I keep changing my major!?
Sounds like growing pains. I remember those days. First off, I have a BA in Psych, and I do very well. I work in international public relations. Find what you enjoy studying, and get your degree in that. This is esp. true as an undergrad. I use my degree every day, and it's not a "B/S" degree by any means. All college level learning is generalizable learning, and it sounds like your friends don't understand how one subject relates to another, or to the world at large. Don't let them shape your education with their lack of knowledge. Study what appeals to you. Did you know that psych isn't just about emotions/ counseling? It's about everything that goes on in your brain, and different schools have different programs that emphasize different things. The school I went to let me put together my own program, and they arranged for me to take classes at other local universities when they didn't have a class I wanted. My focus was the psychology of learning, and in my job I educate people every day about our company. Not "B/S" at all. If you want to be a doctor, you will need to ace organic chemistry. Take that NOW, and if you find you have no ability for it, you're destined to be a PhD instead of an MD. That's what separates the men from the boys, and the girls from the women, on the road to medical school. I changed my major several times before I settled on what I wanted. I took people's advice on what NOT to study (even things that really interested me) like art ("you will never get a job!!!"), English ("you will never get a job!!!!"), psychology ("you will never get a job!!"), and you know? They were wrong. All their advice did was slow me down. Study what energizes you, and each step puts you further on the path to the final destination that makes sense and satisfies YOU. Listen to your heart. Hope that helps.
I want to major in Psychology but I want to be a Dermatologist.?
Psychology majors can be smaller in unit requirements then other science or math related majors, so there may be time for you to fit in pre-med classes. The most important thing is to make sure that you have taken the required prerequisite courses for the specific medical school you would like to attend. If you have all the pre-requisites, it shouldn't matter what major you were. Although, I imagine a chemistry or biology major would go a long way in preparing you better for the rigors of medical school, as those classes are going to provide you a great foundation. It would be a better idea to major in something more related to dermatology, and take psychology classes as electives when they fit in to your schedule. This is just my opinion thought. You're going to typically need 120+ units for a bachelor's degree (my university requires 124 to graduate).
Is psychology really a bad major?
I'm having trouble deciding what to major in in college. I really like psychology, and I already spend a lot of my free time reading about it. My familiy is discouraging me and trying to point me in the direction of human resources (which seems kind of boring to me, but it also seems like it pays a lot). Another problem I have is that I really don't know what I would do with a psychology degree. I like psychology by itself, but not really any of the jobs associated with it like therapy (I'm not sure if I'm suited for it. I'm kind of a cold person). I would be able to use it if I had a PhD, but I'm kind of an underachiever, to be honest. My GPA is low, and the reason I can go to college is because my ACT score is high.
What would I major in to become a Psychiatric Nurse?
In order to be a nurse of any kind, you have to major in nursing. You'll learn all forms of nursing, as there is no "psychiatric nursing" programs that I know of. Once you graduate with your LPN (about a year and a half to two years of school) or your RN (two and a half years at a technical school OR four years at a university), then you can apply for jobs in psych. Having all of those psych classes will come in handy when you apply for these jobs.In other words, you don't specialize until after you graduate and start working. You can't do anything in psychology with a bachelors degree in psychology, except MAYBE a psychiatric technician, which doesn't have that great of a pay. In order to be a counselor, you need at least a Masters. In order to make any good money in counseling, you need your PhD. It's the same with almost all of the psychology field. A lot of psych majors end up going into business when they realize they can't find work in the field they majored in. Luckily for them, you can enter the business field with a BA or BS in psychology, especially if you took business classes in college. So, I'd suggest majoring in nursing if that's the career you want. Keep in mind, though, that as a psychiatric nurse you won't be counseling anyone or dealing with the really interesting things that psychologists and psychiatrists deal with. You'll be basically giving medications and treatments, cleaning up after them, and tending to their needs, just like nurses in every field do. I think you should do some internet research on different options you may be interested in. I suggest www.bls.gov. Very helpful.
I want to study psychology, and I don't know if I'm suited for it . What are the things or qualities a psychology student should have to be able to keep up with studying?
A2A request about studying psychology and the needed attributes to be a good student in it.Well, you will never know if psychology is for you until you take at least one course in it! A couple of courses would probably let you know if it is something that you should pursue as a major, though.Many people, until they’ve taken their first, introductory course think that psychology is simply about emotions, feelings, and therapy… Psychology is a scientific discipline because it uses the scientific method to answer profound questions about human existence! Only about 1/3 of psychologists are actually therapists. The balance of psychologists do something other than provide therapeutic interventions, i.e., research, teaching, work in applied settings such as the military and business.A psychology major will need to take a course in both statistics and research design in order to graduate with a major in the field. If you want to be a practitioner in the field you will need to go to graduate school to get at least a masters degree. Here in the US, you cannot be a therapist without a doctorate in psychology.Will you need to study hard to be a psychology major? YES.What attributes will you need to be a psychology major? Here are a few: a curious mind; at least an above average ability in quantitative reasoning (because of the research design and statistics courses); an abiding interest in the human condition; empathy for fellow man.
What would you recommend to a freshman psychology major?
I wanted to add a few additional comments to the dose of realism in Thomas B Walsh’s answer.First, he’s right. The prospects of your average Psychology undergraduate aren’t exceptional, but if Psychology is what you are absolutely passionate about, and you know without a doubt that this is the field you want to devote your life to it’s not impossible to pursue it while also being practical. This is the advice I would offer to anyone starting an undergraduate degree in Psychology:Be aware that it is exceedingly difficult to break into academia because there are so few positions relative to the number of people graduating with a doctorate in Psychology. There are a lot of rockstars that get stuck doing post-doc after post-doc after post-doc.The vast majority of your core classes and your Psychology professors are going to operate under the framework of academia so be prepared to be on your own if you decide to pursue a career in industry instead. Be prepared to use the Career services on campus because the majority of your professors will have spent their life in the academia bubble and will have no idea how to give advice for interviewing with a company or writing a resume for an industry job.Get a job, even if it’s just an hour a week and you don’t need the financial support of that paycheck.You don’t have to do a Psychology degree to have a career in Psychology. I was admitted to a PhD program with an engineering degree and a total of two psychology classes under my belt. If there are other topics that are interesting to you, consider a dual major or pursing a minor in Psychology while majoring in something else. Statistics, Computer Science and Economics are very complimentary with Psychology, for instance.If it’s an option, do the BSc instead of the BA. The breadth of science classes will open some doors for you that would be closed without them.Get involved in research projects through, for example, Research Assistantships, Honours Theses, and Undergraduate FellowshipsLearn at least one programming language. I can’t emphasize this enough. Python and R are two great ones to learn that will help you both inside and outside of Psychology.
Is psychology a useless major if I want to become a mental health therapist?
Absolutely not as the other answers have indicated. I would add a couple of other points. Depending upon the program, an undergraduate psychology degree may not cover a lot of the counseling side of the science. In my program, we focused on research first. We did have to take abnormal psych (and it’s very interesting and popular), but that was only a small part. Sometimes, students that want to be counselors are just not that interested in experimental design or writing research papers. This is all stuff that can be beneficial in the long run, but psychology is a lot more than mental health and a lot of incoming psych majors don’t realize this. Do a lot of research on the programs you are interested in and make sure that you will like the classes. You may be surprised by the amount of lab time, writing and statistics involved.Also, if you are considering psychiatry, keep in mind that there will be other disciplines outside of psychology that you will need for medical school. Biology, chemistry and the like. Be sure that you get an idea early on as to what you will need so you aren’t surprised later on.Good luck.
Should I be a psychology major if I'm bad with stats/math?
Psychology doesn't have too many courses focused on stats. Most of the stats courses in psychology majors and honours programs usually only have the single stats (intro stats) and anything else would be the so-called "dumb downed" statistic courses which are much easier than the actual stats course (considering that questions will revolve around psychological analysis that applies mathematical concepts). If statistics or any math course comes to be quite difficult for you to grasp while doing other courses, I suggest taking them during the spring/summer so you can focus specifically on that course. Good luck!
Why is psychology such a bad major? Is majoring in psychology a bad idea if I plan to go to medical school anyway? If so, what are some of its disadvantages? Would it be better to major in something else and read a lot of psychology books?
Psychology is a great major and I'll explain the pros and cons of a psychology degree.Cons:Most degrees can be finished with extremely easy professors and classes and without really learning psychology or the science/art of psychology. Many of the dumbest people I know are studying psychology because it's easy to finish and be done with. It's not tech-based, which to everyone on Quora is 'god'. Although there are applications you could combine (a mentoree of mine is combining a Psychology and Computer Science degree to have a better understand of human cognition and it's applications to artificial intelligence). The average person in the degree is sub-par and gives it a bad name. Seriously this is the reason it's looked down on. It's why English majors are normally dungeons and dragons nerds who drink Starbucks and blah, Computer Science majors play videos games, don't shower and are bad with girls and that Finance guys are fun, fraternity bros who have a good time, make good money and collapse the society. You're not what you study, but to lots of people its the first thing that comes to mind. I studied a Bachelors of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus in Management. I also had a near perfect ACT, 4.0 GPA and lots of EC's from high school; I'll probably succeed not because of what I studied but because who I am. Pros:In the health field the MCAT is adding (has added) Psychology and Sociology into the mix. You'll be primed and ready for this as well as have a hands up on the human side of medicine through the actual practice and through the schooling/politics/etc. Its one of the most versatile majors alive. You can use it to go to medical school, to obtain a job in sales, to human resources to recruiting and other business opps. Honestly it's a great major to have and one which you can do anything with, but doesn't 'train' you for a specific job. You love the subject and want to learn it. When you're doing those pre-reqs for medical school you don't want 5 hard classes which you hate going to. You're going to do better and burnout less if you have those couple classes a semester you love to death.