What to major in to go into speech pathology?

I am currently an undergrad at the University of Illinois at Chicago and unfortunately they don’t have a program for speech pathology nor a speech and hearing sciences major. I really do want to go into speech pathology but I don’t know what to major in for it, I’ve heard of doing communications or psychology but I’m currently doing disabilities and human development. Would that also work?

Based on a quick look at the requirements for the disabilities & human development major, my impression is that its main focus is on the societal aspects of disabilities. Therefore, I think a psychology major would provide a stronger background for speech pathology. (You also might consider the major in rehabilitation sciences as it includes more coursework in some areas relevant for speech pathology, e.g., cognitive neuroscience, anatomy & physiology. Aspects of that major might be more relevant for aspiring OTs and PTs, but it has some usefulness in that speech pathologists often work in interdisciplinary settings in which they need to collaborate with colleagues from other clinical professions. I don’t know if it might be more difficult to enter that major, however, due to the aspiring OTs and PTs vying for admission to their competitive fields. Another option might be the Learning & Human Development major in the College of Education, especially if you want to work as a speech pathologist in a special education school setting. Unfortunately, UIC doesn’t seem to have a special education program as such.)
Depending on the areas of speech pathology that interest you, relevant undergrad coursework for a non-speech pathology major could include courses in such areas such as biology (neuroscience, general nutrition, anatomy & physiology); psychology (sensation/perception, learning, cognitive psych, psych of language, cognitive development, language development, child development, aging, statistics/research methods, abnormal psych, developmental disabilities, applied behavior analysis); linguistics (general linguistics, phonetics); basic physics; education (esp. special education, developmental disabilities, assistive techology).

I actually don’t think it matters what you major in for a speech-language pathology MS program - one of my close friends is an SLP. She majored in communication disorders & African American studies in college, but a lot of her classmates didn’t major in CS/SHS. She did say she felt like she had a head start on all of her classmates who didn’t study that in undergrad, because she already grasped the concepts.

I’ve checked a couple out and most MS programs in SLP don’t require a specific major but DO have some prerequisite course requirements, most of which you would only get at a university that had a speech and hearing sciences/communication disorders department - most of them require Anatomy and Physiology of the Speech/Vocal Mechanism, Phonetics, Language Development/Acquisition, and some kind of class on audiology (often Intro to Audiology or Diagnostic Audiology). Examples of programs with these requirements are Boston University, Northwestern, and Vanderbilt. But many programs will allow you to complete those requirements concurrently as you earn the master’s, although you won’t earn credit for them. Northwestern offers the classes online through their School of Professional Studies, so you can potentially take them over the summer.

I think a major in disabilities and human development would be fine - understanding the sociological aspects of disabilities helps clinicians/practitioners understand the world/environment in which their patients/clients live, and may add some compassion and improve the quality of care. (I don’t have a good example in SLP because I’m not as familiar with the field, but for example in medicine, understanding sociomedical dimensions may mean that you know your patients might take their HIV medication every other day because they can only afford to get a renewal every other month, and they think that’s better than nothing; or that they may have trouble getting to the pharmacy or clinic once a month. So you change the questions you ask and the recommendations you make on that basis.)

But I do agree that the psychology or rehabilitation sciences majors might be a stronger platform from which to launch into an SLP major, because they will have more classes that will be more akin to what you need. If you did major in DHD, you would need to take a lot of supplemental classes in biology and psychology to be competitive.

Communications wouldn’t necessarily be the best major - that’s more about the art and science of getting your point across and not about communication disorders.