I want to apply for masters programs in SLP at some point. I’m not really super interested in research and I think that observation hours would give me a better idea of whether or not I want to go into SLP. But I also will want to apply for graduate assistantships, and research might look better for that?
Basically I spoke with one of my CSD professors and she offered to get me in touch with some research or clinical people I can observe in the area I am most interested in (aphasia and older populations). I don’t want to do both, at least not for next year, because it would just be too overwhelming and I don’t think I’d get paid for any of it, as I have no experience. Which one is better for SLP masters programs and graduate assistantships? Is research experience crucial for that? The graduate assistantships I’ve looked at don’t specify research or teaching components.
A lot of students do both. It’s not necessarily overwhelming as long as you are realistic about the number of hours you can devote to each (combined, probably no more than about 15-20 hours a week).
But if you really only want to do one, it sounds like you are actually more interested in the observation, so you should do that.
Most graduate assistantships for master’s students are research assistantships, so research experience would look good - but if you don’t want to do research, it may not make sense to pursue those. There are other GA positions that are more practical (like you work in student services). TAships are usually reserved for doctoral students, but some departments use master’s students if they have more classes than they can staff with just doctoral students.
@juillet I would be doing it in addition to my job and will be taking gen chem so that’s why it would be overwhelming.
On the college websites it just says there are GA positions in general in SLP. Do you think they specify that in greater detail in the application? One of the schools only has masters, no PhD, so they probably give TAships to masters students right?
It looks like it’ll be easier to get observation hours, so maybe I’ll start with that?