First things first - Shadow both in different settings for at least 40+ hours, you absolutely cannot make a decision before you do this, these are my personal opinions, please other posters dont turn this into a **** fest
My 2 cents
SLP
- You get your degree after 2 years
- Specialties - Stuttering/Fluency, Voice, Accent Modificaiton, Stroke/Aphasia, AAC Devices, Pediatric, Dysphagia/Swallowing
- Pay is absolutely terrible in public school districts, Pay is very good in hospitals, Pay is amazing in nursing homes and contract agencys.
- Pay is hourly (except for public schools), which is good since you never work for free on overtime!
- Job opportunities all over the place, look on simplyhired, indeed, monster, at any given time there is thousands of job openings
- Both objective and subjective, more subjective though which can be annoying
- You get to know your patients very well
AuD
- You get your degree after 4 Years (there are 2 schools that have a 3 year program, Northwestern and Indiana Bloomington)
- Specialities - General Hearing Loss & Balance, IOM, Cochlear Implants
- Pay is all over the map even in the same region/zip code, you might make 55k at an ent or 90k at an ent across the street, there is no standard pay even in the same area
- Pay is 99% salary, unless you get a production/HA bonus, or you own your practice
- Job oppenings are there, but you may have to move a large distance to find the job that you meets your needs, there are very few audiologists retiring every year.
- Very objective, not much subjectivity, very clear path of diagnosis and treatment
- You see your patients usually 1-2,3 times a year generally
- You have to be a salesperson in AuD, there is no way around it,
- People can return hearing aids, people do not want to pay for hearing aids,
- insurance rarely covers or pays very little for AuD diagnostic procedures or hearing aids
Personally I got into comm dis field for audiology, it was very interesting and I could see doing it for the rest of my life, but after I found out that the pay is all over the place, the extra 2 years of schooling, and the sales aspect (if I wanted to sell stuff I would have been a business major), I was not interested anymore
In the AuD, you get a clinical doctorate, you are not and will not become a Doctor/Physician, there are many fields that now have a clinical doctorate (nursing, pharmacy, physical therapy), the sooner you get away from this fact the better you will understand why all AuD's are not making over $100,000 standard everywhere, you not an MD, there is money to be made, but that is all up to you and how you market and run your business, many AuD's make over $150,000. But that is NOT the norm. I know many SLP's in private practice who make 100k to 150k, It is NOT the norm.
Im from Boynton Beach FL, zipcode 33472
Salary.com
AuD median salary = $68,147, bottom 10% $56,214, top 90% $80,131
SLP median salary = $68,138, bottom 10% $57,505, top 90% $79,689
If you are going off these numbers, they are pretty much the SAME ... but AuD is 2 more years of school for the same avg pay, personally I wouldent really rely on salary.com since its widely known that its not accurate and very skewed, most of what I know is from shadowing and straight up asking people how much they make, or you can say "what is the general pay like"? And always ask "Are you happy"?, "Would you recommend me getting into this field"?
If they say no or hell no, ASK WHY???....You will need to know.... Some of their reasons are in their control (****ty business managment, time managment, bad marketing, or they have no idea what their doing), some are not in their control (competition other slps or aud in their area, hearing aid dispensers, costco, walmart, etc, insurance reinbursments goin down or not covering at all)
I have shadowed both slps and auds and asked them the same questions, in the end.I felt SLP was the safer bet, the standard average pay was more consistant from the people I talked to all over florida, and the staffing contract agencys I called, there are jobs out the wazoo in every area code, and there were many things to get into, so if you get bored with fluency you can change to voice, then to stroke, then to pediatrics, etc... In AuD theres not much to move around into except for IOM which can be difficult to get into.
Lets be honest, both can be pretty boring, slp doing articulation and language therapy on kids all day can get pretty bleh, same deal with an AuD doing audiograms, tymps on elderly all day.
I think many people on this forum can agree and disagree with many things I have listed, in the end it is up to you to pick what you like more. SHADOW SHADOW SHADOW!
Hope this helped
Thanks
