Chicho Blanco

I enjoy working with my patients, but I'm close to maxing out what I can do in this field. Respiratory is a lot more limited than nursing. I feel I am ready for more advanced level work and responsibility.

I've decided that the next step in my education and career development will be to pursue a Masters Degree in Psychology. My academic background is an AAS in respiratory therapy. I've been employed as a respiratory therapist for 6 years. I am about to graduate from the University of Northern Iowa with a Bachelors Degree in Liberal Studies. My concentrations are professional fields (mainly health psychology and psychology of the aging), humanities (I've studied a wide variety of cultures), and communications. I have 18 hours of undergrad psychology credits, 12 of which are 300 level courses. I had a 10 year gap in my education. I went to college right out of high school, but was more concerned with partying and playing soccer. I only went for 2 years before I dropped out. My GPA was only a 2.6. I have a 3.7 over my last 60 hours of credit and a cumulative of just over 3.0. I'm not sure which masters degree I should pursue. I've read that clinical psychology is extremely competitive. I could get into a masters degree program, but I doubt I'd be competitive enough to get into a doctoral program. I've read that there are a lot of jobs for school psychologists, but I'm concerned that the salary level might not make it financially viable enough to take on the addition debt that grad school would entail. I'd love any advice/feedback about which direction someone with my background should take. I've always found psychology interesting. I recently took a Myers-Briggs test and psychologist was one of my suggested careers.