I am a junior Psychology and English major, Spanish minor. I was totally hooked my last year of high school. My dad still always asks me, "What the hell are you going to do with your life?". My dad the dentist thinks psychology is a lot of b.s., so I am determined to spend part of my career teaching medical students psychology in order to shape scientific minds more in favor of the field. Strangely, he thinks the English degree is more useful? Neither of my parents understand why Spanish is so imp't. to me. I am leaning toward law school with a joint degree in psych (M.A.) or the Ph.D. Many, many psychology majors actually end up deciding between the Ph.D. and law school-and you don't have to be a specific major to be a lawyer. You can even work as a mediator, make a lot of money, but not be a trial lawyer. I'm actually leaning more toward the Ph.D. right now. Getting your Ph.D. can be a hell out of a lot cheaper than getting a law or medicine degree, especially with the availability of TA or research financial packages, so though you're not making a ton, you won't have quite as astronomical loans to pay off, either.
I think perhaps the most imp't. experience I can share is when I was talking to our neighbor, who is a very successful lawyer. He had applied to both law schools and graduate schools in psychology. He was in his first semester of law school when he decided to transfer, until he got back his first semester grades and realized he was doing better than he thought, and yet he said that he wishes that he had taken that opportunity to pursue a psychology degree. He started out in family law, by the way. If I were in law, that is what I would choose, along with advocacy work. A background in psychology, especially developmental, would be particularly valuable in this field.
Also, the most popular major at Vanderbilt, Human and Organizational Development, integrates aspects of psychology. H&OD majors go on to careers in business and management in a variety of sectors, counseling, human resources, and other types of careers.
By the way, something repeatedly drilled into any psych major's mind is that psychology is a science. A lot of people seem to think it's just random theorizing like Freud, which I think has really contributed to the negative bias against it. Practically every psych prof I've had has spent the first week of class at least reviewing the scientific methods for psych and why psychology is a science. A good psychology department should, like a natural science one, teach you research skills and a scientific method. You learn to analyze research and apply it. Psychologists often work in hospitals with other health professionals like doctors, or in private practice with a medicine-prescribing psychiatrist while they control much of the counseling portion. They learn quite a bit more about talk therapies, and conducting and applying research as opposed to an emphasis on drug therapy like psychiatrists.
Consider the fact also that many high-earning jobs also have higher attrition rates. I had a high school teacher/counselor with three sons who left a law career. It's also not worth it to be in a job that stresses you out like crazy or keeps you constantly in the emergency or operating room so that your time with your family isn't quality time. This is something that's been drilled into me by my mom, who says that some of the best years of her and my dad's marriage were the first ones, even though she was working overtime constantly while my dad was in dental school. And think of what an understanding parent you'll be with your psych degree!
If all else fails, you can joke with them like I do with my dad about how you can always write a few books like Dr. Phil and make tons of royalties.
Here's a page to look at:
http://www.princetonreview.com/cte/p...p?CareerID=130
Also, I'm assuming that the earnings average they provide includes other people with different psychology degrees, like school psychologists and marriage and family therapists, who tend to make less than a clinician.
Edited: Here are earnings stats straight from the APA itself.
http://research.apa.org/reports.html
Good luck!
Hybrid Mode
