Audiology

Types of Degrees Audiology Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many audiology/audiologist graduations there were for each degree level during the last year for which data was available.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Doctor’s Degree	672
Bachelor’s Degree	176
Master’s Degree	139
Graduate Certificate	20
Basic Certificate	3

What Audiology Majors Need to Know

O*NET surveyed people in occupations related to audiology and asked them what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important for their jobs. The responses were rated on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being most important.

Knowledge Areas for Audiology Majors

This major prepares you for careers in which these knowledge areas are important:

• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Medicine and Dentistry - Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
• Education and Training - Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
• Psychology - Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.

Skills for Audiology Majors

A major in audiology prepares you for careers in which the following skill-sets are crucial:

• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Active Learning - Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.

Abilities for Audiology Majors

Audiology majors often go into careers where the following abilities are vital:

• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.

What Can You Do With a Audiology Major?

Below is a list of occupations associated with audiology:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Audiologists	20.3%	$75,920
Health Specialties Professors	25.9%	$97,370

Who Is Getting a Bachelor’s Degree in Audiology?

This major is dominated by women with about 94% of recent graduates being female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of audiology majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	4
Black or African American	8
Hispanic or Latino	18
White	134
International Students	1
Other Races/Ethnicities	11

Geographic Diversity

Students from other countries are interested in Audiology, too. About 0.6% of those with this major are international students.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Audiology

Some degrees associated with audiology may require an advanced degree, while others may not even require a bachelor’s in the field. Whatever the case may be, pursuing more education usually means that more career options will be available to you.

How much schooling do you really need to compete in today’s job market? People currently working in careers related to audiology have obtained the following education levels.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	1.2%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	1.9%
Bachelor’s Degree	5.0%
Master’s Degree	24.5%
First Professional Degree - awarded for completion of a program that: requires at least 2 years of college work before entrance into the program, includes a total of at least 6 academic years of work to complete, and provides all remaining academic requirements to begin practice in a profession.	2.0%
Doctoral Degree	56.3%
Post-Doctoral Training	9.7%

Online Audiology Programs

The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	0	0
Certificate (2-4 Years)	0	0
Associate’s Degree	0	0
Bachelor’s Degree	3	1
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	11	0
Post-Master’s	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	16	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	56	1
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	3	0

Majors Related to Audiology

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to audiology.

Major	Number of Grads
Speech Pathology & Audiology	7,968
General Communication Sciences & Disorders	7,298
Speech-Language Pathology/Pathologist	6,775
Other Communication Disorders Sciences & Services	237

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020
• Image Credit: By Ghozt Tramp under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.