musicnut10

I have actually been in college for almost four and a half years. I am currently completing my student teaching, and I am not enjoying it very much. I have been considering speech therapy as an alternative to my Music Education degree. However, I am not sure what to do about this. I have been attending a private college, and I am considering a larger school as an alternative. I have 180+ credit hours currently, and I am also concerned about tuition costs. I have put a lot of tuition into this field, and now I am not sure. Does anyone have any suggestions for anything? That would be great! Thanks!

windbehindwings

If you want to consider speech pathology graduate school, you can check out ASHA, the national organization which lists all of the accredited programs in the USA. Some SLP grad programs accept students from other undergrad majors and require you to take all of the classes that an undergrad SLP student needs for the major prior to your grad school SLP classes. That usually is two semesters of academic work. Some SLP grad programs encourage you to take the "leveling" classes before you are admitted, others admit you to the grad program and allow you to take the classes once enrolled. The later is preferable since you could rest assured that you are in grad school once your leveling classes are completed. Things to consider: 1. you need to think about the expense of changing fields 2. you need to volunteer in a clinic or school to see if you like the SLP type of work 3. you need a high GPA (3.5 +) and very good to excellent GREs. 4. you will need letter of rec from several SLPs. It would be about 4 years before you would be working as an SLP (at least 1 year to apply, 1 leveling year and 2 years in grad school).