Use my degree or lose it?

[dhuffman2013]

Hi, everyone. I just graduated with my bachelors in speech pathology in May. I am currently working as a PA in a school because I didn't get accepted into graduate school. I am waiting until 2018 to reapply. My issue is a coworker told me if I don't use my degree within 5 years of receiving it, it will be revoked. I doubt it'll take me so long to get in, but is this true?

Edited October 30, 2017 by dhuffman2013

[hopefulslp1]

What did they mean by "revoked"? I don't understand how that would be possible because most universities only revoke your degree if they found out you were involved in some sort of plagiarism or violated the student code of conduct. 

[dhuffman2013]

I'm not even sure. This woman doesn't like me much, so I think she's trying to be malicious. Or she heard something once and believes it to be 100% true.

Edited October 31, 2017 by dhuffman2013

[avflinsch]

 Revoked is probably not quite the right word - degrees are generally not 'revoked' unless there some proof of an academic issue as  mentioned above. Is it possible that any professional certifications might expire if you are not active for a certain number of years, and that is what she is referring to? Even so, that should not have any impact on your degree, or future grad school applications.

[hopefulslp1]

To me it sounds like she might me saying something that isn't true...maybe she's thinking of your educational license? I'm a parapro and my license expires in 5 years so maybe that's what she is thinking of. Your degree definitely won't be revoked!

[AlwaysaFalcon]

I've never heard of anything like that before. I'm pretty sure when you have the bachelors degree your fine and you further require a masters degree to fully practice as a speech language pathologist. 

[luckyclover]

Hello,

I think what your friend means is that your coursework is not valid for grad school admission after 5 years. I graduated with my bachelor's in speech a while ago and did a career change in a different area, then decided to go back to speech. By the time I applied for grad school,  it was 5 years post-bacc. When I went to info sessions at different NY grad programs,  they told me that I would need to retake my speech coursework needed for prerequisites as they were no longer valid after 5 years, so that's what I did. I retook the courses that  those programs required and essentially took a big chunk of my undergrad speech courses again. Your bachelor's degree remains intact and valid, but your coursework is no longer considered admissible for grad school. I didn't know this when I was younger and I wish somebody told me that my classes can "expire." Hope this helps clarify things and helps you guide your decisions!

[LoveSLP]

@dhuffman2013

Your coworker sounds like a complete joy to work with lol! “Revoked” is totally dramatic for her to say. But, @luckyclover is completely correct! I’m in grad school, and my professors were recently discussing this exact same scenario another young lady encountered. Perfect candidate, but her SLP bachelors degree  hit the “5 year mark”, so she had to retake those courses before being admitted to a grad school. It seems ridiculous at first, but because of research and EBP, the field continuously evolves, so within 5 years the information you learned in undergrad is outdated and out of touch with what you would be learning in graduate school. Best of luck to you though, you can do it!!

[lexical_gap]

In my state, your initial teacher license is valid only for 5 years.  After that five years, you have to have met certain requirements for a professional teacher license or, in some cases, apply for an extension of an additional 5 years.  Other cases, if you haven't met the requirements for a professional teacher license within your first five years, that's it.  This might be what this co-worker meant by "revoked" after 5 years.

[HooHooHooHoosiers]

I have never heard about the five year thing. I have seen on some schools' websites that the undergrad degree only 'counts' for admission to grad school if it has been completed in the last TEN years. I have only ever seen this as ten, not five. It seems kind of crazy to me that you spend all that time and money on school and it's basically useless after five years. Your coworker probably has no clue what she is talking about though, don't worry about what negative people have to say!