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Thinking about changing my major.
Hello, female, seventeen, going to be a freshmen in college. I had originally planned to be a teacher, elementary to be exact, then at orientation they said that special education is a good choice as well because the economy is in dire need of special education teachers. Now, I had my second orientation this past weekend and I had switched to special education. I came home and read about it after I sat through all the classes with all the info thrown at me and the number one thing I read is "if you want to be a special education teacher, your heart HAS to be in it because the pay is terrible". I also have to have 4 clearences before the summer is up, 20 hours of observation over a group of mentally challenged students, keep a 3.0 all 4 years of school (I'm an average student, not a genius but not F worthy, I get c's, so the 3.0 is stressing me out) and I can't get caught at parties or I will have to change my major. That is a lot of qualifications to follow just to be a teacher. I think that since I am second guessing this whole situation, that my heart isn't fully into it. Don't get me wrong, I love kids but I don't think I have to patience to be a special education teacher, I read while I was researching that it is a very rewarding job but I also read a blog of a special education teacher whom just retired, she said there was not a day of work where she was not stressing over something, a lesson, a student, a fight a student might get into and that scares me because I want to have fun at work, not worry about things such as that. The market for a teacher is also very competitive, my spanish teacher in my senior year of high school said one of the spanish teachers is retiring so they had interviews for a new one, 67 teachers were interviewed for one spot. Some school districts also only hire adults who graduated from their school, if that's the case, I can only apply to one school.. that's insane. I was talking to me brother's girlfriend who started off as an education major as well, she said she was so stressed about the major and could not live up to all the expectations that she switched her major to psychology, she wants to be a child psychologist; her father commit suicide when she was very young so she wants to be able to help kids who are going through tragedies in their lives, I think that's a noble job and that she made the right decision. She also told me with a master's in education, you are limited to job opportunities that a massive amount of people are trying to get as well. With psychology, she can get numerous jobs and still work around kids which is what I really want to do. So my questions are, do you think I should stay with my major? If not, what majors can I do that will allow me to work with children? What jobs can I get with psychology? Thank you for your time!
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You might consider a social work degree, if your school supports it. Psychology is very science-related. Social work, though, is more about helping families and children and individuals. Social work also stops at a Master's degree - MSW, after which you can get a license to practice, have a caseload, and even your own business, which you can't do with a Psych degree until you have a doctorate.
If you want to do counseling and aren't deeply passionate about the innerworkings of the brain and/or research, go for social work. Psychology is not a fall-back degree.
Sociology is more of the science of social systems, culture, society, etc. I took a sociology class, and we talked about what constituted a culture, where we thought our society was leading, and the differences in cultures and society around the world.
It really sounds to me like, if you don't want to go for teaching, you want social work.
BUT
If you want to be a teacher, pursue it! Just because things suck right now doesn't mean they will when you're ready to teach. Don't go in with the assumption that you're setting your future up to fail. There are so many factors that go into your future, and the most important of them is passion. Never go for a degree you're not passionate about. A BA nowadays is nothing in most fields, and further education is emotionally trying, expensive, and... well, basically, you have to really love what you're doing, or you'll burn out fast.
If you're passionate about what you do, the people you want to work for will see it. It will come out in interviews, and they'll want you.
Be confident and have some faith in yourself. Pursue what you love. :)
Siren
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I cannot make a choice for you as to what to major in. In fact when I went to school we did not make a serious choice as to our major until our Junior year. The first two years of school we completed the Liberal Arts portions of the major we felt we wanted. Since most of the majors have the same liberal arts requirements we did not loose anything while we matured and zeroed in on just what we wanted to major in.
For those that wanted to go premed or prelaw or into a science or engineering then there were some courses the should have been taken in the second year. Those courses could be made up in summer session or intersession.
You seemed confused as to what you really want. Yes you want a good paying job. Right now the job market is such that people with good degrees are working as managers at fast food places just to have money to pay off their shool loans. Hopefully this will change by the time you finish college.
To earn a living in psychology you really need to have a PHD. In sociology you need a masters degree and some jobs require a PHD as well.
I would suggest since you are this unsure of what you want. That instead of heading off to a 4 year school in the fall; hopefully you have not sent the tuition yet. That you go for and AA degree in Libral Arts at your local Community College. It will be a lot less stressful on you and you can take the time to investigate these other things that interest you. There is the posibility that some practioners will allow you to job shadow to see just what these jobs are all about. This is something a Community College can do for you that a 4 year institution is not designed to do.
It is also far less expensive doing this so you have the money if you decide on a career that requires going to grad school.
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Right now, in a lot of North America, there are more qualified people with teaching degrees than there are teaching positions.
It's really a bad time to be a teaching grad. However, that really might not be the case when you graduate in 4-6 years. There is no telling for sure.
That's why you were told to focus on special ed - because there are still jobs in special ed. Of course, the reason there are still jobs in special ed is because it's very tough work. The pay is similar to a normal teacher, but the work is more stressful.
If you aren't feeling it as a special educator, I do think you should do something more general, like psychology (although frankly, there is a good deal of science involved in a psychology undergrad). You'll have opportunities to specialize in the future.
Right now isn't so much about figuring out exactly what job you want. Right now is about figuring out what jobs you definitely don't want, and making the most of your education. You've got some good ideas about what excites you and you'll learn more about what is out there while at university. So don't panic too much. Stay with something reasonably general if you aren't sure what you want. You'll find out more as you go.
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