This page is for High School Students looking at what Speech Pathology or Audiology offers you.
This major is one of the most rewarding majors out there and there are so many options. As an undergrad student you will start out as a Speech Pathology / Audiology student. Meaning you will be taking the required classes for both in Undergrad. And that may sound annoying but it's actually important because each of those careers overlap and you really need to have an understanding of how one affects the other. In the grad program you have choices. You can go into Audiology which does require a doctorate. If you go into Speech Path you have to get your masters, only so far. That may be changing. So be prepared you may be going for your doctorate.  If you love the sciences and don't really want to work on clinical work you can become a Speech Scientist or even a linguist if you really want.  But the options are out there. And once you graduate from the masters or doctorate program of the specialty you choose. The doors even open further. So I suggest keep your options open. And remember that the work and effort that you deal with in college will help you out in the real world.
Ok.. Now that you know what options are available in terms of careers. Let's talk about how fun and what classes you'll face as a student. Now I can't promise that a course hasn't been added or removed. Things like that happen as our field changes and ASHA learns what is beneficial for us to learn. But it should give you a basic idea of what to expect.  I'm going to start with classes. I know that's the boring part. You wanna hear if you'll have time to be a collegue student and what fun it is to be in that major. But I feel knowing the classes will give you an idea what to expect.  Ok classes..  Speech Path 1 , Speech Path 2, Diagnostics, Clinical Observation, Intro to Audiology, Audiotory Rehab and Speech Reading, Fundamentals of Audiology, Phonetics, Science of Sound (which is a Physics course), Head, Neck, and Thoracs (This is an anatomy course and be prepared. You will see human cadavers such as human head. I've seen one in my class at Bloomsburg University. But it really isn't as bad as it sounds. Trust me I thought it was going to be a lot worse. But you get use to it.), Normal Language Acquisitions (which does have grammer), and Psycholinguistics (which is a fun course).. And I may have left something out. Sorry if I did. When I find that mistake.. I'll come back and edit. I'm not perfect. I'm human. But hey. The idea is for you to get a gist. I'm not an expert completely on a senior whose gone through the UNDERGRAD program. So remember if you have someone whom has graduated from grad school you might wanna ask them how it is. Because I can only tell you about the undergrad and my experience here at Bloomsburg University
Now this is the fun stuff. It's not classes. Not that they are not important or interesting. Trust me in your four years you will feel like you can't fit anything else in your head but it's possible... hehe at least that's what our prof's say. And I have a concentration in Deaf education as well as minor. So it's possible..and I have a life. So don't worry. It's a tough major but rewarding and loads of fun.   You'll meet many people. If your a guy don't worry. There are at least usually one or 2 guys in a class. At times you may be the only guy.. But you have all the girls to yourself. And trust me there is nothing sissy about a guy in this field. This field is hard core stuff. So don't be afraid to do this field. It's loads of fun and the professors are great. You'll find that you can fit a normal College student life, and add clubs organizations and school on top. So go for it. What do you have to lose? Mabye your sanity.. Well I'm not going to argue. But that's school.
These views are my own. And not of every Speech Path major. But they're positive views and I hope that you really consider them as options.