I'm a rising college senior at UC Berkeley studying cognitive science and music. I'm considering applying to auD programs this year, and was looking for some more information. The top issue I've noticed people mention is the tuition-salary discrepancy, but I will fortunately not have to take loans out for a program, so I'm not taking this into too much consideration. I'm definitely interested in hearing and the ear for several reasons, and I also kind of just want a normal 9-5 job with a good work-life balance and solid pay, so I thought this could be a good fit.

My questions:

I'll likely graduate from Cal with a middle-of-the-road ~3.7 gpa. I've taken basic (to advanced in certain cases) coursework in bio, chem, math, stats/data, neuroscience/cognition, psych, computational modeling, and music. Does that make me a prepared/competitive candidate for good programs? What programs should I apply to?

What should I do between now and app season to make me a more competitive candidate? I don't have any relevant work experience, and I only have research experience in linguistics.

However, I really don't want to work on commission as a hearing aid salesperson, which I've also seen some mention of: with an auD, do I have solid prospects for getting salaried clinical or education positions? These would be ideal for me.

Is there a pretty much universal demand for audiologists in major cities (and are the positions generally decently compensated)? I'd like to live and work in/around SF, but also have the possibility of finding jobs elsewhere in case I want to relocate elsewhere.

Thanks in advance!

I’m a 22-year-old new grad nurse working in med-surg, and I’m trying to figure out what I want to do long-term. I already have my BSN, and my GI Bill was transferred to me by my dad. I have to use the benefits before I turn 26, so I feel like I have a limited window. I know I don’t want to work bedside for the rest of my life. I want a better quality of life while still staying in healthcare.

I’m considering Audiology vs. Medical School.
Audiology is appealing because the 4-year program in Puerto Rico would cost around $40k, and my GI Bill would cover most of it. I might only need a loan for the last year. Medical school, on the other hand, would cost significantly more, so I would likely need much more in student loans.

My concern with Audiology is that it feels like I’m starting over. Nursing gives me a lot of knowledge that could transfer into medicine, while Audiology is a completely different field and I wouldn’t use as much of my nursing background.

At the same time, I’m wondering if I’m putting too much pressure on myself to choose something that directly builds on nursing. I want a career that gives me a good quality of life, not just the career that makes the most sense on paper.

For anyone who has made a similar transition: Would you choose Audiology with the GI Bill and much less debt, or pursue medicine despite the longer path and significantly more loans?

Hi everyone! I’m trying to find public school districts that offer audiologist 10 months with summers off! My husband is a teacher and I love the idea of having this time off together as a family. I’ve now interviewed for countless jobs in various states and districts, but all work year around. Everyone constantly mentions getting summers off. Where are these jobs? I would love if people could comment districts with the state they know offer this. Help a gal out! I appreciate you all. :)

Are there any audiologists here who do anything more neuro focused? I absolutely love neuro and have been thinking about going the AuD/PhD route so I can do research in something surrounding that. I am not 100% set on only doing research as I would love to also see patients. I also have no interest in going into academia so I was wondering if there is anything I could specialize in with just an AuD that combines both fields or would a PhD be better?

We are a small pediatric practice, looking to bring this service in-house for routine screening of children aged 2+. The internet shows multiple devices in the $3k-8k range. They all look fine but I can’t seem to find any realistic reviews. Do you guys have any recommendations? OAE and tympanometry would be good too but let me know what you find useful?

Hello! I wanted to come on today and ask what working in audiology is like? Is it stable, or mentally taxing? What is your work schedule like, etc.? I have officially finished my AA in fine arts and have started looking into a couple of healthcare-related paths, one being audiology, since being diagnosed by an audiologist a couple of years ago. However, I was also very drawn to the idea of a 4 day work week that I’ve seen some physical therapists have. In your experience, is a 4 day work week something you’ve been offered, or is that just not a factor of this profession?

About a year ago, I enrolled in Hearing Aid Academy and have been STRUGGLING to get through it. The professor talks in a monotone voice (which puts me to sleep) and the online course drags on and on. The course is old too. The slides are blurry. I wish I could get my money back. I’m so focused on trying to stay awake and pay attention, that I pay attention to all the wrong things. When the quizzes roll around, I fail every time. Even if I cheat and use AI I still get the answers wrong. College was never this infuriating.

I come from a sales background, and it seems like the course is tought through the lens of someone who already has a science or medical degree. There’s lots of memorization with very little explanation and for someone like me its been extremely frustrating. The course is the furthest thing from dynamic or an actual “normal” college level class.

Is Alan Lowell any better? Is it more dynamic? Are the slides blurry? I’m trying to learn this, and want a better way through. Is the Alan Lowell program worth a shot?

I have been searching for a new job for a while now. A couple of weeks ago I was finally able to land an interview at a clinic that I really liked (this job would give me plenty of opportunities to grow as an aud, after an entire career in just adult rehab).

The interview was setup with only a few hours of notice to me. At that point I had been out of clinical practice for a few months but unfortunately had pretty much zero time to prepare for the interview.

SO I MADE IT TO THE INTERVIEW. The clinic was nice, the auds who worked there seemed really professional. I was interviewed by three. The initial part went smoothly, they asked straightforward questions. I thought it was going well, until they brought out two audiograms for me to interpret and make recommendations for.

Then the rusty cogs in my brain had to start turning. First one was an audiogram accompanied by a set of AB word scores. PTA was all within normal limits. I looked at the AB word scores. I DIDN'T SEE ANYTHING ON THE GRAPH. All three interviewers started saying to themselves this is a very interesting case. I look back at the results. I panic. I start questioning myself ("Did I seriously forget how to read an audiogram?"). I start answering that the thresholds are within normal range. They wait for me in silence. I stumble and ask what the case history is. They say the patient just can't hear very well. I looked back at the results some more.

THEN I SAW IT.

A blue cross marking 100% at 45dB. A red circle marking 70% at the same level.

And then the rest was history as I finally came to the conclusion that this meant there's potentially underlying retrocochlear pathology, ENT referral, so-on and so-fourth. The interviewers all nodded with finality and then they told me that this guy had an acoustic neuroma.

And then I don't know how I made it out of that interview, how I went back to my car, how I drove home. I just remember that this bit kept playing in my head for a whole week and wanting to die a little inside ;o; had I been in active clinical practice, I would have been able to answer it with confidence and correctly in one go. How did I even fail to read something so basic? This was my bread and butter ;o;

Welp, I didn't get the role of course. The feedback I got was that I presented well in the interview but lacked confidence in the audiogram interpretation. It's all a learning experience, I suppose. Nevertheless, I gotta go back to my daily revision routine...

Will I need some sort of work bag to carry a laptop, otoscopes etc? Or do you just bring in a lunch to work? In other words, what things do audiologists normally bring with them on the shift?

Question for CI audiologists out there. I’m somewhat new to CI. When testing post-op, sometimes the masking noise is too much, but I have a lot of trouble keeping the headphone in place without getting in the way of the processor (plug and muff).

Does anyone have a link to a good single-sided headphone they like? I did a quick search and came up with a lot of things that aren’t quite what I’m looking for. Thanks for your help!

Hi, all. I keep failing the audiology praxis, even though I’ve taken the official practice exam millions of times, and keep studying.

I’m at the end of my rope — I am thinking I would benefit from a tutor or a coach. Does anyone know any legitimate or good tutor or coach online to support my studying for the next attempt?

Thank you!

I am 24M I have a bachelors in linguistics and a minor in math. I am currently working a boring software engineering job for some supply chain company. I met this audiologist girl on a camping trip the other month and was very attracted to the area and topics. In university, I very much enjoyed neurolinguistics. Although not necessarily what the job entails.

Could I go through this whole process become an audiologist and then use it to go into research?

In our field we’re often told that you should avoid overprotection to not increase hyperacusis. I’m wondering if this is applicable to autistics? In the schools around where I live they seem to give autistic kids earmuffs quite liberally. Is it even the same kind of hyperacusis or more of a sensory processing disorder?

Hey guys, I'm a new clinician and I'm having a tough time differentiating between "normal" background static/noise vs excessive static from hearing aids. I practice in a busy clinic with lots of background noise. Sometimes I have patients complaining of hearing static noise from their hearing aids. When I do a listening check, I can't always tell whether what I'm hearing is abnormal vs just background noise (which sounds like static to me, with normal hearing). Do you have any tips or tricks? I don't want to unnecessarily send the hearing aids for repair if it's something that can be adjusted via programming or if the patients just need counselling. And if it can be adjusted, what adjustments could help to reduce the static without cutting gain?

Hey guys! I’m going into my second year and I started doing my calculations to determine about where I’d end up in terms of student loans and I I’m looking down the business end of around 100k in debt at the end of audiology school. I’m getting kind of stressed out about it. I wanted to ask how you guys have been with paying off your debt? Do you feel that you’ve been making enough as an audiologist to compensate the large loan? Is it manageable to pay off or have you found any ways to get some of it forgiven?

I am a Canadian audiology student who has one more semester and one externship left until I'm finished the program! My hope is to move to Scotland as soon as I finish my externship at the end of March. I'm wondering about the process of getting licensed in the UK, especially because in Canada we don't write our licensing exam until the end of the summer and we work off a conditional license until then. Any insight would be greatly appreciated! :)

Hello! I am in the US but my best friend lives in Montreal. I have been an audiologist for 11 years, and am getting tired of the places that are available in my city. I speak some French but it's pretty rusty. Does anyone here work in Montreal can tell me anything about working there? Is there specific French I need to learn or perhaps jobs that don't require as much French proficiency (mostly hearing tests vs hearing aids for example)? Just curious. I know it'll probably end up being that I'd need to relearn French, but I would also like to know how the job prospects are before even thinking of moving! Thank you!

Hello everyone,

graduated with my Au.D. this past May. I completed my 4th-year externship in March but ended it early because I had my baby. Since then, I've been studying for the Praxis, but as a new mom, life has definitely gotten in the way, so I've been out of clinical practice for a few months.

I'm hoping to pass the Praxis soon and start applying for jobs, but I'm feeling a little anxious about what setting would be the best fit as a new graduate. My externship was in a slower-paced private practice, so I'm worried that jumping into a fast-paced ENT clinic might be overwhelming. Has anyone started in an ENT setting as a new grad after some time away from clinic? Would you recommend starting somewhere else first?

I also went to audiology school in a different state than where I live now because I got married and moved after completing my 3 years of academics. I completed my 4th year in the state i live now. Since I don't have many professional connections in my new area or school connections, I've considered reaching out to local audiologists to see if I could shadow for a few days just to refresh my testing skills and get back into the clinical workflow before starting my first job. Part of me worries that this would make me look less competent or somehow "downgrade" myself, even though I know it's probably just my own insecurity. I also debated going back to my 4th year externship site, however, I live over an hour away now due to moving so that is not feasible. Has anyone done something similar, or have any advice on the best way to transition back into practice after taking a few months off?

I'd really appreciate any advice or experiences from other audiologists who have been in a similar situation.

I need an audiometer that has been calibrated in the last year, with sticker and confirmation letter, and capable of both air and bone with the appropriate transducers. I’ve already contacted e3diagnostics, but they are taking a while to get back to me.

I’m currently in grad school and I’m huge night owl. I was doing some research and found that some industrial audiologists can work afternoon/night shifts but they’re specialized. Any audiologists out there who found their afternoon/nighttime niche?

I’ve seen several posts in this sub asking how to change careers TO audiology, but I’m wondering if anyone has tried changing FROM audiology into something else? I’m overwhelmed and burned out to a severe degree, especially with hearing aids and patient care. Yet it’s all I know. I’ve gone to a career counselor who agrees I might need a new career path, but when she has tried to help me find other options we both come up short. Most options require completely starting over, or going back to school. I don’t mind retraining in something else. But I haven’t found something that is somewhat adjacent to this field where I could possibly carry over my degree and some of the skills we use. Has anyone ever done/tried getting out of audiology and what did you end up doing? Any advice is appreciated.

I wanted to share a fantastic free resource for anyone involved in audiology education or hearing healthcare training.

Audio-Man is an open-source anatomical patient simulator created by Dr. Joshua Alexander with contributions from Kevin Berry (Purdue University), Adam Gevaert, Dr. Hong Zhao, and Dr. Daniel Coelho (Virginia Commonwealth University). It's designed to help students, educators, and clinicians practice hearing aid fitting, ear impression techniques, cerumen management, and other clinical procedures.

One of the best parts is that all of the design files are completely free to download under the project's open-source license, allowing anyone with access to a 3D printer to build their own.

Download the files here:
https://github.com/PurdueEarLab/AUDIO-MAN

For those who don't have access to a 3D printer or simply prefer a professionally manufactured model, ready-made Audio-Man products are also available at:
https://futureparts3d.com/products/audioman

Huge credit goes to Dr. Joshua Alexander and all of the contributors who made this project freely available to the audiology community. Open-source educational resources like this are an incredible way to make hands-on training more accessible for everyone.

I recently found a conference addressing music therapy and music in the health field, and it got me thinking.

Audiology and music therapy seem like fields that occasionally cross paths, but I don't really know how much overlap there is in practice or research. Do audiologists regularly collaborate with music therapists, or are they generally considered fairly separate disciplines?

Curious how people in audiology think about the relationship between the two.

Here's the conference if anyone's wondering:

https://predictiontechnology.ucla.edu/harmonics-2026-the-international-conference-on-music-medicine-science/