Joint PhD - Doctor of Philosophy in Language and Communicative Disorders

The program is designed as a 5-6 year, year-round curriculum. In addition, SLHS offers a separate graduate program in speech language pathology accredited by the Council on Academic Accreditation in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. It may be possible for a doctoral student to complete a CFY or obtain academic and clinical training concurrently with doctoral studies. However, access to clinical training is not automatic nor is it guaranteed. Initiation of clinical training requires the approval of the S-L Division faculty and the availability of openings in the clinical program. In the SDSU/UCSD program, students receive education in areas that are relatively new to the field of communication sciences and disorders. The program encourages applicants from a range of different backgrounds. Students are asked to concentrate in at least one of three tracks: child language (normal and abnormal), adult language (normal and abnormal), and/or multilingualism (including bilingualism in oral and signed languages, and cross linguistic studies of language disorders). Students are exposed to a range of technologies, including experimental methods in the study of behavior, electrophysiology and functional brain imaging, and computational modeling.