Communication Sciences and Disorders

Communication sciences and disorders programmes study how speech, language, swallowing and hearing work and how they fail — the anatomy and neurology behind them, the disorders that affect children and adults, and the assessment and therapy used to treat them. In Florida it is a university subject with almost no presence below the third year, and the professions it leads to are graduate-entry.

The degrees this program covers

⚠⚠⚠ The most important thing about this programme is that the BACHELOR'S IS NOT A TERMINAL DEGREE for the profession it is named after. Florida awards 513 bachelor's degrees a year in this field and only 298 master's places, and 89% of working speech-language pathologists hold a master's while essentially none practise on a bachelor's. ⚠ There IS a real bachelor's-level destination — the licensed speech-language pathology ASSISTANT, which Florida regulates under the same board — and anyone taking this degree should know about it before they graduate rather than after. ⚠⚠ Access is the other constraint: 7 Florida public institutions award the degree (UCF, USF, FSU, UF, FIU, FAU and Santa Fe), audiology's doctorate is awarded at only TWO (USF and UF, 18 a year between them), and of 315 course numbers in the prefix only ONE below the 3000 level is a real course rather than a special-topics or internship shell. You cannot begin this major at a state college.

Careers this program leads to

Each one sets out the courses along the way, the licence or certification at the end, and the sources behind it.

Speech-Language Pathologist

Speech-language pathologists diagnose and treat disorders of speech, language, voice and swallowing — in children who are not talking, in stroke patients who have lost words, in people who cannot safely swallow. ⚠ A median of $97,870 and 17% growth, among the best combinations on this site. ⚠⚠⚠ But the bachelor's is NOT a terminal degree: Florida awards 513 of them a year into 298 master's places, and 89% of the profession holds a master's. This page covers the assistant, the pathologist and the audiologist, because the bachelor's only reaches the first.

Careers that name this program, but not as a route

Occupational Therapy Assistant

⚠ Not a route. Named as the third rehabilitation profession working the same caseloads in schools, hospitals and skilled nursing. ⚠⚠ Its assistant tier needs a BACHELOR'S plus specified coursework, where this one needs a two-year associate degree — which makes occupational therapy the more accessible of the two.

Programs similar to this one

Neighbouring fields that share much of the same coursework, and often the same employers. ⚠ Read these before you commit to a major — which doors a neighbouring degree keeps open is the part no catalog tells you, and it is far cheaper to change now than later.

Teacher Education 37 Florida schools

⚠ A closer neighbour than it looks, and a genuine alternative destination: a great many speech-language pathologists work in schools, and exceptional student education is where the same interest in children's communication and learning goes if the master's route does not work out. ⚠⚠ Teacher education runs at 35 Florida institutions against 7 here, so it is far more accessible.

Physical Therapy 24 Florida schools

⚠ The comparison worth making across the therapy professions: both are graduate-entry, both are small and competitive in Florida, and both have a licensed ASSISTANT tier reachable from a shorter credential. ⚠⚠ Physical therapy's assistant route is a two-year associate degree at 17 institutions; speech-language pathology's requires a bachelor's plus specified coursework.

Marketing 21 Florida schools

⚠ Not a route, and named only to prevent a confusion the slug invites: this is speech-language pathology, a clinical field. The COMMUNICATIONS degree that feeds marketing at 88,800 people is a different subject entirely, taught in colleges of communication and journalism.

Occupational Therapy 8 Florida schools

⚠ The third rehabilitation profession, and the one with the same shape: a graduate-entry clinician above a licensed assistant tier. All three work the same caseloads in schools, hospitals and skilled nursing, and students who like one usually should look at all three.

Florida public institutions offering this program

7 institutions awarded a credential in this field in 2023, at these levels: Bachelor's, Doctorate (professional practice), Doctorate (research/scholarship), Master's, Postbaccalaureate certificate. A school appears here if it awards anything in the field, however limited its offering — a technical college teaching only practical nursing has a nursing program. Listed alphabetically, not ranked.

Florida Atlantic University

Master's

Florida International University

Master's · Postbaccalaureate certificate

Florida State University

Bachelor's · Doctorate (research/scholarship) · Master's

University of Central Florida

Bachelor's · Master's

University of Florida

Bachelor's · Doctorate (professional practice) · Doctorate (research/scholarship) · Master's

University of Florida-Online

Bachelor's

University of South Florida

Bachelor's · Doctorate (professional practice) · Doctorate (research/scholarship) · Master's

Source: federal IPEDS completions data for 2023, first majors only — the most recent year published. ⚠ It records what was awarded, which is strong evidence of what is offered, but a program launched since 2023 will not appear here. Check the institution’s own catalog before applying.

Updated 21 September 2026. ⚠ Program pages describe a field of study, not one school’s degree — always read the catalog of the institution you are applying to.