u/melatonin414

Hi everyone!

I’m an incoming SLP grad student interested in acute care and becoming a medical SLP in the hospital setting. What are the best things I can do before graduate school begins to prepare? I am in the midst of finding places to shadow and volunteer but I’m struggling right now, as I may be looking in the wrong places.

I’ve dug a deep hole working with children for six to seven year. I know that getting into any medical setting is incredibly competitive so I want to see what I can do now to start making my experiences look intentional and geared towards that area.

Hey everyone,

As of now I’m beginning my transition into an slp grad school program beginning in August. While waiting I earned my RBT certificate. I’ve been working in the ABA realm for six months now because I was told working as an RBT is a fine segway into the SLP field.

However, I look a lot on reddit and just the SLP community as a whole and noticed that ABA therapy is not looked highly on. I can understand where they are coming from as the more I work with the kids at my job, the more I recognize the areas in which ABA must improve on.

But with that being said, i’ve already had my fair share of experience in being a counselor, babysitting, and other ways to involve myself with childcare. I’m not sure how else to strengthen my resume other than research. So being an RBT makes sense to me right now.

My concern is that I don’t want recruiters to look at my job history and feel a way if they see that I’ve worked as an RBT. I know that fear my sound quite ridiculous but I just see a lot of disagreement with ABA, I wouldn’t be surprised if they turned down prospecting SLPs such as myself because I’ve worked in a field that somewhat stems away from the fields belief of child autonomy.

I am an undergraduate senior and currently wrapping up my independent study (IS) course. While the experience has been very very rewarding (I learned a lot about myself and my skills), the experience has also left me with a lot of insecurities. Specifically in my writing abilities.

I am curious to know for anyone else who has done IS during their undergrad, if they felt their advisors have helped them grow in their skills throughout the process. Or did you often feel like you were lost in the dark and didn’t have much understanding of what the outcome was meant to look like?

Another question for anyone who has felt this way, does doing research in grad school get any better? In terms of having the faculty in your department support you during your research? As I head into my grad program this summer, I do worry that the experience I’m having now with my advisor may be very similar to what I may go through in grad school.