Now more than ever, it’s important to think about what sort of higher education degree you want to shoot for. For a lot of people this can be difficult and for good reason. The cost of college, or schools above basic college, are high and it’s getting higher all the time. There’s so much at stake within the realm of coast alone that just making the first ream of decisions can seem insurmountable. Should you get a kinesiology degree? A degree in psychology? Should you enter an english program or just get a basic bachelors degree? These are all important questions and none of them are going to be easy to answer. But you shouldn’t give up just because it gets a little difficult. With a little forward thought and some introspection, you can absolutely pick a degree that’s right for you. Here are a few degrees you might want to consider.
- A degree in psychology
This might seem like a strange place to start but there are some excellent reasons to start an academic journey that will lead to a degree in psychology. First of all, it’s a burgeoning field. There’s really no good way to understate this. Getting a degree in psychology is hot right now and it will only continue to be more useful and versatile as we progress deeper into the twenty first century. It all has to deal with increased awareness with regards to mental health. In the latter half of the twentieth century, psychology, while an interesting academic discipline, was widely regarded as just that. A theoretical, non substantial framework, useful only when relegated to discussion and non practical use. But this all changed in the late eighties and early nineties when psychology, and those with psychology degrees and within the industry itself, really started to come into their own. Psychologists and mental health professionals alike began to work together to validate, research and, most importantly, help those who suffered from mental illnesses. This was a big change from how it was before where those who suffered any manner of mental illness were either treated as test subjects or interesting but ultimately anomalous and individual cases.
What can you use it for?
A degree in psychology isn’t limited to one realm of study, either. Psychological studies extend into all sorts of other disciplines, some of which you might not expect. For instance, some general and specific bodily medicine courses can overlap with psychology in any number of ways. The mind’s health is the body’s health after all. If one works well, the other is sure to follow. Of course, psychology can also be applied on a larger, more massive scale as well. It isn’t relegated to one person. Those with psychology degrees may also be able to pursue extra degrees in sociology or even statistics, depending on their specific area of specialty. When studying how large groups of people and how they behave or move, it helps to understand their individual minds as well how being inside of a group affects their minds and their singular actions.
Other degrees
Let’s look at these a little more in detail. Sociology and statistics degrees are hard to obtain, it’s true but they are infinitely useful when it comes to job hunting and in acquiring a more thorough understanding of the world. Let’s take a theoretical student named Mary. What can she gain from studying sociology? Well, to start on the more esoteric end, she will gain a greater appreciation for how the mass cultural and social behavior of people changes over time. If she can understand this, she can understand her own social groups much better. She can also understand people in other cultures and foster her own greater effort towards international understanding. If she studies statistics, she will gain a similar understanding, albeit more heavily controlled through the theory of numbers. But she’ll also understand how groups, numbers and opinions shape our world much more than we think. It’s all a matter of looking a little deeper into the underlying mechanisms that control our world. Numbers are key, after all. That’s a true fact.
