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A major dilemma (college)
QuarterMaster
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Registered User regular
Having just graduated from my local community college this last June with my Associates degree, I'm about to jump into my "junior" year of college at PSU this fall ("junior" is in quotes because I finished CC through Running Start at 18). I'm pretty happy with where I am so far, and very excited for PSU this year. However, I have a dilemma: what do I major in?
Less than a month ago I was set in majoring in economics. However, after visiting the school and looking at all the programs, I've been set back to the three I was originally cycling between: economics, psychology, and sociology. I talked to an adviser there, and she suggested I look into the social science major. This has begun to look very promising, as it includes all of the fields I'm interested in. I would probably end up minoring in economics, since it would be good to have a focus.
However, I'm hesitant for one reason: jorbs. What can I do with a social science major? Would I be setting myself up for a life of scraping by on whatever low-paying job I can get? If there are any social science majors out there (or from one of the three above), it would be great to hear from you. I'd like to hear from anyone else with an opinion too! Thanks.
Less than a month ago I was set in majoring in economics. However, after visiting the school and looking at all the programs, I've been set back to the three I was originally cycling between: economics, psychology, and sociology. I talked to an adviser there, and she suggested I look into the social science major. This has begun to look very promising, as it includes all of the fields I'm interested in. I would probably end up minoring in economics, since it would be good to have a focus.
However, I'm hesitant for one reason: jorbs. What can I do with a social science major? Would I be setting myself up for a life of scraping by on whatever low-paying job I can get? If there are any social science majors out there (or from one of the three above), it would be great to hear from you. I'd like to hear from anyone else with an opinion too! Thanks.
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They might also not have any prospects.
Psychology: future path as a psychologist, psychiatrist (with medical training), councillor, etc.
Economics: Economic consultant for companies (I know a lot of professors do this on the side, but it could probably be a full time job). There are a lot of opportunities for advisor-type positions, working with politicians maybe. Governments need economists. Lots of jobs in business could use these skills.
Sociology: No clue. Generic businessy jobs would work for this (and with a lot of degrees). By generic businessy jobs I mean like people who negotiate deals (although not the legalese of them) between companies and do general coordination work.
Note the high points carefully:
Note the high percentage of social scientists working in government. Government jobs can be quite steady although the pay is not usually commensurate with private sector work. Also note the emphasis on postgraduate education and competition. What this means is that when you finish with your Bachelors, you will be in a large pool of otherwise hard-to-differentiate people competing for an average number of jobs, and one way to differentiate yourself is through advanced degrees.
I have heard, anecdotally, that remaining in psychology as a profession after your Bachelors nearly requires an advanced degree, and it wouldn't surprise me if other areas of social science weren't similar.
Income-wise, that page lists the median income for social scientists as $49,930, with starting salaries between $28,862 and $35,572. Contrast with, e.g., computer scientists, where the median income is $85,370 and the starting salaries are around $53,396.
City? Which campus are you going to?
I will be rolling on the floor if you are calling State College a city. But yes, PSU does have good connections with the community and especially businesses that multiple offices around the state.
I'm going to the main campus in Portland. So very much city.
Thanks for the advice everyone! And thanks very much for that link, DrFrylock. There is a lot of useful information on there. I'm probably going to end up majoring in Social Science and minoring in Economics, and possibly go on to get a MS in Econ, or something along those lines.
You may want to consider looking into more interdisciplinary fields like behavioral economics - fields with roots in mathematics and science, but try to look at issues relating with psychology and social behavior. And, to bring it back to the earlier point - it's easier to do that kind of thing when you can already do the "heavy lifting" on the math/science side than trying to start from a less "rigorous" background.
In general, I found it very easy in college to do extra research work for professors in the Psych department, even though I was technically a non-major. As long as you express an interest in the work and do your part, you may even be able to get credit for individual study/projects within the department.
Unfortunately, it is really more a matter of bandwidth and prioritization than anything else. If you're really serious, you should consider using summer school to help you increase the breadth and depth of classes you can take - if you're a Econ or similar major, taking more than 3-4 classes outside of your major every year is going to be difficult without the additional time that summer provides.
I'm glad you mentioned behavioral economics Inquisitor. The two areas I'm extremely interested in working in are that and social psychology. Unfortunately, PSU doesn't offer anything but a couple of classes in each of these. Is there a way to go deeper in these fields? I know they are professions, so there has to be something there.
Extracurricular reading and work are not out of the question, although you have to be motivated to do that sort of thing when you don't get any explicit "credit" for doing it. This is, again, where building relationships with professors and grad students can help you get a leg up on what to read, how to read it, etc.
Taking an intro course is a good way to get a feel for how a specific field "works", in the sense of how they approach problems and what kinds of issues they investigate. Taking one or two classes may really be all you need to at least help you figure out what you're interested in.
Also, with regards to math - lower-division math only remotely resembles higher-level stuff that you will encounter. This is especially true of fields like statistics and economics, who deal more with the abstract than with, say, finding out the value of x in a given equation. People often are intimidated with math because of how it is taught and because of reputation more than anything else. Try a more positive approach. Plus, if you're genuinely interested, you'll have to get learn and get through the work anyway.
Unless you plan on doing clinical psychology or something similar, it will be difficult to get away from math. Fields like behavioral economics or industrial/organizational psychology expect you to have a good grasp of, at the very least, statistics in order to do any real applied or research work.
You'd be surprised how much good programming skills and statistical expertise can add to your value at school and at life in general. At UCLA, the first question any professor asked me when I volunteered to do extra work was, "Do you know programming?" My more "hard" science background has also helped me to point out flaws and issues in some of the applied I/O Psych-related work I do for a living now. Not to beat a dead horse, but it's significantly easier to move from hard to soft than it is the other way around. If you have to learn calculus to get where you want to go, you may as well do it with the support of a classroom setting...unless you're the type who is better-suited to doing it on your own.
My dad knew alot as he worked in the justice system and they were all pretty miserable, their job was to listen to the most horrible circumstances imaginable, all day, then get death threats and such.
You can't think of anything outside the "I want a degree in a proper thing" staples?
No Architecture? No Industrial Design? Nothing that straight up interests you?
Ahhh. PSU means Penn State around here. State College is the main campus and is not a city in any sense of the word.
In my area (Eastern Canada) you'd definitely have a far easier time getting a job with a sociology degree (assuming you got your papers to be a social worker).
It sounds like you're more interested in the qualitative side of social sciences (examining theories of society/economics, looking at group dynamics, solving socioeconomic problems, doing research that involves interviews and case studies), so majoring in sociology/general social science is a great way to go. I certainly recommend becoming comfy with stats either way, because understanding how they work is very useful.
In the research world, quantitative work is generally valued over qualitative work (and better-paid!), but that is slowly changing. Don't try to go for the quantitative just because you think you have to. Good qualitative researchers are also valuable and employable.
Don't worry too much about getting an in-depth background in behavioural economics or social psychology as an undergrad. Take whatever classes you can and get the basics down. It's in grad school when you get a serious chance to specialize. If you're looking at a job that's going to require a degree above your BA, then look at your undergrad courses as a chance to explore your interests, learn to work with theories, and learn to write good papers. Make sure to build relationships with professors in your areas of interest as much as you can! I wish I'd done more of that as an undergrad, but the relationships I did build helped get me into a competitive graduate program.