Admissions Overview
Thank you for your interest in UT Tyler’s Master of Science in Speech Language Pathology!
Our program’s vision is to be a nationally recognized clinical and academic training program designed to enhance healthcare, education, and quality of life in East Texas. Our mission is to prepare highly qualified clinicians who think critically, serve compassionately, and practice ethically for the betterment of the East Texas community.
The Master of Science in Speech Language Pathology consists of 60 credit hours. The program provides students with their 400 required clinical clock hours to complete the program. The program is five semesters (fall 1, spring 1, summer, fall 2, spring 2) which are completed over the course of two years. The program is a full-time, in-person, residential program. Student hours are typically 8 am to 5:30 pm each day.
UT Tyler’s MS SLP program is an excellent clinical training opportunity, as our in-house Speech, Language, and Hearing Clinic is a fully functional for-profit clinic housed in the Family Medicine Practice on the UT Health East Texas/UT Tyler Health Science Center North Campus. Our students receive intensive, real-world training beginning in their first semester. In their first three semesters in our on-campus SLHC, students rotate through multidisciplinary teams with a wide range of medical professionals in order to assess and treat communication disorders across the lifespan.
Read below to find out more about our admissions requirements, prerequisites, and application timeline.
Admissions Requirements:
- Official Transcripts: Applicants must submit official transcripts from all postsecondary institutions attended. Please wait to submit your current institutional transcript until it reflects your Spring course enrollment (if not yet graduated). The transcript you submit with your application must show the spring classes you are enrolled in as “IP” or “In Process” to evaluate your application.
- English Language Proficiency:
- TOEFL minimum score: 87
- DET minimum score: 115
- IELTS minimum score: 7.0 band score with a 6.5 in each subsection
- Letters of Recommendation
Applicants must submit three letters of recommendation from individuals familiar with their academic or professional qualifications. Suggested sources include professors, academic advisors, or professional supervisors. Recommenders will be contacted via the application system to submit letters electronically.- Please do not request letters of recommendation from friends, family members, family friends, religious leaders, or other non-academic and non-professional relationships. While we are sure those individuals may speak highly of you as a person, the purpose of the recommendation letter is for us to understand whether you are prepared for the academic and clinical training environment in a graduate setting. So, your best recommenders will be those from academic and professional environments.
- Personal Statement
Applicants must submit a personal statement (maximum 3 pages double spaced) that specifically explains why (1) the applicant wants to be a speech language pathologist, and (2) why the applicant wants to attend UT Tyler.
Prerequisite Requirements:
- Bachelor's Degree: Applicants must have a bachelor's degree from an accredited higher education institution. While a degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) or Speech-Language Pathology is preferred, it is not required. Applicants without this background may need to complete specific prerequisite courses before applying to the program.
- GPA: A minimum overall undergraduate GPA of 3.0 is required.
- including a 3.0 GPA in the major.
- Prerequisite Courses: Applicants must have completed the following courses with a grade of B- or better:
- Anatomy & Physiology of Speech, Language, and Hearing
- Speech & Hearing Science
- Language Acquisition and Development
- Phonetics
- Introduction to Audiology
- Neurological Foundations of Speech, Language, and Hearing
- For the following prerequisite courses, view this website for more information, including description of the requirements and example courses
that meet the requirements
- Introductory Biology
- Introductory Chemistry OR Physics
- Introductory Statistics (excluding business statistics)
- Introductory Social and/or Behavioral Sciences
- Human Growth and Development, Lifespan Development, or Developmental Psychology (the applicant may obtain credit for this requirement via a CLEP test if the student has not taken this course as part of their academic program)
- Clinical Observation Hours: It is recommended that applicants have completed at least 25 hours of supervised clinical observation with a certified ASHA provider obtained as part of an academic course.
- Conditional Acceptance: The program will consider applications from students who do not have the 25 observations hours completed or have no more than 1 missing prerequisite course. The Human Growth and Development/Lifespan Development course is not included in this because applicants can take a CLEP Test for credit. If the applicant meets all other program criteria, their acceptance will be contingent upon completing the 25 observation hours or undergraduate prerequisite course during their first semester with a grade of B or above.
Key Dates:
July 1st: application opens
February 1st: priority deadline
We will continue to accept applications until the Fall cohort is full.