It depends on what kind of UX you go into. If you want to go into UX research as the person designing the research, you absolutely will need a master’s. Most UX/usability researchers have a master’s or a PhD in human-computer interaction, computer science, psychology, sociology or some other related field.
If you have a master’s or a PhD you can make $100K within 5-10 years of work as a UX researcher. It depends on what companies you work for and what kind of work you do. User researchers at big companies (Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Uber, Apple, Sony, etc.) can make $100K+ to start off, usually as a PhD graduate or an MS with a few years of research experience. Otherwise you can get there after a couple of years and maybe some lateral or upward moves between companies.
If you go into UX/UI design as a software developer - yes, you could potentially make $100K right off the bat or within 5 years with a BS at some companies (especially the big tech companies, but even some startups and smaller companies could pay that much - and you could make more at the very top ones).
I still think you should avoid the loans. One, because you could change your mind. Two, because you will probably need a master’s degree, and you’ll have to borrow for that. Three, because even if you don’t, change your mind, there’s no guarantee you’ll be offered a job that pays that much - and you want to give yourself the flexibility to choose what you want when you get offers. Let’s, for example, say you get two offers: one at a company that needs UX on a business-to-business customer relationship management (CRM) system that will pay you $100K, and another at a company that needs UX on video games that will pay you $85K. Maybe you’d rather go into the games industry! Or maybe the job that pays more has terrible benefits, is in an undesirable location, or has a bad work/life balance. You don’t want to push yourself to the very max.
And fourth, because UW is an excellent university and there’s absolutely no reason to go into six-figure debt at UCLA when you have another great option on the table.
Yes, especially with a psychology double major. Employers don’t just look at the name of the major; they are interested in what you have learned. Here’s how UW describes informatics:
*[Informatics students’] passion for analyzing and solving problems is reflected in the creativity they bring to the design and creation of information systems, user interfaces, mobile technologies and social media…In the Informatics program, students learn how to design and build systems that are effective and easy to use…The Informatics major was designed to be conceptual and practical, academic and professional, and focused on the human and humanistic dimensions of the design and use of information systems. *
That’s pretty much what UX and user-centered design is all about. I work in a UX org within a large tech company and we actually just hired an information scientist into the org not that long ago. With the appropriate statistics/math classes, an informatics/psychology double major can turn into a data science career, and there you really can make $100K pretty fast (although you’ll still want a master’s).
Yep.
[url=http://depts.washington.edu/istudies/student_designed/]UW Design your own major
[/quote]