I'm currently a new student majoring in Communication Sciences and Disorders at UMass Amherst, and it seems as though I have found almost no one else in my major since I've been here. If you are in the same boat I am, you know that you're almost one of a kind, and it’s more than likely that you fall into agreement with at least one of these tell-tale signs, or they have personally happened to you.

1. It’s ComDis. Because no one has time for “Communication Sciences and Disorders” when the “name, year, and major” ice breaker seems to ALWAYS come up, never mind the fact that whatever room you’re in is most likely filled with future engineers or computer science kids, and they won’t know what you’re talking about anyway. As soon as you begin college, you’re “ComDis” to just about everyone.
2. If you do happen to tell someone the full name of your major, all they will hear is “Communications” and immediately think you’re trying to be on TV, which is why again, just smiling and saying "ComDis" is the best way to go.
3. When you do say “ComDis,” people will inevitably ask you to explain further. That’s when the full major name comes out, and as they continue to look confused, the next thing to say is “yanno, like speech therapy.” That usually sparks a bit more familiarity.
4. You are probably a member of your school’s NSSLHA chapter, whether you know what it does or not. The National Student Speech Language Hearing Association is a student-run organization recognized by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and it offers pre-professional help to both undergraduate and graduate students, volunteer opportunities with different service projects, and information for those interested in the major. When you tell your friends that you’re off to your “nish-la” meeting, they’ll ask each time what that is or why the acronym sounds like a different language. You most likely will not have an answer to either of these questions, and that’s okay.
5. Speaking of different languages, though linguistics will become one of your bffs, your roommates and friends will have NO clue what you’re doing as you sit at your desk sounding out a word 35 times to decide whether to transcribe it into IPA with a “ə” or a “ʌ.” I put a picture of my linguistics homework on my snap story one day and had two different people ask me, “what language are you taking?” I do have to say; they’re always a little bummed when they find out, it’s still just English.
6. ComDis is, at most places, a very small major. At UMass Amherst, for example, the classes for it are housed in a single building that kind of resembles a one-story house, and out of the 22,000+ undergrads, only about 300 are declared Communications Disorders majors. Out of the remaining 5,000 graduate students, only around 80 are pursuing a degree in Speech Pathology or Audiology. That being said, meeting another student in this major is basically the visual representation of the confetti emoji, or angels coming down from Heaven while the chorus sings “Hallelujah” in the background and the glorious white light is cast down. You finally have someone to study with and someone who won’t judge you for having to question out loud whether a phoneme is [+] or [– strident], as well as someone to walk to NSSLHA with every other Monday.

Lasting piece of advice/here’s a timeless pun for those hardcore ComDis kids out there – “Live like a schwa: never stressed”