Advice on Career Path in the sciences from philosophy

juillet
Sat, 24 Aug 2013 12:00:46 +0000

You will have to take additional classes, but you don’t necessarily need to earn a second bachelor’s degree nor do you need to stop working. It’s just that it will take you longer.

Many students want to switch fields. You can work full-time and take classes as a non-degree student at a nearby public university. One way to do this cheaply is to work at the university and take 1 or 2 non-degree courses a semester. Usually one of the benefits of working at the university is free coursework.

But before you start any coursework (including your second degree) you need to decide what field you want to pursue. If you intend to continue that second bachelor’s program you need to decide now. The classes you will take to prepare for a PhD in cognitive psychology will be very different from the ones you need to prepare for neuroscience. For example, a BS in biochemistry will not really help you in applying to cognitive psychology programs; you need to take significant coursework in psychology.

You can skip the second bachelor’s but you can’t skip the coursework. No PhD program is going to just let you walk in without any undergrad preparation, and most MA programs won’t either. (There aren’t many MS programs in cognitive psychology, BTW, and getting a master’s in psychology is not necessarily a career-producing move.)

You also need to get research experience - at least 2 years of part or full time experience, but more preferably 3-4+.