Friend wants to pursue SLP: Low GRE and GPA

[Ohhoneybear]

Hi everyone. 

I am on this board in regards to my best friend, who declared she was interested in SLP just recently. She realized she wanted to do SLP in junior year, but our college didn't have it. So, she decided to  a program where she made her own major, which was human services. Before, her dream was social work. Her major in human services included psychology courses, statistics, sociology, etc. She has graduated this past May.

Her overall GPA was a 3.0 exactly, with mostly B's and a few C's and A's in the mix occasionally. 

Her GRE score is low, I do not remember the exact number. She has not taken any SLP courses, however, she did sign up for a post-bac program where she is going to be taking SLP courses all this coming Fall and Spring.

She plans to apply this Fall, for SLP schools. 

The grades and GRE scores are mostly due to slacking off, not being motivated and not studying or preparing for the GRE. I was in a few classes with her, and she didn't really get to the know the professors either. There is maybe one professor I know that could possibly give a good recc. 

As far as community involvement, she has done minimal work. She did volunteer at the American Cancer society for about 6 months, and participated in the Dance team at our college, but that is all.

I am trying to tell her that the odds of getting into SLP schools is rare, but she tells me that she is going to try anyway. I just hate to see her waste the money on applications, as when I do research, SLP seems even harder to get into than medical school. With the research I've done on this, it seems that SLP programs only accept about 20 students? (Forgive me if these statistics are off).

Can anyone offer some suggestions or advice? 

[Eleanora Castillo]

Hi there!

I may be able to help answer some questions.

I'm going to first start off my saying Speech-Language Pathology Graduate school is very competitive. Some schools only accept 10% of applicants, others may vary. It is important to have a strong application while applying. From the way it sounds...your friend doesn't have the strongest application. BUT if your friend is a hard worker and is devoted to becoming a Speech-Language Pathologist- I have no doubt she can do it! It just takes a lot of hard work, passion, and positivity!

Here are some components of what a strong application should include:

• GPA: I would say that the GPA is the single most important factor while applying to Graduate school. I've talked to several CSD professors and they've all told me that the first component that they look at in a prospective student's application is the GPA. They will look at the overall GPA and the CSD GPA (major classes GPA). I personally would aim for anything above a 3.5 (and that's low balling). 
• GRE: Study, Study, Study, for the GRE. An impressive GRE score will show that your friend is capable and serious about committing to academic work. I recommend that your friend should retake the GRE, as it is a big contributing factor to admissions. Professors look more at the verbal and writing components of the exam.     
• Letters of Recommendation: These letters are critical for Graduate school admission. Most programs require 3 letters of recommendation. Generally, these are academic letters of recommendation (written by CSD professors). Make sure your friend carefully reads the application directions on each program's website (all schools are different). Letters of recommendation are very important components on an application and you must make sure that they are written by professors whom will present you in a positive way.
• Observation hours: You need 25 hours of observation hours (observing a Speech-Language Pathologist). Call schools, hospitals, private practices in your area and ask if you can observe the SLPs there. Have your friend say she is a student pursing Speech-Language Pathology and needs observation hours. MAKE sure all the SLPs you observe have their Clinical Competenece. Otherwise, the hours will not count. Record all the hours you observe by making an observation hour spreadsheet (some schools have these). Include the date of the observation, location, patient, time observed, clinician (SLP your friend observes), and their ASHA number, on your sheet. 

NOTE: Applications can be expensive (especially if she is applying to a lot of schools).

Advise:

Here is my advice! (Truthfully- This is what I would do if I was in her position. She/others may not agree with me, but this is what I would do). 

- If your friend is serious about Speech-Language Pathology Graduate school I would recommend she goes back to school and majors in Communication Science Disorders. Look at the ASHA website. There you will find a list of schools that offers the Communication Sciences Disorders major. 

Aim for getting A's in all the CSD classes. I suggest aiming for at least a 3.7.  ASHA requires students to take core classes- so your friend may be alright on those. I suggest she retakes the GRE, aiming for at least a 150 on both verbal/math and at least a 4 on her writing. You can buy prep books online or at most big book stores. Also check out Magoosh.com (It's a website devoted to GRE studies). I also recommend that your friend job shadows Speech-Language Pathologists. Like I said before, have her call schools, hospitals, or private practices to bump up her observation hours. 

Resources 

- Have your friend check out these websites. They will provide valuable information. 

• ASHA: http://www.asha.org/edfind/  (This website will provide your friend with admission standards)
• Magoosh: http://magoosh.com/?utm_source=sem&utm_medium=paidsearch&utm_searchengine=google&utm_term=magoosh&utm_e&utm_campaign=214242035&utm_adgroup=17295001835&utm_device=c&gclid=CJXwz8nync4CFRCDaQodMqMO7Q (This website is devoted to GRE studies. I believe it costs about $100)
• GRE: http://www.ets.org/gre/ (Sign up to retake the GRE). 
• University Websites: Have your friend make a list of all the future schools she wants to apply too. Have her check out all the school's websites. View the admission criteria, location, tuition, and application fees. 
• She may also want to talk to a CSD advisor at a University. An advisor will provide her with more advise!!

 

Good luck to your friend!! I hope she finds her path. You are a great friend for caring about her. 

 

 

 

 

[castikat]

The other poster had really great information and I concur with the accuracy of what he/she said.

I'll add that it might be a better idea for your friend to put off applying to schools until after she's completed all of her pre-reqs so that the schools she is applying to will get the whole picture of her academic competence. She'll also need to make sure she has taken/takes a standalone course in statistics (psych stats and a stats module inside of another course do NOT count), a course in human or animal biology (plant biology doesn't count), and a course in either chemistry or physics (physics of sound/music is more relevant to our field and does count as long as it says "physics" in the course title/department name).

Other than getting to know profs for good letters of rec and retaking the GRE, more volunteering/work experience can be helpful for her application. Anything that gets her more experience with different populations (various special needs groups, the elderly, typically developing children) and also leadership positions are what schools like to see on applicant's resumes.

Maybe show this thread/forum to your friend to back up what you are saying.

[Crimson Wife]

8 hours ago, HannahN said:

Observation hours: You need 25 hours of observation hours (observing a Speech-Language Pathologist). Call schools, hospitals, private practices in your area and ask if you can observe the SLPs there. Have your friend say she is a student pursing Speech-Language Pathology and needs observation hours. MAKE sure all the SLPs you observe have their Clinical Competenece. Otherwise, the hours will not count. Record all the hours you observe by making an observation hour spreadsheet (some schools have these). Include the date of the observation, location, patient, time observed, clinician (SLP your friend observes), and their ASHA number, on your sheet.

If you observe someone on their CFY or a grad student extern, the hours will count if you have their supervisor sign off on the sheet. I did some of my observations at a local oral school for the deaf (I want to be an auditory-verbal therapist) that is affiliated with one of the universities. I observed a mix of fully certified SLP's and trainees. For the trainees, I had to make a notation on the observation report that I observed "[Trainee] under the supervision of [Supervisor]".

If you look at the ASHA requirements, all it says is that the observation has to be done under the supervision of someone with ASHA certification, not that the clinician being observed has to be fully certified (bolding mine):

"The observation and direct client/patient contact hours must be within the ASHA Scope of Practice in Speech-Language Pathology and must be under the supervision of a qualified professional who holds current ASHA certification in the appropriate practice area. Such supervision may occur simultaneously with the student's observation or afterwards through review and approval of written reports or summaries submitted by the student."

[Tig]

HannaN really nailed it- all what was written is good advice-

My 2 pennies is this: have your friend work backwards.  Look at the universities she really wants, then take a good, hard look at what she has.  Write it down in columns, one right next to the other, so it's down in stark black & white.  Come back here and ask around about that school; look on the results page to see what people had. 

That's the road map- everything she has to do is right there.  All the goals are on paper.

And then she would have costs, too, from which to work with including admission costs, moving costs, materials, etc.  From there start ticking the things off, one by one.  Get in good with professors / professionals in the area for letters of rec, make a schedule for studying, etc. 

[Phonemenon]

On 7/30/2016 at 11:31 PM, Ohhoneybear said:

The grades and GRE scores are mostly due to slacking off, not being motivated and not studying or preparing for the GRE. I was in a few classes with her, and she didn't really get to the know the professors either. There is maybe one professor I know that could possibly give a good recc. 

A lot of other people have given some great feedback. However, I want to address this little bit of what you said as it concerns me greatly. I realize that I'm probably going to come off as harsh when I say this, but to be quite honest, there's really no point in going through the process of trying to get into school for SLP if these are her extant habits. Grad school is incredibly difficult and demands discipline, motivation, and a lot of hard work. Someone like her is gonna have a bad time if they haven't committed to turning over a new leaf. Has your friend expressed an intent to "turn it around," so to speak, and avoid doing this in the future?

[SLP2Bhopefully]

I just want to point out that everyone here has given some really great advice! However, I have to agree with Phonemenon above. I, too, have a friend like yours, who if I didn't know any better, I would think you are talking about her exactly! I went through my undergrad with my best friend who sounds very much like your friend. Similar grades, very low GRE, and very minimal experience. She has her undergrad degree in CSD, however, and has already applied 3 times with no luck. This, again, is already with a background in SLP and the required observations hours by ASHA. She has done some extra observing and works as a teacher's aid, but again, has not yet been accepted anywhere.

So, while I would never discourage anyone from trying, I would honestly encourage you to talk to your friend and see if this is what she REALLY wants to do, and why she wants to do it. Because going through a post-bacc program with habits such as hers, as Phonemenon pointed out, may end up being a waste of time. I, myself had a 3.8 CSD GPA and 3.5 overall GPA, with good GREs and strong letters, and it still took me 2 years to be accepted somewhere. I've also heard very many stories of people going into this field and then realizing after a semester or 2 that it's not for them or it's too much work, then dropping out. Which, as someone who has been waiting to do this for YEARS, was always very frustrating for me, as it's not fair for someone to take a seat who doesn't truly want to be there. So overall, I would talk to your friend and have a serious conversation because the process is going to be very long and very expensive. 

Edited August 6, 2016 by SLP2Bhopefully