Chances for Grad School - Speech Language Pathology

<p>My daughter plans to get her MS in SLP. Current info on her:</p>

<p>Attending state university (USC - Columbia, SC) with current GPA of 3.75
Rising senior
Undergrad Major: Psychology
Undergrad Minor: Communication Disorders (university does not offer major in this or SLP)
GRE score: Verbal Reasoning 161 / Quantitative Reasoning 150 (equivalent to 1250 on old GRE scoring)
Related Extracurriculars:
- volunteered summer at Center for disabled children (shadowed a therapist)
- currently has a job working with autistic children at various private homes
- currently assisting professor with research in child language development
Misc info:
- most of her pre-college (high school) education was at american schools in other countries (Saudi Arabia, China, Ireland)
- Began college with major in Journalism but found out about SLP from boyfriends mother who is a SLP and became passionate about it. Her last two semester grades have been all A's.
- Her current college offers an MS in SLP but is very selective. They only have 35 slots available per year.</p>

<p>I’m not sure anyone here would be able to convey an accurate estimation of her chances. Generally, I think she looks strong on admit criteria (GPA, GRE).</p>

<p>Does the department put out any material on their accepted students? You should check there/ask administrators in the program if that material is available.</p>

<p>For students without a major in speech and language, there is an extra year added to the 2 year masters program. They call this the leveling year. Not every masters program accepts leveling students. There are several options for the leveling year including being admitted just to do the leveling year with a reevaluation of your application for the remaining 2 years of graduate work. Another option is online completion of the leveling requirements (try University of Iowa and University of Colorado). The most efficient approach is to attend the graduate program of your choice that admits the students for 3 years, 1 for the leveling year and 2 for grad school. Many applicants apply several times as most of these graduate programs admit a small class due to the need for many hours of supervised clinical work needed to obtain clinical certification. You can find all of the programs in the US that offer SLP grad programs. Go to ASHA (American Speech and Hearing Assoc); you can review school rankings as well. You can also go the thegradschool speech chat room to discuss applications with others who are applying and to see the results of their applications. Note that the employment rate of SLPs upon completion of the program is 100%.</p>

<p>@windbehindwings</p>

<p>No need for a leveling year. Her minor in Communication Disorders specifically covers all the prep courses required to enter into the SLP masters program. One more note:</p>

<p>She has also applied to become a Magellan Scholar which looks promising and in addition to a $3K grant will also provide mentoring relationship with SLP faculty on a research project as an undergrad. We will find out in a couple of weeks if she gets this honor.</p>