that clinical experience while others didn't, myself included; I understood it was a matter of scheduling and deciding what's best for the client.  When there are only 3 transgendered clients and 25 clinicians wanting that experience, someone is going to be left out.  Additionally, part of the therapeutic process was to provide a natural female voice model to the client.  Physically, I am not able to provide a natural female voice model.  I was not the best clinician for that client.  Now, if we had a female-to-male transgendered client, it's quite possible that I could've been enlisted to take on that case.  But, we'll never know.  

Gender may color my practice, but it doesn't dictate it.  I am the kind of guy who will put on fairy wings and a tiara for a tea party to practice initial /t/.  Not all men will do that.  Then again, not all women will do that.  What matters is I found a way to engage a client in a meaningful way that was comfortable for all of us.

Ultimately, I took everything in stride, joked about being the only guy, and made 25 friends that helped me through grad school.  I often joked that my class picture looks like the class photo of a sorority.... with a random guy in the first row.  The more important thing is we developed our skills as clinicians.  We pushed each other, supported each other, and learned from each other.  Just be yourself and bring your own personality/skills to the work, maleness and all.

Now that I've finished my CF, being a male SLP is a non-issue. My colleagues see the work I do and the relationships I build with the people with whom I work. What matters is the work and the progress I make with my clients.  While male SLPs are not numerous in the field, we are appreciated and welcomed into the profession by our colleagues.  We are just as skilled, qualified, and competent as our female counterparts.  At the end of the day, good therapy is good therapy.  We may all have different ideas as to what that looks like or how it's executed, but that's what makes the field diverse and exciting.  When the parents thank me at meetings for the progress that their child has made, that's what matters to me.  My job is to work with colleagues and clients, regardless of anyone's gender, to get the best therapeutic results possible.  If the simple fact that I'm a guy just happens to help a client open up and make progress faster, even better.

[Cookie Hall]

On June 8, 2016 at 0:44 AM, Jolie717 said:

As to the second portion of your question, from my experience and others' experiences, financial aid has more to do with what your financial need is, firstly, and what you bring to the table secondly, rather than the distance you travel to study.  

That said, look into schools that are known for multiple TA/GTF spots, or funding, or grants and scholarships.  I did not do much research in this area, and regret it slightly.  However, I had to stay on the West Coast, so my options were more limited.

Hope this helps!

I heard that for graduate studies that financial aid is not need based but actually based on the cost of the program you are enrolling in. 

[Jolie717]

1 hour ago, Cookie Hall said:

I heard that for graduate studies that financial aid is not need based but actually based on the cost of the program you are enrolling in. 

I guess I should have clarified - thanks for that reminder!  So, in the Cal State system, I would have received Cal State need-based grants that would have lessened my grad student debt - and again, this was strictly need-based.  Not many qualify for this however.  You would have to have a fairly low, to no-income status to qualify.  We only qualified based on my drastically reduced income (from being a student) and my family size (of four).  Not sure if every state in the US does the same.  

However, I chose (out-of-state) UW, so I will of course receive enough aid to attend (meaning loans) and some need-based financial aid (meaning work-study).  But no financial need-based state grants or scholarships for me, unfortunately.  Nor for many MedSLP students at UW, as the funding is quite different there for the MedSLP students vs. the CoreSLP students.

That said, there are many other SLP grad students in the US who have qualified for less aid or much more aid, such as full, half, and partial scholarships for tuition.  There are GTFs (graduate teaching fellowships) and TAs (teaching assistants) positions that lessen or eliminate tuition fees altogether. 

Precisely where you apply will determine the full scope of financial aid that is available to you.  I do wish I had researched this more before applying, but based on my final choice, it probably wouldn't have mattered much, so I guess I should stop kicking myself now, ha ha.

[futureSpeechLP]

@mcamp has a great blog. http://www.thespeechblog.com/

He's a male who is also aspiring to be a SLP and just got into grad school! 

All the males I know in this field are SUPER smart. Like always done first during exams and getting a 4.0 kind of smart. Diversity is very important in this field - if people are grumbling that you only got something because you're a male, then they are just throwing shade. ***::IGNORE::*** I haven't run into that many petty people in this career. I'm sure they are there, but this field is overwhelmingly supportive and trying harder to be inclusive.

Talking from the woman's perspective -- It has been wonderful to be surrounded by extremely intelligent, generous, creative and strong women in positions of POWER. It's not the norm in the rest of the world and it's inspiring.

[thespeechblog.com]

1 hour ago, futureSpeechLP said:

@mcamp has a great blog. http://www.thespeechblog.com/

He's a male who is also aspiring to be a SLP and just got into grad school! 

All the males I know in this field are SUPER smart. Like always done first during exams and getting a 4.0 kind of smart. Diversity is very important in this field - if people are grumbling that you only got something because you're a male, then they are just throwing shade. ***::IGNORE::*** I haven't run into that many petty people in this career. I'm sure they are there, but this field is overwhelmingly supportive and trying harder to be inclusive.

Talking from the woman's perspective -- It has been wonderful to be surrounded by extremely intelligent, generous, creative and strong women in positions of POWER. It's not the norm in the rest of the world and it's inspiring.

@futureSpeechLP Thanks for the plug for my blog

I'm actually planning a post on this topic of males in SLP. There's a research article (though a bit dated) on the topic, and I'd like to get in touch with a few male SLP's and interview them. I'll let you all know when it is up!

[SC201]

Thanks everyone for your input!  It's great hearing how much of a supportive field SLP is for everyone.  

@mcamp your blog is awesome!  I also noticed your program says bilingual SLP, which is also what I'm interested in.  I just graduated with a bachelor's in Spanish, so I found quite a few of your pages to be quite helpful.  I look forward to reading your post on guys in the field

[thespeechblog.com]

21 hours ago, SC201 said:

Thanks everyone for your input!  It's great hearing how much of a supportive field SLP is for everyone.  

@mcamp your blog is awesome!  I also noticed your program says bilingual SLP, which is also what I'm interested in.  I just graduated with a bachelor's in Spanish, so I found quite a few of your pages to be quite helpful.  I look forward to reading your post on guys in the field

I'm glad you like it I'm working really hard on it. Please, if you think of anything you want to know or want a post on, let me know! 

I'll let you know when that post is up