Will Peace Corps hurt, help, or neither my application?

[joyannna]

Hi all! 

I'm a new user to the site (although I have def looked through many posts by now...) and was looking for advice in regards to which schools I should look at applying to this upcoming admission cycle--fall 2017.

Most of the schools I'm interested in pretty highly ranked, and I'd like some honest opinions on if I'm reaching too high. I am looking into Boston University, MGH-IHP, University of Washington MedSLP, George Washington University, and Georgia State University

Some stats about me:

- Graduated from the University of Georgia's CMSD program in 2015. I applied for the 2015 fall cycle simultaneously with the Peace Corps. I ended up getting accepted to UGA and the Peace Corps at the same time. I decided on joining the Peace Corps (as an education volunteer in China) and declined the UGA offer and stopped my other applications. I will be returning to the states next year and so am applying for the 2017 fall cycle

- Overall GPA 3.74, major GPA 3.95

- GRE 164/V, 155/Q, 4.0/W

- Have a good bit of volunteer experience with various populations including children with developmental disorders, at-risk youth, ESL, acquired brain injuries, and teens.  

- Little research experience - did one semester of analyzing language samples for one professor. 

- Did ESL in China for 2 years (Peace Corps)

Also some bonus questions: Are there programs that you would absolutely stay away from? Are there schools that like to accept their own residents first? Based on my personal stats, do you have any recommendations for me personally? Any advice on making this process any easier I would GREATLY appreciate. 

Thank you in advance for your responses!!! I'm really nervous and excited about completing this process 

[copaceticbroad]

I don't want to tell you that you'll get in everywhere because I can't know and false hope is cruel, but I'm not seeing any real weakness in your stats (unless you count the lack of research). Maybe if you applied exclusively to schools with less than 10% acceptance rates, but you look very strong to me. 

But, on a more nuts-and-bolts note, YES, being an RPCV is huge. Programs aren't going to look for that in particular, but your cross-cultural experiences will really stand out. Also, there is a desperate need for bilingual SLPs, so make sure you really nail your final LPI– Mandarin is the hardest language I've ever studied, so good on you. I would think you should look for regions with larger Chinese populations, which tragically means California, but maybe take a look at Oregon and Washington too?

(Uh, in case it isn't obvious, I am an RPCV as well)

Edited September 12, 2016 by copaceticbroad

[thespeechblog.com]

On 9/10/2016 at 2:31 AM, joyannna said:

Hi all! 

I'm a new user to the site (although I have def looked through many posts by now...) and was looking for advice in regards to which schools I should look at applying to this upcoming admission cycle--fall 2017.

Most of the schools I'm interested in pretty highly ranked, and I'd like some honest opinions on if I'm reaching too high. I am looking into Boston University, MGH-IHP, University of Washington MedSLP, George Washington University, and Georgia State University

Some stats about me:

- Graduated from the University of Georgia's CMSD program in 2015. I applied for the 2015 fall cycle simultaneously with the Peace Corps. I ended up getting accepted to UGA and the Peace Corps at the same time. I decided on joining the Peace Corps (as an education volunteer in China) and declined the UGA offer and stopped my other applications. I will be returning to the states next year and so am applying for the 2017 fall cycle

- Overall GPA 3.74, major GPA 3.95

- GRE 164/V, 155/Q, 4.0/W

- Have a good bit of volunteer experience with various populations including children with developmental disorders, at-risk youth, ESL, acquired brain injuries, and teens.  

- Little research experience - did one semester of analyzing language samples for one professor. 

- Did ESL in China for 2 years (Peace Corps)

Also some bonus questions: Are there programs that you would absolutely stay away from? Are there schools that like to accept their own residents first? Based on my personal stats, do you have any recommendations for me personally? Any advice on making this process any easier I would GREATLY appreciate. 

Thank you in advance for your responses!!! I'm really nervous and excited about completing this process 

You've got pretty good GPA & GRE so that will definitely get your application noticed. Peace Corp will also help your application pop a little bit too! But those things alone won't get you in. Focus now on translating your awesome experiences into AWESOME personal statements and LOR's. 

As for schools to focus on, I think you should let your interests dictate that. Focus on finding schools with faculty (or even specialized tracks) that align with the populations and disorders you're most interested in. I know that's not super specific, but try this: Decide on 2 or 3 big criterion that are important to you. Use those as "broad cuts" to narrow down your list of programs quickly. This post has some tips on how to do it using excel: http://www.thespeechblog.com/how-to-pick-a-grad-school-for-speech-language-pathology/ maybe that will be helpful for you?

 

 

[Jolie717]

On September 10, 2016 at 1:31 AM, joyannna said:

Hi all! 

I'm a new user to the site (although I have def looked through many posts by now...) and was looking for advice in regards to which schools I should look at applying to this upcoming admission cycle--fall 2017.

Most of the schools I'm interested in pretty highly ranked, and I'd like some honest opinions on if I'm reaching too high. I am looking into Boston University, MGH-IHP, University of Washington MedSLP, George Washington University, and Georgia State University

Some stats about me:

- Graduated from the University of Georgia's CMSD program in 2015. I applied for the 2015 fall cycle simultaneously with the Peace Corps. I ended up getting accepted to UGA and the Peace Corps at the same time. I decided on joining the Peace Corps (as an education volunteer in China) and declined the UGA offer and stopped my other applications. I will be returning to the states next year and so am applying for the 2017 fall cycle

- Overall GPA 3.74, major GPA 3.95

- GRE 164/V, 155/Q, 4.0/W

- Have a good bit of volunteer experience with various populations including children with developmental disorders, at-risk youth, ESL, acquired brain injuries, and teens.  

- Little research experience - did one semester of analyzing language samples for one professor. 

- Did ESL in China for 2 years (Peace Corps)

Also some bonus questions: Are there programs that you would absolutely stay away from? Are there schools that like to accept their own residents first? Based on my personal stats, do you have any recommendations for me personally? Any advice on making this process any easier I would GREATLY appreciate. 

Thank you in advance for your responses!!! I'm really nervous and excited about completing this process 

Your stats and experience look really good to me!  I would say that many (maybe even most) programs are partial to their own undergrads.  My undergrad school (CSUN) definitely is.  But that shouldn't deter you from applying to a program you love.  I am starting the MedSLP program in a few weeks, and 10/18 Core students are previous UW students, whereas 9/24 of the MedSLP students are former UW graduates.  I'm sure it varies year to year - good luck to you!