Masters or PhD in Psychology?

FrameBenignly
Fri, 19 Dec 2014 21:37:20 +0000

Your best bet for getting into a program is to volunteer as a research assistant for a professor on the selection board at a quality Neuropsychology program. If you impress him/her, then that’s going to go really far towards getting you into that program especially if they use a faculty-mentor system. You will probably need the research position plus one or two undergrad courses in psychology which you should need to get an A in. Exact course requirements for entry should be listed on each school’s website. If you do well on the subject test of the GRE, that combination should do well towards overcoming your low GPA disadvantage.

Your second best alternative to a PhD or PsyD is probably going to be nursing. The top of the line degree there would be a Psychiatric Nurse Practioner, but an RN also has a lot of avenues into mental health. Over in the Psychology Master’s area, your state will have some sort of generic counseling license such as an LPC, but that’s probably a bad idea. There may also be some obscure specialty licenses in your state that require only a Master’s which can sometimes be in high demand (Example: BCBA), but you should check with someone who works in mental health in your area to get a feel for the local job market.

If you have zero interest in doing clinical work and are expecting to just do research, then you should consider a different career path. Jobs in academia are extremely competitive. You will likely need a year of post-doc after getting your PhD or PsyD to get tenure. You will be in your late 30’s before you are taking home a decent salary again and can start paying off your debt. That’s if things work out perfectly. If they don’t work out, then you could easily end up in clinical work anyways. The next best alternative for psychology-related degrees is going to be in education (public school districts). Education jobs don’t pay as well and tend to be slightly more competitive, but you do get a ridiculous amount of vacation. There is also the counseling track and a few different jobs in social work, but I know the least about those, and I doubt that would entail a Neuropsychology degree anyways. If you don’t have a lot of experience interacting with people with serious mental disorders, then you definitely should get some. This can be an unnerving experience for some people. Although many jobs do not entail providing direct care to clients, you will still likely be interacting with those individuals on a semi-regular basis.