I am truly passionate about sociology and I would love to be a professor one day… but doesn’t everyone say that who majors in something remotely impractical? But education is my passion and frankly if I could I would be a student my entire life… What if graduate from undergrad, and graduate school doesn’t work out? What if life happens and I have to wait 10 years to peruse grad school… what can I do with my degree? I have considered being a paralegal but that would take extra certification aka extra student loans, and it pays very very low… I am already looking at a great deal of student loans out of college and I will be 20 years old graduating with a bachelors (I’m in early college), so I am trying to come up with a viable career path that I can jump on right when I graduate. Any advice? I have considered majoring in political science and completing my graduate work in sociology, but would political science truly be any better as far as a career path?
UC Berkeley has a survey of employment outcomes for recent alumni. You can see the results for sociology here:
https://career.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/pdf/Survey/2015Soc.pdf
https://career.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/pdf/Survey/2014Soc.pdf
https://career.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/pdf/Survey/2013Soc.pdf
Now, you may not go a school as highly regarded as UCB, but it will give you an idea of some of the job prospects, salaries and the percent still seeking employment at a top school in this field.
Paralegals make around $47,000 a year on average. That’s not ‘very low’; that’s only slightly lower than the national average household salary.
Why are you looking at a great deal of student loans after college? How much? Maybe you should consider transferring somewhere less expensive. You don’t want to be burdened with great debt, especially if you want to go into academia. Professors don’t make all that much - around $65-75K on average to start, and around $80-90K mid-career, maybe hitting six figures after 12-15+ years in the field.
If you want to complete graduate work in sociology you need to major in sociology as an undergrad.
Here is a resource that lists unemployment rates by major: https://cew.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/HardTimes2015-Report.pdf. The data is taken from national surveys (the American Community Survey, which samples a nationally representative sample of folks). As you can see, the unemployment rate for recent grad ( < 5 years out) sociology majors has hovered right around 8-10% for the last 7 years or so. Political science is about the same - slightly greater (9-11%) but not enough to make a meaningful difference. That’s not a whole lot higher than the rate in computer science (7-8%), accounting (7-9%), communications (7-9%), or civil engineering (7-9%). Where the difference comes in is salaries, of course.
Sociology majors don’t have a direct route into some kind of professional position, but a creative sociology major who does internships and develops skills (like statistical analysis or programming or writing) can find themselves a good gig.