Grad School, Part 1

If you're committed to this major, no doubt you've heard about grad school. It will be a good thing, clinical experiences, classes, friends, and so on... So grad school will be a good thing, but APPLYING. That's a different story. Sometimes it can be a scary story. But it will be okay, too.

Here is a list of tips for applying to grad school. Just as a disclaimer: I am a senior, applying to grad school right now. So I can't say, "Oh, this is what I did, and it worked! I got into a program!" But I think these things have worked so far.

1. If you are a freshman or sophomore, THINK. Think about where you'd like to live after college, what aspects of Speech-Language Pathology you love the most, and why you are passionate about this field. Also, DO. Do  lots of things, whatever floats your boat and relates to the field. Babysit, volunteer, work in research labs, take classes that you love.

2. Don't take the GRE too early. And if you do, think about where you specifically want to go to grad school. I took it in March of my junior year, thinking it could be one thing to cross off the list. You can send your scores to 4 schools for free, after that you have to pay. Well, it was March and I hadn't thought about grad school too much, so it ends up that one of the schools I sent my scores to, I won't even be applying to. Learn from my mistake!

3. Don't be cliche with applications. Meh, I know. I've heard countless times "Don't say you want to be an SLP because you've always wanted to 'help people'." This is hard, because I really do want to help people, and I am assuming all of you do as well! Cliches often exist because they are true, and they've stood the test of time. (Haha, "stood the test of time," that's kind of a cliche phrase). But you have to move past that and show the grad school why you are different and why you should get to study at their school. Tell them why you absolutely HAVE to be in their program.

4. Sometimes, you just have to take a night off from applications and walk to McDonald's for a McFlurry.

5. Seniors..  it's overwhelming. What helps me is to pick one thing each week to work on. So one week I'll work on asking for letters of recommendation, the next week my personal statement, the next week will be sending out transcripts. It's worked so far, I've only done it for two weeks though.

I hope that in the spring I can look back and say, "Yes! This all works because I got into (insert name of school)'s program and I'm going there! Yay!" Until then, this is my humble advice.

Thanks for listening, y'all. :)

--Katie Hingst