Psychology Degree

[maelstrom]

Unless you plan on getting a Masters, or preferably a PhD, a degree in psychology isn't really worth it. This upsets me, because I love psychology, but there's no way I'd ever be getting a Masters or PhD. You might look into getting a degree in "human services"; I call this "social work lite". You can start off with an Associates and still get pretty decent jobs, and then you could move on to a Bachelors if you wanted. You're not a Social Worker (that requires a Masters) but you get to do a lot of the same stuff. If you were considering working with the mentally ill, womens issues (abused/battered women, teen girls who need assistance with sexual healthcare, rape victims & survivors), the mentally retarded, working on behalf of elderly patients, etc, you may really want to consider looking into a degree in "human services". This would likely either have its own department at the school, or be part of the sociology department. This was my major before I left college, and perhaps someday I will return to it. For now, I have my pharmacy technician certification (I get to put the letters CPhT next to my name, which makes me feel important, haha). But I really hope to be able to work with the mentally ill or with women... someday.

 

[kid-at-heart]

:

Unless you plan on getting a Masters, or preferably a PhD, a degree in psychology isn't really worth it. This upsets me, because I love psychology, but there's no way I'd ever be getting a Masters or PhD. You might look into getting a degree in "human services"; I call this "social work lite". You can start off with an Associates and still get pretty decent jobs, and then you could move on to a Bachelors if you wanted. You're not a Social Worker (that requires a Masters) but you get to do a lot of the same stuff. If you were considering working with the mentally ill, womens issues (abused/battered women, teen girls who need assistance with sexual healthcare, rape victims & survivors), the mentally retarded, working on behalf of elderly patients, etc, you may really want to consider looking into a degree in "human services". This would likely either have its own department at the school, or be part of the sociology department. This was my major before I left college, and perhaps someday I will return to it. For now, I have my pharmacy technician certification (I get to put the letters CPhT next to my name, which makes me feel important, haha). But I really hope to be able to work with the mentally ill or with women... someday.

You offer good advice.
I have a BA in Psych, and a MS and a PhD. I went into the field knowing I would need grad school in order to have a career in psychology. It is a great field but like so many other interesting subjects, i.e., art, history, music, etc., you need to plan to acquire more than a BA in order to have a career in these areas. Adding the extra years in school was very difficult but it has paid off. I love my career and I have a great life, well worth the sacrifices I made to go to school (I paid for everything, no help from family, which was the way I wanted it). That said, if you do not have the time to go to school 8-10 years, find an area where you can be happy working which requires an AA or BA then take psych classes for fun (and to help you understand others).

 

[Liberty Belle]

I almost have a B.A. in psychology. I'm lacking a few classes and thinking about completing the degree. Here, you can get a job as a school family resource center director with a degree in psychology. I believe you can get various case manager jobs, also.

There are some positions, but you're not going to be making much money unless you get your masters or doctorate.

I think our FRC director starts at $36,000. And really that's not a bad starting salary here.

 

[Nik's Mom]

I have a BA in psychology and social science. I got the degree in psychology knowing that I would need a graduate degree. After graduating with a BA, I took some time off to work full time while dh finished is BS in engineering. I ended up falling in love with that full time job (financial aid advisor) and never went back to school. I used my counseling skills on a daily basis in that job. I have been a stay at home mom for the past year, but I will be going back to work part time next week. I'm just working a few hours a day to get out of the house while the kids are in school. I will be a school cafeteria worker, so I will not be using that degree. But I'm just glad to have a job!

 

[MarkBarbieri]

There are lots of degrees that only work well if you go beyond a bachelors. That's true of pure academic focused library arts degrees (like History or Literature). It's true of degrees in some professions (medicine, law, economics). It's also true of some science degrees (physics).

There are two ways of looking at a degree. One is as a credential. For example, the only new college grads I hire are generally people with MIS, CS, and CE degrees. It's almost impossible to become a lawyer (regardless of how much you know about the law) without a JD.

The other way is the knowledge that you gain. If you want to into a field that doesn't require a particular set of degrees as a credential (real estate, sales, politics, crime), you are more free to focus on picking a degree based on the usefulness of what you will learn. If you think psychology will give you useful insights into the way people think (and I have some reservations about whether that is true), you could pursue a career that doesn't require a credential but will benefit from that knowledge.

 

[Bella the Ball 360]

Did not read the whole thread but the first few posts were reflective of my postion. I am a sped teacher now. I had to go back and get a masters. If you really want to do something with psych IMHO you need to get a doctorate and possibly be in private practice. If you want to work as a school psychologist keep in mind that for a school system of my size which employs over 500 teachers we have only 3 full time psychologists so that will tell you how rare the jobs in this field are.

My son's finacee went to school for psych and she was going to be a social worker but that fizzled out and she works in an office. If you ask my opinion go for something else where you can make a decent salary and then not go home depressed after listening to everyone's problems.

 

[Aisling]

My sister has a Masters in psychology, and she works in a year-round school for "troubled" children. She develops programs and places children with similar issues in those classroom programs. The pay is good for her area (smallish city in upstate NY), and the benefits are great (medical, vacation time, free travel to seminars, etc).

It may be difficult to get a job in a regular school, but these specialized schools for kids with behavior/emotional issues are popping up all over due to the need for them.

 

[MomNeedsVacay]

I have a BS in Psychology and ended up teaching middle school math!!! Now I'm a SAHM.

 

[Sparx]

i'm in college, and my major is "pre-graduate psychology" and i have a double minor in art and sociology.

obviously, i'm planning on going to graduate school. after i get my masters, i want to get licensed as a marriage and family therapist, and work in art therapy.

my mom has a degree in psychology, and she is a social worker (working for the state of tennessee.) and yep, the state ONLY needs a bachelors degree. i'm pretty sure other sates would have the same (or similar) requirements for that job if anybody is dying to use their degree.

 

[Galahad]

I was actually told, "Oh, psychology is a great degree! Any company will be happy to have you; they'll know you'll be able to deal with all different types of people!"

I have my undergrad in music and graduate degrees in Psychology and I've been in corporate I.T. for going on 30 years. It really is true that many companies will value a liberal arts education but you also have to show some other skill - like technical skills or other kinds of knowledge.

 

[si-am]

I come from a family of psychology majors. I now understand that it's sort of a useless degree without further education.

My father went on through school and eventually became a psychologist (which you need a PhD for). My mom was a social worker with just a BA in Psychology for a long time, but that has become a field where a Masters is necessary, so she went back to school a few years ago to get her MSW.

My cousin also has a psychology degree-- she got her Masters in school counseling but jobs are scarce, so she's been working as a kindergarten teacher in private schools.

 

[Normangirls]

I have my BA in Psych, and did my graduate work in Social Psychology (it was a PhD program, geared toward research). Just shy of earning my graduate degree, I got pregnant with DD13 and took a leave of absence. While I was out, our school lost a lot of it's research funding and I was not grandfathered in since I was on leave. Plus the Professor I was working under moved to Australia! So I never went back.

I am now a Human Resources Manager, and yes, I use a lot of what I learned in college. But I worked my way up from Personnel Clerk, the only job I could find with my educational background.

 

[vettechick99]

I'm a 1st grade and SPED teacher. I am getting my masters in school counseling so I can eventually move into that.

Before that, I was a market analyst for several companies. I think Psychology is a decent degree to have.

 

[Gabes_mommy]

I have my master's in school counseling and my BA in psychology. After being laid off from my school counseling job I became a special needs teacher. When DS was born I started teaching college classes as an adjunct. In March I got a full-time job at the college where I had been teaching running the Circulation dept at the library. I still teach 1-2 classes a semester too for extra money.

Unless you really want to be a counselor/therapist, psychology is just not a great degree to have IMO. I never encourage my students to go into psychology. The pay is just not worth all the education you need.

 

[inkkognito]

I have a Psy.D. but didn't want to be a psychologist so I got licensed at the masters level. I do online and in person counseling and wrote a career guide called "So You Want to be a Counselor" that just came out this summer.

 

[AC7179]

Gosh, doesn't anyone get their psych undergrad knowing they'll have to go to grad school? My son is getting ready to start college as a psych major because he wants to be a psychologist.

I don't know how 100% serious he is about the psychology, but a strategy that helped me was to get my B.S. in Education. I wanted to teach, so it wasn't like I was just doing it because I could, but that way after my Bachelor's, I was able to work as a teacher and get my Master's at night. I'm almost done, and when I graduate, I will be just as qualified to work as a counselor as those who got their Bachelor's in Psych. and weren't able to work during grad school.

Again, might not be for everybody, but I'm glad I did it and I'd suggest anyone starting a Bachelor's in psychology to at least consider getting their Bachelor's in something marketable, then completing their Master's in psychology. I was probably a little bit behind to start---but not too much, and I quickly caught up.

 

[Kitty 34]

I have a major in Psychology and a minor in Sociology with an elementary teaching degree. I have subbed for 26 years and have definitely used my psych degree every day I've taught!!!

 

[purplebelle]

My degree was a BA in Psych. I knew I'd have to go to Grad School so after graudting, I got a full time job in HR and went to school full time as well. Completed a year in grad school and had a change of heart as I caught onto liking employment law and dealing with employee issues. 4 years later I'm still in HR and appreciate my grad classes in Professional Counseling but probably wouldn't go back unless as an HR employee I'd make more money.

I agree that a psych degree makes it trickier to find your place in the work world if you don't get a master's or higher, but at the same time, it was raelly difficult for me to pick a major besides psych since I didn't know what I wanted to do with future.

 

[WDWAurora]

Gosh, doesn't anyone get their psych undergrad knowing they'll have to go to grad school? My son is getting ready to start college as a psych major because he wants to be a psychologist.

I did! I wanted to be a psychologist, so I was a psych major. Now, I'm a school psychologist. Exactly what I wanted to be doing.

 

[DisneyJen0504]

I have a BA in Psych and couldn't do a thing with it. To get a decent job you need your Masters. I worked in finance for a few years before getting my MA in Education and becoming a teacher. I couldn't be happier.
Unless you plan to definitely get your MA right after college and want to be a psychologist or counselor, a Psych degree is useless.