Diogenes314

That was short and long term goals, being a professor. I would probably prefer to teach at a 4 year college, but like you said, think realistically, it's too difficult to tell that far in the future what will actually happen and how many other people want to do the exact same thing.

Well then we are basically in the same boat. I contacted a few community colleges and some of the people were actually quite helpful. It seems like at least you will be able to get an adjunct position which is basically part time, and they hire full time teachers with 1-2 years experience which I think you can get while you work on the MA. A few of them said it is a decent idea to go for the masters. The risk/cost being more debt of course and might not get the job, while the risk/cost with the RA route is that you waste 2 years in a job you don't really want in the possible hopes of the PhD. I suppose you can go the MA route and eventually try to get a PhD after some community college experience if you so chose, but unfortunately heard from a professor that having a masters doesn't really take any time off of the time to complete the PhD. 33% of PhD students drop out anyways, so depending on how you look at it, maybe it's a blessing in disguise? I'd like to hear your thoughts on this whole life decision of suck.

I hope someone here can provide me with some info. on my question. Any help is appreciated. I am currently trying to figure out what the best route is, I am considering pursuing a masters in psychology with the hopes to land a community college instructor gig. My question is, how saturated is the market with MA's trying to do the same thing and even PhD's vying for the same positions. Also does it matter if the MA in is general psychology or social psychology in terms of landing one of these jobs? Secondly how good of an idea is trying to get a 2year gig as a RA in psychology and then trying to reapply to a PhD? Is the risk of not getting in again worth it over going for the MA and getting into debt? Again, any information is appreciated, particularly curious about the market for community college jobs and whether the type of MA matters. Thank you.