To out of field potential AUD students..

[saythewordlaud]

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It appears that not having a background in speech and hearing sciences is a major concern for quite a number of potential AUD students.

My professor who is on my school's graduate admissions committee told me that they LOVE out of field students--because they can think outside the box and can offer insights from their previous fields that speech and hearing science students may not be able to do. As long as you did well enough in your upper level undergrad classes (and yea the GRE, letters, etc.), you may have a chance. Ok, but let's be realistic--a 4.0 in recreational leadership may not work.

The truth is, many speech and hearing science undergrad programs offer only 3-4 GENERAL classes on audiology. Most students have to take a more in-depth course in their grad program. What they learned in one undergrad semester is typically 1/3 or 1/2 of one grad semester (in my case, three 3hr lectures). Sure, you may have to take a few more co-requisites, but they're mainly undergrad level. If you're out of field, you're not trailing far behind, believe me.

We've had out of field students with backgrounds in economics, art history, business, physiology, english, sociology, computer science, as well as students who took 20 hiatuses from school. Don't downgrade yourself because you think your background precludes you from having a chance at your first choice program, whatever its rank is! I hope this encourages you a bit!!

 

[AUDball2012]

I agree with this!!! My background is in Chem and Physics and they were so happy when someone from a hard science background was interested in Audiology. We are reaching the point in the field where hearing science is really beginning to meld with so many other fields like pharmacology, neuroscience, and cellular biology. It is a very exciting time to be entering the field of audiology and at the same time it opens up the doors to those of us who have "non traditional" backgrounds. So if you are willing to put in the elbow grease to get over that initial steep learning curve and make up any of the other communication disorder/science classes that are required by your program then I think you would be a great asset to the field.

 

[TheEarDoc]

I came from the more medical side of the tracks.

I was a pre-med bio major with a dual major in clinica Psychology.

I love medicine, but my pre-med bio gpa was only a 3.0 and my Psych gpa was a 3.9. I had to take the basic communication sciences courses and scored a 4.0 in all of them.

I had to say coming from a hard science background and having the ability to read people, empathize, and communicate appropriately that I nurtured in Psych courses made me an ideal Audiology student. I also found Psychology and communication sciences course to be a cake walk. I had already had so much anatomy, physics, genetics, biochem, and psych course that com science courses were like a refresher. I never cracked a book.


As for graduate school for Audiology, I never cracked a book for course work, only read when I wanted to know more. I read 100X more now that I am out and practicing than I did when in school, but because I want to know everything.

I wish more pre-med students and business students would go into this field. Our profession has a bad rep of being an easy to get into profession. There is some truth to that. I'm one of the crazy AuD's that thinks all audiology programs should be taking 1st year med courses and be allowed to diagnose common middle ear problems (otitis media anyone?),prescribe basic appropriate antibiotics for said problems, and we already know when to refer on to the ENT so with more training why not? I think if we don't start making our requirements a lot harder (ie., specializations and board certification in it) and weeding out some of the lower end com sci students (with 70+ programs someone will eventually take these students who are low performers) we will never gain traction in the medical field.

I for one have been called a "hand raiser" by a general practice doctor. He probably wasn't expecting the verbal beat down he received, but I'm sure he grew a little as a person that day.

To be a great Audiologist you need a few things
1. A desire to keep learning new things and new ways of doing things
2. You need to learn to be firm yet flexible with patients
3. You need to know going in that you're going to put a lot of years into your education (same amount of years or more than a lot of higher paid medical professions) and you might break even making what you paid out for your education.

No one goes into this field expecting to be rich, but at the end of the day the education payout should be justified by the take home pay. This is something that was not stressed enough to me in the beginning. I make sure and explain this to every undergrad student I've ever discussed Audiology with. I'm completely honest about our infancy as a medical profession, our issues and problems, and our paycheck.