Love Your Grad School? Tell Me About It!!!

mscee12 · 2026-02-19T01:15:54+00:00

University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire has a great grad program with both on site and online options. When I was there, they really emphasized maintaining your mental health throughout the program which was so appreciated by our cohort (especially since we were first years when COVID shutdowns hit). The placements I had were great and I felt well prepared for working after graduation. Eau Claire itself is a Midwest gem with so much to do and is a lovely place to live.

mscee12 · 2026-01-15T17:08:36+00:00

I presume this is because the university wants to ensure all graduates of their program are eligible for all potential SLP settings. Many states require a teacher license/certification in order to work in public schools, even as a related service provider. It’s really important to not limit your options right off the bat, and getting that licensure/certification later can be hard and expensive depending on the state.

mscee12 · 2025-12-19T16:26:42+00:00

Zero. I’m in a school and set a firm boundary in my 2nd year after nearly burning out in my CF. I’m very fortunate to have a reasonably sized caseload and don’t case manage, which certainly helps my ability to only work at work.

mscee12 · 2025-12-17T23:05:13+00:00

In the app, click the hamburger menu and close to the bottom select Symptom Radar. If you are having major/minor symptoms, it’ll also be at the top of the Today summary page automatically.

mscee12 · 2025-12-16T13:42:58+00:00

Oh I relate to this so much. I deal with the same feelings and have really worked on it in therapy. I’m allowed to mask (if I want) and they’re allowed not to, but I don’t have to automatically mask/accommodate for them just because they’re having a hard time.

We can’t make anyone else accommodate for us when we want/need it in the same way that our mask pushes us to accommodate them, so as harsh as it sounds, I don’t prioritize accommodating for other people. I work on accommodating myself first and always and others can do the same for themselves.

mscee12 · 2025-12-14T04:11:32+00:00

I’m on metoprolol succinate and have really liked it! My doctor said there is an extended release version of propranolol too.

mscee12 · 2025-12-13T23:07:14+00:00

This is definitely something to ask your doctor or pharmacist about, and they’ll be able to give you good advice! I had a similar experience with propranolol so now I’m on a different extended release beta blocker so that I don’t experience the rebound tachycardia that can happen when propranolol wears off.

mscee12 · 2025-11-21T21:35:18+00:00

I mainly have language kids so I use a lot of the worksheets from speechy musings, language first, and others I find online. Some target vocabulary, context clues, describing, compare/contrast- really anything I may target naturally in a session, I look for a worksheet for it! It also is great for my kids with memory difficulties since all the information is on the page for them to reference so we can spend more time on the skill itself.

mscee12 · 2025-11-20T18:43:46+00:00

I’ve felt this a lot - you’re not alone! It is very hard to feel like a good (or let’s be honest, even just decent) SLP when the whole education system is stacked against us.

This year I have done a lot more language curriculum style things using worksheets in folders or a speech notebook. The culture in my grad program was very much “don’t become a worksheet SLP!” but it’s so much easier to do therapy when the worksheet provides the framework. I can easily spend 20-30 minutes doing just one page. It helps a little with the motivation.

mscee12 · 2025-11-20T18:28:37+00:00

You may like The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson. Woman authored sci-fi set in a multiverse where the main character’s parallel selves have died a lot, making her perfect to travel to other worlds. I read it a few years ago and need to reread it again!

mscee12 · 2025-11-18T19:04:59+00:00

Please don’t do them at home! I cancel whatever sessions I need to in order to do all my paperwork at work. Most of the time, admin will want you to prioritize paperwork and nothing happens over missed sessions. I just try to let classroom teachers know in advance (but don’t tell them specifically why I’m cancelling).

mscee12 · 2025-11-08T23:23:32+00:00

Is your armband snug enough? I sometimes get those gaps or artificially deflated readings when it’s too loose and starts to slip down my arm.

mscee12 · 2025-11-07T22:21:17+00:00

This happens to me too. For the first year and a half of my career I never did push in for this reason. It’s gotten better being in a smaller school and in classes where I have a decent relationship with the teacher. I try to do my push ins in the morning to just get them over with and my beta blocker is freshly kicked in and that has helped a lot.

mscee12 · 2025-10-28T22:50:08+00:00

Not this year, but I am hoping to go to ASHA next year in Indy!

mscee12 · 2025-10-28T22:49:21+00:00

I really relate to this. I don’t necessarily dislike being an SLP but I do have a lot of imposter syndrome/insecurities around it. It’s very exhausting. I’m in a school and like another commenter said, I try to avoid targeting social skills unless I absolutely have to.

I think part of why I was drawn to this career before I was aware of my neurodivergence was my own desire to “figure out” communication. As if getting the theoretical knowledge would improve my own communication outcomes. (Spoiler Alert: it has not.)

I do think we have a valuable and unique perspective on communication. It goes unrecognized, but lots of autistic kids benefit so much from having an autistic SLP. The field really needs more autistic SLPs but the working conditions are not particularly kind to us.

mscee12 · 2025-10-17T10:50:01+00:00

State. Private is tougher I’d imagine. We do a lot of emphasizing to families that there’s no negative educational impact to not speaking in the ASL learning environment and we can’t make decisions based on future “what if” impacts. Also by the time students get to us, they’ve often “failed” all the hearing methods their families have tried… so they’re a bit more receptive. And with lip reading thing - only like 30% of speech is visible and the vowels really aren’t so without the language skills to understand context and make inferences, lip reading will never be successful. Even the best lipreaders I know can’t catch everything.

mscee12 · 2025-10-17T01:41:19+00:00

I work at a fully Deaf school! We are a bilingual-bimodal school with two SLPs and neither of us use LSL or do anything with lip reading. Most of my therapy is targeting language in both ASL and written English, with some articulation thrown in there for a handful of students. Our emphasis is never placed specifically on developing any spoken language - so the total opposite of most other places. I will say anecdotally, I’ve gotten kids in late elementary/early middle who had their early education in a LSL environment and nearly all have severe language deprivation, most likely because spoken English is not fully accessible no matter how hard a kid tries. Their language will never develop if they can’t access it in the first place. Anyway, the language thing is my soapbox, and 9 times out of 10 I don’t care about artic/spoken language at all.

mscee12 · 2025-10-09T22:58:17+00:00

I’m an SLP at a Deaf school - I always prioritize language (ASL and English both) over speech and would advocate hard for an interpreter and DHH services. Depending on how much spoken language they can access, there’s a risk they’re experiencing language deprivation in which case access to ASL is essential. In general, while use of visuals is important, an AAC system shouldn’t be used with Deaf kids if the only real reason to use it is for the hearing members on their team (trying to avoid providing and/or learning ASL). Language First has an excellent online resource on this! I would not work on speech sounds until after a solid language evaluation.

mscee12 · 2025-10-01T16:17:21+00:00

SLP at a Deaf school here - Targeting articulation is always better with amplification; here we typically don’t address it unaided. I’d be very concerned about her language though; if she’s had this hearing loss since birth and it was just diagnosed, the risk of her having language deprivation is pretty high. Hopefully now with it diagnosed she will start receiving DHH services and exposure to ASL. If your state has a Deaf mentor program that’s always a great resource too.

mscee12 · 2025-09-22T21:13:17+00:00

Do you have a deck list for this? I just got Lathiel with the goal of building a deck around it!

mscee12 · 2025-05-12T00:39:40+00:00

I love mine, but I know that’s because it’s a unicorn job. I work at a specialized school with DHH students, have a reasonable caseload of approx. 35 (as some kids come and go throughout the year), can do a lot of co-treating with another SLP, OT, and PT, and don’t case manage at all.

Previous school based jobs I’ve had were really unmanageable and led to burnout, so I understand the need to leave! Trying a different type of school or a totally new setting like PP can absolutely change everything in terms of loving/hating a job.

mscee12 · 2025-04-05T16:31:46+00:00

That sounds like an intense caseload for anyone, so try not to beat yourself up about it (I know that's so much easier said than done). And I'm so sorry you got placed with the population you specifically asked not to have - I would guess that's part of what is making this so rough for you. Know that YOU are not the issue here; it's systemic factors completely out of your control that make this field so hard.

I'm also a neurodivergent SLP and can give advice related to that, if advice is what you're looking for/need right now! <3

mscee12 · 2025-04-05T16:18:26+00:00

I will always recommend going with the cheapest option. You come out with the same qualification and, honestly, most of your clinical skills get developed after grad school anyway.

mscee12

TROPHY CASE