optrometry is not a good carrer!!??

It will carry on declining untill a certain time where it will remain stable.

5 years ago, optometry was a relatively unknown degree course a bit like audiology at the moment.5 years ago i was planning on doing medicine or optometry. As opticians were paid in the region of 60-70 thousand a year for a 3 year course! It was relatively easy to climb the ladder and earn big money quickly, also the course is enjoyable imo and some quite good unis do it. However, in the last 2 years more people became aware of the high paid salary/enjoyable course structures/only 3 years [except glasgow caledonian] course. So the competition for places became fierce, unis increased number of places. The amount of jobs available then decreased, on the money side. Opticians earn around 20 thousand (those who would of been earning 60 thousand a year) less than 5 years ago. The decline is still going on, as more places open up = more jobs => more competition, which eventually ends up with a lower salary. Now, the competition is so fierce that places like aston require AAA at first sitting and even then you are not guaranteed a place or job! Because if the decline continues, in 4 years time [when you are looking for decent work places] money would be less and the 97% employment will be 70% ish. Unless you work part-time.

Same will happen to audiologists in 10-20 years time. Best to get in there early :smile:

Reply 2

optometry maybe be declining but its still always gona be better than audiology in terms of pay. optometrist still do commonly earn around £40k - 50k. its just harder to get onto now that every 1 knows how good it is. i would still say optometry is the best alternative to medicine along with pharmacy

Reply 3

you're wrong.

Audiologists earn 69, 000 in the nhs. You can earn more in the private sector. Furthermore, you can earn alot more in the states.

Also, audiologists are guaranteed employment in almost any place in the uk or even europe, because of the servere shortage.

Medicine is not really for the money, that should be done for the person really wanting to be a doctor. As doctors don't earn alot of money quickly, it takes a long time. Even then, to be on big money you have to had lots of trainning and be a surgeon rather than a G.p who earns around 50-70, 000 a year on average.

It's alot better to do audiology at the moment than optometry for various reasons (More pay, increased learning in a broad range of skills as all audiologist professions merge to one, tutions fee's paid for you by the nhs!, e.t.c). It isn't just about the money either. Optometry can be v.interesting with many opticians going into research for laser eye treatment.

My advice would be, if you are really interested in optometry go for it, but make sure you have some kind of insurance.

Reply 4

seriously i didint now audiologistearn that much i thought it was like 20k ish i bet u have to have loadsa experience to be on 50k plus. cos the grades to get into audiology are lower than optometry. and the nhs arnt known for there generous pay.

Reply 5

Everythings all changed this year, this includes people who were lucky enough to get into audiology in 2004 as it wasn't advertised in the prospectuses.

All you need to do to get 69, 000 a year is:
Complete 4 year course - 15,000-20,000
1 year experience - 25,000-40,000
1 Year Masters - 55,000
1 year Phd / doctorate degree - 69,000

By the way, in the 3rd year of audiology you have to do a clincal placement, we get paid £10,000-£12,000 for this :smile:

. [tranie salary]

In the private sector, i think the money is definately alot higher. Not sure by how much though.

There are so many vacancies in this field, the people in 2004, 2005,2006,2007 will be on big money as they can progress up the ranks very quickly. The people who start the course after 2007 will earn less.

Reply 6

ohh so u still have to do a phd to get onto the big money or masters im sure u get paid just as much if u do the same as optometry, audiology sounds good but i doubt u get paid above 50k and if u do its vary rarely as that is more than a GP wich will deffinitly always be higher than optometry and audiology

Reply 7

maz69

what exactly is audiology?!? :confused:

Reply 8

no need to doubt the pay, i researched it thouroughly. I am also studying audiology in 2005/2006 :smile:

You make more money in audiology than optometry in the same amount of years, even though you are adamant you don't. :smile:

Reply 9

agy

ohh so u still have to do a phd to get onto the big money or masters im sure u get paid just as much if u do the same as optometry, audiology sounds good but i doubt u get paid above 50k and if u do its vary rarely as that is more than a GP wich will deffinitly always be higher than optometry and audiology

nope

Where did you get that information from???
It's not true m8.

I spoke to medical schools, faculty of healthcare & ophlamatic specialists before i choose audiology. I wrote enough already lol. If you dont believe it, no worries. But you could try and research it with professionals. They will reinforce my statements. :wink:

Reply 10

you only need BBC to do optometry and thats pretty low compares to medicine or optometry which is AAA/ABB

Reply 11

agy

you only need BBC to do optometry and thats pretty low compares to medicine or optometry which is AAA/ABB

entry grades don't have nothing to do with it.

You need BBB for APU [optometry]
AAA for aston
ABB for city
AAB for any good chance to get in any other uni.

High entry grades doesn't = high money

Entry grades are there for a reason. That reason is not neccessarily for high paid courses.

You seem to be guessing and looking at grades to determine money. There is a good reason why audiology you need low grades this year. Next year 8/9 unis are raising entry standards to BBB-AAB. I wont write why the standards are low this year & last year because my hands are tired and i got 3000 word essay to write which is due in tomorow.

Reply 12

SinghFello

2

You could just some it up in one world: Demand.

The requirements are reflect by the demand of the course. You dont *need* to get AAA to do optometry, because its not a very hard course. But demand is high, so the universities can be chosy.
Its the same thing that happened with Dentistry 40yrs ago. Then Optometry, and now audiology.

Reply 13

Muse

13

Have you got a link for those high audiology salaries. I've worked alongside at least 20 audiologists (and some senior audiologists) in both my home city and london and have yet to find one earning as much as £60/70K. There may be the potential to earn this much, but I certainly wouldn't say it was the norm by any stretch of the imagination.

£60/70K is more than GPs and a lot of hospital consultants. Grade 5 audiologists are the most common, with their salary in the region of £30/35K.

Edit: I forget to mention that consultant audiologists are able to earn in excess of £60,000 per year but these posts aren't exactly common at present.

Reply 14

There is a link for an americain site. Not for a uk site, i can't find any.

But at ucl, bristol, aston, manchester, swansea they all said the same.
Audiology has changed since the time you went there probably. This year all the 5/6 professions have to merge to one audiologist profession instead of 6 different professions all doing the same thing as the new audiologist[1 person]. In the past audiologist technicians and the other professions earned on average of £20k-30k a year.

As digital hearing aids and newbown screening for every born infant has come in place, the demand has significantly increased as singhfello stated above. The demand is greater than what happerend to g.ps!. The demand is the main factor that has increased the salarly.

While im writing alot... the grades are low to get in audiology because not many people know about the profession. Good news is that audiologists will get more recognition, bad news. Next year 2006/7 entry, competition will be fierce, but not as fierce as a few years after when the high paid salary will come more evident. At the moment not many people know that there is a high paid salarly, proof is in this thread lol.

To get big bucks you need to get a masters or phd, but you can get that relatively quickly as there is so many open spaces in this field, it also does not take long to progress to this stage. All you need to be able to do is work hard.

Optometry is not a hard course really, as my friend who is in the final year has been telling me. Singhfello summed that one up.

grades to get into audiology at this college in scotland for 2005 entry is BBB, when ucl had BCC in their prospectus. Prospectuses come out relatively early and the grades are low because the uni wont get funding if the spaces arent filled. Hence the low grade requirements.

edit: also at manchester people were coming out with AAB-BBB offers, even though in prospectus it says BCC-BBC. Prospectuses are unreliable for a new course.

Reply 15

timeofyourlife

Have you got a link for those high audiology salaries. I've worked alongside at least 20 audiologists (and some senior audiologists) in both my home city and london and have yet to find one earning as much as £60/70K. There may be the potential to earn this much, but I certainly wouldn't say it was the norm by any stretch of the imagination.

£60/70K is more than GPs and a lot of hospital consultants. Grade 5 audiologists are the most common, with their salary in the region of £30/35K.

Edit: I forget to mention that consultant audiologists are able to earn in excess of £60,000 per year but these posts aren't exactly common at present.

There is a significant number of places available for consultant audiolgists. Thats where the high paid salarly comes into play. It's quick and relatively easy to progress to that level.
I best finish my cwk, only done 590 words :eek:

I wrote more words in this thread lol

Reply 16

Muse

13

I'm just saying it's misleading to make comments like these

Audiologists earn 69, 000 in the nhs

when I've worked in a few hospitals and experienced audiology departments, not having found an audiologist earning this much. The only person I've shadowed who's had a salary of £70K+ has been a consultant in audiological medicine (working at the london royal free also).

Of course, if you make it to the top of your career with a PhD and an accompanying well paying job with a bit of research thrown in, nobody's disputing that you can top salaries.

Reply 17

Yes, 12,000 is for a traniee audiologist => me in my 3rd year clinical placement

30,000 is with experience or with masters with hardly any experience.

60-70k is with phd. As i explained above its reltiavely quick and easy to get to this level for all people applied last year this year and the year after. :smile:

Reply 18