Overview
Our master's degree in communication sciences and disorders is ideal for those who wish to specialize in speech-language pathology. You’ll gain the knowledge and skills to assist those who struggle with speaking, understanding, or expressing themselves. We foster innovative faculty-student collaborations and a supportive environment to inspire student success.
Degrees Offered
Master of Arts
with a concentration in Speech-Language Pathology
- A thesis is a requirement for the Master of Arts degree. An oral defense of the thesis is required during the last semester of enrollment.
Master of Science
with a concentration in Speech-Language Pathology
- Master of Science candidates are required to pass a final written comprehensive examination during the last semester of enrollment. The Graduate Program Coordinator will provide additional information regarding requirements for the comprehensive exam at the start of the program.
Why Study Communication Sciences and Disorders at Radford?
- We currently have 190 clinical externship sites nationwide. For your final fieldwork experience you can choose to stay local or request a placement in another state. We work with students to set up placements in settings based on their preferences.
- You will graduate from an accredited program in Speech-Language Pathology.
- We have a traditional two-year track for applicants who have completed all required undergraduate CSD coursework and a three-year track for those who with a degree outside of the Communication Sciences and Disorders major.
- Our goal is to be inclusive, and the admissions process involves a holistic review of applicants considering: personal experiences and attributes, overall and major GPAs, and scores from a situational-judgment test (Casper).
Careers and Internships
The Communication Sciences and Disorders master’s degree helps you gain the skills to prepare for a variety of possible work environments and settings, including hospitals, acute care, outpatient, skilled nursing, long-term care, schools, and private practices as a speech-language pathologist.
Speech-language pathology ranks #10 in the top 100 Jobs and #3 in Best Healthcare Jobs in the US News and World Report (2022). Not only is it one of the top-ranked career paths, but also the job outlook for speech-language pathologists is 19% growth from 2022 to 2032. The median pay in 2022 for SLPs in the US was $84,140 (US Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Learn more about speech-language pathology career insights and outlook here.
Students complete their first three semesters of clinical practicum in the Radford University Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic. During these first three semesters, clinical training is provided by the COSD faculty at the on-campus clinic. For the last two semesters of the graduate program, students are assigned to external practicum sites and receive their clinical training from ASHA certified speech-language pathologists. We currently have 190 externship sites across the nation.
Opportunities for Communication Sciences and Disorders students at Radford
When getting your degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders at Radford, you will work closely with your professors and have opportunities to work on faculty-student research collaborations.
The experience we offer in this program is very hands-on: we have an on-campus clinic that provides training and clinical services to 60-80 adult & pediatric clients from the community each semester. Students will provide therapy in this clinic for their first 3 semesters with clinical training provided by our faculty.
Beyond hands-on learning, we have 15 graduate assistantships ($4,500 per AY) and 6 department scholarships ($5,000-7,000) to award with additional funding available.
Students in COSD can join the Radford University Chapter of the National Student Speech-Language Hearing Association (NSSLHA) https://www.radford.edu/content/wchs/home/cosd/nsslha-ru.html
Admissions Requirements
Supporting undergraduate coursework for the following topics is required prior to beginning the graduate coursework sequence:
- Anatomy and Physiology of the Speech, Language, and Hearing Mechanism
- Introduction to Audiology
- Language Development
- Phonetics
- Clinical Methods
- Articulation and Phonology
- Speech Science
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28 students is the average cohort size creating an optimal student-faculty ratio
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100% average Praxis Exam pass rate of our students
(2019-2020 through 2021-2022)
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100% average employment rate of our students
(2019-2020 through 2021-2022)
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95% average program completion rate of our students
(2019-2020 through 2021-2022)