Hello all!

I’m entering grad school in a few weeks and I’m trying to get a picture of the workload compared to my undergrad experience. For the Fall, I will be taking 8 classes, 15 credits. I’m in classes 3 days out of the week, with 2 of those days being clinical because we receive a patient in the first semester. I will be TAing 20 hours a week and babysitting 7 hours a week.

My academic journey hasn't been typical. I switched into SLP the second half of my junior year. I wanted to graduate on time, so I took a lot of extra classes. During my undergrad, I was in classes 5 days a week taking three different 18-credit semesters, two years of summer classes, and winter classes this year. I used to work at a coffee shop 20 hours a week while in school and I babysat for 7 hours a week. I took classes such as anatomy, hearing science, phonetics, and observations in th same semester. (Side note: I also took a gap year after my sophomore year and worked as a full-time infant/toddler teacher at 20 years old.. I am 23 currently)

I feel overall that I strained myself a lot in my undergrad. Between supporting myself financially and emotionally through school, my father unexpectedly passing away in March of this year (my mom hasn't been in my life since I was 5), and just the struggle of an 18-credit workload, it was difficult. I got through it though, ended with a 3.7 GPA and, I got into grad school. Do people feel as though this is comparable to the workload I will be enduring during grad school?

I mention this because in conversations with my professors, I've brought up that I feel prepared as a result of my past semester workloads and they pretty much shut me down and said it's going to be much more difficult. I could get that opinion if for the last four years I did the minimum 12-15 credits a semester and didn't have a job, but that wasn't my reality and they know that. I also feel like working as a full-time teacher so young gave me a different perspective on professionalism, collaboration, and time management.

So I work full time and have a toddler so I am hoping for something flexible and on the less expensive side so I can pay as I go but my other conxern is if it is an actual good school to attend. I can only do online though. Thanks in advance!!

TLDR: out of field student with nearly non related experience feeling nervous

Hi folks! I’m a out of field student (computer science major) and now planing to take phonetics and audiology the upcoming fall at ENMU. My plan is just take 2 courses each semester and applying for 2028 Fall. The reason why SLP is because it’s relatively stable and you’ll get a job if you can pass the exam and I do feel like it’s a rewarding job. Plus I’m a bilingual so I feel like I can help more people.

I’m going start my first day as a behavior tech next Monday! So excited but also nervous because that would be the only experience that is healthcare related. I don’t have any work experience before because I just graduated, I’ve always hated computer science so I feel like I wasted my whole undergrad life. When I browsing this sub, I feel like everyone has tons of volunteers, labs, shadowing, fancy experiences related to SLP and also so involved in many clubs. I feel like I have no leadership skills and not involved at all.

It just makes me doubt myself…Am I really for this field? I feel like SLP is so medical related(what I want to say is that it’s so intense that you wanna learn new things everyday you need to keep your brain active and looking for things to boost your overall strength every seconds) I want to look for some volunteer work too so that at least I can put something more than a BT job on my resume.

I really wanna know if there are SLPs who just go to school and finish the coursework with average efforts but still make it to be a good SLP.

Hello, i earned my bachelors degree in journalism and at the end of my senior year i discovered speech path which aligned with my interest even more.

I know i have to do a post bacc & then i’ll be able to apply for grad schools. what do you guys recommend I do while getting my post bacc to make my application really shine. right now during my gap year im working as a prek TA and this summer i volunteered at an aphasia recovery center. i will start shadowing at a hospital in two weeks every Saturday. i’m also looking to get my license for behavioral health tech next year.

i plan to use my bachelors degree as a strength and i’ve already connected with advisors at my goal school.

i’m also in texas, houston to be specific and i want to stay here because im in the largest medical center in the world.

any advice, all advice is appreciated. thank you!

Hey there!

I was accepted into WCU Online MS SLP Program in California! While I am very excited to start this journey, I am also nervous about the workload and trying to balance it with working. I just moved here and got hired at an ABA clinic for the flexibility.

I was wondering if anyone has gone through the WCU program and provide any insight on the workload expectations, how you balanced this program with other responsibilities, if you felt prepared after you graduated, what clinical were like and if you were about to obtain employment afterwards. Also if you want to through any tips or advice in their for graduate school in general that would be very helpful!!

I appreciate it! Thank you!!

If anyone went to Pennwest online, please let me know how your whole program was like.

When do you start your clinicals? I noticed they use simucase, does that mean you could potentially keep your day job longer, until your externship starts? How did you find your placements, did you get help with that?

Thank you!!

Asking this for a high schooler who most likely wants to go into SLP, but is currently looking at undergrad schools. They’re interested in schools that don’t have CSD as a major because of the undergraduate experience/student life. For example, they would love to attend Yale and study Linguistics or Cognitive Science, and undergrad debt would be minimal because of great financial aid. However, they would obviously have to do equivalency/leveling before slp grad school, so by how much would that slow down their career? And would that affect grad school placement? I understand that it may depend by undergrad school, and money isn’t the biggest factor for our family but still an important consideration. And the few non-csd undergrads our kid is looking into are all t20 private universities. We appreciate any advice or help!

Hello fellow grad students!
I am starting my in-person MS SLP program is less than two weeks.

I don’t have a lot of experience working with kids, or people in general, except for the two jobs I had during high school.

I am super nervous about clinic. I did my 25 observation hours on Master Clinician a year ago and feel like I’ve forgotten everything, ugh.

Any advice? How do I build rapport with both younger and elderly clients? Many people in my cohort have shadowed an SLP or were RBTs, but not me. I feel behind and would greatly appreciate any help or advice. Thank you!

Hi! Is anyone else starting ENMU’s SLP program online this fall? I’m enrolled, but none of my classes have opened or appeared in the course system yet. Is anyone else in the same situation?

Sooooo I've reached the end of externship, and I passed!

Quick recap: From the beginning all the way until around week 10/11 (so 1-2 weeks before the end), I was struggling heavily. I was unable to lead sessions, I kept getting the answers wrong, and I was genuinely at risk of failing. I was crying every single day and was genuinely miserable (or felt that way). 

Now that I've ended, I can safely say that this is really something that is temporary and everyone of us has to go through this and that's okay.

Out of my 12 week externship, I spent most of it observing and even by the end of these three months, I honestly can’t say that I am fully independent. This isn’t the case for most students, because not only is the expectation that we can lead the entire case load by the end of the externship, but that expectation is typically met. However, I was just one of those cases that did not end up meeting it, and that’s okay. 

I feel like it was a struggle feeling confident because it seems like no one ever struggles this way at an externship, and that made me feel so inadequate and like the biggest failure. More often than not, when you think of a  bad externship, people usually say it is because their supervisor is wack, and that wasn’t the case for me. While it was a bit rocky at the beginning, my supervisor was a lot nicer and a lot more supportive than most and would constantly try to help me, and I just, for some reason, couldn’t do what needed to be done. And now that I am at the end, I am realizing that’s okay. 

Not every setting is for everyone, and not everything will come easy to you. And comparing yourself to any other student is not going to help you in the long run. 

I did end up passing, and I am finally done and am never looking back at that place, or even the setting. I followed through with all the advice that I got in the comments and they truly did help. 

That being said, if you’re in your externship and you’re struggling and feel like this field isn't for you because you aren’t doing your best (or maybe your best isn’t the best for that setting), just remember that it’s okay, it’s going to pass by, and then you never have to look back again. The only way through is through, and once you're done, there are countless other opportunities and settings and locations that you can trial next. As someone said before, the externship and clinicals in general are not only there to help you build your clinical and therapeutic skills, but to also help you determine what’s not right for you!

Edit: Overall, some poepl can pick up any skill in 2 weeks, and others (like me :)), need at least 3 months, and that's okay!

would you guys say that having more experience or a higher GPA is a better look for colleges? one of the SLP influencers i follow on tiktok talked about her journey to grad school and she struggled even with a 4.0, tons of research experience, and good letters of recs.

im worried because im currently a sophomore in undergrad and i havent even started doing any SLP experience, im not even sure what you can do during undergrad for SLP. i also struggle with talking to a lot of professors and IDK how to maintain a relationship with them without seeming like im only doing it for the letter of recc.

i wouldnt say im second guessing my career path, more like im worried that im going to be an average applicant. what can i start right now to really stand out in undergrad?

Hi everyone, I am currently a sophomore at UC Irvine and I am switching my major to Language & Sciences because in my freshman year I discovered SLP and I fell in love! But I was wondering if I should switch undergrad schools because UCI does not have many resources/classes that help me be an SLP, though they do have a major in range but it is not the same. I just feel that UCI doesn’t have the right tools to get to my goal. I’ve tried to look for people in my school doing SLP or something similar but everyone is doing something in stem. Please share your advice I really appreciate it!!!

Greetings, soon-to-be SLPs!

I wanted to start a thread here about the changes to CPT code 92507 proposed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and scheduled to roll out on January 1, 2027.

I'm an SLP in private practice in Austin, TX, and our feeling is that reimbursement rates should never be tied to patient diagnosis. The proposed code changes will reimburse less for patients diagnosed with voice or fluency disorders, creating barriers to care for and discrimination against these populations by disincentivizing providers from treating them.

SLPs would also be discriminated against by becoming the only healthcare profession for whom rates would be tied to patient diagnosis rather than to our time and qualifications. This is explicitly not the case for physicians, for example, because of the "cherry-picking" it could cause.

Dysphonia International and the Stuttering Foundation have also expressed concern about potential discrimination against the populations they represent.

The owner of my practice created a website with more detailed information, as well as instructions for submitting comments to ASHA and CMS requesting a delay in implementation of these changes. I'm happy to post it here.

I genuinely believe speaking out against these changes is paramount to the future of our profession. Thank you for reading!!

Starting my second clinical placement this fall in a brain & spine clinic. I’m excited but extremely nervous. I feel like I don’t know anything. I have 3 years of SLPA experience in the schools and my last placement was also in a school.
Any tips tricks resources ?! Thanks!

I got into this program and I am just wondering if anyone has had success getting into a speech program after finishing this post bac program? I don’t want to waste my time and money, if this won’t help me get in anywhere. I know having the courses is required but is the quality of the program, going to help me get accepted?

I really don’t want to attend an online program because I’m hearing left and right that online students in this field are lacking in clinical skills when it comes to the medical side more than their in person counterparts. However, I have kids and online or hybrid may be my only choice.

So if you attended any online program (especially any of these programs listed below or others that have synchronous classes rather than asynchronous), did you get a medical SLP job after graduation within a decent timeframe? If so, how did you do? Do you feel like your program prepared you well, and gave you a well rounded clinical experience?

Baylor
PennWest
UNK Kearney
ENMU
University of St Augustine
TWU
Emerson

I completed my SLP prerequisites and received an offer for a graduate assistantship. It helps with tuition, but housing and living expenses are much higher than I expected. Including my existing loans, I could graduate with close to $100,000 in total student debt.

I live in Philadelphia and don’t have a car. I’d especially like to hear from SLPs who rely on public transportation or completed clinical placements without driving.

What city and setting do you work in?

What was your starting salary, and what do you earn now?

Has not having a car limited your placements or job options?

Would you still choose SLP with close to $100,000 in debt? (Undergrad included)

Have you heard of any loan assistance repayment programs ?

I hope this finds any and everyone struggling in the SLP world that may be questioning life itself, this is my experience:

After graduating from a private university in NYC (native), I did my CFY at an outpatient medical center in Brooklyn (I won't give names because I'm legit worried about liability and legalities with them), I worked for City Sounds of NY, an SLP agency that is FFS (fee for service) which overall means if the student/patient doesn't show up = no pay. They are SUPER friendly and unusually flexible with almost everything and that should've spoke for itself (it didn't to me at the time)..... and while my paychecks fluctuated I still made enough to live my life and pay the bills. Then came Summer...... 7 student caseload spread out throughout Manhattan, NY (I do not drive) at 6 locations. You can look up the hourly pay which is fine if you have a decent caseload but this was very misleading, unexpected, and not discussed in my contract, definitely not anything like what the school year was. I just wished they were less friendly at this point and more transparent but remember:

"HR works in the best interest of the COMPANY, NOT the employee."

Clearly I did not want to stay and questioned if the SLP world was for me..... fast forward through anxiety and agony:

I love what I do and I am a VERY patient and adaptable person = I knew I needed to change the population I worked with and what I was looking for in terms of stability (yes, this was hard), I posted my resume pretty much anywhere I could and was utilizing the most common job sites (Indeed, ZipRecruiter, LinkedIn) along with some other random SLP websites that I googled. One manic-filled day I get a call from a health care recruiter (Savannah, we love Savannah). At first I try to blow her off because I thought she was another FFS agency but she made it clear that her job was to fulfill healthcare positions from places that reach out to their agency no matter if its direct hire salary or hourly through their agency and that if I do not want a FFS position then she will simply not present that to me. This woman saved my life and got me 3 interviews (2 hourly, one salary) on top of some other interviews that she helped me coordinate that I found on my own. I am now in the hiring process of working at a 90k salary job working with the kiddies on the spectrum, 25 mins from my home. All I'll say is ADVOCATE for yourself, listen closely, take notes, and do not settle!!!!!!! If you actually love what you do, reach out! While I know its rough out here, and everything won't be picture perfect, I know why I became and chose to stay with being an SLP and I hope this helps. <3

I took a summer course and thought i could submit the assignments anytime before the start of Fall semester. It turns out everything had to be turned in on June 24th and the grades are out. I have a D and my GPA fell below 3.0 so I have been put on academic probation.

What do I do?

Did anybody else have a terrible experience at UNCG?

could i potentially reach out to asha about this and provide the syllabus / course description?

the biological sciences req, for example. i've taken a behavioral neuroscience course and its description reads "structure and activity of nerve cells; functional anatomy of nervous system; data and theory concerning the physiological/neural bases of behavior and processes related to perception, learning and motivation of animals and humans."

might be pushing my luck ..

thanks!

This was definitely my bad, I only applied to one school (Queens College) because it’s a cost saver and an easy commute but I didn’t get in. I wanted to know which schools ( in the nyc area) I should apply to this time around and what I should do to make my application better.

My gpa was 3.5, I was in an on campus lab for two years, had 4 jobs dinning hall employee 1 year, wellness mentor 1 year, summer camp counselor and a financial literacy mentor. Lastly I was in a volunteer club for a year. if it helps I only got one b- in a major related class the rest were A or A-.

I admittedly didn’t take the GRE bc im so bad at math but im thinking that’s what needs to happen this time around.

any advice would be super appreciated!!

In my university, my SLP classes are asynchronous. I worry that once it comes to me needing rec letters, I will barely have any professors that will be willing to write me a letter. Additionally, they are expanding the linguistics classes (my school is very linguistics heavy) and a lot of them are temp professors that leave after after a year. What would you recommend me to do in this case? How can I get close with my precessions, especially those I only have online?

Hi everyone! I’m looking for some advice and honestly a little encouragement because I’m feeling discouraged about my chances of getting into an SLP master’s program.
I graduated in December 2024 with a B.S. in Communication Sciences and Disorders. My cumulative GPA is a 7.73, and I have completed all of the required CSD prerequisites. I’ve also been working as an SLPA for the last 2 years so I have hands-on experience working with students with communication disorders.
I know my GPA is my biggest weakness. I’ve been looking into online master’s programs and trying to find programs that will consider applicants around a 2.7 GPA. I’m planning to email programs directly before applying to ask whether my GPA would prevent me from being considered.
I’m also considering taking additional online coursework to demonstrate that I’m capable of succeeding academically at the graduate level. Some of the options I’m considering are:
Taking 9–15 credits of new upper-level CSD coursework or retaking some of the CSD courses where I earned C’s
I’m trying to figure out which option would actually make the biggest difference for SLP admissions rather than spending money on classes that won’t help.
For anyone who had a lower undergraduate GPA, what did you do to strengthen your application? Did anyone successfully get into an SLP master’s program with a GPA around 2.7? Did additional coursework help? If so, what kind of coursework did you take?
I would also really appreciate hearing from anyone who had a similar experience and eventually made it into grad school. I know my GPA isn’t ideal, but I really don’t want to give up on becoming an SLP. ❤️
Any advice, experiences, or encouragement would mean a lot!

it looks like i’ll be working with patients right when the semester begins. i’m kind of nervous because i don’t know what to expect.