Courses

The certificate is earned upon completion of the following nine courses, over the course of one academic year:

Most Capstone Certificate students will take all nine courses (24 credits total), but in some cases one or two courses may be waived depending on coursework taken previously, during the undergraduate degree; the minimum number of credits required for the certificate is 18.

To qualify for enrollment in CS&D 371 (second semester of the Capstone sequence), students must earn a 3.0 grade-point average across the same three “gateway” courses (CS&D 201, CS&D 202, CS&D 240) in which undergraduates must earn an average GPA of 3.0 to declare their major as Communication Sciences and Disorders. Capstone Certificate students who do not earn a GPA of at least 3.0 across these three courses will not be allowed to enroll in CS&D 371 (Spring semester), and therefore will not be able to earn the Certificate, although they can (if they choose) continue to take the remaining program coursework.

Prospective Capstone Certificate Program students should also be aware that The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) standards have changed for 2014, and Standard IV-A now specifies a course in Biological Sciences (such as Biology, Human Anatomy and Physiology, Genetics, and so forth), Physical Sciences (Physics or Chemistry), and a Statistics course as requirements for clinical certification. Whereas many students who apply for the Capstone Certificate will already have some or all of this coursework, the prospective student should know that these requirements must be fulfilled prior to the student’s application for ASHA certification (typically applied for following the master’s degree and a clinical fellowship).