I am a high school junior living in the northeast area in NJ and I have a 3.3 gpa and a 1120 sat (and 24 act). I’m kind of struggling to figure out what type of medical-related degree I should do.
Health Science: was one of my top choices but I later realized that the jobs relating to this major are not as high paying. (technicians and assistants)
Psychology: doesn't really have any other job except for counseling/psychiatry
Nursing: struggling to find target schools near me, scared that I won't get in
Public Health: I feel like this is more of a business degree and I don't know what the possible job choices could be.
In the comments, if you guys could help me out in choosing what to major in, typical salary, years of schooling, college choices, that would really be appreciated a lot.
There are hundreds of different healthcare related jobs –
here’s a website to help you explore the huge variety available to you
[Explore Health Careers](https://explorehealthcareers.org)
It has a searchable database of jobs.
<ol>
<li>Health science is rather nebulous type of degree. You may want to look at the options/subspecializations available in the college program.</li>
<li>Clinical Psychology requires a PhD or PsyD to be licensed. Psychiatry is medical specialty that requires a MD (medical school) followed by 3 years of specialized training in psychiatry.</li>
</ol>
You can become a mental health counselor, but that requires a minimum of a MA in couseling.
<ol>
<li>Nursing--there are various different pathways to become a nurse. You could start at your local community college or a private vocation training school and earn a ADN/RN degree, then either transfer to a BSN program or go immediately to work. (My neighbor's D dropped out of college to earn her RN through a private vocational school. She's never had an issue finding a job she wanted. Currently she's a full time ER nurse)</li>
<li>Public health focusses on health promotion and disease/injury prevention. It's not really a business-y major. It's more about sociology, epidemiology, and general health sciences.</li>
</ol>
Think about what environment you want to work in and what kind of patient population you want to work with. All the different healthcare fields deal with those things differently. Plus think about how long and how much you want to spend on/in college. Nursing has the most flexibility for environment but you must get a BSN to really work in NJ.
I’m a respiratory therapist with my associates degree so it was very affordable for a decent wage. There’s also: radiology tech, ultrasound tech, CT tech and dental hygienist that are two year degrees. It gets a lot more expensive if you want something in the rehab field like PT, OT and speech therapy because those are masters/doctorate degrees. I really recommend you start job shadowing many different professions before deciding because they all have different requirements. If you’re interested in psychology many occupational therapists have their under grad degree in it plus the prerequisite sciences.
First, you should be aware that there are many good schools that are test-optional, meaning they don’t require ACT or SAT scores for admission (though they might for merit aid). https://www.fairtest.org/university/optional
Second, what makes you interested in a medical field.
You might try to get anurse’s assistant certification (through the Red Cross) or take an EMT course (very rigorous). Or volunteer.
Community colleges have lots of two year degrees as well as certificate programs in medical fields. In fact, you can do an AA and then move on to a 4 year program, for instance from PT assistant to PT, or RN to BSN.
Fields like ultrasound, echocardiogram, radiology tech actually pay pretty well, at least in my view.
Finally, many bachelor’s are still not directly vocational. Psychology majors can work in all kinds of fields, including, for instance, marketing.
