Is this possible for me?

[sandst]

Hello all. I frequented this forum often when I was considering going into optometry, and I am so excited to see a forum for audiology! I wanted to ask for some input. I think I am an audiologist at heart. I got my bachelor's degree 10 years ago, then got married and started having kids. I have always thought about going into audiology, but I was always a little too scared to. First, I worry about the job availability. I am NOT willing to relocate. I do live in the DFW area, so you would think there would be plenty of options. But, you never see or hear about jobs in this field. Also, I worry about job flexibility. I have a daughter now, and I don't want to do anything that is going to be too demanding and take too much time away from her. So, I decided to start taking leveling courses in speech pathology. I love the flexibility of the field, the chance to work at a school and have the same schedule as my daughter, and the fact that they are so needed that a job is almost guaranteed. But, as I sit here and read about analyzing utterances, I am thinking of audiology. I love science. I love technology. I enjoyed doing the practice audiograms in my intro to audiology class. I would love to know more about those ABRs. I think this is what I should be doing. But, there are 2 major things that make me wonder if I should do it: My family will have to sacrifice another 4 years of waiting around for me to finish school in this tiny house that we have already outgrown. Can I ask them to make that kind of a sacrifice? My husband says to do what I want, but I can't help but to feel a bad for doing that to them. Secondly, will I be giving up job flexibility? Will I be able to find a job in my area? Can I work part time and still do this program?

Please help! I could use your input.

Thanks!

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[sandst]

Anyone?

 

[HearingDoc]

I am an audiologist. I love the field and there are a lot of jobs available (the job market is growing for audiologists as there are fewer people going to school for an AuD vs a masters and the baby boomers get older!). If you look on Audiologyonline.com you can browse the jobs available right now. DFW is a huge area and there are always openings. The field is quite small (probably why noone else is in this forum) so it's not like you're going to find an ad in the paper for an audiology job. Since the field is small it's like a family and there is much more to it than just the "push the button when you hear the beep test".

The harder thing might be going to school close to home. UTD and UNT have programs, but audiology is very small so the classes are small. My Masters had 8 and AuD had 4 people. The field is very flexible and has a lot of variety (adults, children, hearing aids, vestibular, electrophysiology, intraoperative monitoring etc.) I work part time and keep my son part time. My job is not over-demanding and I love what I do- help to improve people's quality of life.

Graduate school, however, is very demanding and this is not something you can do part time (that I know of). Myself and a few others worked as a research assistant, but I didn't know of anyone else that worked. The pre-req's used to be just a bachelor's degree- it didn't have to be in communication. They pretty much start from the beginning so it's not like you need to have a background like other graduate degrees.

You just have to look at it as a sacrifice for the future. My spouse supported me thru grad school and now I'm doing the same for him. It goes by quickly! Good luck to you.

 

[sandst]

Thank you so much for responding. That sounds encouraging. It just seems to be such a good fit for me. I kind of like that it is a small group of people, but I am so worried about whether or not I have the chance of being accepted. My undergraduate GPA is not that great, although I have taken a few classes since then, including a couple of graduate ones in the field, and I have been making A's. So, I guess I will just have to give it a shot and see what happens. I got my undergrade from UNT, so I am going to apply there. I hope that will help. I know the schooling is full time, but I was just wondering about working part time while I am doing it. I have a job for a hospital right now that I can do at home, which makes it a lot easier. I was going to attempt to do that part time while going to school. I just hate that my family has to wait 4 more years before we can move into a bigger house. I feel so guilty about that. We needed a bigger house a year ago! Anyway, thanks for the post!

 

[chicoborja]

I'm a third year PhD audiology student. Reading about your situation, if you can deal with SLP and kinda like it but don't want to lose the science then I'd go medical SLP. You could also work in the schools if you can't find a job in the hospital right away. In the medical setting, there is plenty of physiology, medicine, and neurolinguistics involved in aphasia, motor speech disorders, and dysphagia. There are more part-time jobs available, quicker to graduate, less factioning in the profession, and don't have to worry about selling products. I do enjoy the science of audiology but I find that the clinical work gets routine after a while. Also, SLP has easier start-up in private practice.

 

[chicoborja]

Oh yeah, you could work part-time doing either AuD or SLP. Graduate assistantships, jobs at Newborn Hearing Screening Audiology Techs, or SLP Assistants are all good pre-professional jobs that will keep you immersed in the field.

 

[Beau Geste]

I'm a third year PhD audiology student. Reading about your situation, if you can deal with SLP and kinda like it but don't want to lose the science then I'd go medical SLP. You could also work in the schools if you can't find a job in the hospital right away. In the medical setting, there is plenty of physiology, medicine, and neurolinguistics involved in aphasia, motor speech disorders, and dysphagia. There are more part-time jobs available, quicker to graduate, less factioning in the profession, and don't have to worry about selling products. I do enjoy the science of audiology but I find that the clinical work gets routine after a while. Also, SLP has easier start-up in private practice.

OP, if you love the science aspect of Communication Disorders, stick with Audiology. I felt the same way and went the medical SLP track, later to find that 85% of my cases were dysphagia, and 80% of those dysphagia cases were dementia patients in nursing homes that was more behavioral modification than therapy. The neuro cases I saw were pretty much typical CVA and while you get to exercise your knowledge of neuro, it gets monotonous.

If the interest is in neurolinguistics, you might as well get your Ph.D. Research is the primary application at this point.

I'm an SLP applying to med school this year, but I do also have experience with audiology (I was a good friend's guinea pig while she got her Ph.D. in audiology), and I would advise you to stick with audiology if you enjoy the science aspect over behavioral aspect.

 

[sandst]

Thanks. Audiology sounds perfect for me. I am not exactly a stranger to it. I worked as an audiology assistant and observed many ABRs, audiograms, ear molds, and all kinds of things. My feeling now is that I just feel like my chances of getting accepted are slim. My undergrade GPA was not that great (2.9). I have taken a few classes since then that have brought my cumulative up a bit, but still probably not a competitive as the other applicants. I took the GRE and got a decent score, but I am going to retake it to get a higher one to be as competitive as possible. I am also continuing to take undergrad speech and hearing classes that I have not taken yet. I will even take biology or physics if that will help. I will be able to get letters from those professors. Is there anything else I can do to make myself more competitive? I am just having a hard time seeing why they would pick me with my subpar numbers to be one of those 10 a year out of 50 or so applicants. I guess I will just do my best.

 

[CNVIII]

I just got admitted into an Au.D. program and will pursue IOM aggressively. What is the salary of a hospital employed Au.D. that does surgical monitoring (I.E. ENT surgery)? I am very excited about this because I have a stong basic science background.....Thank you!

I am an audiologist. I love the field and there are a lot of jobs available (the job market is growing for audiologists as there are fewer people going to school for an AuD vs a masters and the baby boomers get older!). If you look on Audiologyonline.com you can browse the jobs available right now. DFW is a huge area and there are always openings. The field is quite small (probably why noone else is in this forum) so it's not like you're going to find an ad in the paper for an audiology job. Since the field is small it's like a family and there is much more to it than just the "push the button when you hear the beep test".

The harder thing might be going to school close to home. UTD and UNT have programs, but audiology is very small so the classes are small. My Masters had 8 and AuD had 4 people. The field is very flexible and has a lot of variety (adults, children, hearing aids, vestibular, electrophysiology, intraoperative monitoring etc.) I work part time and keep my son part time. My job is not over-demanding and I love what I do- help to improve people's quality of life.

Graduate school, however, is very demanding and this is not something you can do part time (that I know of). Myself and a few others worked as a research assistant, but I didn't know of anyone else that worked. The pre-req's used to be just a bachelor's degree- it didn't have to be in communication. They pretty much start from the beginning so it's not like you need to have a background like other graduate degrees.

You just have to look at it as a sacrifice for the future. My spouse supported me thru grad school and now I'm doing the same for him. It goes by quickly! Good luck to you.

 

[HearingDoc]

Congratulations, CNVIII, like the name too! I have not worked in IOM, but have a friend who does. I would say she probably started around $55k. You can look at this ASHA website on a study done in 2003 about salaries. I saw another article recently in the ASHA leader talking about salaries being on the rise. So I'm sure this info is a little out-dated. http://www.asha.org/about/publications/leader-online/archives/2004/040203/040203b.htmHope you picked a program with a strong clinical site for IOM and good electrophys classes. There is a lot you can do in this concentration even non-auditory related. In clinic I saw somatosensory monitoring and others and the reason is because we have the background in monitoring so often times audiologists are trained to monitor other areas as well. However, have an open-mind. I went to grad school thinking I wanted to work with children (with a strong child development background) and came out not wanting to work with children at all. It's good to be well rounded in this field as you'll never know what opportunities will come up!Good luck!