SLP Post Bacc into Graduate School

[devonbmartin]

Hi Everyone!

I was just recently accepted into an SLP post bacc program that I will be starting in September, my BA is not in communications sciences and disorders so this is a requirement for me before I apply to grad school in Washington state. Side note: my husband and I are currently living in Virginia and relocating to WA as he is getting out of the Marine Corps, we are moving in about a week.

I took some SLP pre-requsite courses through a university here in VA but the requirements for grad school are drastically different on the west coast than they are here on the east coast. So, I was accepted into this post bacc program in WA and I have the option to apply to grad school before I complete the program or to take a gap year and then apply to the grad program. My GPA is not stellar right now, my BA GPA was about 3.3...but I got all A's in the SLP courses I took outside of my bachelors degree. Despite my GPA being what it is, I did get into this post bacc program that only takes 18-20 students a year, which I thought was fantastic. I had completely convinced myself that I would not get in just a couple of weeks before I got my acceptance letter.

I do understand that my GPA is not very competitive at all when thinking about applying to grad school, the university I am attending for the post bacc program suggests that if your GPA is not above 3.5 that you take the gap year and then apply to grad school. However, I would really like to apply to grad school so that when I finish the post bacc program I can go right into the grad program, if I am accepted.

I do also have experience working in an SLP office, though not an SLP or SLP-A...I have been working for a pediatric speech, OT and PT clinic for about a year and half first, as a receptionist and second, as a billing representative. I was promoted to billing about six months after I started with the company. I'm not sure if this will give me any extra points or not but I have been working alongside SLPs and have become friends with many of them and they have been very active my journey to becoming and SLP. I am very familiar with the clinical side of being an SLP that I think a lot of students don't get before they get to grad school.

So here is my question, would it be worth it for me to try to apply to grad school before I complete the post bacc program or should I take the gap year? PS. I would also need to take the GRE as that is not something I have taken yet.

Thank you for whatever advice you can give me!