Once again.
What the hell do you think this thread is for? I'm not diving head first into this, I'm asking questions and you're giving me advice for something I'm not doing. You talk about my being stubborn because you don't think I'm reading and taking your point into account, but you're not listening to me.
I'm thinking about this right now. I have been thinking about this. Now before I go spending money, I'm researching. This is what this thread is about.
So in essence, I AM ALREADY thinking first.
This whole thread is about my asking a very simple question; Are there any college assistance programs/sites/companies I can look up and talk to first? See where I can go to get my feet wet before committing?
When you answer that, I'll be happy.
It wasn't your original post that put everyone off, telling you to think first. Your post replying to B about "crossing that bridge when you get there" was the one that made us all say, "Is this guy possibly contemplating spending money to go to college, as a full grown man, and he is simply going to figure things out and 'cross that bridge' when he is already enrolled in a program?"
Your best bet for getting an idea on real world requirements for jobs that interest you will be either seeing a guidance counselor on a college campus if they're willing to meet with a non-student and searching job listing sites like monster, monstertrak, careerbuilder, hotjobs, etc.
Think out some job opportunities and see the type of degrees required.
I would urge you to look into a more general degree like business administration/interdisciplinary business/general business or education, simply because I'm bias and feel that these degrees are both well paying and versatile. With a degree in business and a focus in marketing, or a specific degree in marketing you can find jobs that are highly focused on psychology aspects like market research and consumer behavior. Those courses and job opportunities feed off of psych degrees, but should you find that its not your cup of tea you can always pick up and have a useful degree in many other fruitful jobs.
I was going to minor in psychology to go along with my business major. If/when I go back for a masters, I may go for psychology but its a rough path to follow.
My mentor is a psychiatrist that runs his own practice out of a church and is a professor at a local community college. He lives in a decent size house and drives his base mercedes but he's not rolling in the dough, even though he has two to three jobs. He loves what he does and started out as a young guy without much direction in his life, picking up and moving to california and traveling the states before he decided to go to college.
What works for some, won't work for others. He's extremely intelligent and has his doctorate degree but it took him many years of schooling, to which he's still in debt to his education costs, before he got to the place he is today.
The upside to your financial situation is that if you're over 25 years old and are at a low financial level, you can problem receive some excellent financial aide for both subsidized and unsubsidized loans. I would venture a guess you would get quite a large Stafford loan, which you don't have to pay interest on until after you complete your education - so long as you're enrolled full time (12+ credits).
Also, you can't have my phone number because you would send me dirty phone calls and call at unpleasant hours. Anyone else can have it.