I’m applying for schools this year, and I plan on double majoring with biology and anthropology or biology and sociology (some schools don’t have anthro).
I’m not really sure what I want to do after undergrad- I love the mix of science, culture, and problem solving physical/forensic anthropology offers, but there are so few jobs available and I don’t want to be making a super low salary. I like the idea of healthcare - especially surgery- but I’m not a huge fan of patient interaction and I want to have a life outside of work. I’m also interested in law, as I love debate, love paperwork (I’m a freak I know), and love working out deals but at the same time, criminal law is another tough field to get into.
No matter what I pick, there’s no way I’ll be able to afford to go straight from undergrad to grad school/med school/law school. Together, my parents salary disqualifies me from most financial aid. However, despite the fact that they are married and live together with me and all that, only one parent (making around $25000/year, mid-50s, picking up slack from health insurance and financing my older sibling as well) will be financially contributing to my education. I am an excellent student and I qualify for in state merit aid for undergrad, but im nearly certain I’m not so exceptional that I will receive a full ride to medical school. I can only take out so much in loans, and my parents have such atrocious credit it would be difficult for them to take out loans (plus, they’ve refused to do so already for undergrad for me + siblings).
So basically, I’m going to have to work between undergrad and whatever comes next to save up some serious $$$ to afford it. I’m alright with living simply for awhile, so that’s not an issue, but I’m worried about being able to find a job that will help me make enough money for school. With a bio/anthro double major, will I be able to find a job (that’s not minimum wage and comes with health benefits, as I’m chronically ill and I’ll age off my parents insurance during this time) that can reasonably sustain a graduate degree if I’m saving every possible penny for a few years? Or should I consider switching to something else?
You’re putting the cart before the horse.
Yes, a biology and anthropology double major can enable you to find a job that will allow you to live a middle-class lifestyle.
However, few jobs allow you to save enough money to completely fund a graduate degree. A medical degree can easily cost $250K+; a law degree can easily set you back $150-200K+, and even a simple master’s degree can cost over $100K depending on where you get it from.
Financial aid works completely differently on the graduate level. Your parents’ income is not counted (well, except for some medical degrees), and you are able to borrow a lot more money than you can in undergrad. For example, for med school you could borrow the entire cost of attendance in Graduate PLUS loans, which are federally guaranteed loans.
So don’t worry about graduate school right now. Worry about getting into college, exploring different careers (you may find some besides medicine and law that you fall in love with), and trying to figure out what your interests are.
If you are interested in a career in Medicine, have you thought about or looked into a 5 year PA Program. This will get you where you want to be in a relatively short amount of time. It is a great field and a relatively good life especially if you work in a Hospital setting where you can work like 3 twelve hour shifts a week similar to nursing.
Good luck
@juillet is right: you are putting the cart well before the horse. The great gift of US undergrad (bar a few subject areas, none of which are relevant here) is that you get a good year or two to sort out what your actual major will be, and another 2-3 years to figure out a direction to go in. During that time you will be building experience and developing your understanding of what you enjoy and what types of work suit you, through jobs and internships.
That you don’t want to work with patients, that you like deal-making, and that paperwork suits you are all good things to know- but they are just fragments still. Get to college, take classes in these different areas. Estimates are that about a third of students end up changing their prospective major to an entirely different field, both b/c college is very different than HS and b/c most students grow and change a lot during the first couple of years of college. Pick a good all-round school, take a range of classes and let it play out.
Outside of a few fields, your major doesn’t matter much - it’s not linear (studying anthropology doesn’t mean you’ll work as an anthropologist, just as studying philosophy doesn’t mean you’ll work as a philosopher.)
What matters is the skills you acquire and your ability to demonstrate them through internships and activities.
Note that some colleges offer biological anthropology.
The PA idea was a good one if you need to work quickly but it won’t let you study anthropology as it’s very pre sequenced.