Okay so I am a freshman at the community college and I am majoring in liberal arts right now (only because they don't have Psych/Sociology as majors). I am looking into transferring to a 4 year school to double major after I finish my 2 years here but I was wondering if I could focus on gender identity? I want to give back to the community that has helped me so much by counseling people with gender dysphoria or those who are questioning. Is it possible to cater my major to focus more on that? I would ask my student advisor but like I said, they don't have Psych/Sociology as majors.
Hi! Do you have any specific 4 year universities in mind? It all depends on which school you attend. Some schools do have gender studies as a major, but I'm a psych major and from what I've seen, psych degrees are generally focused on general psychology or human services psychology, but I haven't seen any gender studies focused psych degrees (I don't know much about sociology so I can't speak for that). So if you are able to find a school that has gender studies as a major, then using that as a major with psychology or sociology is an option. Another thing, I don't know if you are planning on attending graduate school to get your Masters or PhD, but it's a lot easier to study something more focused like that in graduate school. Like I said, psych degrees are usually more general in undergrad, but there are tons of areas that you can study in graduate school and I know for a fact that there are gender studies PhD programs out there if that interests you. Hope this helped a little!
That did help, thank you. - I am actually looking into both Suny Albany and Suny Potsdam as places to transfer.
I'm glad I could help! I would definitely suggest looking at their websites for a list of majors if you haven't already, and making an appointment to speak with someone in admissions to learn more about their majors and what areas you would be focusing on. They should have an area on their website where you can sign up to get more info about the school, and someone from admissions should call you soon after. That's how I made sure I was interested in the 4 year university that I'm at now, and they're always super happy to talk to potential students at their school!
hello hello I am going to start by saying you will probably want to do PhD. A masters has specialties but not to the degree that a PhD does. For example, in my masters I specialized in anxiety-spectrum disorders. I chose this specialty from a list of 6 specialties. The benefit of doing a PhD is you can tailor your leanring experience more to what you want instead of having somewhat more rigid choices like mine
Just be sure that you understand what doing a PhD actually involves, the time it takes, and the money it costs before you embark on this road. You are likely to be in school until age 30 or more. If that doesn't appeal to you, go for something else. Not everybody is cut out for a PhD. Alternatively, you may want to look into the opportunity of a PsyD which is shorter and includes little research, but costs more per year. Good luck!
