<p>I'm planning on going to grad school for stats, but I heard that it's a good idea to learn about the field in which I want to use stats.
I'm really interested in psych, and if I were to do psychometrics in grad school, is it a good idea to major psych and minor stats in undergrad?
I orginally planned on majoring stats, but people told me that that may be risky when it comes to getting jobs; I was planning on picking a specific field in grad school such as psychometrics, but do you think it would be better to do study psych in undergrad?</p>
<p>Also.. this is irrelevant, but do you think studying psychometrics will get me a solid job? I know that psych uses a lot of stats, but what kind of specific job could I get and where would I work? For example, for econometrics, I could, for example, go to a banking company such as deutsche bank, but where would I get a job for psychometrics?</p>
<p>Maybe majoring econ instead of psych may be better?</p>
<p>Studying psychometrics will prepare you for a very narrow field of career choices. You will either be teaching, doing research, or doing technical analysis in the psychometric field. I would do it if you’re proof positive that is what you want to do with your life. You will be spending anywhere between 3 and 7 years in a graduate school (depending on whether you get an MS or PHD), and if you decide to change careers you will need to return to school for a different degree.</p>
<p>If I were you I would major in econ and math and minor in psychology and statistics. This will set you up very very well for graduate programs and also will give you a diverse skill set that will keep many doors open to you. The problem with focusing on just psych is all the doors that get shut along the way. Quant analysts in the finance field are pretty well paid and econ and finance PHDs make terrific money and get to do a diverse amount of work. The great thing about econ is that it’s closely related to human psychology so an econ PHD can easily collaborate with psychologists and do psychology type research.</p>
<p>My husband is a PhD clinical psychologist who primarily does research methodology and statistics. He does do research full-time. However, there are so few statisticians who understand social sciences and the differences in the application of statistics and research design for studies of these types, that he is in VERY high demand. That being said, statisticians are now looking to license themselves, so that may determine your line of study to some extent. However, there are PhD programs in the behavioral sciences that specialize in biostatistics.<br>
Good luck to you!</p>