question for speech therapists and those in the know about grad school

[AngieW in Texas]

My 20yo is graduating with her BS in Speech Pathology and Child Learning and Development in May. She is working on applications to grad school because those are all due in February (either the 1st or 15th). Her top choice is to stay at UT Dallas because it is a top-ranked school for ST and she can apply the last two semesters of her freshman scholarship eligibility to grad school, but their acceptance rate for the grad program is only 19%. In fact, the acceptance rate for grad school for speech therapy in our state is mostly 10-20%.

 

What will help to boost her likelihood of acceptance?

 

She has a 3.9 something GPA because the lowest grade she has ever received is an A- and she has gotten just one of those each semester. She did well on the GRE, well above the minimum GRE scores posted on the websites for all the schools that she is interested.

 

I think what she needs to boost her for admissions is observation time, but how does she go about getting it?

 

Does she need to get HIPAA certified first? Something like this:
http://www.hipaatraining.com/hipaa-training-for-healthcare-providers.aspx#tabs-1

 

The only time she has to do any observations would be over Christmas break. She doesn't have a car at school and the deadline is February, so this summer would be too late.

 

[J-rap]

...

 

Edited September 9 by J-rap

[homeschoolin'mygirls]

Hi

Dallas RN here with dtr in OT school, which also calls for obs hours.

She needs to call NOW to set this up-- it may be a bit difficult this late but it could still work

Call hospital and rehab centers-- ask for therapy dept and explain she needs obs hours for ST. They get calls like this all the ytime; they'll know what she's talking about. Don't forget that many skilled nursing facilities also do rehab therapies.

Good luck!

[homeschoolin'mygirls]

duplicate

Edited November 29, 2015 by homeschoolin'mygirls

[PeterPan]

I know NOTHING about grad school, but BEG her for me to get interested in autism and get certified in PROMPT. I know people driving 3-4 hours each way for this. We drive 2. TREMENDOUS need. So she could observe under a PROMPT therapist, get the passion, and go for it. If passion matters for her application, she would then have it. :)

Edited November 29, 2015 by OhElizabeth

[kbutton]

Hi

Dallas RN here with dtr in OT school, which also calls for obs hours.

She needs to call NOW to set this up-- it may be a bit difficult this late but it could still work

Call hospital and rehab centers-- ask for therapy dept and explain she needs obs hours for ST. They get calls like this all the ytime; they'll know what she's talking about. Don't forget that many skilled nursing facilities also do rehab therapies.

Good luck!

 

Agreed. No speech therapy school experience, but all programs involving hands-on patient care expect this to be done as you go along. Some areas require direct patient experience.

 

I also agree that it would be great for her to see some different approaches, like PROMPT and to see a variety of ages. She should observe social skills therapy and things like that as well--many speech therapists work on those things. The "regular" speech person around here (who claims to be familiar with PROMPT), missed pretty severe feeding issues and mild/moderate apraxia issues with my son--she's a bigwig fellow, I believe, a university professor, has published articles, is an apraxia specialist, blah, blah, and because of her, we're starting the speech therapy game very late. His feeding issues are likely one of the contributing factors to his failure to thrive as an infant (he had reflux too, so it's not like we had nothing to explain it). We'll be starting therapy with a PROMPT therapist.

[PeterPan]

Ok, now that I'm on a keyboard, I can say more!   :D  It sounds all swanky to go to a top notch SLP school, blah blah, but reality is SLP is jack of all trades.  The *amazing* stuff happens when they specialize.  And frankly, I don't think it matters JACK where you went to grad school for your SLP, because everything amazing is happening afterwards in the specializations.  

 

So me, not being an SLP but being a consumer of it for, um, 5 years now?, and probably going to be for many more, I say find what you're *passionate* about, and find out the place or the post-grad training you'll need to be the ABSOLUTE POSITIVE BEST at it.  Because there are a lot of jack of all trades SLPs who aren't worth much for very specific, challenging situations.  And, unfortunately, there aren't enough of the people who are specializing in those challenging situations.  So I say don't be run of the mill, jack of all trades, because there are already TONS of those on the market.  Specialize.  And the single most needy field right now is the disability community, people needing therapy, the BEST THERAPY for apraxia, autism, and feeding disorders.  There are *8* SLPs at one (of multiple) autism schools in Columbus (state capital) and you CAN'T EVEN GET IN because they have such a long waiting list.  They're all trained now, at least to level 2 (advanced) on PROMPT.  Their undergrad and even grad school were just piddling considerations.  There was SO much more to learn and get certified in to actually be READY to do the BEST care.  And we all know, when it's our kids, we look for the BEST.

 

So autism is where it's at, post-grad training is where it's at.  Or where I'd be encouraging her to look at if she has the personality, the passion, the energy.  Because the need is off the charts.  I have to drive 2 hours for ds' therapy.  I used to drive 2 1/2.  I know people driving 3-4.  I know people who *move* from out of state to get therapy.  Tremendous, huge needs.

Edited November 29, 2015 by OhElizabeth

[AngieW in Texas]

I talked to the speech therapist at the school where I teach and she's going to get in touch with a couple of speech therapists she knows who have a lot of home health clients to see if they'd be willing to have my dd shadow them over Christmas break.

 

 

I will definitely have my dd look into what specializations the different schools offer. She does want to specialize in pediatrics.

 

[BlsdMama]

DD is majoring in Psych right now, but plans on doing her research in Speech Path. / Communication Disorders,  which is her intended Masters.  She was told research was incredibly important.  But I have to say that with a 3.9 she is going to be a strong candidate anyway.  

 

Has she contacted any professors where she is currently to volunteer to help with research?  She should contact a few local speech therapists and ask to observe.  Often local schools or AEAs have speech therapists as well though you may have a hard time getting them to be allowed to have an observer.