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Is it really worth getting a PhD in psychology?

I’m a junior in High School and I am interested in the field. However, is it worth entering?
-Will there be alot of jobs/options?
-What can you do with the PhD?
-Salary?

It’s difficult to say that getting a doctorate in anything but Medicine and Law (which would be a J.D.) is worth it. Unless, of course, your parents are wealthy and you have a trust fund and You Can afford to spend the time and money to get a Ph.D in Psychology, without any real sacrifice being exerted from you.

1) There will not be a lot of job options (Compared to other fields).
2) You can be a college professor or if you have mental health experience maybe work at a Psychiatry office.
3) It can range from $13,000 (working at a fast food place) to about $28,000 (which could eventually grow to about $48,000 and if you’re super-duper lucky maybe $60,000 upwards to $100,000 if you become a superintendent at the Psychiatry Ward. The top positions in a company are always hard to get to. Or, if you are the adventurous entrepreneur you can run a successful private Psychiatry/Psychology practice and make a lot of money, but it’s very unlikely that you’ll do that. Now you’re adding the risks of starting a business into the mix.

Understand two things about the college and the workplace:
1) a College degree does not guarantee you a job, you could be stuck flipping burgers or even living at a homeless shelter with a doctorate degree. If there’s 4,000 Ph.D. Psychologists and only 2,000 positions pertaining to Psychology, then that means there’s another 2,000 people that have to work somewhere else
2) When we’re talking about starting salary, people always start off making less money than the average. So, if a manager of a company is brand new, they’ll start off making about $23,000 a year, then in 5 years that increases to about $28,000 a year and then eventually it $34,000 a years in 10 years. See, how that works? Also, if by chance you happen to get fired or layed off, then you have to start all over at the bottom of the barrel. Well, sometimes you do, sometimes you don’t.

There’s another thing that’s worth discussing. It’s called student loan debt.

Unless your parents are paying for your schooling, or you have money at hand to pay for your schooling, you will most certainly be taking out student loans to fund your education.

If you go to a state school that costs about $19,000 a year or something, at the end of 4 years you can usually keep end up with a total student loan debt of about $25,000 all the way up to $50,000 or even $80,000. Even a $25,000 debt can turn into a nightmare, because of two things. Student loan debt cannot be forgiven through bankruptcy the way other debts can. That means that after you graduate from college, you have to pay about $600 a month until you pay off the whole debt. Remember that a debt always carries interest (extra costs) so if you originally had $25,000 in debt then you’re actually paying back $29,000 in debt, but the problem is, let’s say you can’t find a job as soon as you graduate, then your loan incurs a penalty and they tack on an extra $3,000 late penalty, and then the debt increases keeps piling on and on.

Basically if you have a debt of $25,000 and with this economy being as slow as it is it could take 15 or 20 or 25 or 30 years to pay off, depending on what kinds of jobs you can find. There are many people out there who basically don’t have time to live other than to pay off their student debt, and who don’t make enough money to enjoy themselves.

What I’m trying to say is undersdtand the risks of getting a Ph.D. in Psychology because if you don’t get the job, or if you only get a job that pays $30,000 a year, then it could take you decades to pay off that loan debt.

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So, now that you understand the risk that is involved with going on to collegre and taking on the loans, hopefully you’ll be able to make a better decision. I’m not saying you can’t be a psychologist, but in order to be a psychologist you need to have a Masters or Ph.D because you have to be a doctor to open up Your Own Psychological practice. If that’s your passion then go ahead and do it, just know that for the first 15 years of Your Life after college, you will be working your butt off. That’s just how it is.

If you go to a 2 year school and decide to take a job that may be more numerous but pay about $30,000 to $40,000 a year that may be good, if you learn to budget and spend less money. If you plan on going to to college and grad school to get a Masters or PhD then you better hope the job you get will pay because you’ll have a lot of debt. There’s also more competition in those high-paying jobs, and it’s not guaranteed that those jobs will always be there for you. Or maybe you just one be able to find a job that pays as much as you thought it would, or maybe there are only job openings in Portland, Oregon (I’m just making up a city name) and you don’t want to move to Portland, OR. You see, every decision carries a level of risk.

Think about the job that you’re wanting to do. Where do you want to live, what sort of thing do you want to be doing? Then pick what you want to major in and live within your means.

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