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By Kate Hunger 

Prospective students who wish to apply to a graduate speech-language pathology program but lack the required undergraduate preparation in communication sciences and disorders soon will be able to complete pre-requisite coursework through a new leveling program offered by the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders.

The leveling program is slated to begin in the fall of 2020, pending its final approval, said Associate Professor Fang-Ling Lu, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, speech-language pathology program director and interim department chair. 

The program consists of five courses covering anatomy and physiology, phonetics and normal articulation, normal language development, speech and hearing science, and audiology. Each course is three semester credit hours, for a total of 15 credit hours. The program is designed to offer three courses in the fall semester and two in the spring. All courses are online.

“We offer flexibility for people who want to pursue a different career,” Lu said of the online format.

Students who complete the leveling program will be able to apply to any graduate speech-language pathology program they wish to, Lu said.

For more information about the leveling program, visit