<p>Thumper, you and I could be twins. I even use the expression when dinosaurs roamed the earth when I talk about my grad program! </p>
<p>I am also an SLP, and I run a staffing company for speech pathologists in CA. In a nutshell, my partner and I place speech therapists in districts and nonpublic schools in the Orange County (so cal) area. </p>
<p>The shortage here is still present in most areas, but it is not nearly as “short” as it was because of the economic conditions of CA right now. I would agree that grad school is very difficult to get into. The calculations that we have received in CA is that the shortage is going to be quite dramatic in the next 10 years, however, as a great deal of SLPs are approaching retirement age, and the grads are not coming out of school fast enough to replace us.<br>
One other path to grad school that an increasing number of people are taking is to become a SLP-Assistant. There are four of these programs in So Cal, but only one in the remainder of the state. I do not know how many states are using SLPAs, but it would certainly be worth investigating! In CA, this is a two year program, which can be completed simultaneously with a bachelor’s in several schools. With the SLPA registration complete, you can work in a district as a SLPA and collect recommendations for grad school. I would carefully investigate this path before “jumping” - there seems to be a great deal of variability in the use of these professionals by area. If you are in an area where they are used, it is a great way to get a good taste of the field and see if it is for you, as well as make a good income.</p>
<p>laurieb, are you talking about speech pathology programs? They are very competitive for admissions. I would suggest you apply to a program at a public university located in YOUR state. That would likely be your best bet.</p>
<p>I was talking about a grad school admission. I have a 3.2 average in undergrad speech. My speech grades are all A’s and B’s. My gen eds are my lowest grades. Are there any grad school programs in the country easier to get into? I went to school in New York State.</p>
<p>I am quite curious about where the rest of you are currently working - great that there are so many of us out there to advise the newbies! </p>
<p>I completely agree with the incredibly well informed and thorough answers above. Take everything they said VERY seriously! The only items I would add are
1 - School psych jobs are very very challenging. You need to be aware that most school psychs in CA where I work are testing, scoring, or reporting 98% of their time. I wonder if it is the same in other areas. One exception to this is that some of them work with the speech pathologist in a group setting to build social skills in a weekly group. This is great fun, and very rewarding!<br>
2 - I completely agree that working in ABA or as a speech pathologist assistant if you state has them is an excellent idea to assist in the move from undergrad to grad school. Check the job markets carefully: in CA, where I live, there are more people who want to be speech assistants than jobs as we have three excellent assistant programs. Some of them volunteer as an assistant to gain experience.<br>
3 - You might want to think about being a resource specialist. Using CA as an example, an RSP has typically 30 kids on their caseload for small group reading and writing work. They often have a full time aide. Kids are seen for 1 - 3 hours a day, which means at any given time there are usually about 10 kids in the room (quite nice compared to 35 in general ed). SLPs have typically got 60 kids and only have an aide in unusual circumstances. They see their students for between half an hour a week and 3 hours a week in groups of one to four. I absolutely love love love being a speech pathologist even after 25 years in the field, but I have run an agency for school based speech paths for 23 of those years, and I can honestly say that I don’t know that I would have the stamina to do what my school based SLPs do day to day at this point. It is a job that requires infinite patience, extremely excellent organization skills, and consumate political skills. The kids are the best part - they are beyond AWESOME, and I absolutely love talking to them in a small group. You would probably have more opportunity to use your counselling skills as an SLP than a school psych in my opinion, except for the type of counselling you do with the parents when you are talking about their child’s test results. As a grad student, I insisted on taking a counselling course independent study, and now most programs have it as a requirement for SLPs.</p>
<p>I went to the University of Redlands for my BA, and University of Washington for my MSPA. I find it interesting that there are so many SLPs responding to this thread! In my practice, I accept candidates from all of the graduate schools in SoCA, but my current favorites are Chapman University (a brand new program), and the University of the Pacific. I have also had success with Cal State Northridge, Cal State Long Beach, and Cal State Northridge. It has been a long time since I have had a new CF apply from an out of state program, but UW has a terrific program as well!!!</p>
<p>Hi Ana,
I am a recent graduate with my undergrad degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders. I am taking a year away from grad school and planning to apply for Fall '12 admission. My undergrad GPA was a 3.25 and my GRE scores were a 1060 (which took me 3 times to break 1000, I’m not a good standardized test taker). My grades were not that great but I am passionate about the field and I have a strong interest in pursuing a career as an SLP. I am taking the year off to try to gain experiences to enrich my resume for grad schools, but I’m not really sure where to look. What kind of experiences and things did you do to add to your resume? I’d appreciate your advice - I really want to get accepted to grad school ! Thank you</p>
<p>RSP in California stands for resource specialist program. If a student tests as having a learning disability (e.g. in reading writing math) they go to a teacher with a smaller group for more individualized instruction for those subjects. Away2school, passion is CRITICAL!! I would recommend that you think about what aspect of the field you are most interested in, and volunteer in that area. If I pretend that you were in Orange County, CA, I would suggest
Blind Childrens Learning Center if you were interested in preschoolers - they have a SLP adn an speech assistant, but would WELCOME a volunteer who said that they would focus on reinforcing speech and language skills in the classroom and on the playground.<br>
A Hospital or Skilled Nursing Facility - I used to recommend those who wre interested in speech volunteer at a hospital in the outpatient clinic, but you want to be somewhere where you could “rub shoulders” with the SLP on a regular basis. Now that my mom is in continued care, it occurs to me that perhaps someone who would volunteer to work with patients who have exceeded their medical benefits, and could still benefit from assistance in a SNF would be great experience. </p>
<p>Again, these are CA suggestions - you need to think through what your community offers. I would imagine that you are going to get a job during your break. Pick a job in a related field if you can, even if it is a secretarial position. If you can’t find one in a related field, pick one where you learn computer skills - many SLPs are old/busy/disinterestd in computers, and would LOVE a volunteer who could help them do EXCEL, Power Point, create picture boards, etc. Honestly, if I were you I would think very carefully about working full time during M - F, as many volunteer opportunities would be during those hours (but not all!) Hopefully, Thumper will chip in here too…she lives on the other coast…</p>
<p>I am not myself an SLP, but my sister and sister-in-law are and have been SLPs for the past 10-15 years. </p>
<p>Each of them works in the NY tri-state area in private practice with early intervention programs/autistic children. Both make very nice sums of money ($90/hour or more). The huge benefit for each of them is that they have had a tremendous amount of flexibility over the years to work part-time, full-time or not at all (when raising young children). Neither of them has ever had any problem moving back into the work force or from part-time to full-time work when desired.</p>
<p>Of course, working in private practice or as an independent contractor has its own challenges (mainly related to benefits and building a client base), but my sister and sister-in-law love their jobs and the kids with whom the work. To be honest, I am jealous of the flexibility they have had in their careers.</p>
<p>I have a 3.45 GPA and am taking the GRE exam in 3 weeks. I am extremely terrified about not getting into grad school. I am from New Hampshire and would like to go to school around here, but if I can’t, I am willing to go anywhere else. Any suggestions on what to do or where to apply?</p>
<p>New Mass Dad you are right on. Right now our speech path is working at three schools. Each school has about 20 teachers, so here for every 60 teachers we have one speech path. Schools are also going to distance delivery (I am not kidding) for some kiddos. The Speech path is responsible for all of the paperwork, legality, and diagnosis/remediation plans. Often it is the aide that actually works with the kids. The pressure to exit kids is great, from the parents to downtown. And the IEP software is reportedly very cumbersome. </p>
<p>Our Speech Paths are on the teacher pay scale. In fact, they are in the highest paid column of the teacher pay scale since they are licensed. They then progress through the pay scale by years of service.</p>
<p>One of our district Speech Paths was also in private practice, but the office has closed.</p>
<p>Doesn’t University of New Hampshire have a masters program? Apply there.</p>
<p>Re: above post and IEP software…it depends on the software. Also the first year can be very annoying but after that it is usually much easier than hand writing IEPs. I’ve used 7 different computerized IEP programs in the last 20 years. Our district finally settled on one that we’ve been using for about 5 years. The first year was a lot of “getting used to” work…but it has been a breeze since then.</p>
<p>How students are dealt with (slp vs assistant/aide) varies by district, significance of disability. Also, the number of Speech Paths per number of teachers also varies. I worked in a school where there were 30 teachers and 1.75 speech pathologists. YMMV.</p>
<p>Wow! Y’all must have been identifying and keeping quite a lot of kiddos. We used to have a higher caseload, but as time has passed and economic pressure has increased, downtown has been really leaning on our speech path about over identifying and not exiting students. They are even talking about next year just assigning speech paths to schools without regard to placement preferences. I wonder if the school you referred to still has the same ratio today? </p>
<p>I get the software comment. You should have heard the teachers when we went to PowerSchool.</p>
<p>Has anyone heard anything about Boston University’s speech program? Our DD is going there in the Fall, and is not going into their program, but it has a fascinating model of a combo ba/ma - just wondering! </p>
<p>I second Thumper’s comment - districts are working hard to cut whatever corners they can to reduce costs, but as ethical professionals it is critical that we advocate for our students, and do our best to make sure they are neither over nor underserved. In some districts, that has been good - for example, they are dedicating more time to preschool and at risk kinders in the hope that focused early intervention will lead to reduced service delivery time across their later years. In other districts, they are cautioning SLPs to be mindful of truly individualizing care plans - do they really need twice a week for 30 minutes?</p>
<p>my daughter is struggling with getting accepted into a grad program? care to share which schools you were able to get into and or any schools that you think may be easier than others? Thank you!</p>
<p>S1 is now in the second half of a post bac program at Loyola University Maryland for speech path. It was incredibly competitive to get into, and to move on to the grad program the students in his year need a 3.5 GPA. For the class after him, those students are going to need a 3.75 to move on to the grad program. I don’t know the reason for the harder requirements, but this just reinforces how hard it is to get into a Communications Disorder grad program.
He had an undergrad degree in linguistics and joined the Peace Corps teaching English before applying to Loyola.</p>
You should have heard the teachers when we went to PowerSchool.</p>