Am I overshooting?

[Allison96]

Hi everybody!

I am an out-of-field applicant and I am a senior psychology major, applying to speech-language pathology schools right now.

I wanted to know if anyone had any suggestions on schools to apply to, or advice on whether I am shooting too high with the schools I've applied to.

Here are my stats:

Overall GPA: 3.80 Major GPA: 3.95

GRE: V-152 Q-152 W-4.0

I currently work as an ABA therapist and have a registered behavior technician license.

I have also shadowed three different SLPs and am still shadowing one so by the time applications are reviewed I will have about 100-150 shadowing/volunteer hours.

I volunteer as a "reading partner" in the area I live in, where I read with a child at a local elementary school.

 

I have applied to The University of South Carolina, Appalachian State University, Vanderbilt University, and Indiana University.

Any suggestions? Advice? Comfort??

 

[PTM]

You'll be fine! Your statistics are stellar and on top of that, you have experiences to back up your resume.

I suggest to focus more on making sure your personal state (or letter of intent) & LOR are just as good as your statistics. That's where I noticed most students in this field forget to do. Their statistics are on point but everything in their application is falling apart.

Don't worry too much. The one advice I received this year is, "You don't choose where you fit in or not. They do." You might be that one person that makes the cohart special.

[Crimson Wife]

Vanderbilt is extremely selective so unless you're able to retest and pull up your GRE scores in the next few months, you may want to add another less-selective school to your list. ASHA EdFind lists a GRE range at Vandy of 156-170 V and 152-165 Q.

[poor_salieri]

I got into Vanderbilt and my GRE score combined was 312. I do not think your GRE will make or break their decision.  They are selective, but they are a private school and can look at the individual and the package that applicant has as a whole.  They're definitely going to be looking at other things like your letter of rec, your essay, and your extracurricular activities  in addition to your stats.  You can see from the gradcafé admission page that students with strong stats don't always get into every school. 

[wcslp]

On 9/19/2016 at 6:06 PM, Crimson Wife said:

Vanderbilt is extremely selective so unless you're able to retest and pull up your GRE scores in the next few months, you may want to add another less-selective school to your list. ASHA EdFind lists a GRE range at Vandy of 156-170 V and 152-165 Q.

Agree with Crimson Wife. Of course people are going to tell you that you will be perfectly fine and that they got in with this score and that score, but at the end of the day, you are trying to put out the best application you can, and if you know that one school lists their GRE range as higher than yours, then I think you should try and retake it or add another less selective school to your list. It's important to understand that there will always be people who got in with lower scores, but they might have extraordinary circumstances, and they are NOT the norm. Not trying to disparage anyone here, but I think the best advice for future and current applicants is to put out the best of what you can offer. If you know that your stats are not within the accepted range and that you can do better, then do it! Don't gamble your acceptance on the fact that someone somewhere got in with lower scores when you already know what the stats range is. Admissions can seem really arbitrary and random; students with great scores don't always get in, and students with lower scores don't always get rejected. Definitely true, but it's only logical that you will have a better chance IF you have higher scores. 

[thespeechblog.com]

Your numbers will get your application noticed - focus on a killer personal statement and good letters of rec to make sure you can hold their interest after your numbers grab it 

[kellyfussman]

Hi Allison,

I am a first year student in Vanderbilt's MS-SLP program. I agree with Crimson Wife and wcslp. One of the very first things Dr. Ricketts (head of graduate studies) told at orientation was the admissions process. Before the admissions committee even begins to dig deeply into your admission packet, they rank you according to cumulative GPA, GRE score, and letters of rec (a score is assigned based on what percentile your recommenders give you for desirable qualities of a graduate student in their program). Once the ranking list is generated, they read essays, resumes, etc. The ranking changes based on that. He never said how far down the list they go, but I assume it's not very far. The program aims for 20 students, so that's about how many are sent acceptance e-mails. The waitlist is relatively small, as he wants people on the waitlist to know they have a fighting chance to get in. Unfortunately with the number of applications Vandy receives, this is the way they have to do it. With all of that being said, I would advise you to take the GRE one more time to pull up your scores a bit (not that they aren't good!... just not quite there with the average Vandy admit). I was going to quit taking the GRE after my second attempt when I got a 155 V, 155 Q, 4.5 W. I may or may not have gotten in with that score. I took it a third time and got a 162 V, 155 Q, and 4.0 W. That boost of 4 points could have pushed me from non-competitive to competitive. They are going to LOVE that you're an ABA therapist and that you've gotten so many shadowing hours! Have you participated in any research? I'd say more than half of the folks in my first year class have some sort of research experience from undergrad or post-bacc, whether it was doing an undergraduate thesis or simply working alongside a professor in a lab.

I hope this helps. Keep reaching for the stars, girl! You can do this!

Edited December 20, 2016 by kellyfussman