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What to do with a BA in Psychology?

Axed

Axed

Bluelighter
Joined
Jan 17, 2011
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NY
I know I want to start my career with school psychology and eventually have my own practice, but I don't know much about the path in between, besides grad school.

Does anyone have any advice to share? C'mon, there has to be tons of psych majors on this site. Speak up!
 
Well, yes, thank you, I never would have figured that one out. It's not like you have to go to grad school to be able to practice eventually, or anything.

I'm more so looking for advice on the specifics, from people who have already been down this path. What kind of internships did you guys do? Did you use your psych degree before you got your masters/doctorate? What kind of job did you do then?
 
Average income for psychology majors in their first job after graduation is $24,000-$35,000.
http://education-portal.com/articles/Bachelor_of_Arts_BA_Psychology_Degree_Overview.html

It is traditonally one of the more common degrees and often seen as an easier one. Therefore, with the absence of a graduate degree, I believe that job prospects would be less than stellar. My sister-in-law is in graduate school for Counseling with a B.A. in Psychology. I suppose I could pick her brain and report back.
 
Best case scenario, you can get a job as a case manager in any of the social service providers out there. Poor pay and stressful. Any work as a therapist or psychologist requires a graduate degree and a license in your state.
I have a BA in Psychology and became a licensed Social worker in my state. I am currently a supervisor for a unit with 10 employees with BA degrees.
 
psychopath said:
It is traditonally one of the more common degrees and often seen as an easier one. Therefore, with the absence of a graduate degree, I believe that job prospects would be less than stellar. My sister-in-law is in graduate school for Counseling with a B.A. in Psychology. I suppose I could pick her brain and report back.
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That would actually be so amazing if you could do just that. Ask her anything involving the after-college process. What she went though.

@zapatista: Well, thank you for showing me that option, even if it isn't the best.
 
Hey I'm in my 3rd year at university taking a BA in psychology (4 year program). Personally I'm gunna get my BA work for a bit then go back to school and get a masters in social work. Personally I want to be a drug counsellor for people with addiction problems, seeing how my life has been plagued with addiction and most of my parents and grandparents have experienced addiction as well.. just an idea duno if that helped
 
I did my degree in psychology; it does not really provide any particular career path in itself. Since then I've worked in research and crisis intervention, although right now I'm doing a certificate in addiction counseling.

If you want to be a licensed psychologist then there's really only one way of going about that. If it is helping people rather than psychology specifically that you are interested in, then there are many roads you can take that are less of a hassle. Or just create your own :)
 
I got a BS in Psych, and worked in research for a few years after college. My recommendation is to try your best to find a job as a research assistant at a local university/business. It's a good resume builder (especially if you don't have much research/work experience), and it will give you a feel for what your prospects are after graduate school.

Personally, after meeting enough people who did pursue MSW, MPH, PhD, etc. degrees, I realized it wasn't what I wanted to do and started working towards a masters in applied math. You need a graduate degree to really go anywhere in the field (unemployed psych majors are plentiful and cheap), and if I'm going to spend that much time in school, I'd like to be working towards a job that pays.
 
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^out of curiosity, what do you plan on doing with a degree in applied math?

to practice school psychology, you need to have a graduate degree. in fact, i am not sure of any position where you can "practice" without a license. but there is a lot you can do with a psychology degree. it all depends on how you market yourself.

i worked as a nanny for awhile, highlighting the classes i took in child development and child psychology. that kinda transitioned into special ed. now i work with a family helping them develop a program for their child with special needs and care for their other child. its like a split between a case manager, nanny and personal assistant.
 
My sister has a BA in psych and instead of going to grad school she went for her BED to teach elementary school; having a background in psych helps her quite a bit. I have my BA in philosophy and was planning to use it to get into law/business school but in the time in between, the real world had changed my mind so I never ended up going. Most people I know with psych degrees either went to get their PhD without any lapse in between or they just did their own thing. A girl I know has her PhD now and she did research at one of the universities around here and that seems to be the most common approach.

@Legerity: I'm interested in addiction counselling; having been an addict I think I could really relate to the people I'm helping. I'm looking for a meaningful and fulfilling job, and putting all my useless years of researching drugs to use would be awesome. How do you find it so far?
 
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animal_cookie said:
^out of curiosity, what do you plan on doing with a degree in applied math?
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work in finance or insurance as a quant/actuary

now i work with a family helping them develop a program for their child with special needs and care for their other child. its like a split between a case manager, nanny and personal assistant.
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i have a friend working on his MSW who's a hab tech. is that similar?
 
^i am not sure what that is?


i got hired as a behavioral therapist which is someone who pretty much tutors students on the autism spectrum. behavior therapists generally work under the guidance of a BCBA which is a person who has a master's degree in applied behavior analysis. here is a quick overview.

tho my job has quickly evolved into a support system for the entire family, i do very little one on one work with the child.
 
The problem with Psychology (I'm a psych major myself) is that it USED to be a legitimate major, but many of those small community colleges that have been created in the last 10 years give out not only psychology BAs but also psychology masters degrees, and it's brought the legitimacy of the field down. One of my professors told me that the number of psychology majors has skyrocketed recently. If you want to be successful in psychology, get your PhD, theres no other way around it unless you have a specific track in mind (I'm doing business). I think the key is to pick a track. There are a ton in psychology you can go down, many of them can be quite successful. good luck!
 
Thank you everyone for your advice!

I've been looking into graduate schools for mental health counseling. I can complete the masters and then after enough hours of experience, gain a counseling license. This seems about what I want to be doing, I hope.
 
It's not like you have to go to grad school to be able to practice eventually, or anything.
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Pretty much like the person said 2 posts ago.. not only would you need a masters but you're going to have to knock out a few thousand hours in the field and by that point you probably should have just been plugging away at a PhD program anyway since you're working for free and might as well be a student so you can get student aid and such at the same time (plus working on your PhD lends itself to earning hours because of the way the system works). My cousin is currently doing this - she just finished her Masters.

That's to be a practicing psychologist of course. Otherwise you'd be working in a counseling program, shelter, halfway house, or some kind of rehab facility but you will not be paid very well at all.
 
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RobotRipping said:
@Legerity: I'm interested in addiction counselling; having been an addict I think I could really relate to the people I'm helping. I'm looking for a meaningful and fulfilling job, and putting all my useless years of researching drugs to use would be awesome. How do you find it so far?
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I really like it, although I have only completed 2 courses. I was kind of skeptical and thought it would just be a repetition of what I already know but there are a lot of interesting approaches to treatment that I had never even heard of. So yes I have definitely found it worthwhile so far :)
 
Every friend that I haave that got a B.A. is psychology have all gone on to get further degrees. One is a college professor, one is a therapist and the other on actually works for a large company in Human Resources.

I have a B.S. degree in Animal Science/Biology and I actually work in IT. Sometimes life just happens. Once you get to where you think you want to be it may end up to be the wrong place.

Good Luck
 
I got a undergrad psych degree and come from a family of practicing psychologists...

My advice is to go for the neuro-psych or bio-psych degree. You will take all the same psych courses plus all of the harder math and science classes like O-chem and human physiology. This is currently seen as the "future" of psychology and it will be much easier for you to get into post grad work and graduate programs with the more difficult and pertinent degree under your belt. Good luck! Psychology is an amazingly interesting and huge field.
 
^Unfortunately, I want nothing to do with that. I'd like to be a practicing psychologist, or rather a therapist. Those kinds of classes really don't interest me, and I fear I'd just do awfully in them, when I could be taking classes that I know I can excel in.

Everyone in this thread has provided me with a lot of great advice, and I'd like to thank of all of you collectively.
I'm currently looking at grad schools by my house that have the programs that I want (8
 
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