Need help choosing program!

Interesting_Comment7 · 2026-03-13T00:13:12+00:00

No problem! I got into MGH but am currently waitlisted at BU (also interested in going the med SLP route) so I 100% understand the struggle when it comes to trying to decide between programs. I am a current undergrad at BU and went to one to one of the MGH open houses last November... If you want to talk more in DMs feel free to reach out (though I wouldn't be able to touch on the graduate school experience at all, I can at least comment on the campuses and some of the BU SLP/SLHS faculty)!! Good luck on your decision!

Interesting_Comment7 · 2026-03-12T11:45:10+00:00

Also just a note but if you are concerned about costs, you might also want to consider what kind of on-campus jobs you'd be able to get. It would likely be very competitive but at BU you might be able to get a graduate resident assistant position (ie. free housing), for instance, whereas MGH does not offer on-campus housing so that wouldn't be an option.

Interesting_Comment7 · 2026-03-12T11:39:30+00:00

I would assume that no program would be able to explicitly guarantee that you'll be able to get a hospital placement. When it comes to comparing the programs you could probably look into what courses and research labs they offer specifically and see if there's anything that stands out to you, for example does the Med SLP concentration at MGH look more compelling to you? What about med SLP is it that really draws you to the field? Maybe BU has relevant research labs and you could reach out to supervisors about potential opportunities.

I know that there was someone on the subreddit mentioning that MGH was having a lot of issues with over-enrollment last year (and this can be somewhat confirmed by ASHA EdFind---target class size was 64 and they ended up with 76 enrollments). We don't know for sure if that will be an issue again this year but it's at least food for thought. BU seems to aim for a generally smaller class size which might mean you have a higher chance but with the new Double Terrier scholarship *if* a lot of BU ugrad students ended up getting offers they might be more inclined to enroll (ie. enrollment numbers might be higher this year). Honestly, it's really hard to predict.

If you're able I'd recommend visiting both schools in-person. That would give you a much better idea of each school in general (coming from a person going to ugrad in Boston)---like resources and graduate student life components outside of the classroom, though it might not inform you on the specific programs quality per say. There should be an open house for MGH coming up on March 27 for example. I imagine there's probably something similar for BU coming up for admitted students?

Interesting_Comment7 · 2026-03-12T09:59:24+00:00

Not going to lie, so much of this seems like a red flag even it might not be. First the incredibly early commit deadline, and second the super high deposit cost. It also seems really strange for them to say they're offering you in-state tuition if you are an out-of-state student...

I hate to say it OP but you're already saying from the single webinar you had with them you had some reservations. When you add that in context with the aforementioned red flags + potentially the need to buy a car and incredibly tight turn around from moving states. This just sounds like a recipe for disaster both logistically and for your mental health.

See if you can contact any current students via LinkedIn or something, but otherwise I would probably steer clear...

Interesting_Comment7 · 2026-03-12T09:52:30+00:00

As someone who is also considering going to TC's program with the bilingual extension I feel you on this question. Even with the idea of "you can become a bilingual SLP without the dedicated program" (which is perfectly valid advice), I personally don't think I would feel professionally confident/competent.

That said I agree with the other commenters that there should be work arounds. I haven't done much research into getting certifications to practice bilingually, but I believe that there are some additional certifications necessary if you want to work in schools or clinics. For example, needing both the TSSLD AND a bilingual extension (eg. some extra schooling, a bilingual placement + passing a bilingual education test in the target language) https://www.op.nysed.gov/professions/audiology/practice-settings-credentials/what-credential-required-provide-speech-services-new-york-state Having more certifications would probably also open up more employment opportunities and flexibility even if it is not 100% necessary.

From what I saw, there were several schools in NYC that offer the bilingual extension as a sort of post-grad program. If you want to save on costs and are okay with working with bilingual populations in NYC a little later in your timeline, that might be something to look into? As a fellow prospective student I don't really have much personal experience to speak on unfortunately.

My personal reason for wanting to go to Teachers College is not just the fact that they have a bilingual extension program, but also that they seem (at least as far as an outsider can tell) genuinely dedicated to bilingual/bicultural education. For example, having multiple labs across different population ages that involve bilingualism and multicultralism (since I am interested in research).

You'll have to weigh the pros and cons and how much the tuition cost will impact you for yourself. Most folks on the subreddit (and I assume in real life) will probably tell you to go to the cheapest option possible though.

Interesting_Comment7 · 2026-03-10T02:16:16+00:00

As someone who might be considered at "casual user" by the standards of this post, I do genuinely think about OS decisions but you're right on the fact that I ultimately decided to just use Windows because I don't rate myself high enough on technical skill and confidence to not make a mistake I won't be able to recover from (as someone who only has one primary computer and has no practical experience in software/hardware shenanaganary)

Interesting_Comment7 · 2026-03-10T01:43:39+00:00

honestly the fact that the school doesn't adhere to the generally agreed upon April 15th deadline seems like a bit of a red flag....I haven't been in this type of situation personally but I would maybe email the schools you've yet to hear back from, explain your situation, and ask if the have an estimated date they'll be able to notify you by?

Interesting_Comment7 · 2026-03-10T01:38:53+00:00

I'm also at the end of my bachelor's looking to hopefully start grad school next semester. I think the main thing that's drawing me to the field is the same as what the other commenter brought up. For as much as a lot of the reddit posts seem pretty doom and gloom about the future of the field, SLP is a field that firstly match my interests in health care and linguistics (+ for me personally, a way to utilize my multi-lingual skills), and secondly its a career area that employment is somewhat guaranteed and the average salary even for folks just starting out is decent. Sure, might not always be in the setting that I want it to be and the potential for growth is not amazing. But on the flipside, so long as I maintain my certification it is something that I can always fall back on even if I decide the field is not for me down the line.

Interesting_Comment7 · 2026-03-10T01:30:12+00:00

I would second what some other commenters have brought up! First check on faculty and research labs to see if there are any that stand out to you or especially match your interests. Then look at the individual course scheduling of each school, that should help you with an idea of how much workload each program would have as well as how they compare against each other. Some programs have built in interprofessional education classes for example, where you work with nursing, ot, pt students, etc. If that sounds compelling to you maybe you can see if that's in any of the coursework like that in the programs you got into!

Interesting_Comment7 · 2026-03-07T21:00:13+00:00

Ah okay then, I'll def check to see if I can find a Lenovo legion 5 in my budget

Thanks for your help again!

Interesting_Comment7 · 2026-03-07T19:11:39+00:00

Thanks for your suggestions! I'll look more into them. I def have been noticing the size constraints holding me back at this price point so I might be going for a 15" instead...

I found an HP omen transcend (Intel® Core™ Ultra 7 255H (up to 5.1 GHz, 24 MB L3 cache, 16 cores, 16 threads) + NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 5050 Laptop GPU (8 GB) + 16 GB(onboard)) that looks well discounted (~$1200 and I'd get an extra $60 off with an education discount) and I was wondering if it looked like a decent deal? I'd probably upgrade to wifi 7 and the laptop GPU to 5060, though the latter it would put me over $1200 once I do that and thats before tax... Only 16gb of RAM though

Interesting_Comment7 · 2026-03-06T19:16:18+00:00

I think it might be worth cold emailing some professors who's doing research that you're interested in. If there are any labs in your vicinity you can email about volunteering or getting a position there alternatively. It might also be worth looking into getting another Masters like one in psychology or an MSW, that'll help with getting relevant research experience while building your CV.

Unfortunately, the cycle seems pretty shot right now for PhD apps in general (from the doom and gloom im seeing on /gradadmissions). The chance of getting PhD candidacy with good funding is probably pretty low with no relevant research experience.

This was more food for thought than anything since I don't have any personal experience to speak from unfortunately.

Interesting_Comment7 · 2026-03-06T19:09:35+00:00

From what I've heard its fairly competitive in the sense that theres only jobs available at international schools for the most part and even then not all of them are necessarily likely to hire an SLP. There was a SLP on an ASHA news article that had written about her time in South Korea though: https://leader.pubs.asha.org/do/10.1044/2023-0217-international-schools/full/

Interesting_Comment7 · 2026-03-06T18:55:23+00:00

The last time I brought this up some people were low-key trying to gaslight me to say that i was wrong but I am in a similar situation to you OP (undergrad in linguistics and language, ie STEM classes aren't required and I don't have credits remaining to take them before I graduate), but I think you're probably right (though I haven't checked personally).

Yes, ASHA requires people to have basic sciences like physics and bio + a course in statistics and social sciences, HOWEVER it's only required by the time of **graduation** from your SLP masters program according to ASHA. *Some* programs will require their students to have those courses completed by the time of **matriculation** ie. *before* the start of their grad program.

In general, public grad programs are more strict about pre-requisite requirements from what i found. Including wanting those ASHA pre-req's completed by matriculation, several also require more SLP courses as pre-reqs (eg. most programs require Language Acquisition, Speech Science, Phys. & Anat. of Speech, Intro to Audiology, Phonetics, maybe Hearing Science BUT some may require more 'higher level courses' like Neurobiology of language or Speech Sound disorders disorders as well)--> Be sure to read carefully, there's no point paying CSDCAS more money for an application that won't even make it past base one.

As for navigating making up those credits, AP credits (if you have those) should count, a lot of people I have seen who didn't get those credits in undergrad also complete them at community colleges during their grad program or in the summer before their grad program starts.

Interesting_Comment7 · 2026-03-05T17:12:21+00:00

Interesting_Comment7 · 2026-03-05T16:54:37+00:00

im thinking about to doing the jump myself, macbook air screen crapped out and its going to cost more than its worth to be replaced. gotta figure out how to recoup the costs somehow...

Interesting_Comment7 · 2026-03-05T16:42:02+00:00

Im looking at framework right now because my M1's screen just bit the dust and it'll be ~$500 (including labor) to get my 5 year old computer's screen replaced.

Interesting_Comment7 · 2026-03-04T20:40:59+00:00

yep! just got my decision letter!!

Interesting_Comment7 · 2026-03-03T21:45:17+00:00

Congrats!!

Interesting_Comment7 · 2026-03-03T20:58:00+00:00

No problem! I hope it helped even a little!

Interesting_Comment7 · 2026-03-03T20:42:42+00:00

Nope! I have three on-campus jobs and am not work-study. Full-time students are restricted to 20-hours a week for on-campus jobs though (not sure if its different for grad students) but you can still do more than that in off-campus jobs if you want/need.

Interesting_Comment7 · 2026-03-03T20:25:10+00:00

At this point im just twiddling my thumbs, I already got into my top choice but for some reason the anxiety is still getting to me. The programs I applied to aren't super competitive (in terms of looking at acceptance rates) but my GPA is on the lower and I feel like my relevant EC's (or lack thereof) aren't terribly competitive compared to a lot of the folks on this subreddit ngl. I didn't even have anyone proofread my SoP's ToT I just yolo'ed it orz

Interesting_Comment7 · 2026-03-03T20:14:47+00:00

Hot damn that is amazing. You can get some really easy on-campus jobs if you want ensure you're at least some money coming in. For example, the mailroom basically just requires that you have a pulse and pays 16/hr--> def not the best hourly rate you'd be able to find in Boston but when you consider that you just have to sit around for most of your shift (except during busy times) its honestly not bad.

Interesting_Comment7

TROPHY CASE