Going back to school as an adult

[eye lovethe eye]

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Hello,

My mom has thought about going back to school and has recently considered audiology. She has a bachelor's degree but currently works at the post office. She hasn't been to school in many years and I'm just wondering if it would be possible for her to get into an audiology program and if so, how difficult it would be with her working at a full-time job. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

 

[tdw1031]

It is definately possible to go back to school later in life. However, your mom would likely to have take prerequiste coursework (depending on the specific program she is applying to). However, it is difficult to maintain a 40+ hour a week job during an audiology program. I am currently a second year, and work about 25 hours a week. I have classes during the day, and internships that are three days a week, 8 hours a day. This makes it difficult to work a typical full-time job. Hope this helps!

 

[eye lovethe eye]

Thank you! This does help, I'll let her know about the working situation. I'm not sure how easily that would fit into her schedule because it is necessary that both of my parents work full-time jobs. I'll keep looking into it, however, and see what happens! Thanks again!

Also, anymore advice would be appreciated too! I can use all I can get. Thanks!

 

[Cochlear]

Along with the great information tdw provided, I want to add on to the prerequisite point a quick reminder that your Mom will need to study for and take the GRE. This shouldn't be too big of a deal and is something she could prepare for on weekends I'm sure.

As far as working and going to school I'd put it this way...think of your mom's audiology education along the same lines as optometry school. Working a 40 hour job and attending classes/clinic is just not going to happen, unfortunately. Currently I believe the only online programs are for experienced clinicians moving from a Masters to the AuD. If there was a way she could cut her work hours in half, she might be able to grind through. Maybe your Dad would be able to pick up some extra hours for a few years?

If the desire is there, she should absolutely pursue the dream but she might have to make some sacrifices along the way. By the way, just curious what made your mom decide she wants to pursue audiology to begin with?

 

[DrumHead]

Cochlear's right: It's not going to happen with a 40 hr work week. It's not like an MBA where you take course work on the weekends and evenings. It's not even like a Ph.D. where you can work at your own pace. This is a highly-structured clinical degree that requires as many as 2000 hours of practicum over the course of the 4 years. I work part time (20-25hrs/wk) as a waiter and it is tough to squeeze it all in. It isn't too late to go back to school, but she needs to take into consideration what sacrifices she wants to make to do so.

 

[eye lovethe eye]

Honestly, my mom hasn't looked into it too far. It was actually me who got her interested in audiology recently. I just finished my first year of undergrad and for a while had decided on going to med school to hopefully become and ophthalmologist. Recently, however, I realized that med school may not be for me but another part of healthcare just might. So when I got back home after all of my finals I set up shadowing appointments for many different specialties such as podiatry, audiology, physical therapy and optometry. I also will be shadowing a dentist and a pharmacist soon. My mom has been unhappy at her job for a while and had talked to me about wishing she could go back to school a few months ago. At that time she had talked about pharmacy, but I don't think she ever got to think about it too much. When I was shadowing the audiologist, my mom suddenly came to mind. I know her really well and I got this feeling that she would be interested in it and that she would definitely be good at it. I brought it up to her a few days ago and she was interested, but I thought I'd post on good ol' SDN for info before I started really getting into it with her. So that's how it's come to be. Haha

Thanks for all the advice and I'll definitely tell her about not being able to work 40 hours. That would cut things financially for a little while but I think if she really wanted to be audiologist that it would be worth it for her. Thanks again for all the support and advice and if anyone else has anymore advice I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

 

[Cochlear]

Thanks for sharing, sounds like your mom could definitely benefit from doing some shadowing herself. If she's interested in pharmacy, it might be a good idea for her to look into a pharmacy tech program; I know a guy who works as a pharmacy tech and he enjoys the work. It'd require less schooling than pharmacy or audiology and it would get her out of the Post Office. Also she could become an Audiologist Assistant or HIS (Hearing Instrument Specialist), which would enable her to do many of the things an audiologist can do without having to go through a 4-year full-time doctoral program--comparable to an optician in optometry. Just a suggestion.

Which speciality stood out to you during your shadowing btw? Seems optometry would be up your alley since you wanted to be an ophthalmologist. Also wondering what about your experience shadowing an audiologist made you think your mom would enjoy the work/be good at it? Geeze, I ask a lot of questions.

 

[eye lovethe eye]

Those are really good ideas, Cochlear. I'll definitely talk to her about them. I personally liked optometry the best I think even though I liked all of them a lot. I am really fascinated by the eye and I really enjoyed the different things the optometrist did to test each person's prescription and eye health. 😀

My mom had originally gone to college to be a pre-school teacher so when the audiologist who specializes in pediatrics was working with a child, I pictured my mom working with a child in that position and for some reason it really stuck. She has always been really good with kids and she cares about them. It's a little hard to explain, but for some reason I saw her being a good pediatric audiologist.

Thanks for the questions though, I really enjoy them!

 

[eardocsavvy]

Those are really good ideas, Cochlear. I'll definitely talk to her about them. I personally liked optometry the best I think even though I liked all of them a lot. I am really fascinated by the eye and I really enjoyed the different things the optometrist did to test each person's prescription and eye health. 😀

My mom had originally gone to college to be a pre-school teacher so when the audiologist who specializes in pediatrics was working with a child, I pictured my mom working with a child in that position and for some reason it really stuck. She has always been really good with kids and she cares about them. It's a little hard to explain, but for some reason I saw her being a good pediatric audiologist.

Thanks for the questions though, I really enjoy them!

She might want to look into Speech Pathology, its sort of related but its only a 2 year program. That might appeal to her more than a 4 year degree, doctoral degree. The SLP programs are only 2 years and you will a Master's. From my knowledge it is not impossible to work while in an SLP program.

Hope this helps!!