Career Choices

Your question is a tough one because each career requires you to do graduate work in order to become certified to practice. To become a nurse anesthetist, you’ll need to do some post-graduate work (http://www.allnursingschools.com/faqs/crna.php), just as you’ll need to earn a Doctor of Pharmacy to become a pharmacist (http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos079.htm#training). To become a doctor, you’ll need to attend medical school, which could take as long as eight years.

I don’t have specific statistics for the salaries of recent graduates in these fields, partly because a college education isn’t sufficient to become a doctor or nurse anesthetists. Of the professions you mention, you’ll probably make the most money as a doctor, depending on the type of medicine you practice and where you practice. However, you’ll have to account for the fact that you won’t start making money for several years. In fact, you’ll need to find a way to pay for medical school. If you have to take out loans, it may be a few years before you’re finished paying them back.

Nurse anesthetists make an annual base salary of $90,000-$115,000 (http://forums.studentdoctor.net/archive/index.php/t-34470.html).

The average annual salary for a pharmacist is about $90,000-$100,000. However, like all of the other jobs, this varies depending on the company you work for and the location of your company (http://swz.salary.com/salarywizard/layouthtmls/swzl_compresult_national_HC07000011.html)

There are dozens of schools in Ohio and Pennsylvania with good programs in the areas you’re interested in. To see a complete list, visit U.S. News & World Report’s College Finder (http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/tools/brief/cosearch_advanced_brief.php), which will come up with a list of relevant colleges when you select the states you want to attend college in as well as your desired area(s) of study. If you want to narrow down your options even more, you can include other criteria in your search.

Ultimately, of course, you should pick the career that you think you'll enjoy the most. You have plenty of time for that!

Good luck!

This is a good question to address right now, with our economy struggling in the U.S.  It is true that teachers don't usually make a ton of money.  There are other professions that aren't among the highest paid as well.  If you are on a career path to one of these, you may have concerns about your future.  Should you be worried?

First, let me say that many, many people in this country live on teachers' salaries, or salaries that are in a similar range.  You have to learn to live within your means, follow a budget, and possibly live in an area where the cost of living in low.  Yes, you can "survive."  The question comes when you talk about "surviving comfortably."  To you, if this means eating out several times a week, driving brand new cars, and taking big trips, then you need to reconsider your profession.  If you want to live a certain lifestyle, and you are not willing to budge on that lifestyle, then you need to make enough money to support yourself.  But, if you really believe that you are good at working with children and feel led that way, I certainly hope you will follow that path.  Good teachers are so difficult to find, yet so necessary.  Or if you are following another career path that is not among the highest paid, and you really, really love what you are going to do, I hope that you are able to continue that path and learn to live within your means.

If you are able to finish college with very little or no debt, you give yourself a huge head start.  Try to find financial aid, scholarships, and other programs that will help finance your education.  You can also look into work-study programs that offer great on-campus jobs for students.  Once you graduate and get a job, consider taking courses toward a graduate degree while you are working.  Typically, the more education you have, the better your salary will be. 

So what can you do right now?  As I said before, do everything you can to finance your education with scholarships, grants, and college savings.  Learn to live on a budget right now.  Ask your parents to help you set up your own finances on a limited basis, and take a financial class for students.  Create good money habits now, and you will not need to worry so much about the future.

The first thing you can do is to get yourself a copy (or flip through one at your nearest Barnes and Noble) of the new edition of U.S. News and World Report's Best Colleges 2010. This magazine is a pretty authoritative national guide for the top-ranked schools of each field. It will have a list of the top programs for psychology. If you already know you want to focus on child psychology, then you might want to check out the rankings of graduate programs in child psychology (U.S. News and World Report also publishes an annual edition of best graduate programs). If you can get into an undergraduate college that you know has a great graduate program, then that will be valuable for you since it's possible to do some networking and work up some advantages to help you be accepted to a program within the same school.  (For example, you'll be able to connect with child psychology professors that could help you along the way.) But that doesn't mean you can't transfer to a good graduate program from a different undergraduate school, either.

Keep in mind that you don't have to get into one of the best-ranked schools to be a success in your program of study. There are plenty of schools out there that have credible, solid psychology programs.

Lastly, I would suggest you check out the Occupational Outlook Handbook (www.bls.gov/oco) for statistics on the job outlook and salary ranges of psychologists and psychiatrists. The Handbook also gives a lot of great basic information about the nature of these positions, the pertinent work environments, and other good things to know before you pursue this specific career.

Hope this gives you a good start.  Best wishes to you.

Thanks so much for your question!  The kind of program you are talking about is known as Building Restoration, Building Preservation, or Historic Preservation.  There are several technical and specialized college programs around the country that would help you toward this goal.

South Florida Community College
Belmont Technical College in Ohio
George Brown College in Canada
Arkansas Institute for Building Preservation Trades

Or, check out this catchall site that lists other preservation degree programs around the country.
http://www.ncptt.nps.gov/training/preservation-degree-programs/

Good luck to you!

Thanks for your question.  I know there are a lot of people out there that are struggling with this same thing. I think the first thing you could do right now is not to worry too much.  It sounds like you've started to subscribe to the myth that there is ONE PERFECT CAREER for you out there, and if you don't find it, you're sunk.  Now, the truth is, there's probably not only one thing out there for you as far as careers go.  You may end up switching careers once, twice, or multiple times.  Or maybe you will become a nurse and love it so much that you decide to stick with it for 30 or 40 years.  We don't know yet. 

The point is, you have time to figure yourself out, and it sounds like you are doing just that.  You are figuring out what you truly enjoy (science) and also thinking wisely and practically about the future (job security).  You are in a great place right now.  Keep learning about nursing.  Maybe start volunteering at your local hospital and see how you like the day-to-day aspects of working in a medical setting.  Ask people around you what they see you are good at and what they see you love, whether it is nursing or not.  Try other different things.  You have a lot of time to figure out who you are.  Keep "pushing up" against different possibilities.  That's the point of the different classes and activities you're involved in as a kid: they help you figure out what you love and what you're good at.  As you keep doing that, you will begin to narrow down what kinds of work truly inspire and motivate you.  (And it might be nursing after all.)

Now, one more fun idea is to take this personality quiz from Human Metrics--it could help you figure out more of what you're like and what you enjoy doing.  Or you could go up to your local library or Barnes and Noble and see what types of career help books they provide.  You have lots of resources at your fingertips.  Good luck!

I know what you mean; there's definitely a huge need for online grammatical correctness, isn't there? The truth is, online proofreading is still a new kind of work--usually related to print editing, or graphic design, or web development...or web editing...or just being the random intern at a company who is pegged to find all the errors on the company website! Typically, there's not an official program of study that can lead you right to online proofreading. And the Internet is full of scams for would-be proofreaders, so proceed with caution. One likely option that I will provide for you is that you could certainly go ahead and study English, which is usually thought to be most closely linked with proofreading and editing. (You could also study linguistics, which is packed with grammatical training.) But really, what you need to do most is to gather work experience. Offer to proofread the online portfolios of your art student friends. If you get an internship somewhere, volunteer to proofread the website. Proofread print work for people, too. If your school has a writing center, volunteer or get a job there--workers at the writing center do proofreading all the time. Some professors even love help with keeping their websites up-to-date and correct, so that may be an option. Get copies of the AP Stylebook, the Chicago Manual of Style, and maybe one or two other style manuals. Read up on your grammar! If you end up working at a non-editing-related job for a while, do the same thing: offer your stellar proofreading services as a way of adding value to the organization. Every company and organization needs to present themselves in a grammatically correct, precise way. So the work experience you could potentially collect is encouraging. I again urge you to be careful when trolling the Internet for online proofreading sources and online proofreading work. There are some valid freelance options out there, but there are a lot of scams. Some sites may suggest you need an online certification, but that's not always the case. You can certainly research that option. And I wouldn't say that you necessarily need a master's degree in English in order to be a proofreader, although you may choose to gain one. For the moment, the best route would be to collect a bunch of work experience that can get you to where you want to be, as I explained above. Maybe some of the kinks in this new field will iron themselves out in the meantime as you keep researching and looking forward. Be careful, be savvy, take the initiative...and that way, you will be able to make your college experience work for you, not the other way around. Enjoy the ride!