We hear about health professions through educators, friends, and being patients Learning about audiologist education requirements and training was no different when I was searching for a new medical career.
An audiologist, who is an authority in the non-medical management of the auditory and vestibular systems, requires a doctorates degree. This profession also requires clinical experience and passing a national exam.
The degree is called an Au.D. It requires four years of study after a bachelors.
Getting started: Audiologist education and training
If you are a high school student, your studies should concentrate in biology, physics, mathematics and psychology. This will provide the foundation for your education.
Your undergraduate studies should focus on a broad range of arts and sciences. However, you may benefit from taking courses in linguistics, phonetics, speech, and the sciences, including anatomy and physiology.
The communicative course should provide you with an introduction to audiologist educational background.
Audiology degree entry requirements
Every doctorate school is different, but there will be a few constants, which Ill cover. An application will be required.
Educational facilities will ask for your official transcripts from all schools attended, as well.
Because this is a doctorate program, you may have to have a minimum grade point average to be considered. Most schools will expect a minimum of a 3.0 GPA on a 4.0 scale.
You will, more than likely, be required to submit letters of recommendation. These will come from professors and clincial supervisors or employers.
The letters will need to attest to your abilities and qualifications. A doctor of audiology program is a professional degree track, and the school wants to make sure that your will succeed.
You may be required to write a statement of purpose, too. The statement is one to two pages in length. It explains why you have chosen to pursue a career in audiology and why you are the best candidate for their Au.D. program.
Once you get accepted into a doctor of audiology program, you will spend four years studying communication sciences and disorders.
Sample audiologist degree requirements
Remember, this is a four-year degree. Classes will be fairly small at most universities, and you will be taking a variety of courses.
A sample curriculum includes topics in the following:
- Counseling skills and strategies
- Noise and how it affects Humans
- Foundations of the audiology practice
- Acoustics and psychoacoustics
- Ear anatomy and physiology
- Amplification
- Auditory rehabilitation
- Pediatric and adult audiological assessment
- Electrophysiologic assessment of the auditory system
- Evaluate and treat for balance disorders
- Speech and hearing Clinic practicums
- Audiology research
- Auditory and vestibular pathology
- Advanced audiological procedures
- Au.D. research, which culminates in a capstone project
- Statistics
You will also have clinical training. Often, the first semester of your clinical education involves shadowing, which helps you learn report-writing and the clinical flow.
The second semester you may be able to do basic evaluation skills and work with hearing aids.
Your second year will help you hone your clinical skill set and you will get to see adult and pediatric patients under the supervision of a mentor.
By year three and year four, you will have mastered the clinical skill set and be able to do rotations at a clinic.
After you graduate, you will have to take the PRAXIS exam, which is required for the majority of national certification and state licensure. You will, however, need to check with the state board of audiology to find out what additional requirements are necessary before you can practice.
Tips for choosing a school
There are about 70 different schools in the United States offering doctor of audiology programs.
Aside from entry requirements and courses, you will want to look at the schools retention and graduation rate. If the school cant retain students and graduate them, then that is a red flag. You may need to avoid that school.
Two other good metrics are the PRAXIS pass rate and the employment rate after graduation.
Face it: If the school didnt prepare you to pass the PRAXIS, you will have a difficult time getting a job.
I hope this information about audiologist education requirements and training has been helpful.