Chair

Kathy Vander Werff, PhD
621 Skytop Road, Suite 1200
315-443-9637

Contact:

Phone: 315-443-9637
Email: csd@syr.edu

Faculty

Academic: Jamie Desjardins, Karen Doherty, Beth Prieve, Kathy Vander Werff, Clinical: Joseph Pellegrino, Kristen Kennedy and Tammy Kordas, plus adjunct instructors for specialty areas.

Program Description

The Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders offers an AuD/PhD degree for those students interested in receiving both a professional doctoral degree (AuD) and a research doctoral degree (PhD). The professional doctoral program is designed to meet the current requirements for the ASHA Certificate of Clinical Competence. The research doctoral degree (PhD) is designed for students interested in a traditional PhD program that focuses on research and prepares students for careers in teaching and/or research.

Students must be accepted and enrolled into the AuD program at Syracuse University prior to applying to the dual program (AuD/PhD). Application to the AuD/PhD program may only be made after successful completion of (minimally) the first year of the AuD program.

Students who are interested in the AuD/PhD should contact a faculty member in their area of research interest. Sponsorship of the student by a faculty member must be agreed upon prior to the time of enrollment in the dual program. In addition to fulfilling all the AuD program requirements, students completing the dual degree program will complete a guided research experience early in the program culminating in a submitted publication prior to taking the qualifying exam. AuD/PhD candidates must pass a pre-qualifying exam at the end of their first year in the dual program and qualifying exams at the end of their coursework. These academic and research experiences lead to the dissertation, which is typically completed following the clinical externship year of the AuD.

Admission requirements:

All candidates for the dual degree must first be admitted to and complete minimally the first full year of the AuD program. Each student in the AuD/PhD program must have a faculty research sponsor, and this sponsorship must be agreed upon prior to application and admission to the dual program. To apply to the dual program, the candidate must take the GRE if scores (within the last 5 years) were not already submitted when admitted for admission to the AuD program. Typically, formal application should be made by the January 1 deadline for PhD admissions in the second or subsequent years of the AuD program. AuD students applying to the dual degree must submit applications through the Syracuse University online graduate application system. 

Candidates for admission to the dual degree program should possess a bachelor’s degree with a GPA of 3.5 or higher on a 4.0 scale in the last 60 semester credits of their undergraduate degree. A minimum GPA of 3.5 in the candidate’s graduate coursework is also required. In addition, the candidate should have obtained a minimum percentile score of 40% in the Verbal section (raw score ≥ 149), 50% in the Quantitative section (raw score ≥ 153), and a 4.0 in the Writing section on the Graduate Record Examination taken within the last 5 years.

One letter of recommendation is required, which should be from the proposed mentor, along with a CV/resume, and a detailed personal statement responding to all required prompts will be required when submitting application materials. The candidate for the dual program will also submit at least one example of research writing, which may include a research paper, literature review, significant writing assignment from a course, article critique, or other demonstration of research-related writing to provide the advisor with an indication of the student’s written communication skills and level of experience with research-related writing prior to agreeing to serve as their research mentor.

Degree Requirements:

The AuD/PhD is a 95-credit program, including the 77 credits of the AuD program. There must be a minimum of 18 unique credits for the PhD program of study. This allows students to pursue both their clinical training and their research training in a rigorous, intensive and streamlined program.  It is anticipated that completion of the dual degree program will require a minimum of 6-7 years of full-time study (including the 12-month clinical externship).

Financial Support:

All applicants are considered for departmental graduate scholarships and assistantships during the admissions process.

Facilities:

The CSD academic department and Gebbie Speech Language Hearing Clinic are located at 621 Skytop Road on South Campus.