It it unwise to switch fields after my master's?

[student21218]

I'm trying to decide if I should plan for a career shift after I finish my master's or if it's too late to be worth the trouble. 

I attended a no-name undergraduate but earned excellent test scores, recommendations, and a 3.9 GPA in a humanities major. I am currently in the Teach for America corps and working toward an M.S. in Education at a top-tier school. 

I'm still not entirely sure I want to pursue Education following my time in TFA, however, and I'm interested in psychology. I feel like it's related to my experience so far (I would certainly need to gain some research experience) but I'm not sure admissions committees would see it that way. So I'm left here: 

1) Should I take my strong master's degree into the workforce for a few years and see where it takes me? 
2) Is it absurd - financially, and career-wise - to pursue a third degree (likely a joint MS + PhD) in a psychology, a field in which I have no degrees thus far? Would it inevitably require a downgrade in school ranking? 
3) Could committing to my path in Education take me into a top-tier EdD program, assuming I continue to do well in my master's? If so, I might rethink my desire to switch. 

Thanks all. 

Edited June 7, 2016 by student21218

[Apogeee]

8 hours ago, student21218 said:

I'm still not entirely sure I want to pursue Education following my time in TFA, however, and I'm interested in psychology. I feel like it's related to my experience so far (I would certainly need to gain some research experience) but I'm not sure admissions committees would see it that way. So I'm left here: 

It's not too late. I say go for psychology. 

[Quickmick]

While I am not an expert in Education or Psychology we are in somewhat similar situations. I am earning my MS in Environmental Science and am looking to possibly take that and fold it in to a PhD in Environmental History, so not just switching fields but moving from the sciences to the humanities. I will mention a couple of things that I have been thinking about and a couple of observations about your situation.

At some point we have to work (for real money) and looking at my choices in these terms it seems the sciences afford both the opportunity to teach and to be competitive in private/public sector workplace. However, the question remains: what is going to make you happy? I have generally gone by the mantra if it doesn't make me happy, I won't do it and have never let the fear of failure hinder my endeavors. That being said the job market for historians is pretty abysmal so has to be weighed into the equation.

That being said, why worry about problems I don't have? I will apply to a smattering of top tier programs and see what happens. If I get in then I have options in hand and decisions to make. Why not go ahead and apply to these Psychology programs and see what emerges? While it seems reasonable to join the workforce and see where it takes you I would only caution that it seems that you are currently in a financial position to continue school; if you leave and see a jump in pay it may be hard to resist some material comforts that require continued income at the new level (car payment, house, etc) to maintain so going back after a few years may be a challenge.

While I mentioned I am not an expert in Ed, I would ask if you are being fair in basing a judgement on your TFA experience, if moving toward a PhD means more high level admin type stuff you might be comparing apples and oranges here.

Lastly, sure doing well in your MS might help you move up the ladder, but it might not. I was at a conference recently and a tenured professor told me, "all you do is lick the stamp and mail it it." At this point everyone is highly qualified and has a great CV/scores/grades etc. You might find that your MS in Ed sets you apart from other Psyche applicants too. His point was that at this stage of the game there is quite a bit of luck involved and we, on the other side of Oz's curtain, will never understand the incredible amount of chaos that goes on during the adcomm process.

I would suggest that if you are considering it, go ahead and apply then worry about the decisions when you have them to make, otherwise you might wonder: what would have happened had I applied?

Hope this helps a little.

Q

[rising_star]

10 hours ago, student21218 said:

I'm trying to decide if I should plan for a career shift after I finish my master's or if it's too late to be worth the trouble. 

...
I'm still not entirely sure I want to pursue Education following my time in TFA, however, and I'm interested in psychology. 

...
3) Could committing to my path in Education take me into a top-tier EdD program, assuming I continue to do well in my master's? If so, I might rethink my desire to switch. 

Okay, I'm only including this part because I think it shows that you really aren't in the right place to make a decision about this just yet. Why would you even consider doing an EdD program if you aren't sure if you want a career in education? Also, it's unusual to be considering an EdD alongside considering a MS/PhD in another field... Why? Because the EdD is a practitioner's degree and the PhD is a research degree. The skill sets you'd develop and the tasks you're asked to do are pretty different between the two. You may want to read more about the two different degrees and the career paths people take upon receiving them because you'll probably find it helpful.

Consequently, as a first step, I'd advise thinking about what it is you actually want to be doing career-wise in 5-10 years. Then, once you do that, take the time to look up people currently in that career and see what credentials they have. Do they have a PhD, an EdD, or did they get there without the doctorate? If it's the latter, then you may realize that the doctorate isn't needed (at least at this time) and then you can do informational interviews to better understand how to get yourself to where those people currently are. More school isn't always the answer, especially when you aren't really sure what it is you want to do.

[COGSCI]

On 6/7/2016 at 0:44 PM, student21218 said:

I'm trying to decide if I should plan for a career shift after I finish my master's or if it's too late to be worth the trouble. 

I attended a no-name undergraduate but earned excellent test scores, recommendations, and a 3.9 GPA in a humanities major. I am currently in the Teach for America corps and working toward an M.S. in Education at a top-tier school. 

I'm still not entirely sure I want to pursue Education following my time in TFA, however, and I'm interested in psychology. I feel like it's related to my experience so far (I would certainly need to gain some research experience) but I'm not sure admissions committees would see it that way. So I'm left here: 

1) Should I take my strong master's degree into the workforce for a few years and see where it takes me? 
2) Is it absurd - financially, and career-wise - to pursue a third degree (likely a joint MS + PhD) in a psychology, a field in which I have no degrees thus far? Would it inevitably require a downgrade in school ranking? 
3) Could committing to my path in Education take me into a top-tier EdD program, assuming I continue to do well in my master's? If so, I might rethink my desire to switch. 

Thanks all. 

I don't know what field you are in (humanities/education is a huge field) but you could definitely look into social or educational psychology. If you are thinking about clinical or counselling stream, you might need to take a year to get some practical experience before you apply. It is not too late!

[Karoku_valentine]

Well, my advice is the following:

1. What is the most profitable option? Some Americans are indebted, so for them, getting more education means getting more debt and they need to start working to pay their loans. In my case, I am not American so my education abroad was free and my degrees (1 master and I am working on a Master-PhD) did not cost me anything, so I am in no debt. I always wanted to work in statistics positions, but my degree was not in statistics. So switching from international relations (my original major in college, though I did have training that made my degree employable) and moving to statistics makes sense financially: I can apply for different jobs and for more jobs and now I have much more technical skills that most people do not have.

2. How do you know you prefer psychology over education? I don't recall reading you have worked. Many people change their minds after working and realize what they are good for some things and that they want to specialize in other things. I would say to get a job, pay some loans and see what you are good for.

3. Following your passion. You can only follow your passion when you know what is that. In reality, people have adaptive preferences: if they are good at something, then will start liking it more, and if they are bad at something they like, they may start disliking it more. You don't have to the best, but you have to assess how good you need to be in order to achieve what you want. For example, many people here want to become professors; yet in order to become a professor you need to have a very specific skillset and work hard and the financial reward is not even that great; so some people who are "worse" than them can actually achieve a lot more success in terms of income.

In sum, what do you want, why do you want it, and how does that fit into your life plans and abilities?