Admission Requirements for the Master's Degree

The graduate program requires:

• Cumulative GPA, GPA in the major, and/or last 60 credits GPA greater than 3.0
• Excellent letters of recommendation
• A strong, well-written personal statement
• Demonstrated proficiency of the English language as required by the Graduate School. 
• The completion of several undergraduate courses (see required coursework below)
• 25 clinical observation hours MUST BE completed prior to enrollment as a M.S. student

GRE: Graduate Record Examination

Scores from the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) may be submitted but are not required.

Personal Statement

All applicants must submit a personal statement. To the extent permitted by the current development of your plans, the personal statement should include the following:

1. Your long-term professional or academic goals
2. The position you hope to obtain after your graduate work is completed, and your preference among alternative types of positions
3. The specialized interests you intend to pursue in such a position
4. The age group you plan to work with or study
5. Your reasons for selecting the plans you have described
6. What you consider to be your strengths
7. What you consider to be your challenges
8. How attending graduate school in Communication Sciences and Disorders at Penn State University will meet your goals
9. Anything you wish to say that might be relevant to your application, personal needs, and planned area of graduate study

Required Coursework

• Anatomy and Physiology of Speech and Hearing Mechanisms (3 credits): Structure and function of speech and hearing mechanisms and overview of neuroanatomy and neurophysiology related to speech and hearing.
• Introduction to Audiology (3 credits): Physics, physiology, and psychology of hearing; measurement and evaluation of hearing loss; educational, social, and vocational problems of the hearing-disabled.
• Aural Rehabilitation (Auditory Training, Speech Reading, etc.) (3 credits): Methods for improving receptive skills of persons with hearing impairments.
• Clinical Phonetics (3 credits): Physiological and acoustical characteristics of American English speech sounds with emphasis on transcription of speech samples.
• Normal Language Development (3 credits): Acquisition and development of language in children.
• Acoustic Principles in Communication Sciences and Disorders (3 credits): Explores the fundamental concepts of acoustics as applied to individuals with communicative disabilities; special emphasis is placed on the acoustic analysis of speech.
• Introduction to Disorders of Articulation and Phonology (3 credits): Etiology, diagnosis, and treatment of articulation disorders.
• Principles of Clinical Management in Communication Sciences and Disorders (3 credits): Survey of principles and practices for diagnosing, interviewing, counseling, treating, reporting, and programming in Communication Sciences and Disorders.
• Statistics (3 credits): Foundations of statistical techniques used in educational research; distributions, central tendency, variability, correlation, regression, probability, sampling, and hypothesis testing.
• 3 credits in biological sciences
• 3 credits in physical sciences
• 6 credits in behavioral and/or social science

Qualified applicants will be admitted to the master's degree program even if they do not have all of the prerequisite course work. Their programs will be designed to provide prerequisite course work during the master's degree program. However, due to the sequence of undergraduate and graduate courses, students who have not completed these courses will extend their two-year program. Completion of these courses require at least an additional fall and spring semester. Prerequisite courses must be at least a 3-credit course unless stated otherwise. All applicants will be notified if they need to complete prerequisite course work during their programs and the length of their programs.

Applicants with no previous practicum experience should expect to enroll for extra practicum experiences, which might increase the length of their programs.

In addition, applicants interested in obtaining teacher certification in Pennsylvania take additional courses that must appear on undergraduate and/or graduate transcripts. Please be advised that completion of these courses may extend the program.

Many US states and territories require professional licensure/certification to be employed. If you plan to pursue employment in a licensed profession after completing this program, please visit the Professional Licensure/Certification Disclosures by State interactive map.