Audiology

Im considering studying audiology or optometry. It would be very interesting if anyones got more info on Audiology. Im hoping to do some work experiance in a 'hidden hearing' centre near me this summer which should be good as Id like to know more about working in audiology. I work in an opticians so at the moment Im biased towards that!

Reply 2

znicz

OP

1

Cool so are you considering audiology or optom. I orininally wanted to be an optometrist but for one the grades needed are so high and its very competitive also apparently new graduates ar finding it hard to find employment and the salery has gone down a lot. I wanna do audiology as it looks a really interesting course and the career prospects are supposed to be better as its a growng proffesion. What year are you in are you applying thins year.Sorry bout the long post.

Reply 3

nas7232

19

Everyone on my course hates audiology.

Reply 4

albert'thee'

Hi I thought I would reply to you as I saw that you said you were going to do some experience at 'hidden hearing' Its great that you have considered work experience, but this is a private hearing aid dipenser, not an audiologist. People who generally work for hidden hearing will not have a degree, they mainly work in a sales releted envirnment. Anybody with half decent a levels can become a hearing aid dispenser, you will do pure tone audiograms on clients not patients, and sell and fit them with an aid. You will carry out diagnostic audiology, be able to call yourself an audiologist or work with children. Its a career for people who want to do hearing tests all day everyday, and take thousands of pounds off people who either have lots of money, or those people who are unaware that they are entitled to a free hearing test, aid and counselling off the NHS. Working as a private hearing aid dispenser you will make a lot of money, and probably do a lot better money wise than those who work for the NHS, but you will not have an academic degree and you will only test and fit aids all day. So its worth doing soem experience at private clinics but don't let that be the decider of whether you should study audiology or not, because it is not accurate of the work of an audiologist. I thought I would say this because I didn;t want people or you t be confused.
Anyway I've chatted too much already I think hope you decide to look into audiology its a fab career.x

Reply 5

Thanx for that info. Il defenatly look for some hospital work experiance as an audiologist before I make any decisions. But its a first step into the world of audiology for me.

znicz - I will be applying next year( im year 12) but have been thinking alot about what to apply for. I work as an optical assistant at the mometn and love it. I would really like to become an Optom. But like you said in your post, the world of optometry is very difficult to get into these days. I also have to think about my exam results and how likely it would be to get a place. I could go for the dispensing optician course - but this isnt really the line of work id want to be in (even though it can lead to becoming an optom) I like biology and working with people and I started looking around at other related things. Im hoping to get some experiance in each and see which is the best one to paply for ( oooo big question. Am I right in thinking you cvan only apply for 1 course (like only optometry, or only music)?) I think working in audiology, radiography or speech therapy would also be very interesting. I think its going to be a year of tough decisions for me :wink:

Reply 6

Pete.S

14

u can apply to as many courses as u want, as long as you don't exceed the limit of 6 which is the total number of unis you can choose. So you can apply for 2 optom, 2 audiology and 2 radiograpghy etc... but personal statment - would be hard to talk in if your applying to more than one or two different courses

Reply 7

glitter_bug

Hey, I'm applying for audiology but I'm going to defer my application so that I can get lots of work experience and do a Britsh Sign Language course (i Know its not essential but I'm interested in it and I think it might give me an edge if there are lots of applicants).

Has anyone started their personal statement yet? :smile:

Reply 8

Sharma - Can you really apply for differnt courses (up to 6) !!!!!!! Wow that has been a huge worry for me. So I would be able to apply for 2 optom, 2 audiology and 2 of whatever else. Do they have to be related??(like all science, or all arts?)

Reply 9

Pete.S

14

Yeh, pretty much apply to how many different ones you want, but remember your personal statment needs to be more specific to your course, so if you are applying to more than one different one, make sure they are quite related, as having a personal statement talking about healthcare while applying to an arts course would look very odd and universities may think that you are not dedicated enough for their course. :smile:

Reply 10

ah right I can see what you mean about the personl statememnt but im sure there is way of working around it. Im so relieved that you can appy for differnt related courses. This means that I can apply for courses with differnt entry requirements so im hopefully going to get a place at one of them! My worry applying for optometry would be that Id be getting in on the strenghth of my work experiance rather than exceptional grades and I could end up with no offers, of an offer to a place I dont want to go to. Thats really good to hear :smile:

Reply 11

JackieS

sheepgirl

ah right I can see what you mean about the personl statememnt but im sure there is way of working around it. Im so relieved that you can appy for differnt related courses. This means that I can apply for courses with differnt entry requirements so im hopefully going to get a place at one of them! My worry applying for optometry would be that Id be getting in on the strenghth of my work experiance rather than exceptional grades and I could end up with no offers, of an offer to a place I dont want to go to. Thats really good to hear :smile:

just be careful that your PS covers all the subjects you want to apply for in sufficient depth. Often when applying for more than one subject you can spend too much time talking about one more than the others, or equally as bad write hardly anything about any of them!

Reply 12

ah right. I think its something that i'l spend quite a time on, and get the opinion from differnt people too. The fact that I am applying for 1 arst subject can be encorporated a bit because I can say that I've been committed to flute lessons for 10 years which will show that I ahve the ability (for the arts courses) and that I can commit to things (for all courses) Is there a word limit to your personal statement? Id imagine there would be or else you could write pages and pages!

Reply 13

JackieS

sheepgirl

ah right. I think its something that i'l spend quite a time on, and get the opinion from differnt people too. The fact that I am applying for 1 arst subject can be encorporated a bit because I can say that I've been committed to flute lessons for 10 years which will show that I ahve the ability (for the arts courses) and that I can commit to things (for all courses) Is there a word limit to your personal statement? Id imagine there would be or else you could write pages and pages!

I think its around 39 lines.......when you paste into the space on te online application form it'll tell you how many lines you have left/how many you'r e over by

Reply 14

ah good. Well actually it will be more frustrating than good! But there you go. Anyway back to Audiology! Have any of you done any audiology work experiance? Where did you go and what did you do?

Reply 15

Saffie

albert'thee'

Its a career for people who want to do hearing tests all day everyday, and take thousands of pounds off people who either have lots of money, or those people who are unaware that they are entitled to a free hearing test, aid and counselling off the NHS. Working as a private hearing aid dispenser you will make a lot of money, and probably do a lot better money wise than those who work for the NHS, but you will not have an academic degree and you will only test and fit aids all day. So its worth doing soem experience at private clinics but don't let that be the decider of whether you should study audiology or not, because it is not accurate of the work of an audiologist. I thought I would say this because I didn;t want people or you t be confused.
Anyway I've chatted too much already I think hope you decide to look into audiology its a fab career.x

You totally neglect the fact that the private sector provides superior hearing aids. The NHS has the cast offs, so maybe the people working privately don't have the specific audiology degree, but they're giving people the best hearing they could have. Personally I think that's more important.

Why do you guys want to do audiology btw? Hearing clinics (nhs ones) are eerily quiet (irony?) and tainted with urm, sadness from the disability I guess :confused:

Audiology and optometry are totally different like that, no-one would bat an eyelid to say they got some new glasses, god forbid a hearing aid.

Reply 16

albert'thee'

interesting that you know so much or should I say so little about nhs audiology waiting rooms. When i was on placement there was so much noise in our waiting room that I was sometimes wishing I had a hearing impairment. What I was trying to say is that with an Audiology degree you can work diagnostically, with paedetrics and older people. Do vestibular work, cochlear implant work which in itself is amazng, work in newborn hearing screening, work in rehabilitation work with friends and family of pepole who have lost their hearing. The list is endless, and of couse you can apply your academic skills to further research, so that the price of new aids is reduced therefore allowing the NHS to provide better aids to all. BTW the aids that are available now on the NHS are far better than they have been in the past, and also come with no sales pitch! So for people who do not have a disposable income this is essential. My point was that if you are wanting to go to university and study an acdemic couse then your best bet is to got to an NHS hospital to gain experience there.
I am in no means trying to reject private hearing aid dispensers, after all they reduce NHS waiting time, push the NHS into supplying aids with beter technology oh and of course allow for more fat cats to drive off-road company cars on the city streets! :biggrin:

Reply 17

sarah3565

hi,,
please could anyone help me with ucl for audiology? what happens? what do they ask?please...

Reply 18

Saffie