<p>I'm going to be a senior this upcoming year, and my parents are pushing me to apply to college in September. I know for a fact that I'm going to the University of Iowa, and I have three majors picked out. The first is theatre, which I LOVE, and if I do it, I probably with pair it with communications as a "back up." My only problem is: What if I can't memorize lines, or what if I don't get into graduate school and become a professor? I don't plan on becoming a professional actor, my goal would be to teach acting. My second major would be psychology. I would go for clinical or counseling psychology, which I know I would like okay, but I wouldn't love it. But it's a stable job with pay. What should I do? Go after my heart, or listen to my brain? </p>
<p>Have you already been accepted? My advice would be to look into theatre education as you bachelors degree. If you have already been accepted to University of Iowa, speak with a counselor about majoring in education and taking theatre classes, maybe as a minor. I’m a musical theatre major myself but in performance so I’m not sure how the education side would work. Take a few intro psych courses as well. Even if you don’t go for it as our major it would definitely help you in acting and teaching. And if you’re looking at teaching you might want to look more at the directing and backstage aspect than the acting side of theatre. You should definitely make an appointment with your academic advisor. They would be able to guide you in respect to what your school offers.</p>
<p>Part of choosing a career in a demanding, competitive field is taking a risk. Academia is a really tough market - it always has been, and it’s getting even tougher as funding for education is being cut and administrators are eliminating tenure lines and replacing them with part-time professors. By the time you finish a bachelor’s degree and an MFA or PhD in theatre - who knows what the academic landscape will look like then?</p>
<p>But the question is - do you want to take the chance, or do you want to go the safe route? Neither is a bad decision to make; they both have pros and cons. Lots of people take the chance but also develop a backup plan (e.g., they’ll try to become a professor of theater, but if they don’t get a job within X years they’ll get an MSW and work as a counselor). Or maybe their backup plan is more related (I’ll try to be a professor of theatre, but if I don’t get a job, I’ll try to work at a private secondary school and teach drama).</p>
<p>So yes, I agree with the wisdom that you can major in theatre and minor in psychology, to sort of give yourself that back-up - just in case. But know that clinical and counseling psychologists require a PhD, so let’s say that you get a BA in theatre, work for 2 years, get an MFA and then spend 3 years on the market, no job. By then you’re 30. Are you going to want to go back for another 6 years and get a PhD? You might want your backup plan to be an MSW or a master’s in mental health counseling instead. Or maybe you want to take the nursing or PA prerequisites and get some clinical hours so that in case your first plan falls through, you can get a PA degree and do psychiatric physicians assistant or psychiatric-mental health nursing.</p>
<p>I’m in the same boat as you, I’m a junior in high schools and I want to either double major in theatre and psych or do a minor in psych with a degree in theatre. I don’t exactly know what I want to do in theatre. But, yes you do need a PhD to do clinical psych, have you ever thought of becoming a high school counselor? You need a masters degree from what I heard and it might give you time to do theatre?</p>