I am a senior getting ready to graduate from UIUC with a Psychology degree, however I feel as though what I have chosen to pursue is not for me, and I am beginning to worry. My intent for studying psychology was originally to either A) go into research field or B) prepare myself for med school and psychiatry. However, after working in a research lab for a year and taking many advanced level courses, I do not believe academia is what I am meant for. I do not particularly enjoy working in a psychology lab setting, and spending years reading academic psych journals would be torturous. Not to mention Phd psych programs are extremely competitive and time consuming, and if its not my passion, it definitely does not seem worth it. As for med school and psychiatry, I’m still thinking that over but I don’t know if I can commit all that time for med school and residency req + some pre reqs I still need upon graduating. However I’ve been looking into CS. CS appears to be extremely valuable in virtually any category, and apparently could even complement my psych degree (after searching I’ve come to realize many paid research positions prefer applicants to have CS skills). Plus I know people who have graduated with CS degrees and every single one of them is more than satisfied with their jobs (location, pay, everything seriously). A CS degree looks extremely appealing to me however I wouldn’t even know where to start. I only have math up to Calc I and some basic HTML experience, which I know is almost nothing, but I am motivated to learn a new, viable skill. Would I need to go to school for a second bachelor’s? Can I take CS pre-reqs and apply to a masters program? I’m not sure what my options are which is ultimately why I am posting this, so if anyone can give me any insight into how I can begin to make this transition I would greatly appreciate it, thanks!
From your post, it sounds like you are leaning the way of computer science because you are apprehensive, at best, about your future and want to ensure job prospects. But a computer science degree doesn’t do that: unemployment rates for new CS graduates are only slightly lower than that of new psychology graduates. Someone here just posted an article the other day about the unemployment rate among new tech graduates. The students who get good CS jobs right out of college are the ones who love to code and have been doing coding exercises and internships and building their own apps and things in college. That’s why they get jobs - not just the skill, but the obvious interest and background.
Are you actually interested in computer science? Do you want to develop software? Do you want to start out mainly writing code and programming different parts of an application or service? Or are you only eyeing the area because it’s currently hot?
You are right that CS can complement your psych degree. I work in a hybrid psychology/CS field right now, called user experience research (also known as human factors design or human-computer interaction). Here are what I feel your best options are:
Why don’t you try to get a job with your BA? There are lots of jobs in and outside of tech that you can do without any further schooling.
If you are interested in tech, try out a human-computer interaction master’s degree or a related field. It’s a blend of psychology and computer science that is better suited for your background. The oldest of these programs is at Carnegie Mellon (https://www.hcii.cmu.edu/academics/mhci), and there are also good programs in this area at UW (https://mhcid.washington.edu/admissions/), Maryland (http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/academics/hci-masters-degree.shtml), RIT (http://hci.rit.edu/), and Georgia Tech (http://mshci.gatech.edu/). If I could change something about my life trajectory, I’d probably still major in psychology but minor in CS, and then do an MS in HCI. Other master’s programs with different names might be very similar and may involve terms like informatics, information science, human-centered engineering (like UW’s HCDE program), engineering psychology, human factors, media, etc.
If you do decide to go the CS route, you can probably get a master’s in computer science by taking some prerequisites. No need to get a second bachelor’s degree. Just visit the websites of a few MS programs in that field to get a feel for what kinds of classes are required.