The program also serves to provide students in other curricula at Penn State with orientation toward and information about communication disorders. Facilities for student training and research include in-house clinical therapy and diagnostic services, laboratories in speech science and audiology, and affiliated schools and clinics. The program enjoys academic, research, and clinical relationships with a number of related programs at Penn State and draws upon academic work from related areas as part of the graduate training in communication disorders.
Preparation is given for school and professional certifications and licensure.
Graduate study requires a full-time externship experience, ordinarily occurring during the final semester of study. Approximately 35 credits are required for admission, distributed among speech pathology, audiology, speech science, education, and psychology, and including a course in statistics. The best-qualified applicants will be accepted up to the number of spaces that are available for new students. Usually students earn a master's degree in communication disorders prior to being considered for doctoral study, although persons with master's degrees in other fields will be considered for a doctoral program. The master's degrees require a minimum of 50 graduate credits beyond admission standards.