Post #72365

Well the thing about careers in research is that pretty much all require at least a masters and most require a PhD. For example. I could teach at colleges with a master’s. But I’m not qualified to run experiments unless I have a PhD. Usually only community colleges and small religious colleges hire professors with only a master’s. Most other colleges or universities prefer or require a PhD. When I first started college, at age 24, I just wanted to get some education to get a better job. Psych was not even on my radar. I took a class because why not. Did well. Took a few more psych classes. Before I knew it, I had enough for it to qualify as my major. I talked to the chair professor and told him. I didn’t want to major in psych because 1. Everyone I knew who was a psych major never even finished their degree. 2. I didn’t want to go to school for another 10 years to be able to work in the field. I said I didn’t want to be 40 before I finished. He said. Dani. You are going to be 40 regardless. You want to have a degree and a career that suits you or not by the time you are 40?. So here I am. Turned 40 in May. 😅 I may need to explain why it took me so long. I did my associates and bachelor’s half time because I worked full time during those degrees. So they took me 8 years. Then half a year gap. Then 1 year masters. Then 1 gap year. Then started PhD. 6 year program. I have 2 masters now. In the same exact field. I was not competitive enough to get into a PhD program without research experience. That’s why I had to get a master’s first. Younger people with more free time often work as research assistants. I didn’t have that option as I had a full time job plus school.