Pursuing a "useless" degree I'm interested in vs. a marketable degree
I'm 18 years old, graduated high school and currently taking a gap year. I'm conflicted between the choice of studying either psychology, or something more practical such as accounting, mathematics and statistics, or dentistry. To give some background, I graduated with a 4.17 GPA, 2nd in my class. I took AP Psychology (5), AP Biology (4), AP Calculus (5), AP European History (5), AP Comparative Gov (5), and AP Literature (3, I was shocked).
I know I love studying psychology because I took AP Psychology in high school. It introduced me to several branches of psychology, and I'm particularly interested in Abnormal psychology and Clinical psychology. The problem is, I know this is something many people pursue, and the demand is not that high for it. I understand that I would have to pursue at least a master's degree, probably a PsyD to do what I want with it. I want to become a counsellor of some sorts (either family, marriage, youth, addiction, or working with women). I also would want to teach psychology either at a high school level or university level, depending on what kind of graduate degree I pursue. The long studying time really puts me off, because I don't have the money to study for a long time unless I obtain several scholarships.
On the other hand, I could study something like accounting or mathematics. This would be more useful in terms of marketing myself and finding a job quickly. However, I know I absolutely hate working in a business office job. I know this because I did a marketing internship and quit after two days. I didn't learn enough about marketing to form an opinion on it, but I did learn that I hate staring at my computer all day, not talking to people, and trying to make money for someone else to become richer and richer.
In this way, maybe I should pursue a degree which will help me get a stable job, but not necessarily something I love. It'll give me more security on the job market. On the other hand, I'd hate to have a job in the office.
I also considered doing dentistry, because it has less studying and residency time than medicine and would earn me a lot of money. I have the grades for it, and I wouldn't mind the work conditions and environment, but the fact that I haven't taken chemistry since the 10th grade, and the fact that I would have to study AP chemistry on my own time, really scares me. I would also have to take AP biology because I only got a 4 in it.
This is the classic debate of studying what you love vs studying what will get you the job. Of course, my parents encourage me to do the latter. Please share your experience with this dilemma and tell me how it worked out!
Posted Sep 16, 2015, 7:26 AM UTC