I do agree with you all that a psych degree is valuable for all sorts of
reasons.
And, no, I don't have any real data about jobs that are pursued by our grads.
(We are actually still a young program with about 6 years under our belts and
we have very little data).
In my response I was discounting grad school entirely since that represents a
particular breed of student. And yes I was a psych major throughout, which I
enjoyed very much and see psychology as a wonderful education (and liberal arts
in general) and, to me, more valuable than a set of specific skills like
welding or what have you which you can learn later.
However, most of the students I have talked with still did not know what they
were going to do just prior to graduation (other than finding a job). This
could be our fault as a department, although we do have the
strengths/proficiencies type of approach to 'marketing' (my flippant word for
advising--don't worry I don't come across like that to students) psychology and
what they could do with the degree.
I do think a psych degree is valuable (or I wouldn't have bothered getting one)
and I agree with Annette and the others that it prepares you for many jobs. But
my point was that I don't think it prepares you for any one in particular,
hence the 'bridge to everywhere = bridge to nowhere'. As well, I do see a few
of our students planning to take further education in order to narrow in on a
particular area.
But after 4 years of student loans and working part-time I think quite a few
students (who never planned on going to grad school) are a bit disillusioned
about not having developed specific skills for specific jobs. Especially when
they are not in the financial position to get further into debt. It is just an
observation about our students and area.
Hope that clarifies somewhat what I meant.
I assumed that you guys and girls got all that from my first post :-)
--Mike
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