How grad schools works!? Help!?!

[Soon2beSLP]

Okay people! Many have chose a school or waiting to hear back or just are curious (like I am). Any former or current grad students have any insight that is not usually talked about such as:

1. What supply's are needed during grad school?

2. What is the schedule of a grad student like?

3. How is clinic in either your onsite or placements? Any advice on how to handle the stress?

4. Any advice on time management?

5. How do professors treat you in grad school compared to undergrad?

6. When do you actually start working with a client?

7. Is there anything that is done to help prepare you for clients or are you just kind of thrown into it and need to figure it out?

any other insight would be great and thank you so much!

[jpiccolo]

4 hours ago, Soon2beSLP said:

Okay people! Many have chose a school or waiting to hear back or just are curious (like I am). Any former or current grad students have any insight that is not usually talked about such as:

1. What supply's are needed during grad school?

2. What is the schedule of a grad student like?

3. How is clinic in either your onsite or placements? Any advice on how to handle the stress?

4. Any advice on time management?

5. How do professors treat you in grad school compared to undergrad?

6. When do you actually start working with a client?

7. Is there anything that is done to help prepare you for clients or are you just kind of thrown into it and need to figure it out?

any other insight would be great and thank you so much!

1.  My clinic had plenty of materials already and charged a small fee with tuition to cover use. I think I bought a couple folders to send home as home program once but that's it. 

2. First year most classes for me were in the morning except Fridays and once a week a 2-3 hour class in the evening. Clients were then scheduled anywhere in between normal business hours either 1-2 times a week for 50 min. 

3. Clinic can be stressful mainly with planning, and figuring out test results and goals with reports. My externships I got a lot of support from supervisors and they eased me into everything. Take advantage of your cohort and supervisors for support and ideas - you don't have to reinvent the wheel. 

4. Time management is really the crux of grad school. We all agreed that grad school isnt hard per se, just time consuming. Best advice is to give yourself a break on part of the weekend (have a cohort movie night on Saturday) and again, don't try to reinvent the wheel. You don't need to spend hours cutting and laminating new materials. Kids aren't always that impressed with fancy things so don't spend excess time if materials are already available. Occasionally I made my own but it's too much to make a habit of. 

5. They expect you to participate and generally be on top of material. I knew my grad profs much better since we were fewer than undergrad. 

6. I started summer term so we had clients our second month. But most who start school in fall don't get clients til spring term I've heard. 

7. We were given the files and if it was a returning client the supervisor usually knew them already which helped. We could review past tests and reports. If it was a new client, we often had little to go on but usually age and maybe referral reason to help plan testing. It also depends on supervisors and how you click with them and their style of supervising. 

Do your best to ask questions and take initiative. Don't feel bad if you have a crappy session or even get emotional during a supervisor meeting. It's all new and can be tough but not impossible. And eventually you'll be surprised that you're about to start a CF and finally get paid for everything! 

Hope this helped! Good luck!

[WannabSLP124]

LOL thank you for asking this @Soon2beSLP and thank you for the info @jpiccolo! It's so funny but grad school is like this mythical thing and outside of practicum I really don't know how it differs from undergrad either! I was wondering the same thing :-)

[SpeechLaedy]

5 hours ago, jpiccolo said:

1.  My clinic had plenty of materials already and charged a small fee with tuition to cover use. I think I bought a couple folders to send home as home program once but that's it. 

2. First year most classes for me were in the morning except Fridays and once a week a 2-3 hour class in the evening. Clients were then scheduled anywhere in between normal business hours either 1-2 times a week for 50 min. 

3. Clinic can be stressful mainly with planning, and figuring out test results and goals with reports. My externships I got a lot of support from supervisors and they eased me into everything. Take advantage of your cohort and supervisors for support and ideas - you don't have to reinvent the wheel. 

4. Time management is really the crux of grad school. We all agreed that grad school isnt hard per se, just time consuming. Best advice is to give yourself a break on part of the weekend (have a cohort movie night on Saturday) and again, don't try to reinvent the wheel. You don't need to spend hours cutting and laminating new materials. Kids aren't always that impressed with fancy things so don't spend excess time if materials are already available. Occasionally I made my own but it's too much to make a habit of. 

5. They expect you to participate and generally be on top of material. I knew my grad profs much better since we were fewer than undergrad. 

6. I started summer term so we had clients our second month. But most who start school in fall don't get clients til spring term I've heard. 

7. We were given the files and if it was a returning client the supervisor usually knew them already which helped. We could review past tests and reports. If it was a new client, we often had little to go on but usually age and maybe referral reason to help plan testing. It also depends on supervisors and how you click with them and their style of supervising. 

Do your best to ask questions and take initiative. Don't feel bad if you have a crappy session or even get emotional during a supervisor meeting. It's all new and can be tough but not impossible. And eventually you'll be surprised that you're about to start a CF and finally get paid for everything! 

Hope this helped! Good luck!

Omg so helpful. I just got accepted, and I have no concept of what it's like to start whatsoever. I hope more people contribute to this thread to give us accepted and hopeful students some insight into the graduate process 

[bmyles]

2 minutes ago, SpeechLaedy said:

Omg so helpful. I just got accepted, and I have no concept of what it's like to start whatsoever. I hope more people contribute to this thread to give us accepted and hopeful students some insight into the graduate process 

I had the same thought. This was beyond calming to read, and really came at just the right time! Thanks for asking, and thank you @jpiccolo for your response!

[Soon2beSLP]

Thank you for the answers and I'm so glad I'm not the only one who had these questions. Idk if it's just me but I was stressing about getting into grad school, thought that once I got accepted I wouldn't be as stressed, but I'm still stressed LOL

[Speechster]

I have really enjoyed my time in grad school. I think if you do it right, it is not as bad as everyone makes it out to be. What I mean is, if you can balance your time and plan ahead from knowing what is expected of you, you will be fine. It is stressful at times because it can be overwhelming, but depending on the schedule you have, the school you go to and your habits, you will survive. I think a big part of grad school (and life) lol is just basic communication skills and being able to take initiative and be professional. Your professors are there to help you, not do it for you. I think being honest with them and showing you are trying to find answers yourself helps a lot (because in two years you will be expected to anyways). Honestly, and this may not be everyone's opinion, but I think that most of the people who struggle with school are just people who expect everything to be done for them, aren't professional (like not complaining objectively and doing it emotionally to professors), and struggle with doing independent or extra work. Professors (and your classmates) pick up on all of these things, and if you do the opposite you should be fine. Good luck you will do awesome! 

Edited April 26, 2017 by Speechster
One last thing

[Speechster]

One last thing, which is probably the most important, if you learn how to adapt without complaining and just do it, you will be fine. 

[Kslptobe]

I agree with you @Speechster ! Thank you for sharing this. I'm so nervous to start grad school but so is everyone else! We are all in this together, we just need to take it one day at a time!