<p>Am guessing you mean MD (as in physician) and not Md (as in Maryland). Regardless, there are no undergrad degrees in medicine, as is the topic of this thread. There are, however, some undergrad pre-physicians assistant programs, I believe, but I don’t think there are any undergrad PA degrees.</p>
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<p>Not according to MY kid. She says that if you want to actually PROVIDE primary care, better to be a nurse practitioner or a physician’s assistant. With the way managed care is going…the NP and PA folks will be actually providing the care while the doctor will be supervising them. I think she is right.</p>
<p>PLUS not everyone is cut out to be a doctor.</p>
<p>And ALL of the above are advanced degrees…not undergrad majors.</p>
<p>What major is marketable today? That is not an easy question to answer. Certainly any field related to geriatrics would be good as the population is an aging one.</p>
<p>I’m not sure where you got the idea that Pharmacy is a dying career. Pharmacy schools have limited openings and can only graduate so many students each year. Meanwhile, the baby boomers keep aging, creating more and more patients who need meds/home health care/hospitalizations, etc. Plus all of those baby boomer pharmacists are retiring. It can be a flexible job with part-time positions as well. If your student has enjoyed her pre-pharmacy work, I would not dissuade her. There is plenty of need for pharmacists.</p>
<p>Where I am, the demand is greater for two-year nurses than for ARNPs or PAs. (It may be because we have so many of the latter). Two-year nurses, by the way, can have a great deal of autonomy if they choose the right field. My wife is a hospice nurse, and while the agency has a medical director, she never sees him more than once a week. Each patient has a doc, but since the patients are already in hospice, the docs pretty much relinquish control - it’s more often the case that the hospice nurse tells the doc (by phone or e-mail) what the patient needs, and the doc writes the order without ever seeing the patient. </p>
<p>In my state, the only jobs that four-year nurses can get that two-year nurses can’t are in school nursing (shrinking rapidly) and public health nursing (not many jobs to begin with). In general practice, it is more often the case that employers would prefer nurses with experience (but can rarely find them easily).</p>
<p>In her 3rd year with the agency (and in only her fifth year of work), and living in a low-cost area (our mortgage is less than many folks’ health club memberships), my wife will be grossing close to $90k. (which is more than many 5th-year PharmDs in the area, and, when accounting for paying back medical school loans, paying for insurance,as renting office space, paying staff, accounting, etc., netting more than many family practice MDs.)</p>
<p>If you really want to look down the road (not far), I would get a business degree that would teach me to run a profitable nursing home/assisted living facility…</p>
<p>Plenty of architecture jobs - just not in this country… If you have no issues living in the Middle East and learn Arabic on the side, you should be fine (guess whose game plan this is :))</p>
<p>Good advice so far…another possibility would be statistics/biostat. She would probably want a Masters eventually, but might do well after four years.</p>
<p>I have had several sources tell me that the Pharmacy industry is getting over saturated. I know it maybe ok now, but it will be 7 years before my daughter gets there. Why would I want to spend the money for the education and never be able to pay for it. I am going to do further research on it tho. As for nursing it isn’t an option for her-she absolutely doesn’t want to do it. But I really appreciate everyones input.</p>
<p>Well, there’s always musicology…;)</p>
<p>PharmD Class of 2014 here</p>
<p>Yes, getting a job as a PharmD is a lot more difficult now than it was before - we are definitely approaching saturation (or have already approached it) in most metro areas. </p>
<p>Yes, you need a PharmD to practice pretty much - as a profession, pharmacy decided to shift away to a doctorate profession.</p>
<p>Hmmm…maybe if you want to work in the city that is home to your pharmacy school you might have saturation, but I still see lots of jobs for pharmacists.</p>
<p>Check out the info from the Bureau of Labor Statistics:
[Pharmacists</a> : Occupational Outlook Handbook : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics](<a href=“http://www.bls.gov/ooh/Healthcare/Pharmacists.htm#tab-6]Pharmacists”>http://www.bls.gov/ooh/Healthcare/Pharmacists.htm#tab-6)</p>
<p>I recommend not fixating on any single profession this early on-- kids’ interests will evolve in college. A firm foundation in core STEM subjects will maximize her opportunities in life, even if she decides not to pursue a STEM career.</p>
<p>Again, I would urge a daughter to dream big and not limit herself to pink-collar occupations.</p>
<p>With the price of oil likely to stay high, geologists should be in demand for the foreseeable future. My older son is a Geology major and he reports that graduates are all getting multiple job offers. Prospects go from good with a BS to fantastic with an MS, especially for students who have concentrated in Geophysics. Since this is not a popular major, possibly because it requires a fair number of courses in Calculus, Physics and Chemistry, the supply of graduates with degrees in Geology is not keeping pace with the demand for geologists, pushing starting salaries as high as $60,000 a year.</p>
<p>I am sure many health care professionals don’t think that they “limited” themselves in choosing their careers. Their patients might even appreciate them.</p>
<p>Mrspepper, doctors are health care professionals, too. And they earn 4-10 times what nurses make. I’m sure doctors’ patients appreciate their doctors, too.</p>
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<p>However, biology, the most popular STEM major, does not have very good job and career prospects, probably due to a huge supply of graduates in that major.</p>
<p>Lemaitre1,
I was curious about your suggestion about geology. Here is what I found-- it appears to be even better than what you estimated:
[Geologists</a>? Pay Continues Upward Trend - AAPG Explorer April 2012](<a href=“Explorer”>Explorer)</p>
<p>I know a couple geology grads, both got very lucrative offers right out of UG from a school no one hear has ever heard of (South Dakota School of Mines-100% placement rate into the geology field btw). One kid started at $100,000, works 3 weeks on, 3 weeks off. On the off week the company hands him a round trip airline ticket to where ever he wants to go. He’s traveled all over the world as a result. Other kid, similar starting pay but a more traditional job schedule. Tried to get our oldest to consider that since he has been a rock collector since he was little but no bites.</p>
<p>Nursing and accounting. I’m the latter and have many clients in the former. Nurses are rarely unemployed in my area, make very good money and can work part time. </p>
<p>Accounting opens up paths to many opportunities. If someone does accounting, I strongly recommend getting their CPA license. That does take 150 hrs (vs the 126 for a BS). However, the additional hours do not have to be a Master’s and many students cram the extra hours in during their undergrad time. CPA pay is good and there is also the opportunity for part-time work. In public accounting, hours are much lighter during the summer.</p>
<p>If you want to travel, nursing is one way to go. It’s a profession that is projected to grow, and you can do it anywhere. I have the impression that if you wanted to spend some time in Hawaii, you could land in Honolulu, and in the next couple of days have at least some kind of temp job for starters. </p>
<p>If you want to be an actuary, which has a similar job outlook, you are much more likely to find work in Connecticut than in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. </p>
<p>A previous poster linked to The Bureaus of Labor Statistics’ “Occupational Outlook Handbook.” It is your tax dollars at work and an invaluable resource where you can see most occupations’ median income, projected growth, and educational requirements. </p>
<p>[Home</a> : Occupational Outlook Handbook : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics](<a href=“http://www.bls.gov/ooh/]Home”>http://www.bls.gov/ooh/)</p>
<p>Don’t be an aerospace engineer if you don’t want to enter a declining job market. Nursing, pharmacy, and actuarial jobs will grow fast–around 25%, but geography and biochemistry even faster.</p>