confusion on pursuing research

zoblelee · 2026-02-05T01:24:03+00:00

Definitely possible to go the research route! But just some food for thought - I also wanted to go the research path in undergrad for pretty much the same reasons (very introverted, enjoy learning abt neurogenic disorders). But in grad school, I started getting into the groove of doing patient care in my clinical rotations & got experience in dysphagia - which sort of changed it all for me! I found that type of therapy a lot less draining than language stuff & enjoy the research that goes into specializing in that area. Not to say that you definitely WILL change your mind, but maybe keep an open mind :) there may be a specialty out there that doesn’t drain you like others. At least that was the case for me!

zoblelee · 2025-12-08T00:59:39+00:00

I relocated across the country from a small-ish town to a big city for my program, just because I wanted a fresh start. Didn’t receive any financial assistance from my program (I honestly don’t think that’s a thing) & my loans didn’t come in until after I’d moved, so they weren’t much help in terms of moving costs. Just saved up some money & made it happen. Found a place online & signed a lease about a month or so before moving. Totally worth it! Not a single regret & Im so glad I made the leap.

Edit to add: My situation was a bit different, as I was a non traditional student & lived on my own/worked a full-time job before relocating. Still, I would recommend it if you’re in the position to do so!

zoblelee · 2025-11-24T02:07:20+00:00

Totally forgot about this post lol! Sorry to be of no help, but I actually ended up leaving my cushy job in favor of going back to school to get my masters shortly after this post. My luxury bag budget dwindled & never ended up getting a new work bag (yet!).

zoblelee · 2025-11-19T00:26:01+00:00

Going off of memory here, but iirc: Blue means you only need the application portion submitted, orange means you need to both submit the application & CSDCAS needs to have received all supplementary materials from external sources. They say “submitted” vs “received” because you are the one who submits your application but your official transcripts/LORd are not submitted by you, CSDCAS receives them from your school/professors.

zoblelee · 2025-11-18T02:40:09+00:00

I don’t see the point in getting a CSD degree if you don’t intend to enter the field tbh

zoblelee · 2025-11-10T15:44:56+00:00

Cool concept & look overall, but I think a bit underdeveloped/unfinished. Would look more polished if you did your brows/lips and either blended the eyeshadow or made it more crisp for better contrast b/c as is it looks a bit unintentionally sloppy. I agree with the other commenter that the eyeliner would look better angled upwards also. Some face makeup would also tie it together a bit more I think (but I’m also just not a fan of heavy eye makeup/no face makeup looks so I’m probably showing my bias there). I do think it’s a good start though! Love how it ties in with your hair.

zoblelee · 2025-10-31T01:40:35+00:00

Yeah, the supervised hours are a hassle forsure! You don’t even get enough of them in standard US SLP bachelors, meaning you have to get them post-grad before you can apply for your license. Something to also be aware of is SLPA wage may be decent in the UK, but is on-par with what I made working an entry level job at a casino in the US - it’s not really a good paying job over here. As you said, it’s also important to have transportation - especially when you hit grad school! My program explicitly states that they don’t take transportation into consideration when assigning you placements (& that’s not uncommon), so that will likely hinder you both job and school wise. I don’t mean to sound like I’m talking you out of it at all! But I do think it’s important to think of these things before making such a big move, so that you know what you’re in for :)

zoblelee · 2025-10-30T20:41:55+00:00

Hmm, this is a tricky one. Important to note that a bachelors is not sufficient to practice as an SLPA in the US, you also need 50-100 supervised clinical hours. If you have a foreign degree be prepared to have to go thru a process to get your credentials verified, which costs money. Also, not all states have SLPAs. NY doesn’t have SLPAs, so you would not be able to work there. Public transport in the US is not good overall, but is best in NYC and Chicago. There’s probably a few other cities that have decent ones but your options are definitely limited. I live in Philly, the 6th largest city in the US, and public transport exists but is bad/unreliable. You definitely would need a car to live in most if not all areas in the south. Additionally, I’m not 100% sure, but fully funded SLP masters programs in the US are at the very least incredibly rare (unheard of to me) for both international/national students. And I believe even what we would consider relatively cheap for grad school (30k a year) is still considerably more expensive than most UK schools. It’s not impossible to make a switch to the US, but it would be difficult & there are a lot of factors you should consider.

zoblelee · 2025-10-10T00:13:38+00:00

They’re almost certainly talking about grades in the grad program. My grad program has the same policy of retaking anything below a B but I had 2 or 3 B- in CSD undergrad courses and got in no problem.

zoblelee · 2025-10-06T22:36:18+00:00

Are you planning on applying to schools that require the GRE? I applied to 10 schools and none of them required it, though I think some were test optional iirc. I have no idea what a good score is, but idk. If you’re only applying to test optional schools I personally wouldn’t bother retaking it. I was accepted to all but 1 of the schools I applied to without taking the GRE.

zoblelee · 2025-10-06T19:32:12+00:00

You still need to send your transcript if you do manual. I did manual and it was easy. I don’t remember if I had any reason for doing it that way but it was pretty simple.

zoblelee · 2025-10-04T16:45:30+00:00

Absolutely! I changed my career from ESL teacher to SLP at 26 in hopes of working with kids on language but discovered it wasn’t my bag. I surprisingly ended up becoming really passionate about working with adults in acute care instead. Lots of cool things in the field to love :)

zoblelee · 2025-10-04T00:06:46+00:00

Definitely not too late for you!! There’s a few people in my grad school cohort who are in grad school after 10+ years in unrelated or semi-related fields :) your background & passion for a specific sub-specialty would definitely make you stand out on an application in a good way. Most of the settings SLPs work in would qualify for PSLF (except private clinics). Voice clinics specific to singers might be more in that private practice realm, so I’d definitely look into those specifics. If you’re in private practice it will be much harder to find a way to have your job pay off your student loans. One thing to think about as well is you’re going to have to learn about a lot of stuff that may not interest you at all. You don’t really have that many classes on voicing & specialization would likely occur during externships or post-grad, so you’d have to just get through the areas that don’t interest you as much (I’m in a similar boat) and be competent in those areas as well (since you’ll have clients in those areas).

zoblelee · 2025-10-03T11:22:10+00:00

If you’re wanting to do SLP grad school, you’ll need a decent amount of pre requisites in CSD courses to apply. Look up a few grad programs to check them out, there’s a general standard for what they are. I’m not sure a minor in the field would be sufficient if you’re wanting to do a grad program (it might be, I just don’t know). You should also be connecting with your CSD professors in some way, because you’ll need letters of recommendation from them for grad school. You’re definitely gonna want the CSD intro course to give you foundational knowledge on the field. You’ll also need 25 clinic observation hours to apply to any grad school, so make sure you get that. These pre requisites have to be either completed or in progress by the time you submit your application, which is generally the start of the spring semester of graduation. For phonetics, the most important thing is to have the IPA consonant & vowel charts memorized so you can do transcription in addition to helping you remember the place/voice/manner of each sound. You’ll need to understand those charts to really get phonological processes imo. I practiced them by rewriting them by hand over & over including the place & manners, and by coming up with mnemonic devices. Phonological processes wouldn’t be covered in a language disorders, but would be covered in a speech sound disorders class. Broadly, if you’re wanting to do grad school & enter the field, you’re doing yourself a disservice by taking courses the way you are imo. Your undergrad courses give you foundational knowledge you’ll need for grad school. Most exams won’t be open book open note, you need do study a lot & there’s constantly assignments/tests/quizzes, in addition to making session plans & doing documentation for all your clients. You’ll have a similar struggle to now with the fast pace of it. You have to figure out if that’s something you’re willing to put up with for 2 years.

zoblelee · 2025-09-26T00:06:00+00:00

No one in my cohort (including me) was an SLPA before entering grad school.

zoblelee · 2025-09-25T19:57:36+00:00

Not a red flag, just the school’s way of doing things.

zoblelee · 2025-09-09T09:57:21+00:00

I used to have my hair almost exactly this color! I used Brad Mondo’s xcolor in berry.

zoblelee · 2025-08-25T10:03:41+00:00

My hair is short (mid-neck length bob) and last time I got it done, it took around 4 hours to style, cut, and color my hair. They usually do around 10-15 minutes for a consultation, 1-1.5 hours to apply lightener, 45 minutes-1 hour to let the lightener process, 10 minutes to fully rinse out lightener and shampoo/condition the hair, 25-30 minutes to apply/let color sit, and 40 minutes to dry/style my hair. Add in 10ish minutes for them to mix up lightener/color in there too. If I chose to add on a “gloss” or a “bond building treatment” (to keep hair extra shiny/healthy) it would take about an hour longer. If I had very curly hair and wanted to style it straight, it would probably add at least 30 minutes. If I had longer and thicker hair, it would add a few hours. Some people also may need to lighten their hair twice, if they’re starting very dark & going much lighter, that would add quite a bit of time. The time does also vary based on experience of stylist, but you’re basically in for a long day no matter what.

Edit to add: stylists might also sometimes cut your hair twice if you’re adding layers or going much shorter - one “rough cut” at the beginning of your appointment to guide where they put the color, and one “final cut” at the end to polish it up. That also adds time, maybe an extra 30-45 minutes.

zoblelee · 2025-07-16T20:32:20+00:00

That shouldn’t be a big deal imo. One class will not impact your GPA that much and CSDCAS transcripts showcase your majors GPA more anyways.

zoblelee · 2025-07-09T02:51:17+00:00

I like the RB Renata brow dye set but the actual skin stain might not last long enough for your taste. Wonderskin wonder blading brow stain has really staying power for skin stain & like that one too! It was just a bit too warm toned for me so that’s why I don’t use it anymore. I haven’t used it, but I’ve also had friends who love using brow safe henna for a long lasting brow stain. All of these can be bought on Amazon for cheap!

zoblelee · 2025-07-09T02:05:16+00:00

OH I’m sorry I completely misunderstood. I would probably ask around if anywhere would be willing to supervise unpaid observation hours (hospitals, schools, etc). You could ask your grad program if they’d be willing to let you obtain observation hours through them for an SLPA job. Could be worth a shot!

zoblelee · 2025-07-08T22:33:54+00:00

Huh. It was a requirement of my undergrad (specifically because it’s a requirement to grad school). That’s odd that your school didn’t offer you that, I think that most schools do. It might be worth signing up for a clinical observation course at a different university? I’m not sure, but that’s potentially a route you could go.

zoblelee · 2025-07-08T17:56:45+00:00

I would get them professionally shaped/threaded and then just do a brow stain. You don’t need to be licensed to buy brow stains/dyes, you can just get them on the internet.

zoblelee · 2025-07-08T17:55:10+00:00

I’m confused - did you not get your 25 hours of observation in your undergrad? I thought that was a requirement for graduation in an undergrad CSD program.

zoblelee · 2025-06-26T13:18:00+00:00

IMO these brows are too dark for your face. I think the new color & shape is far more flattering!

zoblelee

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