I think that it's time.

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jamesA

jamesA

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I've been thinking lately. My paychecks are nice, but as BDN and pissedoff know, I'm barely scraping by. I still have a few years left on two loans and then there is the house and the piling of the rest of my bills.

I'm kind of bored with my job, even though I plan on staying with it as long as I can, but I want to go back to college. I'll need to take some night classes. Anything local will have to start no earlier than 6 pm for me.

I'm thinking psychology. It's been a very interesting topic to me. I can't even read my own brother or dad in poker that well. Let alone people I don't know.

I'd like to be able to do this and more, perhaps even make a profession out of it.


I'm just having trouble trying to figure out where to look for financial help. I haven't made any appointments at the college I've been considering, and have only done online research on their website as of late (which really isn't all that helpful to say the least).

What are some things admissions deans might not tell me? What else can I look into?
 
Screw the admissions dean, go talk to the financial assistance dept. They have people on payroll who will search out grants for you. The more they get, the more the college makes. Granted, harvard and yale type schools probably don't have such a thing (or perhaps they do, I've never checked).. Most colleges do have a financial aid dept.
 
Well I still need to talk to the admissions dean about getting in to the school.
 
i think you should re-think your plan.

what are you going to do with a psychology degree? probably nothing. you'll need at LEAST a masters, if not a doctorate to get into anything that pays more than a high school guidance consoler.

it's cool that you're into it, but think about what you are going to do with said degree once you have it.
 
werd. ive thought about going back to school to get more money, but the more i look through job postings, it always says something like:

Required:

Bachelors Degree OR 5+ years in a similar environment.

So it seems pointless for me to go back to school for such a thing. Now if you go into an accounting or business position....the degree makes a lot more sense.
 
I'm with everyone else here.


I used to work with a guy at lowe's who had a degree in Psychology from the college I'm currently attending. It's one of the best, and most sought after programs on the west coast for psyche, but without a phd, its useless. He was making more money he said managing a dept, as I was too, then when the job offers he got out of college. Recently he just finished his masters degree in some specific field that I no clue about, and finally quit lowe's, and is going to make guess what? a whopping 55k a year salary locally, in a much more competitive paying market than your own. I'm not trying to sound elite in any regard, its just that to get a good job where you're not scraping by and you want to go into any sciences, you need something more than a four year degree, even at that, from a good accredited university. I'm not trying to shit on your dreams, but take a step back and re-evaluate what you will think will make you happy and sustain your personal habits.




You're young enough to throw 4 years of your life away to better your future down the road. It's worth it, but make sure if you're going to only do four years, that its going to be in an area that will be worth the loss of four years of serious job application in a said field, unless you do complete night classes, like me, and wanna burn out every 2-3 months because of the 19 hour days of work/school/exercising/hw.


I'd suggest you write down some goals, some stuff that has your interest, and find yourself a niche that can make you money, and give yourself some self enjoyment. I did this when I was like 9 and well I'm still going after it with everything I've got.
 
pissedoffsol said:
i think you should re-think your plan.

what are you going to do with a psychology degree? probably nothing. you'll need at LEAST a masters, if not a doctorate to get into anything that pays more than a high school guidance consoler.

it's cool that you're into it, but think about what you are going to do with said degree once you have it.
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I'll cross that bridge when I get there. I don't know what to do with a degree because I haven't talked to anyone in the field or any professors.

I know you think College isn't a necessity, but you know how much I make an hour and it's just not cutting it.

reikoshea said:
werd. ive thought about going back to school to get more money, but the more i look through job postings, it always says something like:

Required:

Bachelors Degree OR 5+ years in a similar environment.

So it seems pointless for me to go back to school for such a thing. Now if you go into an accounting or business position....the degree makes a lot more sense.
Click to expand...

accounting and business bore the living shit out of me. Psychology is an ever changing field with tons of potential and topics.


I just want to get my feet wet with it, I know I'll enjoy it because it's something new. If it takes a doctorate, then so be it. I'll love to be known as a Dr and actually have respect for some knowledge.
 
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2000Si said:
I'll cross that bridge when I get there. I don't know what to do with a degree because I haven't talked to anyone in the field or any professors.

I know you think College isn't a necessity, but you know how much I make an hour and it's just not cutting it.
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One of the most important decisions you can make with your life, your education, and you'll "cross that bridge when I get there."

Have you thought that perhaps a lack of direction or thinking through things has attributed to your current situation where you're barely scraping by?

You need to plan before you commit money and time.

Psychology is a great passion and interest, for myself, but I wouldn't commit to a degree unless I saw an opportunity to be gainfully employed in the future. After all, the idea behind a degree, in today's society, is to make yourself more marketable and to establish a higher premium in terms of your financial worth to a company.
 
2000Si said:
I know you think College isn't a necessity, but you know how much I make an hour and it's just not cutting it.
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it depends on the field.


frankly, if i were in your position, of having field installation experience, i'd drop everything,
take the comptia network + exam and get your mcp.

~5 test, about $1000, and you'll get hired anywhere as a junior network technician running cables and shit


accounting and business bore the living shit out of me. Psychology is an ever changing field with tons of potential and topics.
I just want to get my feet wet with it, I know I'll enjoy it because it's something new. If it takes a doctorate, then so be it. I'll love to be known as a Dr and actually have respect for some knowledge.
Click to expand...

a doctoreate is 10-12 years of school dude.

without the rich daddy putting you up until you're 32, it's most likely not going to happen.
 
totalburnout said:
One of the most important decisions you can make with your life, your education, and you'll "cross that bridge when I get there."

Have you thought that perhaps a lack of direction or thinking through things has attributed to your current situation where you're barely scraping by?

You need to plan before you commit money and time.

Psychology is a great passion and interest, for myself, but I wouldn't commit to a degree unless I saw an opportunity to be gainfully employed in the future. After all, the idea behind a degree, in today's society, is to make yourself more marketable and to establish a higher premium in terms of your financial worth to a company.
Click to expand...

Dude... Seriously, I've been thinking about this for the past few years and it's always been on my mind but it hasn't gone anything past just thinking of it. Don't try to downplay it because I haven't gotten that far into investigating it.

I didn't have a lack of direction that put me in this situation. It was a lack of jobs that don't require a degree that are in this area. Did you know I got laid off 3 times in 05?

I don't know, maybe it's just me but I'm sick of this shit. I want a degree, and I want more possibilities.


I think I'm mature enough now to start hitting the books again. I didn't in 01 because I was sick of school and wanted to work. Now I've had my fill of that and I want to try something new, make new mistakes, open myself to new opportunities and all you can say is "your lack of direction landed you here".
 
pissedoffsol said:
it depends on the field.


frankly, if i were in your position, of having field installation experience, i'd drop everything,
take the comptia network + exam and get your mcp.

~5 test, about $1000, and you'll get hired anywhere as a junior network technician running cables and shit




a doctoreate is 10-12 years of school dude.

without the rich daddy putting you up until you're 32, it's most likely not going to happen.
Click to expand...

Rich daddy isn't going to be putting me up with anything. Never has, I don't really care if I'm 35 and have a doctorite, I'll have the opportunities I want.
 
2000Si said:
Dude... Seriously, I've been thinking about this for the past few years and it's always been on my mind but it hasn't gone anything past just thinking of it. Don't try to downplay it because I haven't gotten that far into investigating it.

I didn't have a lack of direction that put me in this situation. It was a lack of jobs that don't require a degree that are in this area. Did you know I got laid off 3 times in 05?

I don't know, maybe it's just me but I'm sick of this shit. I want a degree, and I want more possibilities.


I think I'm mature enough now to start hitting the books again. I didn't in 01 because I was sick of school and wanted to work. Now I've had my fill of that and I want to try something new, make new mistakes, open myself to new opportunities and all you can say is "your lack of direction landed you here".
Click to expand...

You may have been thinking about it for years, but now you're talking about committing to your idea and then simply winging it, i..e., you'll think about it when you cross that bridge.

Think first.

Spend second.

Research the job opportunities. Most people don't wind up in jobs directly relating to their majors, but those are also 22 year olds that just graduated college, without any real prior work experience or direction in life. By now you should be starting to think about what you want to do and how you're going to get there.

I'm not a psychiatrist for the same reason I didn't go premed, the amount of schooling, time, and money required to achieve those goals.

Without a masters in psych, you can find yourself in marketing jobs and jobs of that sort, but you won't be opening your own practice or writing books.

Also, psych degrees are frowned upon even greater than business and teaching degrees. Many people view the psych major as a joke, so its a less versatile degree than say business or education, coming out of college.

Just some food for thought.

Like Jordan said, I'm not trying to piss on your dream, just trying to lay out some of the ground work.
 
Ok, Time Out.

I won't simply be 'winging it'. I'm out on the road all day and if I knew more about the subject I would be asking people in the profession.

I just fixed a fax stick at a psycholgists office last week, and one of our largest clients is a prison/home for children with psych offices.

Don't think I'll be getting ideas from them, the professors and anyone else I can be?

I wanted to start this thread because basically right now I will be winging it as I don't know what I'm doing, while the advice is semi-solid, telling me what I may be doing after committing isn't very helpful.
 
K. You're not getting it. Don't get butt hurt. Listen to us. We're students with big time futures ahead of us who did it, maybe not the right way, but we're working on it, and we have a sense of what we're going to do.




When I wanted to go to school, I went and met with every head of every dept that I was remotely interested. Then met with the guidance counselor, then re-met with the departements I had weeded out into the path I was thinking about. I knew I wanted to do something with construction, but I wasn't going to waste four years of my life figuring out what that thing was.......

I found myself sitting in a meeting with the head of the CM program at University of Washington, and two employers that literally fight for the grads. They lead me through what the degree entitled in employement oppurtunities, post college. I Wasn't enrolled yet, shit I was 17 years old. I later met with some architects and to prof's from the architecture, and a civil engineer to see if I could handle that. I weeded them out.

I'm going cm in two quarters, or in a year. It's going to happen, regardless of what anyone tells me. I made up my mind then, that for my future this option, path, or what ever is the most versatile degree with the highest regard to actually being a professional with only a 4 year degree. It'll make me a contributor and assett to a firm, not an expendable employee.




Then you create a niche and count the cash.




[/soap box][/piss on dreams]
 
Thanks slammed. this is the kind of things I want to see.

This is what i can do without;
You may have been thinking about it for years, but now you're talking about committing to your idea and then simply winging it, i..e., you'll think about it when you cross that bridge.

Think first.

Spend second.
Click to expand...

I know this. I have never been one to just randomly start throwing money at things and hope I can stick it out.

I'm tired of living paycheck to paycheck working for my asshole of a dad/boss, being treated like shit and not getting anywhere in life.

I want something more and I'll do what it takes to get there. I just needed some inside advice and encouragement.
 
werd....i went in and applied for a linux sys admin job on friday....i got hired as a flash developer....

CS degrees go a long way...if you want to go the school route.
 
Bureau of Labor Statistics Home Page
some good info in this site if you have the patience to weed through it all. It's the burar of labor and satastics( i know spelling, havent finished first cup o joe yet). You can get national or regional statistics on most anything employment related, even check out the forcasted growth of your carrer field, and what it pays on avg now and in 5 yrs
 
Bad idea, James. Give it more thought before you dive in.

If I were you, I'd concentrate on paying off as much of your debts as you can before you go back to school - that way you don't have to worry about working as much. I'm definitely going to go back to school, but not until I've got all these dumbass vehicles paid off. It's going to be much easier to work a part-time job and have your only expenses be rent, food, and gas...it'd give you more time to concentrate on school.


Just my .02
 
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