my son is graduating next year with a Bachelors in psychology. We paid for his first four years of college but now he will be responsible. He is thinking he wants to go into Marriage and family counseling or working with teens. If he has to take out loans what are the chances that it will be worth it if he goes for a Masters? or should he just go for the Doctorate?
Marriage and Family therapists can make decent money, but often not enough to pay back significant loans. Can he get his masters at a local state univ where he could commute from home? How much would he have to borrow?
My sister is a therapist, an LCSW. She got her masters at USC in Calif 25 years ago when it was much cheaper and she was able to commute from home. However, it took her forever to pay back those loans, and if she hadn’t been married to help “get by,” it would have been a further strain.
If your son got his PhD, would that be funded? If so, that may be the wiser choice if that interests him…and if he has the stats to get a funded PhD.
Mental health counselors and marriage and family therapists average $41,500 a year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics ([here](http://www.bls.gov/ooh/community-and-social-service/mental-health-counselors-and-marriage-and-family-therapists.htm)). Social workers average $44,200 a year; school counselors average $53,610 a year; and psychologists average $69,200 a year.
Master’s degrees are usually not funded - there may be some small scholarship support, but it’s unlikely, even for great students. So I agree with @mom2collegekids that the best option would be that if your son wants to go into one of these fields, get a lower-cost degree from a public university that he can commute to from home and pay little for. These fields are not prestige-focused; they tend to hire based upon local networks anyway, so he can get a services internship in graduate school and leverage that into a position most likely. MFTs only need a master’s to practice; licensed clinical social workers need an MSW and that’s an alternative (most practicing mental health therapists are social workers). There’s also the mental health counseling master’s, which will likely enable him to practice as an LPC in his state.
If he’s interested in practicing within schools, he could also get a specialist-level degree (which is usually a 2-year master’s followed by 6-12 months of internship, which can be paid). as a school psychologist. School psychologists, on average, earn more than social workers and school counselors - their average salary is about $72,000 a year, although that’s pushed upwards by the PhD-level school psychologists. Still, school psychologists can expect to earn a little more than your average MFT or social worker. School psychologists can practice with a specialist-level master’s or with a PhD.
Your son shouldn’t pursue an unfunded PhD. PhDs should be fully funded, with tuition covered and a small stipend (usually in the $20K range) for living expenses. PhDs also have a wider scope of practice. The trade-off, of course, is 5-6 years spent in school plus an internship year, and the prospect of having to do research during the program. The other caveat is that competition for entry into these programs is very strong - particularly for clinical psychology. Counseling psychology is less fierce, and given his interests might be a better fit for him anyway.
Now the question is, should he? My personal opinion is that if he just wants to do counseling, a master’s will probably suit him just fine for that. He should consider the PhD if he’s really invested in having control over his own practice or if he wants the option to teach classes part-time while practicing.
Thank you @mom2collegekids and Juillet .this is very helpful. I don’t think a phd is for him. From what I gather it is more important for him to find a program in an area where he would eventually like to live and that is not to expensive. I will suggest he look into the special school psychologist program.