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Detailed Information

Program of Study

For more than sixty years, Emerson has been a pioneer in communication sciences and disorders, earning a reputation for excellence in clinical preparation. Fully accredited by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), the Master of Science (M.S.) in Communication Disorders Program prepares students to be critical thinkers and innovative clinicians and helps to build the foundation for a successful career in one of the fastest-growing fields in the country.

Emerson offers the academic and clinical resources of a large research university within a small college setting. Course work and clinical experiences, as well as Emerson’s faculty and state-of-the-art facilities, enable students to develop the skills to assess and treat a broad range of communication disorders in pediatric, school age, adult, and geriatric populations.

For more information about Emerson’s Communication Disorders Program, students should visit http://admission.emerson.edu/admission/graduate/academics/csd.cfm.

Research Facilities

The Emerson College library has more than 200,000 volumes, 20,000 journals (paper and electronic), 8,000 e-books, 10,000 nonprint materials, and 10,000 microforms in its collection that focuses on communication studies and the performing arts. Through membership in the Fenway Consortium, graduate students have access to more than 2 million volumes. Computer-assisted reference services provide bibliographic databases through Dialog, BRS, and other online services. The Online Computer Library Center is used for student research support.

M.S. degree candidates gain valuable hands-on experience in the Media Services Center, which provides students with access to approximately 2,400 films, videos, laser discs, and DVDs. The center is home to audio, video, and multimedia production facilities; a video studio; and several nonlinear editing suites comparable to those of any television studio in a major U.S. city.

Financial Aid

Emerson College offers several financial assistance programs that make graduate education possible: merit-based awards (domestic and international applicants), low-interest federal loans (domestic applicants only), Federal Work-Study (domestic applicants only), private loans (domestic and international applicants), Student Employment (domestic and international applicants), and alternative payment plans (domestic and international applicants). For detailed information, prospective students should visit the Office of Student Financial Services Web site at http://www.emerson.edu/financial_services/info-grad.cfm.

Cost of Study

Tuition for the 2008–09 academic year is $886 per credit hour. Other fees vary and may apply.

Living and Housing Costs

Though on-campus housing is not available for its graduate students, the Emerson College Office of Off-Campus Student Services (http://www.emerson.edu/offcampus_housing/) offers assistance in finding housing, including local apartment listings, realtor lists, temporary accommodations, search tips, pertinent neighborhood information, a roommate networking service, and more. Costs for housing are comparable to those of rental properties available in larger East Coast cities.

Student Group

More than 950 graduate students representing forty-five states and sixty countries are enrolled in Emerson programs.

Student Outcomes

Emerson graduates work in many different settings, including schools, hospitals, rehabilitation facilities, nursing homes, in private practice, and as consultants.

Location

Situated in the heart of downtown Boston, Emerson offers access to the vast resources of a city that is home to the nation’s finest educational institutions and an international hub of culture, media production, writing, publishing, communication, commerce, and medical innovation. Boston is a career launching pad for Emerson’s students, many of whom intern or work at world-renowned organizations throughout the city. Emerson students from around the country and the world absorb the city’s unique blend of local and global culture, and many find that Boston is an education in itself.

The College

Emerson College, founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson, has expanded upon its original mission of promoting the study of oratory and the performing arts by offering some of the nation’s most distinctive graduate programs in communication.

Applying

Emerson’s graduate programs welcome applicants from across the United States and around the world. Admission is competitive and selective. The College is looking for students whose academic and professional backgrounds, communication skills, and passion for the field meet the demands of their chosen program and promise a successful career.

The application deadline is February 15 for domestic and international applicants. Applications that are not complete by the final deadline are not reviewed be the admission committee. Applicants are responsible for ensuring the completion of their application. Application fees are nonrefundable; application forms and supporting materials become the property of the Office of Graduate Admission once they are sent to the office and are not returned.

All application materials, with the exception of GRE test scores, must be submitted together in one package to ensure timely review. A complete application includes the application form (students may apply online or they may download the PDF version), the application fee ($60 for domestic applicants; $75 for international applicants), official transcripts from all colleges/universities previously attended, three sealed letters of recommendation (by persons best able to assess academic and professional qualifications, including motivation, goals, and clinical potential), GRE test scores, an essay, and a professional resume.

Applicants whose native language is not English must provide evidence of English proficiency by submitting official TOEFL or IELTS test results. (Students from India and the Philippines are considered nonnative English speakers and are required to take the TOEFL.) Emerson College’s school code for the TOEFL is 3367; no department code is needed. The minimum TOEFL score is 550 on the paper-based test (213 on the computer-based test or 80 on the Internet-based test). The minimum IELTS score is 6.5. Applicants who do not meet this requirement will not be reviewed for admission. For more information about these tests, students should visit http://www.toefl.org or http://www.ielts.org.

Decisions are made on complete applications within six to eight weeks. Deadlines for merit-based and federal aid applications for fall are February 15 and April 1, respectively. Students seeking additional information about financing their graduate education should visit http://www.emerson.edu/financial_services/info-grad.cfm/.

The Faculty and Their Research

• Cynthia L. Bartlett, Graduate Program Director, Associate Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders, and Coordinator for Educator Preparation; Ph.D., Pittsburgh; CCC (Speech-Language Pathology), ASHA. Teacher, lecturer, author, researcher, and specialist in adult neurogenic communicative disorders, Dr. Bartlett has authored or coauthored articles in Brain and Language, Aphasiology, and the Journal of Speech Language Pathology and Audiology as well as several book chapters. More than fifteen years of hospital and medical center clinical experience provide the impetus for her ongoing interests in speech, language, and communicative difficulties in adults with acquired brain damage.
• Amit Bajaj, Assistant Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders; Ph.D., Wichita State; CCC (Speech-Language Pathology), ASHA. Teacher, researcher, and author, Dr. Bajaj’s areas of expertise are fluency disorders and speech science. He has published in the area of fluency disorders in the Journal of Fluency Disorders and Proceedings of the Fifth Oxford Dysfluency Conference, and in the area of epistemological beliefs in the Journal of Educational Psychology. He has presented papers at national and international venues in areas that include fluency disorders, multicultural issues, and use of technology.
• Anthony S. Bashir, Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders and Coordinator, Academic Support Services and Disability Services; Ph.D., Northwestern; CCC (Speech-Language Pathology) and Fellow, ASHA. Dr. Bashir is a teacher, lecturer, and author in the areas of learning disabilities and language disorders. He has also been chairperson of the ASHA Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities and is the author of numerous articles.
• Lynn M. Conners, Clinical Instructor in Communication Sciences and Disorders; M.S.Sp., Emerson; CCC (Speech-Language Pathology), ASHA. A Certified Early Intervention Specialist (CEIS), experienced clinician, and supervisor, Ms. Conners supervises graduate student clinicians participating in the Thayer Lindsley Family Centered Program for young children who are deaf and hard of hearing and their families and in the Robbins Center for Speech, Language, and Hearing.
• Laura Glufling-Tham, Clinical Instructor in Communication Sciences and Disorders; M.S., Northeastern; CCC (Speech-Language Pathology), ASHA. An experienced clinical supervisor and teacher, Ms. Glufling-Tham has many years of clinical experience working with adults with cognitive-communicative disorders, including aphasia, apraxia of speech, dysarthria, cognitive-linguistic impairments, and dysphagia.
• Jacqueline Weis Liebergott, Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders and President of Emerson College; Ph.D., Pittsburgh; CCC (Speech-Language Pathology), ASHA. Dr. Liebergott has extensive experience in the field of language disorders in children. Her research has included a longitudinal investigation of full-term and at-risk infants and a follow-up study of the relationship between early language development and academic success in normal and at-risk children.
• Seton Lindsay, Clinical Instructor in Communication Sciences and Disorders; M.S.Sp., Emerson. CCC (Speech-Language Pathology), ASHA. An experienced clinician, lecturer, and clinical supervisor, Ms. Lindsay specializes in work with young children who have a variety of developmental communication disorders. She has worked clinically on multidisciplinary teams evaluating and treating children with developmental disorders.
• Shelly Lipschultz, Clinical Instructor in Communication Sciences and Disorders; M.S., Wisconsin–Madison; CCC (Speech-Language Pathology), ASHA. Clinical supervisor, teacher, and consultant in speech-language disorders, Ms. Lipschultz has developed videotapes and test protocols for the informal assessment of cognitive and language abilities of young children, developmentally delayed adults, and nonspeaking persons.
• Amy B. Litwack, Clinical Instructor in Communication Sciences and Disorders and Clinical Outreach Coordinator; M.S., Boston University. CCC (Speech-Language Pathology), ASHA. An experienced clinical supervisor and teacher, Ms. Litwack has many years of clinical experience working with adults with cognitive-communicative disorders including aphasia, apraxia of speech, dysarthria, cognitive-communicative impairments, and dysphagia. She supervises graduate student clinicians in the department’s Program for Acquired Communication Disorders.
• David M. Luterman, Professor Emeritus of Communication Sciences and Disorders and Founding Director of the Thayer Lindsley Family-Centered Program for Hearing-Impaired Children (1960); D.Ed., Penn State; CCC (Audiology) and Fellow, ASHA. Dr. Luterman is a well-known teacher, researcher, author, consultant, and lecturer. He is a specialist in the hearing-impaired and in counseling. His books include Counseling the Communicatively Disordered and their Families, Deafness in Perspective, Deafness in the Family, When your Child is Deaf, In the Shadows: Living and Coping with a Loved One’s Chronic Illness, The Young Deaf Child, and Early Childhood Deafness (with Ellen Kurtzer-White). Dr. Luterman has presented many lectures and symposia around the world.
• David Lowell Maxwell, Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders; Ph.D., Southern Illinois; CCC (Speech-Language Pathology), ASHA. Teacher, researcher, consultant, and lecturer, with expertise in stuttering, orofacial malformations, and neurogenic disorders of speech and language, Dr. Maxwell has held appointments and consultancies at Boston University Medical School, Tufts New England Medical School, Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Douglas Thom Clinic, and numerous public schools and rehabilitation agencies throughout New England. He is the coauthor (with Dr. Eiki Satake) of Research and Statistical Methods in Communication Disorders and Theory of Probability for Clinical Diagnostic Testing. His current research interests are the role of temporal information processing in speech and language, working memory operations in oral language, and the use of probability statistics to improve the accuracy of diagnostic testing.
• Betsy C. Micucci, Clinical Instructor of Communication Sciences and Disorders; M.S., Emerson; CCC (Speech-Language Pathology), ASHA. Clinical supervisor, teacher, consultant, and early-intervention specialist, Ms. Micucci coordinates the early intervention curriculum that prepares students for early intervention certification. Ms. Micucci was Associate Director and Speech-Language Pathology Department Head at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center University Affiliated Program in Waltham, Massachusetts, prior to coming to Emerson College.
• Maria Mody, Associate Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders; Ph.D., CUNY Graduate Center; CCC (Speech-Language Pathology), ASHA. Researcher, lecturer, teacher, and author in areas relating to the behavioral and neural bases of reading and language disorders in children, Dr. Mody has used behavioral observations, electromagnetic recordings, and metabolic methods to study performance of typical and clinical populations with a variety of developmental disorders. She has lectured widely in these areas in the U.S. and abroad and has published in such journals as the Journal of the Acoustic Society of America, Phonetica, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, and Journal of Learning Disabilities.
• Mark Parker, Assistant Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders; Ph.D., LSU Health Sciences Center. Audiologist, lecturer, and researcher in the application of stem cell technology to the treatment of hearing loss, Dr. Parker has published in the Journal of Neuroscience Research, Audiology and Neuro-Otology, Experimental Neurology, and Drug Discovery Today. He also holds the position of Associate Research Scientist in the Department of Otology and Laryngology at Harvard Medical School, Children’s Hospital, Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Hearing Research.
• Marie-Kay Rimshaw, Clinical Instructor in Communication Sciences and Disorders; M.S., Wisconsin–Stevens Point; CCC (Speech-Language Pathology), ASHA. Clinical supervisor, consultant, and teacher, Ms. Rimshaw has developed residential communication programs for adults with Alzheimer’s disease, and she specializes in child language disorders. Ms. Rimshaw has provided clinical instruction and supervision for graduate students in the Midwest, and prior to joining the Emerson faculty, she was the manager of the HealthSouth Braintree Rehabilitation Network Clinic in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.
• Sandra Cohn Thau, Director of Clinical Education and Program Director for Teacher Education; M.A., Northwestern; CCC (Speech-Language Pathology), ASHA. Clinical supervisor, teacher, and consultant in speech-language disorders, Ms. Thau was the former coordinator of student training and the Rehabilitation Coordinator at the Kennedy Memorial Hospital (now Franciscan Children’s Hospital) in Boston.
• Krista M. Wilkinson, Associate Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders; Ph.D., Georgia State. Researcher, teacher, author, and lecturer, Dr. Wilkinson has authored or coauthored more than twenty articles in such publications as the Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, Augmentative and Alternative Communication, American Journal on Mental Retardation, Journal of Child Language, and Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. Dr. Wilkinson has lectured extensively to professional organizations and has served as instructor for an ASHA online professional development workshop. Her federally funded research interests are in the area of language acquisition and use in typically and non-typically developing children, including mechanisms of vocabulary acquisition, referential use, and gender differences in the use of language among youths with mental retardation. Dr. Wilkinson also retains an affiliation with the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center.

Correspondence and Information

Emerson College
Office of Graduate Admission
120 Boylston Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02116-4624
Telephone: 617-824-8610
Fax: 617-824-8614
Email: gradapp@emerson.edu