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Applying for a Clinical Fellowship

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Help! I’m finally finishing up my master’s program but need assistance in first steps for applying to my clinical fellowship

If only job applications were as easy as the picture above. Applying for jobs can be tough, especially your first one as a clinical fellow. Hopefully this checklist will facilitate your job application process!

  1. First thing’s first. You’ll have to apply for a temporary license for the state that you’ll be working in. When I was applying for my CF, I wasn’t bound to a geographic location since it was more important for me to be working in my preferred clinical setting. I ended up applying for a couple of states’ temporary licenses. The application for each state is different, but for most states it’s just a couple of forms to fill out (some portions require your CF supervisor and/or boss to fill out) and a fee. They also might require you to verify your enrollment in your graduate program. You can usually submit a request online from your university and have it mailed it directly to the state board of education. On average, it takes between four to six weeks to process after you submit your application.
  2. If you’re worried about not having taken the Praxis, don’t fret! I believe you have one year from your graduation date to take the Praxis and submit your scores to ASHA for your Certification of Clinical Competence. However, I would recommend to try to take it while you’re still in school so all of the information is fresh.
  3. Some states require Basic Life Support/CPR certification to practice (e.g. the state of New York does not it, but Illinois does). I would recommend making sure your certification is up-to-date.
    • If you’re working with children, the state of New York also requires a separate certification, the Teacher of Students with Speech and Language Disabilities (TSSLD). This certification may be required depending on which clinical setting you are working in.
  4. Apply before graduation!! I’m sure you’re already hearing this from your professors and clinical faculty, and maybe you’re already applying now, but applying for a job takes time. My previous clinic director advised to start applying three months prior to your targeted start date.
    • Indeed, Monster, and Glassdoor all have job postings, so I would recommend looking on those websites.
    • If you’re looking for a hospital position, each hospital and/or their respective company will post job opportunities on their respective websites as well.
    • Reconnecting with old professors and/or mentors to maybe see if they know of or have job positions available.

Applying to jobs, let alone a CFY can be a frustratingly long process! Take a deep breath and take your time with it! And try not to compare yourself to other classmates. It took me several months post-graduation to find the right CFY suitable for me and I’m grateful I didn’t just commit to the first opportunity that I found.

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Important Factors to Consider When Committing to a Program

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WOOHOO! Now that I’ve been accepted into a couple of programs, how do I decide which program is best suited for me?
This was one of the toughest decisions for me.

  1. First off, congratulations on getting accepted into not just one but multiple programs! One of the first helpful things I did was contact program directors and seek ways to connect with faculty members and possible classmates to get a sense of how the program is run.
    • Does the prospective program offer tours to meet some of the faculty and answer questions that I might have? If not, will I have access to any of the faculty members and/or program directors? I took the initiative to reach out to program directors for any questions I had regarding the program. My program director was also very helpful and created a google group where all the accepted candidates could communicate and talk amongst ourselves for any questions we had in regards to starting the program (e.g. which neighborhoods people were thinking about moving to, bringing a car, how best to find potential roommates).
    • The two programs I was deciding between both offered a tour and/or luncheon to meet staff and faculty as well as become acquainted with how the program was run. While this option might seem expensive and time-consuming with the travel and accommodation fees, I do believe that it’s important to go to get a sense of how the program is run and how the campus feels. It also gives you a chance to explore the city you would potentially be living in if you haven’t been before.
      • Remember, this is a future investment for the next two years of your life and will probably impact more than just the two years that you’re there.
  2. While I just mentioned above that this is a future investment, it’s also important to consider tuition cost when you’re deciding between programs. If you don’t have financial support from your loved ones, the government loans available have a HIGH interest rate, and our salaries as speech-language pathologists (especially when completing our clinical fellowship), are not high.
    • For reference, my job as a clinical fellow was offering me $36/hour at a skilled nursing facility in Brooklyn. Calculating plans to pay back loans over an X-year plan can help determine whether the program is worth it to attend. I know that U.S. News and World Report has a list of top-rated graduate programs for speech-language pathology, but unless your program isn’t accredited, I wouldn’t take the rankings too seriously.
  3. The graph above is one created by The Wall Street Journal which calculates if tuition costs are worth paying based on graduates’ salaries one year post graduation. This information is useful to determine how/if a certain program’s degree impacts one’s future earnings after graduation and can provide insight when deciding if the program is a worthwhile investment. In other words, does having a degree from Northwestern University matter to employers enough to give you a higher salary than someone who graduated from University of Central Florida?
  4. Is my program in a large city and typically how large is a graduating class? While being a big city may be enticing to some people, it also has its downsides. Big cities often are saturated with other graduate programs and other students looking to complete their clinical hours required to graduate. One of the questions I would ask program directors is how difficult is it to place students in their externships and if preference (i.e. if you’re interested in a hospital versus school placement) is heavily factored when placing students in their clinical placements.

What if I’ve only been accepted to one program and it seems to be too expensive or not worth it to attend? Should I take a year off and re-apply next year?
I asked my research professor in undergrad this question since he’s on the admissions board for a master’s program in speech-language pathology. What I’ve been hearing from not only him but other faculty members is that unless you do something incredibly meaningful with that one year (e.g. getting involved with Teach For America or create some sort of amazing project), your application after taking a year off will not look as competitive as the others who have just graduated from undergrad.

That being said, I know deferring your acceptance to graduate schools for a year is also an option if finances are a concern for you. If you feel that going straight from undergrad to graduate school isn’t financially responsible in your situation, I would look into it. Just to be clear, you would still have to go through the entire process of applying to graduate schools and then after being accepted to programs, reach out to them to see if deferring is an option.

Deciding which program to attend is a serious and big decision! Take your time and try to get all the information you can before making a decision. Asking for my loved ones’ advice also helped me. Congrats again on making it this far!

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Which Graduate Programs Should I be Applying to?

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Applying to Graduate School Programs
With the GRE now under your belt (here’s the link for tips on how to prepare for the GRE from a previous post: https://slptobe.com/ways-to-help-prepare-for-the-dreaded-gre/), you now have to decide which programs to apply to.
Here are some questions I would have asked myself when starting the application process:
1. How much does tuition cost and is there financial assistance to help with tuition cost? In undergrad, there are many different types of scholarships and grants available to students. Unfortunately, there are significantly less financial assistance options for graduate students. I didn’t have much direction with this application process, and regretfully didn’t consider tuition cost when applying to graduate programs. As a result, I was forced to choose between two very expensive schools.
2. Are there opportunities to get involved in research if you’re interested? Some graduate programs may advise against getting involved in research labs since it can be hard to balance demands between the two. If research is something that you’re interested in, I would look into research opportunities when applying to see if it’s possible to get involved. An honors thesis is an option if you have time and are interested in doing your own research study while you’re in the program. Even though our graduate program deterred those in the master’s program from volunteering in research labs (since they didn’t think it was feasible to uphold our clinical and academic responsibilities while also committing to hours in the research lab), we were still given the opportunity to volunteer if we really wanted to.
3. Which schools accept the common application and if they do, why not apply to them? The more applications you put out, the more options you have when having to decide which school to attend. While it can be costly to apply to schools ($85 here and there adds up quickly), I do think it’s important to look at it as a future investment. To become a speech-language pathologist, you must attend and graduate with a master’s degree. Since graduate school is mandatory, it doesn’t hurt to have several options to choose from when you’re deciding which program is best-suited for you. If you’re strapped for money, I would suggest maybe even saving up the summer before senior year in preparation for graduate school applications. I don’t think it’s a bad idea to apply to as many graduate programs as possible, since the alternative could be reapplying next year and competing with the class below you.
4. Realistically, which schools would I be accepted to? It’s important to look at the programs’ average GRE scores and GPA for previous accepted candidates. Extracurricular activities such as volunteering experiences and research participation are also taken into consideration. Make sure you also spend time writing your personal statement and essay responses! They can build up your application where numbers may be lacking.
5. Should I be applying for graduate school and expected to attend right after undergrad or is it a good idea to take a gap year? This question is answered in the following post “Important Factors to Consider When Committing to a Program.” Here’s the link for reference: https://slptobe.com/important-factors-to-consider-when-committing-to-a-program/

Hope these pointers were helpful for your application process! This can be a stressful time and hopefully with more knowledge under your belt, you’ll be more prepared to tackle your applications.

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Ways to Help Prepare for the Dreaded GRE

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Taking the GRE may seem like an incredibly daunting task (especially if you’re not the greatest at taking standardized exams like I am), so here are three tips I would give myself if I had to retake it.

Three key things that I found useful in preparing for the GRE were:

1. Setting a realistic date for when you would be taking the exam. I remember at first wanting to schedule the test only a month away, thinking that I should take it sooner so that I would have sufficient time to reschedule and retake the exam if necessary. That mindset was wrong since it allowed me to go in with less determination thinking I could retake the exam if my scores weren’t high enough and to spend less time studying seriously the first time around. For me, a month to study in the midst of undergraduate studies and finals wasn’t a realistic timeline.

2. Scheduling consistent and realistic study times. If you’re taking the GRE while you’re still taking undergraduate classes like many others, it can be easy to push off studying for the GRE and prioritize more immediate deadlines (e.g. undergrad finals, quizzes, assignments, projects, etc) instead. What helped me make sure I was on track with studying was to dedicate scheduled times for GRE preparation. And it was imperative that I was realistic when planning out my schedule. As someone who is highly distracted, blocking out an entire Saturday from 10 am to 6 pm wasn’t reasonable, so I would set aside 2-hour chunks during the weekdays and then 4-hour chunks during the weekends (I used the weekends to do entire practice exams). This schedule worked for me, but if you’re someone who can sit down for hours and crank out an entire exam, plan for that!

3. Taking entire practice exams from start to finish, and time yourself as you would during a live GRE. I spent a lot of time reading how each section was structured and also completed a lot of individual practice sections. Instead, more time should have been spent on completing an entire 4-hour examination in order to practice endurance. When I went to take the real exam in January, I ended up being worn out only halfway through the test.

To all those preparing for the GRE: Good luck! You’ll do great!

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Building Relationships

Looking back during my undergraduate years, there were a couple of things I wished that I did a little differently…one of which was getting more acquainted with my classmates. To give you a little context, I graduated from the University of Florida’s Communication Sciences and Disorders program in 2014. UF’s program is slightly unique because you apply to be accepted into the major the beginning of spring semester of sophomore year. Junior and senior year classes are specialized with almost all of them pertaining to audiology and/or speech-language pathology.  Because the classes were specialized and limited to a certain number of students who were accepted into the major, I had more opportunities to become friends with my classmates. Alas, I failed to seek out friendships and didn’t really talk to many of the classmates I had, which resulted in missing out on group-studying opportunities. I realized later on in graduate school that (actual) group-studying could be incredibly effective and useful for actually learning the material. Needless to say, forming those relationships and connections are important! 

Connections with classmates aren’t the only ones that are important. Building relationships with your teachers and professors is equally crucial. I was fortunate enough to have some of the same professors for multiple classes, which then helped me establish a better relationship with teachers. Recommendation letters are important for applying to graduate programs and job applications and to have a convincing letter of recommendation, it definitely helps to good connections with teachers, professors, and/or mentors. 

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COVID-19 Information for Unemployment and Health Insurance

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I was an SLP working at a skilled nursing facility in Brooklyn and unfortunately had to make the difficult decision to quit my job during COVID-19. During this time, I realized obtaining information for health insurance and filing for unemployment/Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and the paid family leave is such a time-consuming and seemingly impossible feat…so I thought I would try to create a “sparknotes” version of it in hopes of helping out anyone else needing this information during this time. Note that the below applies only to New York State as the process differs by state.

  1. Filing for unemployment. There are two forms of unemployment assistance. The first is the standard unemployment insurance (UI) program, and the second is the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program. To apply for both, follow these steps below:

A. File an unemployment claim through the Department of Labor (DOL) website: https://unemployment.labor.ny.gov/. You will need to create an online account as part of this process. Note that due to large application volumes, you may only be able to apply on certain days. ofthe week.

B. Once you have an online account, you can then go into your to “Online Forms,” then “Forms Available for Filing,” and then also file the “Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Application.” Note that you must apply for UI before you apply for PUA; if for some reason you have applied for PUA without applying for UI, you need to restart the process and file them in order.

C. Direct deposit is an option to receive your unemployment/PUA benefits, so make sure direct deposit is set up in your account if you would like that as an option after filing a claim.

D. After filing a claim for regular Unemployment Insurance, you will automatically be reviewed to see if you also qualify for an additional weekly $600 for Federal Pandemic

After completing the steps above on April 8th, I received both UI and PUA money on April 17th through direct deposit. Also, make sure you claim your weekly unemployment benefits EVERY WEEK! You just log into your unemployment account, click “Online Services” and go to “Certify Claims”. They ask you a series of questions to see if you qualify for that benefits that week. The week ends on Sunday, so make sure you do this befoe then.

If you accidentally missed claiming unemployment benefits for a certain week, you will have to go through a separate process to claim the missed benefits. To start this process, you need to send a secure message to the DOL through your online account. The information that I read states that it could take up to 2-3 weeks to process.

2. Filing for health insurance. This is a different process from unemployment. I’m sharing my experience going through the New York State of Health Marketplace below.

A. I first went to the NYC Health page: https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/health/health-topics/health-insurance.page. There you can get free, in-person help to access low-cost health insurance. I called the number listed on the website and left a voicemail with my corresponding enrollment officer.

B. I received two phone calls the next day. The first call was for a health insurance screening (done completely over the phone), and the second call was the actual health insurance application with an enrollment officer (again done completely over the phone). Make sure you have your most recent month’s worth of pay stubs as well as proof of your unemployment status ready, as these are needed to process the application.

C. During my application call with the enrollment officer, I was told that my application cannot continue due to an “HXID stop”. I did not and still do not understand what this was and why it blocked my health insurance application. Nevertheless, I had to call a separate number given to me by my enrollment officer to remove the stop. I ended up calling the same number three separate times over the course of a week before my enrollment officer called me back to tell me that the “HXID stop” had been removed and helped me finish the application. My application was approved on the call, and I was able to choose my healthcare plan on the spot.

D. I received my health insurance membership card in the mail roughly a week after my application was approved.

I hope that this information was helpful! Good luck to everyone who has been affected by the pandemic.

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