Planning for the Future

​At the undergraduate level, psychology is a liberal arts degree; it exposes you to multiple areas of psychology and how they intersect with other fields. However, you do not get to specialize. Graduate school is your opportunity to get in-depth training and specialize toward a particular field.

Graduate school is for students who are focused and need this training for their career plans; it is not for those who cannot find a job or cannot think of anything else to do. You need to begin with earnest introspection–why do you want to go to graduate school? When you can answer that question in terms of what you are passionate about, then you will have a better understanding of why you want to pursue graduate studies and a much better idea of the type of program you need to seek.

Learn more about graduate school.

You might have heard people say, "Psychology's a bad major because you can't get a job without a graduate degree."

Not true.

Because psychology is a liberal arts major, a wide variety of jobs are open to students straight out of college. Below are just a few possibilities available to those with Bachelor's degrees.

If you are interested in business, you can work in human resources in a large organization, helping to interview, train, and retain employees. You might help a market research firm analyze data or run a focus group.   

In the human services field, you might find a job working for a nonprofit organization, working in fundraising, grant writing, or conducting outcome evaluations.  Or, at such an organization you could work directly with populations of people in need (such as those with intellectual disabilities). In an outpatient or school-based program, you can be trained to work one-on-one with kids with autism spectrum disorder.

Learn more about employment options.