What undergraduate degree for speech pathology?
ginime19
1 replies1 postsRegistered User New Member
I'm interested in speech-language pathology, which I know is a masters degree, but I'm in the process of searching for college and undergrad major. It looks like you don't need a specific undergrad degree to get a masters in speech pathology, but what are the prerequisites?
I'm also sort of interested in Cognitive Science. Would I be able to use that major?
If you know of any schools that would be good for me to get an undergraduate degree for this, could you please list a few? Preferably in the Northeast US (incl. Virginia)
16 replies I'm also sort of interested in Cognitive Science. Would I be able to use that major?
If you know of any schools that would be good for me to get an undergraduate degree for this, could you please list a few? Preferably in the Northeast US (incl. Virginia)
Replies to: What undergraduate degree for speech pathology?
U of Arizona: http://slhs.arizona.edu/students/undergraduate-experience
U Wisconsin: http://csd.wisc.edu/undergraduate/
I am a speech pathologist. As it happened, my undergrad degree was in speech and hearing sciences... but that was back in the day when one could actually get a job without a masters...or license.
I would strongly suggest you go to the American Speech Language Hearing Association website and look in the information for the public. There is a ton of information about this profession and what it takes to become a speech pathologist.
ETA...the field is very competitive...and some undergrad communications programs don’t admit you until your sophomore year...if you meet the GPA bar. In addition, the grad programs are competitive for admission.
If you look at the grad programs, you will see the requirements they expect you to meet for admission.
If you know now that you want to become a speech pathologist, I'd suggest that going that route as an undergrad is your best and most direct pathway into the field and will cut about two semesters off of your total education.
My D went in without an undergraduate degree in the field. She got into one of the very few masters programs we found that take students without a background in the field and admission is competitive. The programs that take students with different majors will run an extra two semesters typically as students take a number of foundation classes (that speech majors took as undergrads) during the first year. Students in my D's program who came in without a background in the field were from a wide range of colleges. As an undergrad, my D was a psychology major, theater minor, and took a lot of science courses. In her grad school cohort of people who came in without undergrad majors in speech pathology, psychology was a popular major as was linguistics and neuroscience. Some people in her program came to speech pathology as a second career and previously worked in business, education etc. So bottom line is I think a number of majors would be fine. Pick something that interests you and that you can do well in (a strong GPA is important for grad school admissions).
From what we saw, the majority of programs only accept students who have completed a set of prerequisite background coursework in speech pathology (the required classes vary from school to school). You can get this background by: 1) majoring in speech pathology as an undergraduate or 2) taking a number of prerequisite courses (requirements seem to vary a bit program-to-program but are often around 6-8 classes). Some student do a post-bac program to get this done.
Again, if you know you want speech pathology I'd strongly consider starting in the field as an undergrad major.
I am often amazed that people are surprised that it isn't just speech production. It involves so much more and covers a gamut of services that you need to be ready to provide.
Do you mind sharing which schools will allow non communication disorder majors into their master’s program?
For some programs people without undergrad majors started the summer before the program officially began and for other programs they began in the fall and went for additional semesters.
Also..not all undergrad communication sciences and disorders programs are the same. Some are way more robust than others.
I went to a very robust undergrad and actually did my grad work as a fellowship student. BUT I applied to a couple of programs where I needed to take some required prerequisites. I just didn’t matriculate at one of those!
In my opinion, the speech path undergrad programs in the Midwest...Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, are the best and most robust. It’s the heart of speech pathology programs...my opinion.
There are not many direct entry programs. The “easiest” path to being a SLP is to complete your undergrad in this field. This, of course, means that students need to know early on that they want to be a SLP...that doesn’t always happen.