On the Hunt for Online SLP Grad School Programs

You want to find speech-language pathology graduate schools that offer distance education options, but you don't know where to start.  If you type in SLP online grad school programs into google, you get over 200,000 results and most of them either relate to SLP grad schools (but not online) or online schools (but not SLP grad programs).  You can find a few links here and there, but it's a lot to go through to find what you are actually looking for.

ASHA EdFind used to have a more comprehensive search and you could look specifically for online grad programs, but for some reason when they updated the search engine they dropped that option.  EdFind is still a useful tool to get a nice overview of the requirements of a particular program, but networking with current students and SLPs is the best way to find out what schools are out there and what the programs are like.

So, where do you connect with current students and SLPs?  Message boards, message boards, message boards!  Facebook has many online groups dedicated to SLP: Future SLPs (Speech-LanguagePathologists), IMAGAS (Insight,Mentoring, AND Guidance for Aspiring SLPs), SLP Grad Applicants -From USU and Beyond, are just a few and this last one is really useful because most of the members graduated from Utah State University's online post-bachelor's in communicative disorders and deaf education and many of them are applying to online grad schools or going to online grad schools in SLP.  It was started by USU post-bacc students, but is open to all graduate applicants from any university.

Other useful message boards to post inquiries into online grad programs are: Speech and Language PathologyLive Journal, SLPJob.comForums, and RedditSpeech-Language Pathology .

When you are researching online schools you have to make sure that the program is CAA Accredited.  What is CAA accreditation?  CAA stands for the Council on Academic Accreditation in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology and it is the entity within ASHA authorized to accredit graduate education programs for the professions of audiology and speech-language pathology.  If the school you are interested in is CAA accredited, then it means that it meets the standards for the accreditation of graduate education programs that provide entry-level professional preparation in audiology and speech-language pathology.  You can check on EdFind to find out a school's accreditation status.

Who goes online?  Many (but not all) online grad students are career-changers, have families, and would be classified as “non-traditional” students.  They are more anchored into their communities and do not have the option to move to go to grad school.  SLP graduate programs are few and far between so their local universities may not offer SLP at the graduate level.  These online programs are tailored for the non-traditional student and they tend to be more flexible so students can meet family obligations as well as continue working while in school.

It takes a tremendous amount of discipline to attend SLP graduate school online and these programs provide an education that is every bit as rigorous as attending classes in a more traditional university setting… sometimes even more so.

If you'd like to read more about SLP grad students who decided to go online, then check out SLP_Echo's posts about online SLP Graduate Programs:
Part 1.  
Part 2.

And here is a link to a list that I've compiled so far of online grad programs and their requirements: Online Grad School List.

Just another SLP in the making