Students who do not have a bachelor's in CSD or a related field take additional foundational courses to acquire the necessary base knowledge prior to beginning graduate-level study. Many undergraduates come to our program from diverse academic backgrounds such as psychology, linguistics, theater, world language, and more.
All foundation courses are necessary for New York State licensure and American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) certification. These foundation courses do not carry graduate credit towards the MS degree.
There are three ways to meet the foundation requirements for courses specific to the MS degree:
- Complete a CSD undergraduate major or CSD post-baccalaureate degree/certificate. Students who have completed a CSD undergraduate major or earned a CSD post-baccalaureate degree/certificate awarded within 10 years of the NYU program start date are not required to take or retake foundation courses. The final transcript must state that an advanced certificate or degree was awarded in CSD/SLP prior to starting the program at NYU in order to waive all foundation course requirements.
- Submit CSD-related courses for faculty review. Students who have not completed a degree (or post-bacc certification) in CSD but who have taken foundation courses will have the opportunity to submit courses for individual foundation course waivers. Foundation courses are waived after the content and transcripts are reviewed by faculty (all foundation courses submitted for waiver must be completed prior to the first day of the student's first term of the MS program) and must meet the following criteria:
- Course hours must be equivalent to 2 credits or higher.
- Grade achieved must be equivalent to C or higher.
- Course(s) must be completed within 10 years of the NYU program start date.
- Course content must be comparable to the NYU foundation course as per faculty review.
- Take the foundation courses through NYU when you begin the MS program. Students who have not completed some or any of the foundation courses will have the outstanding courses added to their Plan of Study to be taken alongside graduate-level courses. Once students begin the program at NYU, they may not take courses at another university for transfer credit into the program at NYU.
NYU’s graduate program will certify to ASHA that the requirements for clinical certification have been met. Thus, the faculty in the Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders at NYU must determine that the foundation courses taken elsewhere are equivalent in breadth, depth, and rigor to courses at NYU. In addition, students must demonstrate that they have mastered the information in the required foundation courses by earning a grade of C or higher in all foundation courses taken at another university or they will be required to take the course again at NYU. Students must earn a C or better in all foundation courses taken at NYU or they will be required to take the course again.
Students are required to submit the appropriate documentation to the department to ensure that the content of their completed course work is sufficient in terms of breadth and depth. This includes a thorough review of the course syllabus. Students may also be asked to provide information pertaining to the course texts, exams, notes, and at times a one-to-one discussion, to demonstrate working knowledge of the information in a foundation course to determine course equivalency. Courses for which equivalence cannot be established must be taken as part of the graduate program.
Students must complete all foundation course work prior to entering the practicum sequence. Students may take foundation courses concurrently with some of the approved graduate-level courses. These will be aligned with curricular sequencing.
- CSCD-GE 2002 – Anatomy and Physiology of the Speech and Swallow Mechanisms
- CSCD-GE 2003 – Neurological Basis of Cognition, Behavior, and Communication
- CSCD-GE 2004 – Introduction to Audiology and Aural Rehabilitation
- CSCD-GE 2006 – Phonetics
- CSCD-GE 2007 – Science of Language
- CSCD-GE 2008 – Language Development and Disorders
- CSCD-GE 2009 – Speech Development and Disorders in Children
Any student who is missing some or all of the foundation courses must complete these in addition to the 48 credits required for the MS degree (see previous).
Due to the high number of interested applicants, our department is unable to review transcripts and approve foundation courses for prospective students. It is advised that students compare the course descriptions of previously taken courses in communicative sciences and disorders to the department’s foundation course descriptions, in order to determine if the content is an accurate match. In addition, students may utilize our Foundation Course Equivalent resource in order to determine some of the alternative course titles that we have accepted from outside universities.