Mar 31, 2025

2024-2025 General Catalog

2024-2025 General Catalog ARCHIVED CATALOG: To search archives, MUST use search box to left. Current catalog: catalog.usu.edu.

Communicative Disorders (Online) - 2nd BS

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Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services

Department of Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education

About This Degree

The second bachelor’s degree in communicative disorders is designed for students who already have a bachelor’s degree in another field but need the prerequisite coursework to be considered for admission into graduate programs in speech-language pathology or audiology. The entire program is offered online and can be completed in three semesters, or can be finished at a more leisurely pace according to the student’s needs.

Speech-language pathologists work with individuals of all ages who have difficulties communicating, learning to communicate, feeding, or swallowing. This may include infants with feeding disorders or children with speech, language, hearing, or literacy development problems. It may also include children and adults who stutter, have voice disorders, or suffer speech, language, and swallowing problems as a consequence of neurological disease or stroke.

Audiologists evaluate and manage individuals who are suspected or have been identified as having differences associated with hearing. Audiologists conduct testing to help identify hearing loss, select and fit hearing aids, program cochlear implants, and provide aural rehabilitation.

Nationally there is a critical need for master-level or doctoral-level professionals in the field of communicative disorders. Many individuals already holding bachelor’s degrees in another field who would like to pursue these professions are lacking the required undergraduate prerequisites needed in order to be considered for admission into graduate programs. There are also employment opportunities as bachelor-degree speech-language assistants. The Department of Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education at Utah State University has developed an online second bachelor’s degree program to help fulfill these needs.

In order to be accepted into this program, students must have a bachelor’s degree from an accredited U.S. or Canadian university in another discipline.

A 3.0 overall GPA within the first bachelor’s degree is strongly recommended. However, students having a GPA below 3.0 will still be considered for admission.

For more information about Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education, see the department website. For more information about this program please visit the Communicative Disorders (Online 2nd BS Degree) website.
Admitted and current students must meet with an advisor.
Log on to Degree Works to check student-specific program progress.

Bachelor’s Degree Requirements:

Admission Requirements For This Program

In order to be accepted into this program, students must have a bachelor’s degree from an accredited U.S. or Canadian university in another discipline.
A 3.0 overall GPA within the first bachelor’s degree is strongly recommended. However, students having a GPA below 3.0 will still be considered for admission.

Minimum University Requirements (2nd Bachelor’s Degree)

Total credits beyond those applied toward the first bachelor’s degree: 30
Grade Point Average: 2.0 GPA
Credits of upper-division courses (3000 or above): 18
Candidates for a 2nd bachelor’s degree who did not satisfy the American Institutions (BAI) requirement in the first bachelor’s degree, must satisfy this requirement before receiving the 2nd bachelor’s degree.

Additional Information

Degree-seeking students take a minimum of 12 COMD courses: 11 required courses and at least one 3-credit Options course.
Degree-seeking students must also meet the Breadth American Institutions (BAI) requirement.
COMD-required courses should be taken in the sequence listed.
All required courses are typically taught online every semester.
Options online course availability varies by semester.
Students may take more Options courses based on their educational interests and career plans.
Students cannot take prerequisites concurrently with courses that require them.
All required and Options COMD courses must be taken for a letter grade (not Pass/D+, D, F).
A minimum grade of C is required for all COMD courses and prerequisites.
COMDDE students are allowed a total of three COMD course repeats.
COMDDE students must have an overall GPA of 3.0 in order to register for the next semester. See COMDDE Policies for failure to meet GPA requirements.
Students may waive up to six credits of approved undergraduate COMD courses, equivalent to USU COMD courses.

Major Requirements

The USU second bachelor’s degree program consists of 12 online COMD courses. The entire program may be completed during three semesters but can be completed over a longer period if desired. All courses in the second bachelor’s program are taken online. Students must maintain at least a 3.0 GPA in order to continue in the program. Students who fall below the 3.0 GPA at the end of any semester will be placed on probation and allowed to take only three repeats or additional COMD courses to get their GPA back to 3.0 or higher. COMDDE students are allowed a TOTAL of three COMD course repeats.

A minimum grade of C is required in all COMD courses required to graduate in the COMD major. C grades should be rare so a minimum GPA of 3.0 can be maintained over this short program of study.

With permission, students may have up to 2 approved, equivalent COMD courses waived. These courses must have been completed as part of a CAA-ASHA accredited program. In order to use these courses to replace equivalent courses within USU’s program, students should contact their advisor.

Required COMD Core Courses (33 credits)

COMD 2600 - Introduction to Communication Disorders 3 credit(s)
COMD 3200 - Child Language Development 3 credit(s)
COMD 3500 - Phonetics and Phonological Development 3 credit(s)
COMD 3600 - Language Science (CI) 3 credit(s)
COMD 3800 - Anatomy and Physiology of Speech and Hearing 3 credit(s)
COMD 4200 - Clinical Methods (CI) 3 credit(s)
COMD 4450 - Developmental Communication Disorders 3 credit(s)
COMD 4500 - Acquired Communication Disorders 3 credit(s)
COMD 4700 - Basic Audiology 3 credit(s)
COMD 5070 - Acoustics of Speech and Hearing 3 credit(s)
COMD 5330 - Aural Rehabilitation 3 credit(s)

Additional COMD Options Course Requirements (3-4 credits)

Choose 1 COMD Options course. Not all Options courses are offered each semester, please see your advisor for information. Students are encouraged to take more than 2 Options courses and other available courses depending upon interests and career paths. See course catalog or advisor for other educational opportunities not listed here, such as more ASL courses, Senior Clinic, SLPA Clinical Experience, Honors, and Community Engaged Scholars.

COMD 3010 - American Sign Language I (CI) 4 credit(s)
COMD 3120 - Management of Speech Sound Disorders 3 credit(s)
COMD 4780 - Deaf Culture 3 credit(s)
COMD 5210 - Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in Communicative Disorders 3 credit(s)
COMD 5240 - Neural Bases of Cognition and Communication 3 credit(s)

American Institutions Course

Candidates for a second bachelor’s degree who did not satisfy an American Institutions requirement in the first bachelor’s degree must satisfy any deficiency in this requirement before receiving the second bachelor’s degree. This course is typically part of the general education courses completed in a bachelor’s degree.

Additional Related Courses (not included in this program)

The following non-COMD courses are strongly recommended and may be required for certain graduate schools. For graduate school in speech-language pathology and certifcation as a speech-language pathologist, ASHA requires one course in each of the following four areas: statistics, biological science, physical science (physics or chemistry), and social/behavioral sciences. If students have not completed courses of this type as a part of another university degree, they should discuss this in more detail with their advisor. Some of these non-COMD courses may not be available online at USU or taught every semester.

BIOL 1010 - Biology and the Citizen (BLS) 3 credit(s)
BIOL 2320 - Human Anatomy 4 credit(s)
BIOL 2420 - Human Physiology 4 credit(s)
CHEM 1010 - Introduction to Chemistry (BPS) 3 credit(s)
COMD 3010 - American Sign Language I (CI) 4 credit(s)
HDFS 1500 - Human Development Across the Lifespan (BSS) 3 credit(s)
PHYS 1010 - Elementary Physics (BPS) 3 credit(s)
PHYS 1200 - Introduction to Physics by Hands-on Exploration (BPS) 4 credit(s)
PSY 1010 - General Psychology (BSS) 3 credit(s)
SPED 4000 - Education of Students with Disabilities 3 credit(s)
STAT 1040 - Introduction to Statistics (QL) 3 credit(s)

Total Credits: 36

Suggested Degree Map - Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education (Online) 2nd BS

Communicative Disorders (Online) 2nd BS - 4 Year Degree Map