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Prerequisite Course Requirements

Prerequisite courses must be completed prior to beginning the graduate program, if not taken as an undergraduate:

I. General Education Requirements - 15 credits must be completed as listed below:

(Some or all of these classes may have been completed as part of the baccalaureate degree.)

Biological Sciences – 3 credit hours

Biology is the study and characterization of living organisms and the investigation of the science behind living things. Broad areas include: anatomy, biophysics, cell and molecular biology, computational biology, ecology and evolution, environmental biology, forensic biology, genetics, marine biology, microbiology, molecular biosciences, natural science, neurobiology, physiology and zoology.

All basic science classes must appear on your academic transcript and/or credential evaluation report.

Possible Content Areas for General Biology:

  • General biology
  • Cellular biology: the basic structural and functional unit of all organisms; they may exist as independent units of life (as in monads) or may form colonies or tissues as in higher plants and animals
  • Cybernetics biology: the field of science concerned with processes of communication and control (especially the comparison of these processes in biological and artificial systems)
  • Bioscience, life science: any of the branches of natural science dealing with the structure and behavior of living organisms
  • Ecology: the branch of biology concerned with the relations between organisms and their environment
  • Cytology: the branch of biology that studies the structure and function of cells
  • Embryology: the branch of biology that studies the formation and early development of living organisms
  • Evolutionism, theory of evolution, Theory of organic evolution: a scientific theory of the origin of species of plants and animals
  • Genetic science, genetics: the branch of biology that studies heredity and variation in organisms
  • Microbiology: the branch of biology that studies microorganisms and their effects on humans
  • Molecular biology: the branch of biology that studies the structure and activity of macromolecules essential to life (and especially with their genetic role)
  • Morphology: the branch of biology that deals with the structure of animals and plants
  • Neurobiology: the branch of biology that deals with the anatomy and physiology and pathology of the nervous system
  • Physiology: the branch of the biological sciences dealing with the functioning of organisms
  • Radiobiology: the branch of biology that studies the effects of radiation on living organisms
  • Sociobiology: the branch of biology that conducts comparative studies of the social organization of animals, including human beings, with regard to its evolutionary history
Basic Physical Sciences – 3 credit hours in either Physics or Chemistry

Physics deals with matter, energy, motion, and force. A broad survey of physics principles to enable students to appreciate the role of physics in everyday experiences in today's society and technology.

Classes evaluated by your credential evaluation agency as the equivalent of U.S. high school will not be accepted. All basic science classes must appear on your academic transcript and/or credential evaluation report.

Possible Content Areas for Basic Physical Sciences:

  • Basic physical principles for non-majors
  • Basic principles of mechanics
  • Basic principles of sound
  • Basic principles of thermodynamics
  • Basic principles of optics
  • Basic principles of electricity and magnetism
  • Courses may include practical examples of the role of physics in other disciplines

Basic Chemistry is selected concepts and topics designed to give students an appreciation for how chemistry impacts everyday life, especially energy and the environment; the study of substances.

All basic science classes must appear on your academic transcript and/or credential evaluation report.

Possible Course Content Areas for Basic Chemistry:

  • Atomic structure
  • Chemical bonding
  • Radioactivity
  • Behavior of gases and solutions
  • Behavior of acid and bases
  • Hydrocarbons
  • Functional groups and important biological molecules
  • Chemical principles in human or animal physiology
Statistics – 3 credit hours

Statistics, as defined by the American Statistical Association (ASA), is "the science of learning from data, and of measuring, controlling, and communicating uncertainty; and it thereby provides the navigation essential for controlling the course of scientific and societal advances."

Courses not accepted:

  • any directly related to communication sciences and disorders
  • any research methods coursework taught in lieu of, or in the absence of, basic statistics (If statistics and research methods courses were taught in conjunction with each other, you must submit a course description showing a clear delineation between the two in order for them to be accepted.)

All statistics courses must appear on your academic transcript and/or credential evaluation report.

Social Sciences and Behavioral Sciences – 6 credit hours

Social Sciences and Behavioral Sciences are the systematic analysis and investigation of human and animal behavior through controlled and naturalistic observation and disciplined scientific experimentation. These areas of study attempt to accomplish legitimate, objective conclusions through rigorous formulations and observation.

Possible Content Areas for Social Sciences:

  • Anthropology
  • Ethnic and cultural studies
  • Archaeology
  • Area studies
  • Economics
  • Gender and sexuality studies
  • Geography organizational studies
  • Political science

Possible Content Areas for Behavioral Sciences:

  • Psychology
  • Psychobiology
  • Criminology and cognitive science

All social and behavioral science classes must appear on your academic transcript and/or credential evaluation report.

II. Normal Human Communication Processes – ALL of the courses listed below, 15 credits, must be completed prior to beginning the graduate program:

(Equivalent courses taken at another university/college may satisfy some of the requirements below. Please contact the department to verify that a course, taken elsewhere, is equivalent to one of the requirements listed below.)

  • SPA 4101 - Anatomy and Physiology of the Speech and Hearing Mechanism 3 credits
  • SPA 4011 - Speech & Hearing Science 3 credits
  • SPA 5107 - Neural Bases of Human Communication 3 credits
  • LIN 4710 - Normal Processes of Speech and Language Development 3 credits
  • SPA 4112 – Clinical Phonetics for Communication Disorders 3 credits

(Special topics number varies, please call department for course number)

III. Additional Required Courses - ALL of the courses listed below, 6 credits, must be completed prior to beginning the graduate program:

(Equivalent courses taken at another university/college may satisfy some of the requirements below. Please contact the department to verify that a course, taken elsewhere, is equivalent to one of the requirements listed below.)

  • SPA 4002 - Introduction to Communication Disorders 3 credits
  • SPA 5033- Introduction to Audiological Sciences 3 credits

Graduate Program in Communication Sciences and Disorders Curriculum