Audiologists are typically doctors by degree, not by medical school: the profession's entry credential is a clinical doctorate, the doctor of audiology (AuD), which the Bureau of Labor Statistics lists as the degree audiologists typically need.
An AuD is not an MD, and an audiologist is not a physician — a distinction that shapes licensure, scope of practice and pay.
Is an audiologist a doctor?
It depends which "doctor" you mean.
Audiologists typically hold a doctorate: the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) lists the doctor of audiology (AuD) as the degree audiologists typically need — entered after a bachelor's degree, and typically four years long.
An AuD is a doctorate for hearing and balance care, not a medical degree, and an audiologist is not a physician.
ASHA's national certificate points the same direction.
ASHA's CCC-A standards require applicants to hold a doctoral degree in audiology from a program accredited by the Council on Academic Accreditation (CAA), a program in CAA candidacy status, or the equivalent.
What the license covers is clinical work in its own right.
BLS defines audiologists as the professionals who diagnose, manage, and treat patients who have hearing, balance, or related problems, and all states require audiologists to be licensed.
So the working answer: an AuD-trained audiologist is a doctoral-level clinician, and not a doctor of medicine.
For the day-to-day role behind the degree, the audiologist career guide covers the work, the settings and the path into the profession.
What is an AuD vs an MD?
The AuD — Doctor of Audiology — is the practice doctorate for audiology.
Students enter with a bachelor's degree, and the program typically takes four years.
The MD is the physicians' degree, and the two training paths barely overlap.
BLS says physicians and surgeons need a bachelor's degree, four years of medical school, and three to nine years of internship and residency depending on specialty.
The work the degrees prepare for is described differently, too.
ASHA's scope of practice describes audiology's treatment as nonmedical — hearing and balance assessment and rehabilitation, including diagnosis, for people of all ages.
Medicare's rules draw the same boundary.
CMS's Medicare Benefit Policy Manual notes that the opt-out law does not define "physician" or "practitioner" to include audiologists, so audiologists cannot opt out of Medicare and provide services under private contracts the way physicians can.
Pay differs, too.
BLS put the May 2025 median pay for physicians and surgeons at $275,930.
For audiologists, the median annual wage was $95,780 in the May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey — a survey that counts wage-and-salary workers and excludes the self-employed.
Can audiologists use the title 'Dr.'?
The degree carries the word by design: AuD stands for doctor of audiology.
An audiologist who holds the degree holds a doctorate, and saying so — "I have a Doctor of Audiology" — states exactly what the diploma says.
Whether the shorthand honorific is appropriate in front of patients, on signage or in advertising is a separate question, and it is not one our research can answer nationally.
We did not establish state-by-state rules on the "Dr." honorific for audiologists.
The practical step is the same as for any licensing question: ask the board that issued the license.
State boards license audiologists in every state, and the board that issued yours is the right place to confirm what it permits before an honorific goes on a door, a business card or an appointment reminder.
Confirm title use with your state board
Do audiologists go to medical school?
No — medical school is not part of the audiologist's path.
The route BLS describes runs: a bachelor's degree to enter the program, an AuD that typically takes four years, then a state license.
Licensure requirements vary by state but typically include an AuD from an accredited program.
The training pipeline is dedicated to the profession.
As of July 2026, the CAA reported 77 AuD programs in the United States — 76 accredited, including 5 consortia, and 1 candidate program.
Some universities also pair the practice degree with research training.
The University of Utah, for example, describes its AuD as a 4-year post-baccalaureate professional degree and offers a PhD and a dual AuD/PhD alongside it.
Research doctorates are a separate lane from the practice degree.
ASHA's 2025 CSD Education Survey reports 80 institutions offering research doctoral degrees — for example, PhDs — in audiology, speech-language pathology and/or speech and hearing science.
Medical training, by contrast, runs through medical school and residency: four years plus three to nine years of internship and residency depending on specialty, per BLS.
The work itself stays on the profession's side of that line: ASHA describes audiology's work as hearing and balance assessment, nonmedical treatment and rehabilitation, including diagnosis, for people of all ages.
How the doctorate affects scope and autonomy
The doctorate underwrites the profession's self-description as an independent discipline.
The American Academy of Audiology's 2023 scope of practice defines audiologists as independent practitioners who serve as point-of-entry health-care providers for people with auditory and vestibular disorders.
That independence shows up next to neighboring roles.
BLS says audiologists' ability to diagnose as well as treat distinguishes their work from that of hearing aid specialists.
The scope documents also describe supervisory authority over support staff.
AAA's 2023 scope says audiologists may remove cerumen when necessary and may delegate to and supervise non-audiologists such as technicians and clinical assistants.
Care can reach beyond clinic walls, too: AAA's scope says audiologists may provide services in person or remotely via telehealth.
The scope also reaches device decisions.
AAA's 2023 scope says audiologists determine the appropriateness of both prescriptive and over-the-counter hearing aids for persons with hearing loss.
Medicare's rules reflect the same standing.
Since January 1, 2023, 42 CFR 410.32(a)(4) has let audiologists personally furnish certain diagnostic audiology tests once per patient per 12-month period without a physician or NPP order.
The direct-access rule covers non-acute hearing conditions and excludes services related to disequilibrium or hearing aids.
One limit matters: professional scope documents describe the profession, while the state that issues the license controls what an individual audiologist may do.
Every state licenses audiologists, and requirements vary by state.
Is the AuD worth it as a career credential?
As a credential, the AuD is the entry ticket the profession's systems are built around.
BLS says state licensure requirements typically include an AuD from an accredited program, and ASHA's CCC-A standards require a doctoral degree in audiology.
The pay picture from BLS: the median annual wage for audiologists was $95,780 in the May 2025 OEWS survey (occupation 29-1181), with the lowest 10 percent earning less than $64,610 and the highest 10 percent more than $133,120.
The survey counts wage-and-salary audiologists, so self-employed practice owners are outside the figure.
The same survey counted 13,660 wage-and-salary audiologists nationally and reported a mean annual wage of $97,740 — the mean and the median are different statistics, so label whichever figure you quote.
ASHA's 2025 Audiology Survey of certified audiologists reported a median full-time base salary of $95,000 for respondents whose only doctorate was the AuD, $89,171 for those whose highest degree was a master's, and $118,000 for those with only a PhD.
That is survey data on base salary — a different measure from BLS's wage survey, and never a like-for-like comparison.
On the demand side, BLS Employment Projections for 2025–35 expect audiologist employment to grow 11.0 percent, with about 600 openings a year on average.
Cost is the counterweight.
In ASHA's 2025 Audiology Survey, the audiologists who reported carrying any unpaid student debt for their education had a median of $88,000 in debt — a figure across all career stages of working, certified respondents, not a new-graduate debt load.
Financing rules have also changed for future students: under a 2026 federal rule, new Grad PLUS loans end for periods of instruction beginning on or after July 1, 2026.
So "worth it" depends on the goal.
For anyone who wants to practice audiology — evaluation, diagnosis, rehabilitation or any of the specialty paths — state licensure typically requires an AuD, and ASHA's certificate requires a doctoral degree in audiology.
The questions that matter then are program cost and setting.
Career information, not licensing, legal, medical, clinical, billing or coding advice — confirm degree, licensure and credential requirements with the state licensing board and the bodies named (ASHA, the CAA, BLS).