Don't know where to start! Psych

Hello!
I really don't know where to start!
I've checked out Penn state , World campus, seems perfect, but it does seem a bit expensive. So i have to check out other schools and i'm swamped!

Im interested in Psychology, any suggestions?

Thank you in advance!

 

Hi there,

You have to be more specific about what you want. What is your budget? Is it an A.A., B.A. Or M.A degrees that your are looking for? Do you have prior college credit/degree? Why psy? What do you want to do with said degree? Are you currently employed if so what field? How will this degree help you advance in your current career? With a little more info you'll get better responses, good luck.:smokin:

 

Ah true, this is how swamped i am, didnt even bother to mention all that!

Im interested in a BA in Psychology. I have no other degree. I am a college drop out and i want a degree to be able to get a better job. I am interested in Psy cause i just like it. How much do they cost? im kinda lost on that too. How easy is it to get financial aid? Also, im an american citizen living in Europe. Should i go for a uni in the states or Europe?

Thank you so much!

 

Do you plan to pursue a career in the U.S. or in Europe? Personally, I'd get my degree where I planned to live and work. Unless it's the kind of job where having a "foreign" degree might be considered "cool" or if you have a good opportunity to go to a well-known uni local to you...or you can wrangle free or cheap tuition where you are. As far as financial aid, as far as I know if you apply to a school in the states, you just apply for financial aid as normal.

Do you prefer to take courses, or would you want to test out of as much of degree as possible? Do you consider time, money, or quality of instruction as most important? You really can't post too many details if you want concrete advice. As far as the states go, the easiest and quickest way to complete a degree is one of the "Big 3": Thomas Edison State University, Charter Oak State College, or Excelsior College. They are all generous with transfer credits, as well as friendly to testing options and other non-traditional ways of earning credit. If you wish to enroll in a school and simply take courses there until you graduate, there are other choices which might suit you better.

 

Which part of EU are you living in ?

Germany has free tuition for their degree programs.

Just saying.

 

Aside from Business degrees, Psychology degrees are perhaps the most plentiful in the world of higher education DL. And quite versatile as well. So that means that you'll have many choices of schools. You'll need some way to decide between them, to narrow down the list. Cost is a good way to begin. Someone will eventually bring up "the big 3" (a way of testing out of courses and accumulating credits toward graduation) and that's an excellent way to proceed under certain circumstance. One inexpensive program is at Fort Hays State University

https://www.fhsu.edu/virtualcollege/degrees/bachelors/

Also, considering that you're in Europe you might want to consider the Open University (UK)

Distance Learning Courses and Adult Education - The Open University

I suggest that you do some reading and then come back with more questions. We're always happy to help.

 

OK, a new day a new post. I've included below a link to the program at UMass. It's a good school and the cost is somewhere in the middle of the range so it's not a a price bargain but a solid program. I include it just as to provide a comparison to the others. Pay attention to the cost. Pay attention to whether the courses can be dome in a self-paced manner. To many people that means "accelerated" but self-paced can also mean "decelerated" in some schools. Pay attention to the delivery method. How is the course actually taught? How much interaction with the instructor occurs. How much with the other students? What about testing methods? How is your learning assessed? Which specific courses are required? How many credits in your major area? Do the courses look interesting? If you decide to take some CLEP exams will they accept the credits? These are the sorts of questions to ask that will help you to make a decision between schools. You may also want to check to see how good the women's soccer team is playing and whether you like the school colors.

Bachelor of Arts in Psychology | www.umassonline.net

Beyond all that I can tell you that North Carolina has a big state system of online degrees. Texas has a big state system and California has a big state system. You'll find Psychology programs in all of them (as well as many other places).

 

Harvard offers a Bachelor's of Liberal Arts that can be taken all online except for one residency on campus: https://www.extension.harvard.edu/academics/undergraduate-degrees/bachelor-liberal-arts-degree

 

My daughter took her BA in Psychology at York St. John University. Based on her comments I would have to say that earning such a degree in Europe (at least in the UK) is far mor difficult than earning it in the USA. The content of the York degree was 100% psychology whereas those in the USA contain a large percentage of general education courses. In York her gen ed requirements (really entrance requirements) were met by her A levels.
Here is an outline of her degree Psychology BSc (Hons) | York St John

Then I suggest a psychology degree is not the right degree unless that is the job area you are looking at.

 

If you're concerned about price and don't want to test out.

Online Psychology Bachelor Degree | Best Online Colleges | GetEducated

Self-paced, Flexpath option.

Bachelors in Psychology Online Degree - Capella University

 

I would like to suggest that this is untrue. Here's my thinking. First, let's assume the op knows more about her situation than you do. She may be living in a place where degrees are uncommon and a degree in anything will give her a solid advantage. Second, she may be thinking about some sort of psychology career and that particular degree will help her move toward that goal. Third, we've heard from many members over the years who were working for some company but needed a degree, a degree in anything, in order to get a promotion. We've certainly seen stats that show that college grads, on average, make more money, so I see no reason to discourage capris from her goal of a psych degree

 

All of this, plus a Neuhaus anecdote:

My mother's bachelor's is in sociology. Why did she pick sociology? Because her goal was to go to law school so it didn't really matter what she majored in. Though she preferred psychology (and strongly preferred philosophy) she thought sociology was "OK" as far as her interest level in it. What tipped the scale was that she was working full time and had kids and a husband who, on various occasions, simply could not be reliably counted on to be home at specified times (dad was a cop, sometimes he was home at 2 pm, other times, who knows when he walks in?). She looked at the course catalog and saw that there were many more options in sociology on days when my father wasn't scheduled to work or when I, or my brother, had an activity that ran late.

It was a degree of convenience and it served her very well.

Sometimes a degree in X is better than no degree even if X is an objectively bad major (like my personal pet peeve of a major, "Pop Culture").

Capella is certainly an option. Patten also has a BA in psych with some interesting specializations and runs about $350 per month (less if you catch a sale). Both are for-profit. Both subscription based competency programs (o may referring to FlexPath, not Capella's regular programs).

Happy hunting.