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The clinical master’s program in speech-language pathology (MS-SLP) at Purdue is designed so graduates can meet all academic, clinical certification, licensure and credentialing requirements of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), the Indiana Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Board (ISLPAB) and the Indiana Department of Education Communication Disorders License. 

The Master of Science (MS) program in speech-language pathology (residential) at Purdue University is accredited by the Council on Academic Accreditation in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2200 Research Boulevard #310, Rockville, Maryland, 20850, 800-498-2071 or 301-296-5700.

Student Outcome Data

Program Highlights

  • The MS-SLP graduate program prepares you to provide independent clinical services in speech-language pathology to individuals of all ages through coursework, clinical experiences and research.
  • High-quality clinical education is integral to the MS-SLP program. You will have opportunities to work under the direct supervision of clinical faculty members in the M.D. Steer Speech, Language and Swallowing Clinics to diagnose, assess and treat communication and swallowing disorders and acquire the skill sets needed to become a licensed, certified speech-language pathologist.

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Admissions/Requirements

Applications for admission to our clinical programs (AuD, MS-SLP) require materials to be sent both via the Centralized Application Service for Communication Science & Disorders (CSDCAS) and via Purdue’s online systems.

To be considered for admission, your application should be marked by CSDCAS as “Complete” or as “Verified” before January 15.

Material to be submitted to CSDCAS:

  1. Application submitted and fee paid
  2. Official transcripts received from all universities granting any credit
  3. Official evaluations of any international transcripts, that are not originally in English and/or do not follow the 4.0 GPA scale.
  4. Three letters of recommendation*
  5. CV or resume. Please be sure to include relevant experience in the areas of leadership, collaboration, critical thinking and community advocacy.
  6. Personal essay  Used for admission purposes. Please follow the prompt in the CSDCAS application.
  7. Other Additional Essay – Optional. Please follow the prompt in the CSDCAS application.
  8. Video response to question prompt.

*You will not be penalized if the recommendations you requested are not received by the deadline date.

Please contact the Graduate Program Secretary with any questions.

CSDCAS Application

  1. Application submitted and fee paid (Click here for the Purdue Graduate Application)
  2. Copies of official transcripts as directed in the Purdue Graduate School application
  3. For those whose first language is not English, official English proficiency test scores less than 2 years old
  4. CV or resume
  5. Academic Statement of Purpose – Used for award considerations. Please follow the prompt in the Purdue Graduate Application.
  6. Personal History Statement Used for admission and award consideration. Please follow the prompt in the Purdue Graduate Application.

    Any questions you have can be directed to the Graduate Program Secretary.

Prerequisite Courses for MS-SLP Clinical Degree

Minimum Undergraduate Course Requirements

Students who plan to achieve professional clinical certification through the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) in Speech-Language Pathology will be expected to take all of the following prerequisite undergraduate courses prior to the beginning of the graduate program.

  • 1 course in normal anatomy & physiology for speech and hearing
  • 1 course in acoustics or speech science
  • 1 course in normal language development
  • 1 course in aural rehabilitation other than sign language
  • 1 course in hearing disorders and hearing evaluation
  • 1 course in phonetics
  • 1 course in biological sciences
  • 1 course in physical sciences
  • 1 course in behavioral/social sciences
  • 1 course in statistics covering at least t-tests, analyses of variance, regression (correlation) and non-parametric statistics (e.g., chi-square). This should be a stand-alone course in statistics. Research methodology courses may not be used. The courses offered at Purdue University that are acceptable are: STAT 30100, STAT 50100, STAT 50300, PSY 50000, and SOC 38200. Other Purdue courses and all transfer courses must be approved by the Graduate Committee. AP credit cannot be used to meet the statistics requirement.

For questions about the prerequisite requirements, applicants should contact the graduate program secretary, Vicki Black, at slhsgradsec@purdue.edu as soon as possible.

Prerequisite Students

We accept students with a bachelor’s degree in other areas. We consider this type of student a prerequisite applicant. Students accepted into the prerequisite program will take an extra year to complete. All applicants are evaluated equally regardless of their degree area. Students with bachelor’s degrees in other areas may also take the prerequisite courses prior to applying to our program.

Completion of 25 Observation Hours

Graduate students do not participate in a clinical practicum until they have completed 25 clock hours of ASHA certified, supervised guided observation. Therefore, students entering the MS-SLHS clinical program must complete 25 clock hours of ASHA certified, supervised guided observation prior to the beginning of the program. These guided observation hours must be accumulated through observation of evaluation and treatment of children and adults with disorders of speech, language, swallowing, or hearing.  The guided observation experience must be signed by a Speech-Language Pathologist or Audiologist with current certification (CCC-SLP or CCC-A) status. For students who did not complete 25 clock hours of observation, an online option will be offered, to be taken by the students during the summer before they begin the graduate program. Students should reach out to the Director of Clinical Education as soon as possible.

Applications for International Students

Please note, the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences has higher minimum requirements for English language proficiency for a clinical degree than the Purdue University Graduate School. Also, SLHS does not waive this requirement even if you have earned a degree within the past 24 months from an institution where English is the primary language of instruction.

To be eligible for admission into the clinical programs, or to be eligible for departmental funding as a PhD student (unless other arrangements are made with the students’ PhD supervisor) all international applicants must meet the higher department standards.

English proficiency test scores are required of all international applicants whose first language is not English.

TOEFL Ibt: a minimum total score of 100 with minimum individual scores of 28 for speaking; 22 for writing; 22 for listening; and 22 for reading.

IELTS: a minimum score of 7.5 with no single band score lower than 7.0. International transcripts must be uploaded or submitted in their original form and in translation, along with copies of any diplomas awarded. Please send any paper transcripts to the Graduate Program Secretary.

View Admissions Criteria View Course List MS-SLP Sample Plan of Study MS-SLP Handbook

Research

The department has a long record of significant contributions to research and professional education. Because of this the MS-SLP program offers opportunities for students to explore research alongside faculty across a variety of topics to address speech, language and swallowing disorders.

SLHS student in lab

Research Opportunities

  • Aphasia
  • Autism spectrum disorder
  • Language development
  • Language disorders
  • Linguistics
  • Sign language
  • Dysphagia
  • Fluency
  • Neurogenic disorders
  • Speech sound disorders
  • Voice disorders

Research Areas

  • Language Science; Language Disorders and Disabilities
  • Speech, Swallowing, and Voice Science; Speech, Swallowing, Voice Disorders

Research Facilities

  • Aphasia Research Laboratory
  • Attention and Neurodevelopmental Disorders Lab
  • Child Language Research Lab
  • Child Phonology Lab
  • I-EaT Lab
  • Language Learning and Meaning Acquisition Lab
  • Motor Speech Lab
  • Neural Systems for Language Processing Lab
  • Purdue Infant Speech Lab
  • Sign Language Research Lab
  • Voice Lab —Sivasankar Research Group
Chenell Loudermill

Program Director

Chenell Loudermill, PhD, CCC-SLP, has nearly twenty years of experience as a Speech-Language Pathologist, thirteen of which were obtained working as a Speech-Language Pathologist in the public schools before moving to higher education.