<p>Alright, this might be a little lengthy so bear with me.</p>
<p>I'm technically currently a student at NYU in their Communicative Sciences and Disorders program. After a bit of searching I saw online that NYU's program is not rated nearly as high as my two safety schools I applied to as a senior (Emerson College and Northeastern). Pair that with NYU being completely unaffordable and overpriced, I decided to looking into transferring.</p>
<p>I applied and was accepted to Purdue University's Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences: pre-research program and Emerson College's Communication Disorders program. Now, Purdue is rated 3rd and Emerson 30th, which are mother much better than NYU at 87th. I'm having a bit of difficulty picking schools. I've visited Emerson and really like that it's in the heart of Boston, giving me a plethora of art and internship opportunities. Purdue has all the sports I'd like to play and although not in a major city is very close Chicago and Indianapolis. Basically, I'm pretty sure I'd be happy at both places, but simply don't know where to choose, or if I should just try to pay for NYU. Also, Purdue is roughly 10k cheaper than Emerson, and I received no financial aid or scholarship money. </p>
<p>Any advice, transfers, regular students, whatever, from both schools would be great. And if anybody had any info about the programs or majors, that'd be awesome as well.</p>
<p>If Purdue’s program is ranked so highly and they’re so much cheaper than either NYU or Emerson, what’s holding up your decision? Have you visited the campus?</p>
<p>I haven’t visited Purdue and won’t have time to before I have to decide. And I’m slightly hesitant because I’ve never lived far away from home (NJ)/away from the east coast, and have always preferred city schools to campus ones.</p>
<p>Well, having grown up right outside of Boston, attended a Pro Arts Consortium school for a few years, and worked with a few Emerson students in that time, I’m not really in a position to give you unbiased advice. That being said, and though I love Boston to death, Purdue is a fantastic school and would give you more options for branching out academically; Emerson is much smaller, more specialized, and sounds as though it has more to offer you in terms of quality of living. I hope some people will show up to give you more information about Purdue; you might be better off cross-posting in [the</a> Purdue forum](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/purdue-university-west-lafayette/]the”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/purdue-university-west-lafayette/) to reach that particular crowd.</p>
<p>As a current (graduating) student in Emerson’s CSD grad program, I can’t say that I’m totally unbiased here, but I will try to be. Most of the points you’ve mentioned as important to you (money, location, reputation) seem to balance the scales between the two schools. There is one big difference that hasn’t been weighed though, and that is the degree/experience you’ll be getting and the career path you hope to choose 2 years from now. From my understanding, Purdue offers both a clinical masters degree in speech language pathology, leading you toward a career as an SLP, and a non-clinical “pre-research” master’s degree, leading you toward a likely doctoral degree with the eventual career goal of research. That’s not to say that you can’t get a clinical degree and then go on to get your PhD, but I am not sure that the non-clinical degree will allow you to easily transition to a clinical career (I don’t know much about purdue’s program, but that’s what it sounds like). Emerson, on the other hand, only offers a clinical master’s degree in CSD.</p>
<p>So basically, it seems like the big choice between the two is whether you are sure that you want to go straight into a research career or rather would like to have the option of a clinical career. I can say from experience that Emerson has a very strong clinical program in which I gained an amazing variety of clinical experiences at world-renowned institutions in the Boston area. The fact that Emerson is in Boston was a large pull for me in choosing a program, largely because of the sheer amount of medical and educational institutions here. It is impossible to match the reputation of medical institutions in Boston, and there are so many (wonderful) schools and clinics to learn from as well.</p>
<p>Again, it seems like your decision essentially lies in whether you are hoping for a career in research or as a clinician. As a last point, the “rankings” list hasn’t changed in the 2-3 years since i applied, and I’m pretty sure it is based on rankings from people in the field (rather than a formula of courses and grades and career success rate), so while it isn’t inaccurate and provides a nice reference, I wouldn’t put so much stock in it that your decision rides on it. I hope this helps, and best of luck to you with your decision!</p>
<p>I say Purdue. My opinion may be a bit biased, because I did attend (have since transferred out) Emerson. I thought Emerson would provide me with a lot of opportunities, because of its location. However, the connections and resources Emerson offers is quite limited. It is really a school that provides more opportunities for its MTs, etc. than it does to its Communication majors. Emerson still has a lot of growing to do. Besides, Purdue is highly ranked. Please don’t be fooled by the “in the heart of Boston” stuff. It’s a great way to get your attention, but it doesn’t mean much. I found that my friends attending other Boston-area universities were afforded more opportunities than I was. It really disappointed me. I was not pleased by the rigor of the academics. The work was too easy, and I did not learn much. </p>
<p>Anyway, they are getting a new president in July, so I don’t know how much Emerson will improve. I just know that I wasn’t pleased.</p>