Hey guys, I have to agree with justamom on this one. We've been there! Done that! I could name you so many people who were going to set the world on fire with their careers who one day saw the light--usually as soon as the kids started coming and an anthropology degree was not putting food on the table.
Unusual majors (anthropology) and certain hard core people-related majors like criminal justice may sound great, especially when you hear about others who made a difference in many lives.However, when you hit 30 or so, you are not going to be thinking about the warm fuzzies you might get from reforming a criminal or digging up ruins. You will be thinking about how you can get money to pay for your child's braces or how you feel too old to be digging in the sun or how dangerous working in a jail is. My Pi Phi roommate had grand plans about her future in social work until she was sitting at her desk one day and a client walked in and shot her officemate. She works with computers now.
I'm not saying that you shouldn't follow your dream or what you're good at. Just talk to a lot of career counselors and professors and combine all their advice with your hopes! For instance, our oldest wanted to be a Spanish major and we agreed but insisted that she add either a second major or a strong minor like business, health administration, or recreation. Something that would bring in the bucks if she ever ended up in a location where Spanish wasn't needed or if she got sick of Spanish or if she lost her husband and was suddenly the sole support of a family. Adding a strong minor or second major is always, I repeat always, a great idea! There have been some good ideas on this thread for combining psychology with other fields.
Did anyone else notice that the older people on GC are the ones who have brought this up? We're not trying to rain on anyone's parade but when you're our age, folks, you want to stop others from making the same dumb mistakes that you or your friends made. Dream! Plan! But be practical too.
