<p>Yeah, I know. Not a practical major. You have to get a master's and maybe even a PhD, to get a job. </p>
<p>My daughter is a rising h.s. junior. And she's really just starting to think about what she wants to major in. But she's not the greatest student. I'm concerned about her being able to handle undergraduate demands, much less graduate and beyond. Also, I know statistics and science are part of psychology - not her best subjects.</p>
<p>So - even though I know what she's thinking about now may change a million times, and even though she will likely find out on her own whether it's something she really likes and can handle -- I was wondering --</p>
<p>1) What kind of jobs, if any, one can get with an undergrad psych degree</p>
<p>2) If there is something a bit more practical she could major in that would still be related to psych. She is interested in counseling kids and teens someday.</p>
<p>If she is interested in counseling kids, she will have to eventually go to grad school get licensed in either school counseling, mental health and wellness (LMHC) or counseling psychology. Has she considered social work (she will probably still have to go to grad school).</p>
<p>CPS (Child Protective Services) may still hire with only an undergrad degree in psych. I haven’t done this job, but a college friend did (with a psych degree) and said it is hard job to stomach and the pay is horrible.</p>
<p>I had three college friends who majored in psych. One became a clinical psychologist, the second was ABD at a prominent grad school and went into market research in the advertising agency world, and has had a great career, and the third started at another prominent grad school and swtiched to law school.</p>
<p>All obviously did grad school. I don’t know if grad school would actually have been necessary for the one who went into market research, but of course she was obviously skilled at using the software then commonly used in the field. (SAS, if memory serves?)</p>
<p>I would think that HR might be another possibility. There are HR pros among the CC parents who can tell you whether that is realistic.</p>
<p>There are, of course, all kinds of career paths that don’t require a specific degree: you start at the bottom or in a management trainee program and work your way up.</p>
<p>I started off as a psych major, years ago. I switched to sociology when I liked those classes more. I eventually got my MSW and do counseling in a school.</p>
<p>My D got her BA in Psych (graduated May 2012) She had a job lined up before she graduated, unlike most of her friends who graduated with her with a variety of majors. Not a high paying job, and not a job she wants to do long term, but an entry level position (required psych or behavioral science degree) She is working with kids in a residential facility and can see first hand if she wants to stay in that field and return to school for her masters. One thing that was very helpful was that her school required an internship-- done part time during senior year and she received credit. The school helped the students find internships relating to what interested them</p>
<p>In my state you need at least MSW & be licensed to work in any government child protection social work position. The same holds true for school districts. Some non-profits may not require an MS, but the pay is horrible with grunt positions not involving direct counseling or therapy.</p>
<p>I have quite a few friends who graduated with psych degrees this past May. Their jobs include being a refugee development center coordinator, Teach For America, working on a new social studies curriculum for a school district (can’t think of exact title), camp coordinator, working in the early childhood development lab, respite center activities coordinator, and working as a counselor at a teen crisis center. </p>
<p>Psych does not have to be a science heavy degree if she’s getting her BA. I believe at my U you only take one psych stats class and no science for the major (there are university requirements) if you go for the BA. </p>
<p>Just because she wants to be a psych major now doesn’t mean she won’t change her mind.</p>
<p>Graduate degrees in psych are hard to get these days, but with undergrad degrees she might be able to work in MH hospitals as a staff/mental health associate. She might look into getting trained as a psychometrist, to be able to administer psychological tests for a psychologist.</p>
<p>Thanks! Idahomom, your daughter has a job very much like my niece’s. I want my daughter to talk to her cousin to get a better idea of what it entails. </p>
<p>Maidenmom, I know someone who used to work for CPS. I agree, it’s a necessary but very, very tough job to do. She saw the worst of people every day. It really changed how she viewed humanity and as much as she wanted to help people, she eventually couldn’t take it anymore and quit.</p>
<p>Majoring in psych doesn’t mean you want to be a psychologist when you grow up. It’s actually a very popular “default” major that kids choose when they don’t know what else to major in.</p>
<p>Psych majors go to law school (I did), work in advertising, marketing and other businesses in various capacities (some related to psych like HR, some not), start businesses of their own, go into media or computers or a thousand different things. It’s not a “closed” major - it’s one of the most flexible ones around.</p>
<p>Psych majors learn how to understand people, how to write and how to do research. Useful skills in any career.</p>
<p>I’m a lawyer with a pysch major. My interests in college were in human resources and career testing/interviewing. For example, some large employers have specific “profiles” they are looking for for specific jobs (hospitality etc). </p>
<p>Look, she probably won’t stay a pysch major, but if she does it provides an ok background for lots of jobs.</p>
<p>My daughter graduated with a BA psych degree and went on to get her PhD in clinical psych directly out of college, which was unusual compared to her fellow undergrads with the psych BA.</p>
<p>It’s been a few years (she’s now pushing 30…), but the other students have gone on to varied but mostly successful careers and are thankful for their ug degree without having felt the need to move on to grad school.</p>
<p>One became a Montessori teacher, another works in HR, one has rapidly risen in the ranks of tech PR, while yet another became an admission counselor at an Ivy, despite the fact that they graduated from a smaller LAC.</p>
<p>The one thing my daughter says that she would do differently - for cost reasons - would be to forget the clinical PhD, and do the MFT instead. It takes a year less of coursework, then considerably fewer qualifying clinical (or post-doc) hours for licensure. In our state, the license testing is significantly easier for an MFT than a clinical PhD or PsyD.</p>
<p>She says that the job market for first jobs out of grad school is surprisingly similar for both degrees, and her opinion is that the student debt involved for the doctorate is just not worth the ROI. The eventual salary differences do not make up for the compounded interest in the debt load.</p>
<p>My boss’ daughter just graduated with her MSW after being an undergrad psych major. She had a job before even graduating with her BA-she worked teaching in Africa, then in a foster children’s home. Her goal is to continue working with children in some capacity. A friend’s daughter just graduated with her BA in psych and was accepted into a Ph.D program, but had jobs lined up if that had not been the case. She’s already working with special needs kids, and that would have gone FT had she needed to. My two cousins majored in psych for undergrad (at Fordham) and both hold Ph. D’s and teach. One taught at a local CC before continuing his education, the other went straight through, did some time at Oxford…There are many, many options.</p>
<p>BTW, I wanted to add that I work in a job where we help the less fortunate on a daily basis. They include homeless individuals, the mentally ill, the abused, troubled kids, etc. We’re mostly the referral source, but sometimes we have to help directly. It can be very stressful and draining, and we’re not even in the thick of it. But thank the heavens that some people are willing to do these jobs for “low pay and low prestige” or none of these troubled people would ever get the help they need. I know for a fact we’ve saved lives. That outweighs prestige and pay in my book.</p>
<p>I was a psych major, and decided midway through my senior year (having gotten rec letters, taken the GRE, interviewed with grad programs) that I didn’t want to go to grad school.</p>
<p>I ended up graduating with no job, living in my parents’ attic while having no luck finding any work that interested me, got a temp job that turned into a permanent job because I was a good worker, and eventually became a CPA. Some psych background is more useful than you’d think, even in accounting.</p>
Absolutely crappy ones, that’s what kind! Seriously, if she’s smart, she’ll go into something where she can get a good job with a BA or commit to grad. school.</p>
<p>My niece was not a great science/math person. She majored in Social Work. She could have gone straight to work with that but instead went to grad. school and got her MS in Social Work.<br>
Her first job was in a hospital working with kidney transplant patients.
After earning her MS,she got married, moved to new city and got a job there working in the Guidance office of a big public h.s. She wanted a more clinical type job so applied to large hospitals in her city. She is working there now. While working there, she met a child psychologist who agreed to let her use his office a couple of nights per week to do counseling w/ children that she had come in contact with at her hospital job. All in all she’s very satisfied with where her Social Work degree has taken her.</p>
<p>Back in the day a counseling/psych degree would not get you into a hospital or medical setting. You had to have a social work degree and/or a masters in social work.</p>
<p>Hospitals and medical facilities were the jobs that had decent pay and decent benefits. They also had reimbursement for school (such as a nursing degree) so that you might become a psychiatric nurse or improve your education.</p>
<p>I don’t know if this is still true. I would look into it.</p>
<p>Those jobs were also safer than many counseling jobs as they were in specific settings. There was also a chance to work around other varied professionals.</p>
<p>This is the route I would suggest people take if they are interested in helping others.</p>
<p>One might also consider going into school counseling which is different track than a pure psych degree.</p>