As a current SLP grad student, who switched out of a D.D.S. program, here’s some advice I hope I can give you with my experience:

If you’re in a program you’re not interested in, it just doesn’t feel right. I told myself for a while to stay in the profession because of the prestige of the program I was in, but at the first end of the day I just don’t give a fuck about teeth and no amount of money will make it worth a lifetime of bending painfully over a dark wet cavity for the rest of my life.

SLP grad school is hard, but there’s a big difference between not liking school and not liking SLP. It took me two tries at school to realize that. This first year was hard, I feel as though I didn’t retain much because of the pandemic switch to online, and I have not enjoyed all my professors. However, the reason I stay in my program is that while the assignments are hard work, the learning doesn’t feel like it because I find it fascinating.

Whether you should apply to graduate school depends on that, and only that. Do you find communication sciences and disorders interesting? If you do, you’ll be intrinsically motivated to find the answers you don’t get in school on our own. This is not exclusive to our field. I have multiple relatives that work in computer engineering and they’ve all told me, humbly, that their six-figure job involves basically knowing how to Google the shit you don’t know. That’s the point of school. Don’t feel bad for not knowing everything, you will be taught how to ask the questions you don’t have answers to, and the professional community is very supportive when it comes to sharing materials and advice.

If you don’t, the job will be just as painful as school will be for you. If you have a job already that you can wake up feeling good about, and you have time to pursue what you think is interesting, I think you know what the best decision for yourself is.