I knew I wanted to major in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology since my junior year of high school. But nothing could have planned me for what I've learned so far. If you're a Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology major, you'll know the following things to be true.
1. Dialects and accents are not the same.
You hear people talking and try to figure out if they have a dialect or an accent and where it's from.
2. You'd better hope you get along with your classmates because they'll be in practically all of your classes.
My cohort is around 70 students. So, when there are only two sections per class, you see a lot of the same people every time you go to class.
3. The already small classrooms are crowded.
Pragmatics has to do with social skills, such as personal space. In our classes, we are severely lacking in this particular pragmatic skill.
4. You diagnose yourself with everything.
Broca's aphasia, TBI, stuttering, conductive hearing loss, you name it. If you show one symptom, you have it.
5. Any spelling skills you have go down the drain.
Once you take phonetics, you start spelling everything phonetically and have a hard time actually spelling things correctly.
6. You geek out over kids' speech and language.
You love spending time with kids, part of the reason being you get to think about what articulatory and phonological processes they exhibit.
7. Going to the doctor becomes something you look forward to.
Since starting college, I've had otitis media, pharyngitis, and bronchitis. It's great being able to talk to my doctor and know what we're talking about.
8. Listening to music is a great opportunity to study audiology.
Just picture the sound waves traveling through the EAC, your vibrating eardrum, your ossicles displacing the fluid in your inner ear, sending nerve signals to the brain...
9. There's a never-ending amount of school.
Yes, I'm a junior in college. No, I'm not almost done. I still have two years of grad school, a clinical fellowship year, and I have to get my Certificate of Clinical Competence.
10. Also never-ending homework.
Homework, reading, research, papers, quizzes, exams galore.
11. Bonding over stress and anxiety.
It's a real thing. Odds are, you and your classmates have the same stuff to worry about. Namely, grad school.
12. One big, happy (competitive) family.
We might all compete for acceptance into grad schools, but at the end of the day, we all support one another.
It's a good life, and while it may be insanely stressful at times, I wouldn't trade my flip-out-over-everything-speech-language-and-hearing-related life for the world.
