Major Change in Interests

[brainman]

Hi folks,

 

I would like to request some advice from those of you who are more familiar with the grad school admissions process than I am...

 

I am a junior neuroscience major at a small liberal arts college and currently have a 3.8 GPA. Since the start of my college career I've been pursuing the ever-so-popular pre-med route, but I have found that my interests have changed substantially. Over the past few years, I have become more and more involved with my admissions office as a student ambassador and now find myself happiest in the college admissions setting. I've decided that this is the career I would like to pursue.

 

That being said, I have a few concerns. First, for a career in college admissions, is it preferable to get a job after graduation and then going to get a higher degree later? Or is it better to go to grad school directly out of college?

 

Second, I am assuming that my masters would have to be in higher education administration (or something related). I am concerned about this since my bachelors degree will be in neuroscience, a field completely unrelated to anything having to do with education administration. Will this essentially make me unqualified to apply to higher ed programs???

 

Any advice would be appreciated. I'm rather stressed out with the major career path change, but after thinking it over extensively, I think this is the right decision for me.

 

Thank you! It is very much appreciated.

T

[rising_star]

If you've already been doing work in the admissions office, your best bet is to do an informational interview with one of the admissions officers.

[nugget]

Sounds like great advice. I would add to this by recommending that you speak to a minimum of 2-3 people since many paths may lead to the same place.

 

If you've already been doing work in the admissions office, your best bet is to do an informational interview with one of the admissions officers.

[juilletmercredi]

1. In student affairs, experience means more than degrees up to a certain point.  So while you can do either, I think you should try to get a student affairs job with a bachelor's degree.  The kinds of jobs that you can get with a BA are usually as an admissions counselor or as a full-time resident/hall director.  (At some schools, like my university, you need to have a master's to be a hall director, but at most a BA is sufficient.)  There are some other positions within student affairs that you can get with a BA, depending on the university, like academic adviser, institutional research support, community/civic engagement support, fraternity/sorority advising, multicultural affairs support, those kinds of things.

 

2. Yes, your master's should be in higher ed admin.  It doesn't matter that your major is in neuroscience; higher ed programs accept people from a variety of majors, although it may behoove you to take a few social science classes before you graduate if you haven't already.

 

I worked in student affairs for two years as a paraprofessional while getting my PhD in a different field, so I'm a bit familiar with the SA world.