Another option is to take a year “off” to do prerequisites and then apply to programs. I know students who went that route.
Public schools are generally competitive due to cost. They have the same curriculum, accreditation, same rotations/externships. It is still a competitive process regardless.
Yes, that’s the backup plan!
We have an in-state university (UGA) that offers an online leveling program for a reasonable cost. We can also see how many seats are left in the various classes she’d need to take. So crossing my fingers that if she doesn’t get into any programs, the timing works out so that she still has time to get into this online leveling program – then she can live at home for a year and save money and complete the prereqs.
University of Connecticut is a competitive admit, but does offer a three year program. The first year really is taking those required courses that some applicants take as undergrads.
For anyone, I suggest they look at their instate public universities for speech language pathology programs. You can make an appointment to talk to someone also. These instate public universities, if accredited by the American Speech Language Hearing Association, have the same high standards and robust curriculums as any private speech language pathology program.
As suggested way upstream on this thread, go to the American Speech Language Hearing Association website. There is plentiful information there about graduate programs.
I got my undergrad degree at Ohio University in Communication Arts and Sciences (that’s what they called it in 1973). I got my masters in speech language pathology at Western Illinois University. While I really wanted to go to Northwestern, it was just nit affordable for me. I got an excellent education at WIU, and really interesting and varied clinical placements during my program there. My point being…you don’t have to go to a powerhouse university…you need to go to one accredited by ASHA.
Absolutely! It’s been an adjustment to a different mindset from looking for an undergrad school – where fit and vibe and all that stuff is so important. But it’s so different for grad school.
We live in the south, so if a big northeastern city is unrealistic, D is leaning more toward programs closer to home. University of Memphis looks promising and is good about offering graduate assistantships. South Carolina has a professor who has a focus on something she’s really interested in, and Georgia State would be like half the cost of anywhere else. Heard good things about Radford and UT Dallas, too. (She’s currently at Rice, and one professor who is writing her a rec letter introduced her to a former Rice linguistics student who did SLP at UT Dallas several years ago.)
We have collectively spent a million hours on ASHA’s EdFind site, lol.
Take a look at CUNY. Competitive, but amazing (and a costly city).
We did. They require prereqs upfront, unfortunately, which she doesn’t have with a linguistics background (beyond phonetics and speech/hearing science).
One of my best working colleagues got her masters at Radford. It was quite a while ago, but she was instate for tuition, and also her family lived nearby. She was an excellent excellent clinician.
Really….that ASHA accreditation is what you need.
When I was in undergrad, the clinic was in the basement of a building that was torn down a year or two after I graduated. We did our planning sitting on the stairs with notebooks in our laps. But we had fabulous and nationally well known professors…who were amazing. And our clinic rooms were great, and the staff spent a lot of money on assessments and materials so we would know about the state of the art things. Our clinicals in undergrad were also quite varied, and I got a ton of clinical hours back in the day when undergrad clinical hours actually counted for ASHA.
My masters program was in a small building if it’s own. At least we had a room dedicated to the folks getting masters degrees…sort of an office. Again…clinical facilities were very good, and our placements for clinical hours were quite varied, and good. The clinical supervisors were also excellent.
These are the things that matter!
D22 just got her first SLP master’s program acceptance – to UVA!
Does anyone know anything about the program, good or bad?
It’s reasonable for us in terms of location – a direct 1.5-hour flight from home to Charlottesville – and the track that rolls in the prereqs starts this fall and goes through Dec 2028. So she wouldn’t be trying to cram in classes this summer after graduation.
Not the cheapest because she’d be out of state, but not as expensive as private schools, and she may be able to pursue assistantships or something.
So all the logistics seem good, but I don’t know much about the program or its faculty. They do have a clinic on campus.
Anyhow, just wanted to share – so excited she has at least one option! She applied to 10 programs, so a lot more to hear from, but now the pressure is off. Whew.
Congrats!!!
I have no details about the program at UVA, but I think any accredited program (which I imagine UVA is) would work great.
That is great news! I look forward to hearing where she ultimately ends up.
I have this thread pinned for our daughter to watch over the next few years if she sticks with her plan to pursue the SLP career. She is 98% sure she is going to accept the Penn State offer to start in their Communication Sciences and Disorders undergrad program in the Fall.
Fabulous news. If the UVA program is accredited by the American Speech and Hearing Association, she is good to go.
My guess is she will receive additional acceptances. 
Please keep us posted. It’s wonderful to hear about young people who are interested in this excellent profession.
My daughter is a first-year student at Pitt, applying into the upper division school of Health and Rehab Sciences planning for a Communication Science Disorders major. She came in with a substantial amount of transfer credit from dual enrollment and has completed all of the necessary gen ed and STEM prereqs so she has to choose her plan of study now. She is taking 2 CSD courses currently open to all majors and really enjoys them and says can see herself in this career as an SLP. She came to Pitt originally more interested in pre-PA, pre-PT/OT and even exercise science but after completing a case studies course last fall, became much more interested in speech, hearing. swallowing. She has not yet shadowed SLP but has shadowed her former PT (she’s an athlete) and feels that she may prefer a profession with less physical handling and manipulating of patients. She has all of the necessary prereqs met for the Rehab Science major as well and that would only be 30 credits to graduate based on what she has completed (she’s nearing 100cr earned coming in with 70). This plan would also allow for the Comm Sci minor (15cr which she already has 6cr done). She will need 41 credits remaining for her Comm Sci major so with either plan, she will likely graduate a year early. My concern is without having shadowed SLP (she has plans to over spring break in a few weeks) being so specialized in the CSD major won’t allow her to pivot should she want back to OT, PT, PA. The courses included in the CSD minor don’t seem to include all of the pre-reqs that would be required by Pitt’s SLP master’s program (or others) so if she did Rehab Sci major/Comm Sci minor and wanted grad school for SLP she’d likely be taking leveling courses.
Am I overthinking this if she has a pull towards CSD? Ideally I would have wanted her to shadow PA, OT and SLP as well to have a better basis for decision. Are there any SLPs who wished they went OT or PT/PA instead? The salaries in both OT and PT careers seem slightly higher but also seems largely depending on setting.
She has a 4.0 GPA after 1st year and on track to be at or near that GPA again this term so I anticipate she will be a competitive candidate for master’s programs if that factors as well. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
I think it would be very helpful for your daughter to at least observe speech language pathologists in a variety of settings (schools, clinics, hospitals, skilled care, for example). And it would be helpful for her to have a chance to discuss this career with some SLPs also.
I don’t believe shadowing an SLP is a requirement for those applying to master’s programs. BUT some kind of work with the population she thinks she wants to work with IS helpful. Camp counselor, volunteer at SNF, work in a day care center…something that shows she knows what it’s like to work with the population.
Most of the speech language pathologists I know are happy to have prospective SLPs come and spend some time with them. Your daughter could contact the SLP in your local school district to see if she could observe during spring break, for example. Or even during the summer as most school districts have summer programs.
Most definitely depends on setting as well as how those salaries are paid. For example, in my district, the SLPs were on the teachers contract with all the benefits etc of that contract. The OTs and PTs were independent contractors. Their hourly salaries looked higher, but they had zero benefits…no health insurance, no sick or personal days, no job protections. They paid for those things themselves.
I think you are comparing apples to oranges to bananas. OT, PT, and SLP are three very different professions…who often work overlapping with similar students. But the jobs are different.
Re not having all the SLP prerequisite courses done…there are programs that have a preliminary masters year when the student does complete those courses.
If you have any very specific questions…write them here.
Also, if you read all of the posts in this thread, some of your questions have been addressed.
I’ll tag @twogirls and @aunt_bea
and @Knowsstuff whose daughter is working on her degree.
I’m going to defer to the SLPs here for some your questions, but I’m the parent of a college senior who studied linguistics and is currently applying to SLP programs that incorporate the leveling classes that she still needs.
She waffled for a long time about whether SLP was the right path for her – because her interest in linguistics was very nerdy and academic, about the esoteric grammar and history of language, etc. That is worlds different than working as an SLP.
But, the SLP field is vast – she shadowed one in a NICU setting who was working with preemies with swallowing issues. My daughter found it fascinating but also knew right away that this was NOT the area for her.
She’s a singer, and she’s learned quite a bit about vocal anatomy and health, which is an area that interests her. She also likes the idea of working with kids who use devices to communicate, perhaps in a school setting. My son has been in speech therapy his entire life, and my daughter has frequently witnessed his sessions when he was younger, when the therapist would come to our home. But in the last couple years, she got to shadow in one of his sessions in high school, where the therapist worked primarily on pragmatics and prepping for the SAT. That is definitely more up her alley than preemies and swallowing! She shadowed the same therapist in several other sessions, too, both group and individual, and got a sense of the types of kids she encountered.
My dad was diagnosed with throat cancer a couple years ago, and he successfully fought it with chemo and radiation. But, he lost his ability to swallow and now takes his nutrition through a g-tube. He’s also mostly lost his ability to speak. He works with an SLP.
Anyhow, there seem to be lots of avenues in the field, and it would be great for your daughter to observe a couple of them to see what might interest her.
And just a note, in case this matters – with a background in communication disorders, you only need a two-year master’s degree to sit for a licensing exam and practice as an SLP. Both PT and OT require a doctorate.
Thank you! I haven’t read this entire thread but will go back through as well. She is planning to shadow both private in home SLP and school based SLP over break next month and she’s had speakers come into her courses at Pitt who are currently practicing in various settings and she really seems to gravitate to SLP over the other health-science careers she originally favored.
She has substantial experience in working with children through camps, clinics and as dance instructor throughout HS and very much enjoys working with children but has not had any experience with this group in a health care setting as of yet. I do think Pitt has research and hospital/clinic opportunities for students once in the major.
@SpreadsheetMom - great point on post grad too. In my minimal research it seems in PA she would need 2yr masters + a Clinical Fellowship year. Do students sit for license exam before or after CF year? Are PT/OT doctorates 3 or 4 years generally? That may also factor for her especially with costs.
This is standard entry level everywhere (discussed above in this thread). During the 2 year masters program, the student will accumulate hours of supervised therapy for many kinds of communication disorders, and in multiple settings. Once they have their masters degree, they will apply for their first job which IS the Clinical Fellowship Year. It’s a paid job, but the student MUST be supervised by an SLP who has taken the necessary training from the American Speech and Hearing Association. This year is the step that will lead to the Certificate of Clinical Competence (CCC) issued by ASHA. The student will also take the national exam for speech language pathologists…and must pass it (it’s pass fail). As a masters student, your student should join the national student speech and hearing association. There are advantages to doing so (Including some cost cuts).
Adding…some states have a required supervised clinical year that can run concurrent with the clinical fellowship year. This is for state licensure which every state has now…but the requirements vary from state to state.
PTs are DPTs…Doctor of Physical Therapy. Figure about four years at least…including externships.
OT is a masters program…and the length would depend on courses your student needs. There are externships required in OT also. And these are part of the program, and not paid.
OTs and PTs also have licensing exams which they must pass.
I am an SLP and worked with a professional opera singer years ago, who was also an SLP. We worked together in a voice clinic.
I currently work on written language skills, which includes all of the areas of language.
I think it would be helpful to speak with an SLP. If she isn’t sure, she may also want to shadow/speak with OTs, PTs, PAs etc.
PTs and OTs in my school are contractors and do not get health benefits, paid sick days etc.
Thanks all for your feedback! She seems fairly sure on CSD –> SLP (it’s me - Mom) worried that she hasn’t done her due diligence in shadowing SLP and all of the other contenders. Having so many credits completed is wonderful, but bumped up her major decision sooner than the traditional undergraduate path in her program. If accepted into Communication Sciences, she will complete the remaining 41 credits over the next 4 semesters and be able to begin her graduate program a year early which is appealing to her and to us with additional children beginning college behind her.
She has joined NSSHA this semester and seems to have a genuine interest in this field so I’m grateful she seems to have found her path. I appreciate all of this information and advice!
May I ask what age group you work with? And do you mean you work exclusively on written language skills while other SLPs in the school address other areas? How many years into a career is typical to gain a specialization like that?
Mine is still waiting for acceptances and considering the offers she has so far. So far she has acceptances from UVA and Delaware, with no funding as of yet. An offer from South Carolina (for in-person) with an assistantship of 10 hours per week in their aphasia research lab and $2,100 per semester stipend, plus in-state tuition (which is very attractive).
She also has a likely letter from UT Dallas who is waiting for her transcript to verify (if only they would use the CSDCAS app, that wouldn’t be an issue, lol). And she had an interview with Georgia State which went well, but we’ll see if she gets an offer. (That one is in-state for us and would be inexpensive and appealing.)
One rejection so far – CU Boulder. I might have to post all of her final choices here to see if anyone has advice or insight!
The one caveat with South Carolina is they want a response and deposit by March 15, and it would be a summer start of May 26, in person. She graduates May 9 in Houston, and her sister graduates from high school in Atlanta on May 23. That might be a bit of insanity to make it work, but anything can be done for the right choice, lol.
I worked in a primary school grades pre-K-3. I also worked on written communication with some of my students, but it usually related to how they were able to express themselves speaking, and how that could be used in writing. When I worked on written language, it was always in conjunction with the special education teacher who usually was also working on written language. And I did written language work with some of my students in their classrooms during times when they were writing. We worked on things like…staying on topic, correct sequencing, understanding how to switch to a related topic (new paragraph), not using run in sentences, things like that.
I did that work almost immediately after starting work as an SLP. Went to tons of professional development as part of my job.
Written communication IS communication. And sometimes it’s the way something should be done.