Becoming an audiologist takes four years of undergraduate study plus a four-year Doctor of Audiology (AuD) — the degree the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) says audiologists typically need, in programs that typically take 4 years.
Accelerated three-year AuDs cut a year from the total.
In the four-year programs that spell out their shape, the last year is a full-time clinical externship, and ASHA recommends taking the Praxis exam in that final year.
How many years of school does an audiologist need?
The count starts with the degree.
BLS says audiologists typically need a Doctor of Audiology (AuD) degree, that the AuD typically takes 4 years, and that entry to an AuD program requires a bachelor's degree.
Stacked together — four undergraduate years for the bachelor's, then four doctoral years for the AuD — the count our research tallied reads 4 + 4.
Accelerated three-year programs remove one of those doctoral years, and this page breaks both versions down.
The doctorate is not optional for certification.
ASHA's 2020 certification standards for the CCC-A credential require applicants to hold a doctoral degree in audiology from a CAA-accredited program, a program in CAA candidacy, or the equivalent.
Graduation is not the finish line, either.
BLS notes that all states require audiologists to be licensed, with requirements that vary by state and typically include an AuD from an accredited program.
The work waiting at the end of the eight years is a career in its own right.
Our audiologist career guide covers what the job involves, where audiologists work and what it pays.
How long is an AuD program?
The AuD is a post-baccalaureate professional degree — you enter it after finishing a bachelor's, not straight from high school.
The University of Utah describes its own AuD exactly that way: a 4-year post-baccalaureate professional degree.
The four-year shape is easy to see in how programs describe themselves.
The University of South Florida's AuD is a 4-year, full-time, 101-credit residential program.
The University of Maryland says its post-BA AuD students usually take four years full time.
Ball State's AuD is a four-year residential program for bachelor's-degree entrants, capped by a one-year clinical externship.
Four years does not always mean the same calendar.
Northwestern counts its program in quarters — 12 of them over three years — while UMass Amherst runs four academic years of eight semesters.
Not every program runs four years, though.
The three-year versions are the next question, and they change the total.
Are there 3-year AuD programs?
Yes.
A number of universities run the AuD on an accelerated calendar, and the programs our research verified include:
- Northwestern University — an accelerated program lasting 12 quarters (3 years).
- Nova Southeastern University (Fort Lauderdale/Davie, FL) — a three-year, eight-semester, full-time program of 119 credit hours, dually accredited by the CAA and the ACAE.
- Pacific University (Hillsboro, OR) — a three-year, nine-semester, year-round program.
- University of the Pacific (San Francisco campus) — a three-year accelerated program.
- University of Cincinnati — currently a 3-year, nine-semester, full-time program with a summer start.
- Drexel University (Osborne Audiology, Elkins Park, PA) — an on-campus program completed in just over three years.
Not every program that looks accelerated is exactly three years.
The Northeast Ohio AuD Consortium (the University of Akron and Kent State University, affiliated with Cleveland Clinic) offers a full-time, continuous, 45-month AuD, which sits between the three- and four-year models.
At Cincinnati, the compression comes from the calendar, not from cutting the externship.
When the university announced its move from an 11-semester structure in October 2020, it said the new summer start puts students into the externship year on the typical national cycle.
At Northwestern, the externship falls in the third year.
That is also where its tuition drops to one third of the regular rate, since Northwestern charges per quarter.
Stack a three-year AuD onto a four-year bachelor's and the count reads 4 + 3 — a full doctorate year shorter than the four-year route.
What happens each year of the AuD?
The University of Connecticut describes its AuD as a four-year program: three years of coursework and clinical experience plus one year of full-time residency — the externship.
UMass Amherst spells out the same arc.
Its AuD runs four academic years of eight semesters: three years of on-campus coursework, clinical rotations and a capstone research project, then a full-time fourth-year externship.
Ball State caps its four-year program with a one-year clinical externship.
Where the year is spent, what it pays and how sites are chosen are questions of their own — our 4th-year externship guide covers them.
The other final-year landmark is the exam.
ASHA recommends that AuD students take the Praxis Audiology exam during their final year.
ETS lists the Audiology (5343) test at $146, computer-delivered, 2 hours long, with 120 selected-response questions.
The required 5343 score for ASHA certification and state boards is 162 on the 100–200 scale.
States set their own passing scores for licensure, and ASHA notes most adopt its score, though some set higher or lower ones.
Timing has edges too.
Under ASHA's 2020 standards, a passing score must be earned no earlier than 5 years before the CCC-A application is submitted, and no later than 2 years after ASHA receives the application.
After commencement comes the state license.
BLS notes that all states require audiologists to be licensed, with requirements varying by state and typically including an AuD from an accredited program.
Program calendars and exam rules change — confirm before you plan
Can you shorten the path?
The biggest lever is the program you pick.
A three-year accelerated AuD removes a year from the total — the year-round curriculum blocks at Pacific and the summer start at Cincinnati are how those two create the room.
Going online does not shorten the entry path.
Our research did not find a CAA-accredited, fully online entry-level AuD.
One hint sits in the certification rules.
Under ASHA's 2020 CCC-A standards, at least 50% of the supervised clinical practicum must be on site and in person, with telepractice counting for up to 40% and clinical simulation up to 10%.
The online AuD programs our research found are post-professional degrees for people already in the field.
Drexel's AuD Bridge is fully online and requires a master's in audiology or the equivalent, plus at least 3 years of full-time audiology work experience.
It requires a minimum of 45 credits, which Drexel says students complete over the course of 2 years, and applicants also need an existing audiology license, certificate or other documentation of eligibility to provide audiological services.
A.T. Still University's online Post-Professional Doctor of Audiology, aimed at practicing audiologists, offers 2- or 3-year individualized plans.
Universities also advertise early-assurance or dual-admission tracks into their AuD programs; our research saw those links but did not verify how the tracks work, so treat them as a question to ask each program directly rather than a shortcut to plan around.
How does it compare to other doctorates?
Next to the research doctorate, the timelines look similar on paper.
ASHA's 2025 CSD Education Survey reports that 80 institutions offer research doctoral degrees (such as PhDs) in audiology, speech-language pathology and/or speech and hearing science.
The same survey says most graduates of those research programs take 4-6 years to finish, and that 139 research doctorates were granted in 2024-25.
The count spans all three fields combined, not audiology alone.
The two degrees can also be combined.
The University of Iowa says it offers one of the few combined AuD/PhD programs in the US, and that students apply to switch into it after two years in the AuD.
Against the medical route, the AuD is the shorter doctorate.
BLS puts the physician and surgeon path at a bachelor's degree, 4 years of medical school and 3 to 9 years of internship or residency depending on specialty.
The AuD's four years start after the bachelor's and end at the degree, with the state license to follow.
On length alone, the medical route runs longer after the same four undergraduate years.
And against the online post-professional AuDs that practicing audiologists take in 2- or 3-year plans, the entry-level AuD's four years are the timeline that answers this page's question.
Career information, not medical, legal or tax advice. Program lengths above are the programs' own published descriptions, and exam and certification rules come from ASHA and ETS as of October 2026. Confirm current requirements with each program, with ASHA and with the audiology board in the state where you plan to practice.