Those who are considering going to graduate school often ask if they should apply to Masters degree or PhD programs. This is an important issue that deserves some attention. Why? When your career goals, experience, and skills match up with the type of degree you are pursuing, you will likely (1) get more out of grad school, (2) more readily see the benefits of specific hurdles you will have to pass to complete your degree, (3) have a more meaningful graduate school experience, and (4) spend the appropriate amount of time in grad school. A match between your goals, experience, skills and the type of degree programs you are applying to will also help you GET IN!
Before we discuss the factors that you should (and should not) consider when making the decision between pursuing a Masters versus a PhD, let's talk about some background inside information. Masters degree and PhD students have very different functions within a University. It will be helpful in your decision making process to understand these functions:
What is the purpose of Masters degree students for Universities? Universities admit Masters degree students to fulfill two important goals. First, it helps the University to graduate classes of prepared, professional individuals who will make good impressions in their fields. When a University produces Masters degree students who appear bright, well-educated, and valuable in the workplace, the University benefits. Employers might be more likely to hire more future graduates of that University. They may even consider partnerships with Universities that consistently turn out students who become excellent employees. Second, Universities recruit Masters degree students to make money. It may seem cynical, but Masters degree students are a big money maker for educational institutions. Universities can charge students a lot, and often pay part-time instructors (with lots of real-world experience) to teach these students little.
What is the purpose of PhD students for Universities? Universities have a different set of goals in mind with respect to PhD students. Universities acquire PhD students to serve three purposes: (1) teach undergraduates students cheaply, (2) do a lot of research and (3) make faculty members happy. Research faculty members generally love having bright, hard-working, energetic PhD students because, with their help, they can collect a lot more data and write a lot more research articles. Universities also hope PhD students will reflect a positive image of the University post-graduation, but, in my opinion, they are more focused on what PhD students can do for them while they are students than after graduation.
Source: www.psychologytoday.com
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There are many different post-bachelor degrees in this field. It seems that if you get your master's, you can go into counseling. You will have more freedom than a bachelor's, but not as much freedom or monetary income as a doctorate.
Options increase in other fields as well. Industrial/organizational psychology, health psychology and sport psychology to name a few.
The degree also applies to other jobs that would be good for psych majors such as criminal justice or marketing, and increases chances of getting a job in a related field as opposed to a bachelor's.
If you do want to go…
The type of job available to a person depends on more than any qualifications, however, with a master's degree in psychology the type of jobs that may be open include drug & a
can't be a clinical psychologist unless you have a doctorate.
But the rest are right.