Chair

Kathy Vander Werff, Ph.D.
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 Au.D./Ph.D. degree for those students interested in receiving both a professional doctoral degree (Au.D.) and a research doctoral degree (Ph.D.). The professional doctoral program is designed to meet the current requirements for the ASHA Certificate of Clinical Competence. The research doctoral degree (Ph.D.) is designed for students interested in a traditional Ph.D. program that focuses on research and prepares students for careers in teaching and research.

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

Students who are interested in the Au.D./Ph.D. 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 Au.D. program requirements, students completing the dual degree program will complete a guided research experience early in the program culminating in a submitted publication. Au.D./Ph.D. 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 typically is begun in the fifth year of study.

Admission requirements:

All candidates for the dual degree must first be admitted to and complete the first year of the Au.D. program. 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. Each student in the AuD/PhD program must have a faculty research sponsor, and this sponsorship must be agreed upon prior to the time of enrollment in the dual program.

Degree Requirements:

The Au.D./Ph.D. is a 110 credit program, which allows students to pursue both their clinical training and their research training in a rigorous, intensive and streamlined program. It is anticipated that a student can complete the dual degree program in a minimum of 6 years of full-time study.

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.