Are you grad school material?

[Xist]

Can you relate to this?

Often I ask myself that.

It seems like every single night I wonder where the time went. I don't make excuses like this.

I just might not be.

I was talking to a lady on-line. She was in grad school and I said that I keep applying. I mentioned some difficulties that I had with my undergraduate classes--and my applications.

I took a class at Arizona State where we watched 25 recorded speech therapy sessions and answered generic questions like "Was the clinician dressed professionally."

"The clinician never appeared on-camera."

I received terrible scores. We were supposed to write 3 long sentences, but the question was invalid!

I retook it at Eastern New Mexico and tried to ensure that I learned from my class at ASU, but then the worksheet asked questions like "How did the clinician collect data."

"The clinician never appeared on-camera and never mentioned data collection."

I also received terrible scores and neither allowed me to write a summary.

Grad schools don't care that I have worked in the field for 5 years. They don't want letters of recommendation from my supervisors that have seen me do the job, they want letters from my professors saying that I always came in during office hours.

I never needed to come in during office hours!

That woman in grad school told me that she wasn't interested in me, but she couldn't get to the point. You have to understand, she was grad school material, so she wrote something like "I don't believe in ghosting people. I don't believe that it is the right thing to do. I believe that we shouldn't ghost people. I am not interested in you."

Why did she bring up ghosting unless she wanted to make it clear that she wanted to stop talking to me, but she was a better person than that, so she only informed me that she wanted to ghost me?"

Seriously, why not just say she wasn't interested?

She was grad school material!

As I keep trying to apply to grad school I get stupid questions like "Please write 500 words about which color tastes best."

Apparently if you get interviewed you get questions about which superpower you want.

What if I pick the wrong one?!

I had an application due on Monday for a school that required a 2-3-minute video. I wrote out what I wanted to say and recorded myself talking to the camera over and over.

It took me 60-90 minutes because I kept messing up words bad enough that I felt I needed to start over.

I am a speech therapist and I make articulation errors.

It drives me nuts!

I paid $60 and submitted that application.

Do you know about Second Application?

All of these schools require me applying through a different site, although at least they use the same site, so it is easier to apply to multiple programs.

That one required an essay: "Your client's mom wants you to integrate a particular technique; what do you tell her?"--except the question itself was an entire paragraph, including details that I am not sharing here. It mentioned a kid with a diagnosis about which they taught us in college, but in over 5 years I have worked with zero kids with that.

I found an article with dozens of references that said:
1. It doesn't target the problem kids with that diagnosis have.
2. Zero independent and peer-reviewed studies have proven it is useful.

I wrote that and was about to submit it when I saw that it needed to be a page, with references.

If someone needs to talk to you about your kid and they can explain in a sentence or two, do you want them lecturing you?

I wrote a couple of sentences that might be difficult for many parents to understand, so we are supposed to give them more information than virtually any parent would be able to comprehend?

Had the question been "Would you use X treatment for Y disorder, why or why not?" I could have come up with a couple of paragraphs, but that wasn't the question, and answering the wrong question should count against me.

I don't know what it will take to get into an SLP program, but it looks like I am dating a professor--at a university that doesn't have a Communications Disorders program!

[Piotrsko]

If it's any consolation: my son has the same issues. Apparently, the degree is some sort of social club where the rules for entry are "if you have to ask, you are categorically unqualified"

The people I know who entered were asked to enter

[Xist]

I didn't apply to the other programs until I had both applications completed. I needed to do that this time!

[JSH]

You said you got terrible grads in your undergrad - what was your GPA? That is the biggest factor that will determine if you get into grad school.

I didn't go to grad school but my wife and brother did. My wife had no issues - she had a 3.7 GPA and applied to the same grad school as her undergrad so all the professors knew her already. (She didn't even go to office hours)

My brother struggled. His GPA was in the low 3's about 3.1 or 3.2. He had to shop around a lot and ended up going to a school on the other side of the country that needed students and would take him. He also had to agree upfront to work for the hospital connected to the school for 2 years after graduation so it was a bit of an indentured servitude deal.

The question about what your superpower would be or what color you would be if you were a cereal bowl are just to see if you can think on your feet and respond coherently. There is no right answer with an explanation. The idea is to ask you a question that you didn't prep for. The only wrong answer is something like "I'm not a cereal bowl - why would you ask me such a stupid question?

[Xist]

I earned 2.97 on my first Bachelor's and 2.92 with the second. I did better on the non-speech classes that I needed to take--two on-line classes and my global health class. My classmates said that I was insane for taking on-line statistics, but I earned an 89.4%, and somehow I did worse on the handwritten assignments that we needed to do every week.

I did everything by hand and I got the right answer. Did she take off points for my handwriting?

That wouldn't be the first time.

My global health class was big and in-person, but my classmates were just normal irresponsible teenagers, not the advanced-level irresponsible juniors and seniors in my speech classes.

One of the classes that I took at ENMU was the introduction, but when grad programs make me match the classes that I completed with the ones they require, the other A replaces a C, so that is something.

I just need to keep taking classes, but not from ENMU.

Have I mentioned that if I retook 2 classes that I requested to drop from my Spanish degree, but was denied, I would go from a 2.92 to 3.06? That sounds significant to me!

The programming one would cost at least $2,010 and the Spanish course would cost at least $1,770. So, $3,780 for the opportunity to increase my GPA 0.15.

ENMU costs $275 per credit, all fees included, but while most people say positive things about it, I have found many complaints about specific professors. That would be $825 per 3-credit class. USU would charge $1,077+.

I am sure this conversation would be awesome:

"So, you attended Mesa Community College, Arizona State University, Eastern New Mexico University, and Utah State University. Now you are applying to Northern Arizona State University?"

I could retake all of my ASU classes, but they average the scores, so if I had 12 speech classes, and I spent $24,000 to retake all of them, I would hopefully increase my GPA by as much as retaking those 2 non-speech classes that I requested to drop.

I could retake all of them at USU for $12,924, graduate from there, and claim that I have a 3.3 (or whatever) from USU!

"Yes, but you earned a 2.93 first!"
"I was still recovering from Afghanistan."

[JSH]

That is what I thought. Getting into grad school with less than a 3.0 is a really long shot. Plenty of programs have hard cut-offs so the difference between 2.92 and 3.06 can matter.

The fact that you did worse in your core speech classes than general classes doesn't help either. Plenty of programs and majors have higher minimum GPAs for core classes than general classes.

Have you actually called people administering the programs you are applying to to see their GPA requirements? What is the average GPA is for people accepted into the program?

You might want to talk to someone in the program and see what you can do to make your application look better. You may need to retake classes to move up your GPA or you might have to do a whole new degree to prove that you can succeed in a university environment.

You are going to need to network.

[Xist]

From the people that recommend crying in our car to deal with the stresses of speech therapy! Newborn Hearing Screening May Indicate Autism

There is something seriously wrong with these people. Their title is a link that takes you to that exact same page.

Why?!

While many kids show autistic tendencies at 2.5 years [or earlier], many aren't diagnosed for years, so if this works out, ideally we will have the hospitals following up in 30 months, asking for a checkup, and getting kids help earlier!

Back on topic, I have done speech therapy for 5-6 years, and have never felt the need to cry about anything.

What am I doing wrong?

Maybe it is like dating and there is definitely crying, just not me! Suddenly everything makes sense!

One of the kids that I have seen for over 2 years was absolutely bawling yesterday. Oh, is it hard to tell me where your nose is?!

I love the kids that make the session take forever because they keep complaining. Imagine how long this post would be if I complained instead of... where was I...

That is the American Speech[-Language]-Hearing Association, SLPs and Audiologists are supposed to be card-carrying members.

Nobody really cares about SLPAs.

They have a job search, but there are only 7 SLP postings for Arizona. I could probably find dozens on Indeed, but their cheapest package is $350 for 30 days!

Funny how that is easy to find, but their college search function isn't. I didn't remember which school in Utah was supposed to be the cheap one. ASHA shows 4, Utah State, Utah State [BA vs BS], Brigham Young, and University of Utah.

There are 3 in Arizona, UofA in Tucson, ASU in Tempe, and NAU in Flagstaff.

Weird. There was a private school!

It looks like they only have a graduate program. They require 3.0 cumulative, 3.0 in the major, and unspecified scores on the GRE.

Since everyone is dying to know, Idaho State has a BS and an Other program.

Apparently they require chemistry, which they don't offer on-line.

"You must take either Physics or Chemistry to fulfill ASHA requirements," but it also says "Most courses may be completed online at ISU," so hopefully the speech ones are.

The University of Idaho doesn't have anything.

I wanted NAU's summers-only program, but honestly being away from my family for 2 months might be too much.

Utah State:
The deadline was January 15th.
147 people applied last year.
They offered admission to people with GPAs between 3.4-4.
They offered spots to 53 (36%, higher than many programs).
Average GRE Score for Applicants Offered Admission:
Verbal reasoning: 157 (I scored 163 (93rd percentile))
Quantitative reasoning: 152 (I scored 157 (64th percentile)
Analytical writing: 4.5 (I scored 4.5 (81st percentile)
Somehow they only have 27 first-year students!

ASU received 319 applications, offered admission to 108 (39%), for 45 slots. The lowest GPA of an applicant they offered admission was 3.39, and the average GRE scores were a little lower.

Hopefully my above-average GRE scores help compensate for my dismal GPA.

One thing that makes me less nervous about many of these numbers is the difference between the number of offers and the number of seats. Someone pointed out that while ten times as many people apply for a program as get seats, most people apply to multiple schools.

In that video I submitted I needed to talk about the greatest challenge that I have overcome. Honestly, it was the death of my father, but instead of saying much about that, I said that sooner or later everyone needs to deal with it.

I don't know what the other applicants said, but since many are 22, I honestly want to know what they said.

I mentioned driving a fuel truck in Afghanistan. That was stressful!

I said that several hundred thousand Americans have done the same thing, and sadly, there have been wars for all of human history.

So, I talked about something unique to me, a time that I was scared to death, but fulfilled my responsibility anyway.

Too bad I couldn't figure out how to turn two sentences into a page. My video should have gotten their attention.

[JSH]

Sounds like the real minimum GPA in your field is 3.4. That will take some work to bring it up.

[Fat Charlie]

Originally Posted by Xist

They don't want letters of recommendation from my supervisors that have seen me do the job...

From the stories you tell us, shouldn't you be happy about that?

[Xist]

Hopefully my current supervisor is still saying nice things about me. I have a wonderful letter from last year. A previous supervisor has also written me letters, but I had two I wouldn't have asked.

One simply refused to do her job. She never answered any questions about goals, activities, resources, or anything else. When the mom of some clients [that I saw at the dad's house] started causing problems the office asked my supervisor to call the dad several times.

My supervisor waited at least 24 hours. Then she said "You did everything you could, just ask for new clients."

Had she done her job I shouldn't have needed to!

I have never had an adequate caseload. I would never say "Oh well! I have other clients and can get more!"

Honestly, I want to stay with my current supervisor, I just want a clear statement of expectations.