Insight for Future Audiology Applicants

[OakTree2205]

I do not mean to make this post long-winded but I do want to take a minute to verbally articulate my experience going through the Audiology admissions process for Fall of 2017. I applied to 10 schools altogether, 5 through the CSDCAS system and 5 through individual university application portals. As for background, I attend a competitively ranked research institution and will end with a 3.3 GPA while scoring +315 on the GRE. My undergraduate education is in neurobiological/ cognitive sciences and I have plenty of relevant research and shadowing experience. 

I quickly found through this application process a marked difference in the professional layout and user-friendly navigation of the CSDCAS system as opposed to the plethora of differing and somewhat confusing formats utilized by the universities that do not use CSDCAS. Through the CSDCAS system, I felt my application was a better representation of myself as a student and future professional with details added for conferences, awards, work experience, etc. that did not necessarily show up in the other applications I completed using other application systems. Additionally, CSDCAS's thourough process of application verification, although can seem cumbersome at times, gives a underratedly vitale manner in which to ensure the appropriate programs have received all necessary and supplementary materials. Personally, I Had issues with programs telling me that they had received certain documents when in actuality they had not or vice versa with the non-CSDCAS universities.

To this end I have had a much more positive experience through CSDCAS and it showed come my acceptance/ rejection letters. Of the 5 schools I applied to outside of the CSDCAS system I was rejected by 4 outright (one did not even let me into the graduate school) and was waitlisted by the other program. Also, the schools I applied to that were non-CSDCAS were significantly worse ranking wise and accepted a higher percentage of applicants comparatively. On the other hand, however, through the applications I submitted via CSDCAS I was accepted to 4 and waitlisted by 1 program. My point being that when considering where to apply and attend Audiology school obviously a slew of credentials come to mind, I just hope that future professionals will take advantage of a more holistic application route that, at least in my case, ended with significantly better results.