Students interested in pursuing a career as a speech language pathologist should consider joining the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders.

The undergraduate curriculum at the University of Houston provides a pre-professional foundation for graduate study in Communication Sciences and Disorders and related fields. Courses are offered in typical and disordered speech, language and hearing across the lifespan. Students choose to pursue a Bachelor of Science degree or a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Any incoming freshman, college transfer, international, or current UH student interested in majoring in COMD must apply first as a PRE-COMD Major. Pre-COMD majors are required to complete the following prerequisites prior to being approved as COMD majors.

• Completion of COMD 1333 Introduction to Communication Disorders or its equivalent
• Completion of COMD Core Courses with grades of B- or better:

• • COMD 2339: Speech and Language Development
  • COMD 2338: Phonetics
  • COMD 2376: Anatomy
• Completion of a speech, language and hearing screening
• Earned a minimum overall GPA of 2.67

Once Pre-COMD requirements are completed, students must file a general petition to declare a COMD major. The general petition is subject to evaluation by the advisor, the undergraduate coordinator and the department chair. Students are NOT considered COMD majors until the petition has been approved.

Admission into the graduate Speech Pathology program at the University of Houston requires an undergraduate degree in Communication Disorders.

If you have earned a degree in another area, you must first complete the Post-Baccalaureate Leveling Program before applying. This program will provide you with all pre-requisite courses necessary for admission.

The pre-requisite courses include:

SCIENCE & STATISTICS COURSEWORK:

1. Biological Science (e.g., biology, human anatomy)
2. Physical Science (MUST be physics or chemistry)
3. Social Science (e.g., psychology, sociology, anthropology)
4. Statistics

Science courses do not have to have a laboratory component. Science courses cannot apply both to math/science requirements and ComD requirements (e.g., human anatomy cannot count both for biological science and for head/neck anatomy for communication).

COMMUNICATION DISORDERS COURSEWORK

• Anatomy & Physiology (A&P for speech & hearing; head & neck anatomy for SLPs, etc)
• Phonetics
• Speech and Language Development
• Speech and/or Language Disorders (can be in children or adults)
• Audiology
• Aural Rehabilitation
• Speech Science
• Clinical Procedures (Coursework that specifically encompasses these areas of communication disorders: therapy implementation, diagnostic process, ethics, and professionalism.)
• Please note that ALL of the Communication Sciences and Disorders pre-requisite courses listed above must be completed before August 15th of the year you have been admitted, or your admission will be automatically deferred to the next admission cycle.
• You must have completed a minimum of 12 hours of the Communication Sciences and Disorders pre-requisite courses listed above by January 1st of the year you are applying, or you will not be eligible to apply for that admissions cycle.

Yes, to a certain extent, you may complete pre-requisite courses outside of the University of Houston. However, our general advice is that if you are enrolled at the University of Houston, you should only take courses that fulfill prerequisites for your professional school application at the University of Houston.

If you completed your undergraduate degree or leveling courses at a university other than the University of Houston you may be asked to submit syllabi from select courses. These will be reviewed to ensure that all required competencies have been achieved.

The Graduate Record Exam (GRE) is the standardized exam that most speech pathology programs use to require for admission (including the University of Houston).

The GRE is offered monthly via University Testing Services. You should plan to take the GRE in your junior or senior year depending on when you plan to apply. Most applicants take the GRE between January-May as they head into the application cycle.

The GRE consists of three sections:

• Quantitative
• Verbal
• Essay

You should not plan to take the GRE more than 1-2 times.

A competitive applicant has:

• Strong pverall GPA (>3.)5
• Strong pre-requisite/major GPA (>3.5)
• Strong GRE (>305 combined)
• Extra-curricular involvement (leadership in student organizations, research, employment, etc.)
• Significant experience or exposure to field of speech pathology.

In Fall 2019, only 28% of applicants to the University of Houston Speech Pathology graduate program were accepted. The average GRE scores of those accepted were: 152 Verbal, 150 Quantitative, and 4.0 Writing. The average GPA in the major was 3.88, and the average overall GPA was 3.82.

Yes, the University of Houston Speech Pathology graduate program requires that you have a minmum of 25 hours observing an ASHA certified Speech Language Pathologist prior to beginning graduate clinic. These hours must be recorded and signed by the SLP.

The Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Houston will use CollegeNET for the processing of graduate applications. Proceed to Graduate School link below to create a CollegeNET account, submit an application, review a submitted application, and access post-submission functionality. To learn more about the process and to access the UH Graduate School application page, please click here.

To complete the application process, you will need to provide the following:

1. An official transcript from EACH college or university from which you have received course credit even if past course work appears on a later transcript.
   • Transcripts will be sent to the University Graduate School rather than the ComD Department or the University Admissions Office
   • CollegeNet provides instructions on where to send transcripts. Please visit their site for more information on how to apply.
2. Three Letters of recommendation
   
   • CollegeNet will prompt you to provide the names and email addresses of your recommenders. Once you have submitted that information, the CollegeNet system will send an automated email to your recommenders with instructions on how to submit letters.
3. GRE scores. You must give ETS  the following code when submitting a request for official GRE scores: 6870
   • There will be a place in CollegeNet for you to self-report your unofficial GRE scores. Official GRE scores are required.
4. An Updated Resume.
   • There will be a prompt in CollegeNet that will allow you to upload your resume.
5. A personal statement of interest.
   
   • Do not exceed two double-spaced pages.
   • There is no specific writing prompt. "Write a personal statment" is the only prompt. 
   • There will be a section in CollegeNet that will allow you to upload your personal statement.
6. A Departmental application fee of $75. This fee should be paid online during the application process.

The CollegeNet Application must be completed by January 15. Incomplete applications will not be considered in the admissions process.

Decision letters will be sent out by the Department in mid-March.

• American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA)