A Two-Year Program (8 quarters)
~90 Credits

Didactic Courses
Didactic courses listed are required courses in the Core SLP Graduate Program (except for Counseling which is a highly recommended “in-department” elective for Core students).  Students in the Core program are required to take one “in-department” elective and one “out-of-department” elective, which must be approved by the student’s advisor. These must be taken during the graduate program.

Important Note: Didactic courses are scheduled around the needs of the clinical practica scheduling. Prospective students should be aware that some required courses may need to be offered during the evening hours (e.g., 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.). In addition, classes may occasionally need to meet on Saturdays.

Clinical Practica
All students must complete a minimum of 375 clock hours of supervised clinical experience in the practice of speech-language pathology (325 minimum in the graduate program) plus 25 hours of observation for a total of 400 hours. Observation hours are typically completed prior to beginning the graduate program but can be completed during the graduate program.
 
Students are required to complete a minimum of 29 practica credits within the UWSHC (not including the preinternship and internship). Students should not have any difficulty completing, if not exceeding, all required clock hours across all clinical experiences provided. Students need to plan for the fact that it will take a full 8 quarters to complete all practica, the preinternship, and internship.

Important Note: Students need to understand that if they have their internship during the Spring Quarter, they will return in Summer Quarter to complete required clinical practica at the UWSHC. These practica will not be waived and students are expected to be available throughout the entire Summer Quarter.

Below are the core practica registrations which students are expected to complete during the graduate program. With the exception of a diagnostic experience at CHDD and the internship, all practica are carried out at the UW Speech and Hearing Clinic.

* students may choose either 552BII or 552D according to their interests.

Practica assignments will be determined by the Tracking Coordinator.  To ensure that all students progress through the program completing all requirements in a two-year period, it is necessary to determine each student’s practica track at the beginning of the program of study. The number of practica credits assigned will vary from person-to-person across quarters, but the total number of practica assigned and required didactic course credits will never exceed 18 credits per quarter.  All students are required to take the practica to which they have been assigned.  Requests to change the practica schedule must be made no later than the last week of the quarter, 2 quarters PRIOR to the quarter for which the change is requested (e.g., if a change is requested for Spring quarter, the request must be made no later than finals week Autumn quarter). Changes are not always possible and in all likelihood, changes to the plan of study will result in extending the individual’s program of study.

Internship
Internship placements will be determined by the Internship Coordinators. All students are required to do their internship in the placement to which they have been assigned.  Students may be placed in public school internships or in SLP clinics in the community.  Students will register for and complete the pre-internship experience in the quarter immediately preceding the internship.  The pre-internship and internship sequence may occur in either Winter & Spring or in Spring & Summer of the second year, to be determined by the Internship Coordinators. 
  
Prospective students should understand that if they want to be guaranteed experience in acute care/inpatient medical facilities they should consider the MedSLP program and not the Core program.

Important Note: Students will need to provide their own transportation for the pre-internship and internship. Internship Coordinators cannot guarantee placements that will be close to a student’s home nor can the Coordinators guarantee that the sites will be accessible to students via public transportation.

Non-Thesis vs Thesis Options
Students complete their program either by taking the comprehensive examination or completing a thesis.

Comprehensive Examination
The comprehensive examination for the Core program will be offered on the first Friday of Spring quarter of the second year. All students are expected to take it at that time. In the event that a student fails the exam, he/she will be given a second opportunity at the end of Spring quarter.  A third opportunity will be made available if needed during the first week of Summer quarter, and if a fourth opportunity is needed, it may be taken again at the end of Summer quarter.  All students who do not complete a Master’s thesis must pass the comprehensive examination to graduate.

Thesis Option
The thesis option is strongly recommended for students who may later pursue a doctoral degree.

In addition to the Core requirements noted above the student completing a thesis should also expect to

• take additional coursework requirements in statistics and research methods.
• students are required to register for nine additional credits of research credit and in some cases, students who do theses may have to extend their program to complete the project
• successfully participate in a thesis defense.