UMASS vs. GVSU

[Klm31]

U-Mass Amherst

pros: LOVE the program and faculty, 2 hours away from home, highly ranked and regarded program and reputation, on campus clinic, possible grant opportunity in an area of interest

cons: 53k

 

Grand Valley State
pros: 39k, can live anywhere last semester for externship, family-like atmosphere

cons: big move (16 hours from family), newer program: candidate for accreditation, stress of an accelerated program (15 months) ,no on-campus clinic

 

I know I would like to end up in the northeast after I graduate. One school is my dream school, the other is very affordable and I know I would succeed there. My only worries is that the cheaper program is newer. Was accepted to U-Mass first and accepted a seat in the program, just found out that I got into the cheaper program today. Difficult to prioritize location vs. cost vs. quality of program. Size of program at Amherst is 25 students vs. 35 students at GVSU.

 

Any advice?

[Pjeak]

I say UMass. Taking a plane to school isn't going to be as easy as you think. Even though grand valley is cheaper, it's not acreddited yet and umass is highly ranked. It seems to me umass has more pros than grand valley.

 

[ElKel87]

I agree with @Pjeak. It sounds like cost is the main reason you would go with Grand Valley and, personally, I don't think a $14k difference is enough for that to be the deciding factor. I could see that point of view if one was in the $40k range and the other was over $100k (like NYU and Columbia are, for example) but otherwise I don't know if all the other compromises like location, lack of accreditation, etc make that worth it. UMass also seems like a better fit all around based on the pros and cons list you provided.

Good luck!

[twinguy7]

I can tell you all about GVSU.  Personal opinions is that any program will teach you what you need to know.  GVSU PRO is that you get to experience REAL LIFE SLP work every semester at off site JOB sites.  On site clinics are not realistic and they make you do so much stuff that real life SLP work doesn't require.  I am biased to GVSU, but everything on this site comes from people who are barely in grad school or about to go to grad school.  The best advice the can be given is from those who have been through grad school and work in real life SLP world.  ALL my coworkers agree that where you go DOES NOT MATTER!!!!!  

[amy.will]

I don't know if this is helpful since I can't speak to the grad program itself at Umass, but I grew up in Amherst and it's a great place to live...and pretty cheap. For a fairly small town there's a lot of good food and Northampton (a 15 minute drive away) has a lot of good bands come through. I know those things aren't the most important in choosing a grad program, but you will have to live there for two years (at least) after all!