An Amazing Opportunity for Undergraduate Students: NAU’s Accelerated Bachelor’s to Master’s Program in Clinical Speech-Language Pathology

Northern Arizona University’s Clinical Speech-Language Pathology Accelerated BS to MS Program is an amazing opportunity for students to further their education by taking graduate-level courses while completing their undergraduate degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD).

This program is available to NAU CSD undergraduates with distinguished performance. The Accelerated Program (AP) advisors, certified Speech-Language Pathologists, support and encourage the students prior to admission and throughout their graduate program. After meeting with the advisors, one must complete a letter of intent, expanding why they would like to pursue the program. Then, their academic progress is monitored by CSD professors throughout their sophomore through junior years to ensure that they are meeting the requirements of the program. They formally apply to the program during their junior year and start taking graduate classes during their senior year.

This program can offer great financial benefits to many students. Undergraduate tuition scholarships, such as the Lumberjack Scholars Award, cover the cost of the graduate courses taken during their undergraduate career. Students in the program take a total of 12 units of graduate coursework (two during the fall term and two during the spring term) that can be covered financially through these scholarships. This benefit is enticing to students, as college can be extremely expensive.

Maddie Taylor, a current student in the AP, shared her experience. She started the program her senior year, graduated with her bachelor’s degree in CSD in Spring 2024, and moved into the graduate program in Summer 2024. She will graduate in December 2025. Taylor has thoroughly enjoyed the program thus far, expressing that she has had “lots of opportunities