First post!

At ODU, I was a communication major and I loved it from the start-- I never changed majors. In the fall of 2009, I took a linguistics course on a whim.  When we got to the section on phonetics, I absolutely loved it.  I remember when the teacher (who was absolutely amazing) first described what we would need to know,  I was terrified.  Once it was all explained, though, I was completely intrigued by how sounds are produced.  I don't think most people really consider where in the mouth sounds are made and the effort that is put into speaking/learning language.  Once I was done with this class, I couldn't stop thinking about phonetics and what type of job would use phonetics.  After some googling (what did people do before Google?!), I stumbled across speech pathology.  I decided to take one of my school's CSDS classes on phonetics just as an extra class. You would think I would have been bored in a class like that right?  WRONG!  I loved it still!  During this same semester, I took a CSDS course in ASL and loved that just as much.  At this point, I was really thinking about switching major into speech pathology, but I was already halfway through my communication classes and I felt as if it was too late.  I was pretty bummed.  After doing further research, I realized that most graduate programs just require pre-requisite courses before taking the graduate classes, so I wouldn't HAVE to have the undergrad in CSDS to go into the field.  Apparently a lot of people decide to go into speech pathology after they've started another career.

After this realization, I was set on trying to go for a master's in speech pathology.  I busted my butt to get over a 3.0 (the minimum GPA for most speech path programs) by the time I graduated and succeeded. I only had a 3.08 but it was still over the mark it needed to be!  How could I not work so hard for a field that is so perfect for me?  I've already mentioned my love for phonetics, but I also am a language lover.  I took French in high school and German throughout high school and college.  If it wasn't for time/money, I would have learned more languages throughout my education.  Taking ASL was a completely new experience for me, but awesome.  At first I thought it was really unfortunate that I didn't realize what I wanted my career to be while I was early on in my undergrad, but really, I think my undergrad in communication will strengthen my skills as an SLP.  I wasn't a fan of the public relations part of comm, or the mass media aspect, so I mostly took classes on international comm and interpersonal comm.  After doing some more research on SLP, I realized that I wouldn't just be working with people who had articulation disorders, but also with people who can't communicate for a variety of reasons (autism, etc.).  I would also potentially be working with people who do not speak English as a first language, so I feel like my communication knowledge will definitely be a plus to me in this field.

Upon graduating, I had taken two of the prerequisites required for grad school (phonetics & ASL).  I enrolled in 2 more through Longwood's online program as soon as I graduated (Language Development & Morphology and Syntax).  I was determined that I would do whatever it took to get into grad school.  After reading blogs/online forms, I was pretty depressed about my chances of getting into grad school-- I didn't realize how competitive a field it really is.  I almost didn't apply for the fall of 2012, but a good friend of mine pointed out to me that I would constantly wonder what would have happened if I applied this year.  I weighed the pros and cons and decided that aside from the $150 in application fees, what else did I have to lose?

On February 24 (the day after my birthday), my aunt told me I had a letter on the table from a grad school.  I was instantly depressed, as it was a normal sized letter.  I was on the phone with a friend, and decided to open it without telling her, just in case I didn't want to talk about getting denied.  As I opened it, all I saw were the words "within the next year" and I assumed I was denied.  I was pretty bummed, but I had realistic expectations so it didn't shock me too bad.  As I turned the letter over in my hands, I read "congratulations!" and instantly became confused.  I continued to read the letter and realized I had been accepted!  I was beyond excited.  I'm pretty sure I instantly made about 10 phone calls.

I am still waiting to hear from 2 other schools, though I really liked this program when I visited.  Here are some things that I feel like helped me get into this grad school:

• Volunteer work:  I volunteered in a children's hospital for about a year.  This isn't totally relevant to the field, as I was a child life volunteer and just played with children, though it was a medical setting and with the population I am most interested in working with.  Also I am a girl scout troop leader.  This takes up a lot of my time, but I love the results I see in the girls.  Once again, this is a well known organization, shows leadership, dedication and an interest in children.
• Working so hard to bring my GPA up:  Yes, I slacked off the first two years and had one bad semester in the last two and a half; however, I also did quite well most of the last two years and made quite a few A's in there. 
• Taking prerequisite classes:  I'm pretty sure this made me look dedicated to the field.  I wasn't an applicant applying just because I needed to do something as an undergrad.  Rather, I was truly interested and motivated to get started.  As soon as I was done with my last semester as an undergrad, I was enrolled in those 2 prerequisites and biology (which is a necessity for ASHA).  I made sure to mention that I was enrolled in these in my essay.
• Using all resources I could find.  I signed up for Advance newsletter (it's free!) and when it arrived at my house every month, I read up on the various articles.  This expanded my speech vocab, as well as kept me up to date on new technology.  This was also mentioned in my essay.  If I had thought it out earlier, I would have joined the NSSHLA club at my school.
• Decent GRE scores:  These weren't fantastic, but they also weren't awful. My quantitative scores were better than my verbal scores, which worried me.  The program director at the school told me that my quantitative scores would help me though, as there is a large analytical aspect to SLP that people tend to forget about.  So study up!
• Visiting the program: I wish I had visited the other two programs.  One had an open house but was 5 hours away and the other just doesn't have open houses.  We'll see if I get into those two....
• Awesome letters of recommendation:  One of my LORs was by my favorite comm professor, I asked her to write about how she felt like my comm skills could be used in SLP.  Another was by my 'boss.'  I nannied for a family for over a year and I was an occasional babysitter for 3 years before that.  She happens to be a social worker and wrote me a FANTASTIC letter about my relationship with her daughter (I watched her from 2 months on) and their family in general.  MAKE CONNECTIONS IF YOU WANT TO GET INTO AN SLP PROGRAM.
• Shadowing:  I wasn't able to do this for very long, as a lot of places don't let you observe without needing the hours for a class.  I did get two days in with different SLPs and it was a great experience.  It really solidified my desire to go into speech and also gave me real life experiences to write about in my essay.

The important thing to remember here if you are applying to graduate school is that IT CAN BE DONE.  I was so discouraged throughout this process, but yet I managed to get into a school.  I guess I did a pretty decent job of making myself look like a well rounded candidate.

I've known from the start I wasn't a perfect candidate.  Sometimes when I speak, I tend to try speak faster than what my body wants to allow.  I know that there have to have been people who wondered to themselves, "how will this girl do speech if she can't always speak clearly herself?"  Clearly I've never been to speech therapy myself, but it is something that I am well aware of in my speech.  I felt stupid telling people what I wanted to do at first, but eventually I stopped caring because doing speech is my dream job.  Not to mention, with a little work and being conscientious of what I am saying, I can alleviate that problem.  There's also the little issue that I tend to have a strong accent on certain words and say things like "three" and "through" with a rolling R.  All things that can be fixed with work though ;). As one SLP said when I told them this, at least I will know what the people are going through when they are frustrated with trying to fix their own speech.  I am now much more aware of my own speech than ever before.

I plan on using this blog to document the rest of my journey to becoming a speech therapist: acceptances/rejections, choosing a school, moving, starting grad school, experiences in grad school, etc.  I've been googling and I've found information about students in grad school right now, and a lot of it has been really helpful and eye opening while I have been going through this process. I figured I may as well add to the blogosphere for other future SLP hopefuls.  

Here's to hopefully finding out more application results this week! My decision to the school I've been accepted into needs to be turned in by April 14, so I'm starting to feel the time crunch!