There are a lot of rumors and mis-information out there. Here are some of the most common questions people get wrong:
Can I minor in SLHS?
Starting Fall, 2023, students can minor in SLHS. You can learn about the minor by reading the handout here and by talking to our program advisor, Kat Hanson, khanson@umass.edu.
What if I’m not actually interested in Speech-Language Pathology or Audiology any more?
Make appointments with the Office of Career Planning and departmental advising to discuss your options!
Do I have to go to graduate school?
If you are going to be a speech-language pathologist or audiologist, you will have to get a graduate degree. But you don’t have to go to graduate school right away after undergraduate (in fact, we recommend taking a gap!), and there are field-related careers you can take with the bachelor’s degree. Make an appointment with departmental advising to discuss your options.
How am I going to get in to graduate school?
Graduate schools are looking for the whole you, so you can increase your options by:
- Learning the materials in your classes. You don’t need As in everything to go to grad school, but you do want to put forward your best work. And you DO need the information from your classes when you become a clinician. So go into classes ready to work and learn, and let grades take care of themselves.
- Finding ways to show programs who you are. This might be with paid work, volunteer work, clubs, leadership experience, or something else. Make sure you take some time at UMass to try new things and to explore, but also, get involved in something and stay active.
- Practicing meeting new people and talking to them face-to-face (email isn’t going to do it). Make sure you take the time to meet every one of your SLHS professors one on one. Office Hours are listed on your syllabus — those are literally times when professors are sitting in their offices waiting for you to show up. So go!
- Working on your writing skills. Don’t just submit papers; write them, rewrite them, take them to the writing center for feedback, etc. Being a good writer will be your ace in the hole in grad school applications.
- Late Junior year or at the start of Senior year, make an appointment with advising to discuss your career goals and plans.
Is there a standard form to use to plan out my course sequence?
Yes! Here is a course planner. This document is good for everyone entering the major 2018 or later.
Will my undergraduate degree meet the entrance requirements for all graduate programs?
No, we do the best we can, but there are graduate programs that might require you to take an additional course or two. Typically, these won’t keep you from being admitted, but you might have to finish them the summer before starting graduate school.
As part of the accreditation of graduate programs, ASHA provides guidance about course requirements, but graduate programs make the final decision. We have designed your program at UMass to meet the needs of most New England programs, however, a graduate school might require you to take an additional undergraduate course or two. If you want to be sure, you should read the admissions requirements of your dream schools on their webpages.
I’ve heard ASHA requires General Education credits. What are they?
ASHA requires four General education credits. As of January 2020, the guidance on these requirements has become more strict. You can read it here, but the bottom line is this:
- An undergraduate course* or AP/IB credit in Statistics. This course cannot be taken in a Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences/Communication Sciences and Disorders department.
- An undergraduate course or AP/IB credit in Social Sciences. This course cannot be taken in a Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences/Communication Sciences and Disorders department. ASHA explicitly states that courses taken in departments of Anthropology, Sociology, Psychology, and Public Health are considered social science. This means that some graduate programs might reject a BS or Stats course taken in one of these departments.
- An undergraduate course or AP/IB credit in Biology that emphasizes human or animal biology. This course cannot be taken in a Communication Disorders department. We therefore recommend that our students take a course in human biology, genetics, microbiology, or kinesiology. Of these, we recommend Kinesiology for its utility to the field of speech-language pathology. Most programs will accept nutrition as a BS, and it is a good addition to the knowledge base of a SLP who intends to do swallowing work.
- An undergraduate course or AP/IB credit in Physics or Chemistry. Again, this course cannot be taken in a Communication Disorders department. Most graduate programs accept Physics 114 (as it is not in the department), but some programs, especially the CUNY schools, might require you to take an additional Physics course.
* Please note: transfer credits from community colleges are acceptable to ASHA.
Some grad programs seem to want more Gen Ed credits than ASHA requires. What should I do?
Graduate programs can require whatever coursework they want, and, particularly in New York state, there might be general education courses in addition to the ASHA ones. Again, you should check about prerequisite coursework for graduate programs you are interested in. To be safest, you could consider getting your HS in US History (required by some NY programs) and you might need to take a non-statistics math class.
Remember, there are few required department courses in the spring of Senior year. If you apply to a school that wants another course in Physics, or a U.S. History, or another math class, you will have time during that semester to take it.
What are “guided” observations, and how do I do them?
The American Speech-Language Hearing Association requires that applicants for the Certificate of Clinical Competence (CCC) have accumulated 25 hours of observation. Some graduate programs do these as part of the program. Some want you to start with all 25 completed. Some want you to start with 10. This varies a lot program to program.
Therefore, if you plan to go to graduate school in speech-language pathology or audiology, you are SAFEST getting all of your observation hours while an undergraduate. However, this is not a requirement for graduation.
It would be awesome if you could go out in the field and observe whomever you want for these hours, but ASHA’s requirements are impossible to verify if you do the hours outside of a course. Therefore, you should plan to get your 25 observation hours by taking Comm-Dis 420, Clinical Observations.
Where do I learn what content in the program?
Our list of Undergraduate learning objectives can be found here: Undergraduate Learning Objectives.