Prerequisite Requirements

Minimum overall cumulative GPA of 3.0 (on a 4.00 grading system) is required for an application to be reviewed. A higher GPA may be necessary to be competitive for admission.

GRE scores are not required or considered for admission to the program. 

Students are not required to have an undergraduate major in speech-language pathology or communication disorders, but are required to enter our programs having completed all prerequisite courses in basic communication processes as well as communication disorders described below.

Speech and Hearing Prerequisites

• Anatomy and Physiology of the Speech and Hearing Mechanism (3 credits)
• Phonetics (3 credits)
• Language and Literacy Development in Children (3 credits)
• Basic Audiology (3 credits)
• Speech Science (3 credits)
• Content in Articulation and Phonological Development and Disorders or Child Language Disorders: Assessment and Intervention (3 credits) *200 level course and/or above
• Clinical Observation* (see below for additional information)

Prerequisites from Other Subject Areas*

• Social and/or Behavioral Science Course (3 credits)
• Biological Science Course (3 credits)
• Physical Science Course (3 credits)
• Statistics (3 credits)

Students are not required to have an undergraduate major in speech-language pathology or communication disorders, but are required to enter our programs having completed all prerequisite courses in basic communication processes as well as communication disorders described below.

Additional Prerequisite Courses for Teaching Certification Majors Only*

• Educational Psychology (or equivalent)
• Social Foundations of Education (or equivalent)

As stated in the standard below, ASHA requires a minimum of 25 observation hours. Students are encouraged to complete these hours prior to beginning the graduate program. In the event that a student has not completed these hours prior to beginning the program, they must be completed by the end of Block 1 of the first fall semester.

ASHA Standard V-C (2020)
Twenty-five hours must be spent in guided clinical observation, and 375 hours must be spent in direct client/patient contact. Implementation: The guided observation and direct client/patient contact hours must be within the ASHA Scope of Practice in Speech-Language Pathology and must be under the supervision of a clinician who holds current ASHA certification in the appropriate profession and who, after earning the CCC-SLP, has completed (a) a minimum of 9 months of post-certification, full-time experience (or its part-time equivalent) and (b) a minimum of 2 hours of professional development in the area of clinical instruction/supervision.

Guided Clinical Observations

Twenty-five (25) hours of guided clinical observation hours must be completed in the undergraduate or graduate program and generally precede direct contact with clients/patients. Guided clinical observations may occur simultaneously during the student’s observation or afterwards through review and approval of the student’s written reports or summaries. Students may use video recordings of client services for observation purposes. Examples of guided clinical observations with a clinical educator who holds the CCC-SLP may include but are not limited to the following activities:

• debriefing of a video recording
• discussion of therapy or evaluation procedures that had been observed
• debriefings of observations that meet course requirements
• written records of the observations

It is important to confirm that there was communication between the clinical educator and observer, rather than passive experiences where the student views sessions and/or videos. The student is encouraged to (a) observe live and recorded sessions across settings with individuals receiving services for a variety of disorders and (b) complete debriefing activities as described above. The graduate program will determine how the guided observation experience should be documented. Evidence of guided observations includes signatures from the clinical educator and documentation of hours, dates, and activities observed.