Grad school in Australia or the the US?

[jessinjapan]

Hello, everyone!!! I am currently looking into my options for grad school. I would love to go back to school for SLP. My undergrad GPA is embarrassingly low (2.67..yeaaaah ouch.) but I have taken some courses since and I have almost a 3.5 from those courses. I am a US citizen but currently working in Japan. Before coming to Japan to teach English, I worked at an elementary school in the lifeskills classroom for 2 years. Along with that, I have several years experience working in nursing homes and in the hospital as a CNA. 

I'm having a hard time deciding what I want to do next. I will be in Japan for another year and a half but after that I either want to go to school in the US or in Australia. If I plan on going to school in the US I will apply to USU for their 2nd degree program so that I can raise my god-awful undergrad GPA. I would also need to take the GRE (which I have an irrational fear of!)

My other option that I am considering is applying to a few Australian SLP programs. They do not require all of the pre-reqs or the GRE. My fear is that if I wait and apply to them next year and don't get accepted, I would have wasted time by not starting my 2nd bachelors degree program.

Has anyone studied at the Australian schools for SLP? Does anyone have any advice?

 

Edited December 18, 2017 by jessinjapan

[CBG321]

Have you checked that if you were educated in Australia any of those classes would count in the U.S?  If their program is not ASHA certified you won't be able to practice in the U.S.

 I imagine the licensing process would also be difficult.  I know there is a school in Puerto Rico that is ASHA certified.  

[jessinjapan]

7 hours ago, CBG321 said:

Have you checked that if you were educated in Australia any of those classes would count in the U.S?  If their program is not ASHA certified you won't be able to practice in the U.S.

 I imagine the licensing process would also be difficult.  I know there is a school in Puerto Rico that is ASHA certified.  

So I don't know TOO much yet (I'm in the infancy of my research) but I have read that there is a Mutual Recognition Agreement between the US, Canada, UK and Australia. Your degree is recognized but depending on where you are going, there might be some things that you need to do before you can work in the new country (PRAXIS, some extra clinical hours, etc). I'm not sure about the extent of that yet.