Speech and Language Therapy entry 2012

I sent it 23rd September, and have had acknowledgements from Reading UWIC and Marjon, but nothing from Manchester or City. Bum.

This whole process is so bloomin stressful! 2nd year round, it doesn't get any better!

Interview with a Speech Pathologist. Just stumbled across this and thought I'd share - how depressed does she sound?!

"[...]there’s just so many types of disorders and treatment, I almost feel like they should limit it more."

"What education or skills are needed to be a speech pathologist?
[...]I don’t know about skills, you pretty much develop them all in college if there is such a skill."

"What do you dislike?
The monotony. Everyday you kind of doing the same things, a lot of these patients have cognitive impairments, they don’t have any short term memory so every day is like Groundhog Day pretty much."

Haha. Wow...

SLPs do a slightly different job than SLTs in the UK. They tend to work in every client group at once, rather than taking a job which only covers one group. That's probably where she gets her ideas from.

Have you contacted the NHS Bursary folk? Their website seems to imply that as long as you live in the UK, you're eligible for funding:

NHS website

Sorry to be so nosey, but how come you're applying second time round? Did you not meet the grades last year?

Hope you hear something sooooooooon

I did have a look at Leeds but I couldn't see what Scottish qualifications they were asking for on their website. I've actually just come off the phone with SAAS (think yourself lucky those of you in England don't have to deal with this bunch of clowns!) and they're saying that I wouldn't get ANY funding at all to do a course in England, is this right? I seem to remember seeing someone on here saying that because of NHS funding I'd actually be better off doing my course in England. If SAAS are right that's reaaaallly restricted my choices because there's no way I could afford English tuition fees plus living costs (which are way higher than here) on a loan of £2265 which is apparently all I'd be entitled to. This is a real nightmare as I was falling more and more in love with Newcastle and I'm worried I won't get into Strath/QM! Eek!
AAB seems to be really high for QM? They only ask for 5Bs at Scottish Higher which I thought was quite low, that's a shame if you really liked it! I was impressed with the uni and the course but I felt the campus was a bit isolated? And the halls were really expensive!
I'm off to cry that Newcastle is off the table for me! =(

I don't think my PS demonstrated what they wanted to see last year, plus i didn't have enough evidence of recent study, as I completed my last degree in 2005, so did another A-level this year. Hopefully my ps was better this time round.

Ah I see,sorry t'was very nosey of me to ask! best o luck this time round then, it sounds as if you're v prepared. Glad there's some other second degree-ers about

Not at all. Not quite sure how prepared I am. Have no where near as much experience as many others, but hopefully our supposed maturity will make up for that!

Not at all. Not quite sure how prepared I am. Have no where near as much experience as many others, but hopefully our supposed maturity will make up for that!

Don't say that! My experience is pitiful compared to yours. Really do hope maturity makes up for it as I'm highly concious of how ancient I am. I went to the open day and looked more like the parents rather than the students.

On top of that I'm still really concious I've got a 2:2. I'm hoping that 90 Open University Credits in subjects they love will make up for that and my degree was in a biological science. But QMU who are my main choice (and almost only choice) do have high academic expectations. I know they told me all I have will make me a viable candidate but that's not much good if everybody else is better than me academically and experience wise.

Now I'm terrified about my PS. Spent months (started in August) building it up and rewriting it. I'm still not sure what reflecting on my experience actually means even though I've spent the last two weeks 'reflecting' and most of my PS is 'reflection'.

About to press send on my application but find it really difficult to press send as I'm not sure I can take the rejection. At my age I can't cope with waiting another year. The only thing that reassures I have some hope and keeping me from being in complete despair about my application is I'm a man they told me they were desperate for men and people bilingual in linguistically minority languages (like punjabi). Knowing my luck there will be an influx of applications from them this year.

Can anybody tell I'm in the panic, terrified stage of applying now and I've thought about this too much! Wish QMU had questionaires like everybody else so I could have more opportunity to show my knowledge and experience of SLT.

Well good luck everybody, I'm going to forget about this and do my best to pretend I haven't applied until somebody accepts/rejects me.

RE the 'I'm not sure what reflecting on my experience actually means', I've got that feeling... but I think it's just because I'm thinking about it too much! The concept of reflecting just seems too simple.

Ahh.. I want to tell you to stop worrying, but I'm pretty much the same! Are you only applying to QMU?

D'ohhhh, totally missed this. If only I'd seen your post an hour or so earlier! Thanks for sharing though - was it good?

QMU and Strathclyde, can't move from where I'm living so have to commute. But I've got my heart set on QMU, not only is it closer to me, but I loved it when I went to the open day even though i was really dreading going. The end result is therefore unlike most people with six shots, I've only got two, and even worse I've got myself set on one, to make the situation feel rather more hopeless its a rather demanding one.

Reflecting is hard as there is endless stuff to write about and you can reflect in so many different ways so it feels like the word reflecting is so broad and vague to be almost meanlingless in a situation where you've only got a tiny bit of space to talk about things.

QMU and Strathclyde, can't move from where I'm living so have to commute. But I've got my heart set on QMU, not only is it closer to me, but I loved it when I went to the open day even though i was really dreading going. The end result is therefore unlike most people with six shots, I've only got two, and even worse I've got myself set on one, to make the situation feel rather more hopeless its a rather demanding one.

Reflecting is hard as there is endless stuff to write about and you can reflect in so many different ways so it feels like the word reflecting is so broad and vague to be almost meanlingless in a situation where you've only got a tiny bit of space to talk about things.

I guess it's just to stop people listing things - i.e. 'I did this, this and this: now let me into uni'. Tis a very vague term though... I'm guessing that as long as you show you've learnt something from your work experience, then it'll be fine. Hmm... hope they don't keep you waiting too long

Reflection is also a massive part of professional development within the NHS and a big part of the course... if you're stuck and not sure how to do it, we were taught to use the frame work 'what? so what? now what?' to structure it to make sure you are covering all bases! Also remember the description of the event is probably the shortest part...

Reflection is also a massive part of professional development within the NHS and a big part of the course... if you're stuck and not sure how to do it, we were taught to use the frame work 'what? so what? now what?' to structure it to make sure you are covering all bases! Also remember the description of the event is probably the shortest part...

Hmm... I'm not sure that asking 'what?' three times really helps me to reflect, but I can see where they're coming from. They want to know briefly what it was, what was significant about it and what you'll use the knowledge for?

As a prospective student, do they want us to specifically describe the disorders we witnessed, reflect on how they were assessed and how this has made us want to study SLT all the more? Or more general things? :/