How the 4th-Year Audiology Externship Works in AuD Programs

The externship is the AuD's closing phase.

After the coursework and clinical placements of the earlier years, each program described on this page includes a dedicated externship stretch — what varies is how each program counts and names it.

At the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), the final three semesters are a full-time clinical rotation of at least 32 hours per week, taken at a location the student has applied to, interviewed for and been offered.

The SDSU/UCSD program counts the earlier years first: students log about 900 clinical hours before the externship, which its own description sets as a 12-month, full-time clinic placement at an approved agency, totaling at least 1,850 hours of clinical experience.

Those hour counts are each program's own published figure, and this page doesn't treat any of them as a national requirement — a distinction worth keeping in mind when you compare program pages.

The year is also a different seat from the clinical placements woven through the earlier years, and it is not a first job.

An extern is still a student working under a supervising audiologist, and the hiring and pay side of the year is a question of its own.

Each program counts the year in its own units, so the honest answer is a list rather than a single number:

• UAMS — the final three semesters, full-time at a minimum of 32 hours per week.
• SDSU/UCSD — a 12-month, full-time externship of at least 1,850 hours, taken after about 900 earlier clinical hours.
• UTHSC in Knoxville — an AuD of 11 semesters of full-time enrollment, with the last three semesters forming the externship, which may be located anywhere in the United States.
• Pitt — a four-year AuD including a one-year externship; after six terms at the flat full-time rate across three academic years, the extern year runs per credit, for at least three terms of five credits each.

Not every program puts the externship in year four, though.

Northwestern charges tuition by quarter (four quarters a year), and its rate drops to one third of the regular level in the third year — the year its students are on externship.

Timing has a cycle as well.

When the University of Cincinnati announced its move to a three-year, nine-semester calendar in October 2020, it said the new summer start puts students into the externship year on the typical national cycle.

When to apply is its own clock.

National SAA publishes a general externship timeline and an externship guide, so anchor your calendar to the timeline your program and SAA publish rather than to secondhand dates.

The clearest description in our research is UAMS's: the externship site is a clinical location the student has applied to, interviewed for and been extended an offer from.

At UAMS, the application work sits with the student.

SDSU/UCSD's description covers a different piece: its externship must be a clinic placement at an approved agency.

Resources for the search exist at the national level, too.

National SAA publishes an externship timeline, an externship guide, clinical education guidelines for audiology externships and past externship survey results.

How your own program splits the work — who finds the site, approval paperwork, site vetting, any matching list it maintains — is a handbook question, so ask before you assume either model.

The practical search itself — building a site list, comparing offers, weighing paid against unpaid — is the job-side half of the year.

Our audiology extern career hub covers that ground in depth.

Our research did not verify a census of externship site types, so the honest answer is that the menu is each program's to publish.

What the facts do show is how far the geography can stretch.

UTHSC tells applicants that the last three semesters of its AuD may be located anywhere in the United States — a placement search that is not tied to the program's home city.

Structured tracks exist alongside ordinary placements.

OHSU's LEND Audiology Training Program offers full-time 12-month clinical audiology externships running June to May, with what the program describes as a modest stipend, open to third- or fourth-year AuD students, plus medium-term internships for second- or third-year students.

Job boards carry externships too.

The American Academy of Audiology's HEARCareers lists jobs and externships year-round, lets students post their information so employers can find them, and its listings include paid fourth-year externships.

Which settings your program approves, and what a site must have to qualify, are details to request directly from the program's clinical education office.

Supervision has a published standard.

Under ASHA's 2020 certification standards for the CCC-A credential, supervised clinical practicum must be completed under an ASHA-certified audiologist.

That supervisor must have a minimum of 9 months of full-time clinical experience (or its part-time equivalent) and at least 2 hours of professional development in clinical instruction and supervision.

The same standards set the format: at least 50% of the CCC-A supervised clinical practicum must be on site and in person, with telepractice counting for up to 40% and clinical simulation for up to 10%.

Those percentages govern the CCC-A supervised clinical practicum as a whole — not the extern year on its own.

Grading is a different story.

What our research found in the standards is supervision requirements, not a grading scheme for the extern year, and no published national grading system for the year either — how it is evaluated lives in your program's handbook.

The survey data does show what sits alongside the externship at the degree level.

ASHA's 2025 CSD Education Survey found that 64.7% of responding AuD programs (44 of 68) require a capstone project for the degree, and 4.4% (3 programs) require a thesis.

One more final-year landmark sits outside the clinic: ASHA recommends that AuD students take the Praxis Audiology exam during their final year — the same year as the externship.

Career information, not licensing, legal, medical, clinical, billing or coding advice. Externship structures are each program's own, and certification standards belong to ASHA — confirm current requirements with your program and with ASHA before acting on anything here.