I’m an SDSU grad and speech path. The program is tough at SDSU. Anyone in the major will not have a whole lot of opportunities to “party” because you have so many areas to study that there just isn’t time; you will definitely fail the program if you even walk by a party because they’ll kick your butt out so fast you won’t have time to fall.
I would not recommend a 5 year program because the major is hard enough to do in 7 years. I took 8 years because I wanted to cover all of my bases-hospitals, schools, snfs and I didn’t want to go back to school. (I did the thesis instead of the project.)
Do you realize what you have to cover in learning about speech-language-hearing pathology? Besides speech and language coursework, you also have to learn about audiology, the deaf and hard of hearing, Special education laws and dealing with advocates and lawyers, voice and its surgical interventions, statistics, psychometry. Gerontology studies to understand strokes, TBI’s, Augmentative and Assistive communication. It goes on and on. I haven’t even spoken about your clinical practicum and 350 supervised hours
SDSU will be expensive because you are not a California resident. There is a differential that OOS students pay.http://arweb.sdsu.edu/es/admissions/costs.html. Assume a minimum of $32K for the basics-tuition and room/board.
Transportation is a pain in California. So, most students have cars but there is no parking. You would need to find a friend with a car. SDSU is inland from the airport. A good 20-30 minute drive. In bad traffic, double the wait.
You have lots of opportunities to pick a university. No matter where you go, this is a really hard discipline so anywhere you go, you will get a good education. But. . . . . . the jobs are everywhere. You will have a job before you graduate.