How hard is it to double major in Education and Psychology?

It may not be necessary to double major, as you might be able to major in one area and then minor in the other.

The first important task for you is to get to know yourself better to know how your personality traits will relate to your planned career area and then talk to people who are doing what you think that you want to do, so you can see what they do, how they got there, and what suggestions and advice that they might have for you.

Getting to know yourself and how your personality traits relate to people involved in various career opportunities is very important in your decision making process. During my many years in Human Resources and College Recruiting, I ran across too many students who had skipped this very important step and ended up in a job situation which for which they were not well suited. Selecting a career area is like buying a pair of shoes. First you have to be properly fitted for the correct size, and then you need to try on and walk in the various shoe options to determine which is fits the best and is most comfortable for you to wear. Following are some important steps which I developed during my career which have been helpful to many .

It's hard to double-major, period. But the thing is this. I went through pre-med, art, music, writing, psychology, physics, computer science and engineering. I didn't regret a single class. Because it all ties together. It's just fantastic when you take some course and suddenly you see the links to something else you've studied, and you get that "AH-HAH!" thing. Education and Psychology? What could be a better combination? My favorite Physics teacher in high school was an education/physics/psychology major. She LOOOOOOVVEEDDD it. So hard? Absolutely. Fun? If this is "your thing", go for it. Sounds terrific, to me. And now after having taken all those classes except education, here I am, teaching. So there you have it.

I hold a bachelor, 2 masters and two doctorate degrees. How hard is it focus your attention. One thing I learned in my first master degree in diagnostics was taking a test called the Job Preference Inventory. It is 700 paired jobs in which you choose the one you most likely want to do, i.e. garbage collector or cake decorator, doctor or reporter, park ranger or circus performer, etc. It will really open your eyes. The profession I scored the highest was speech pathologist with an ** because there were no norms for males. I am a speech pathologist.

You also need to understand the entry level for your profession. For psychology, most independent individuals need to be doctoral level or APA certified to hang out a shingle. There are some that can practice without being supervised by an APA psychologist. They are LSSP or Licensed Specialist in School Psychology. This specialty has an earned master degree. You also need to know the number of hours you would be required to earn in clinical experience at both undergraduate and graduate level. Finally, you must pass state licencing exam and if you go for national certification, there will be another exam and possibly more hours of clinical if you wish to obtain designation as a LSP, 3000 hours.

Now education, not as many hours spread out like in psychology. You will have a few days of observation to do. However, your final semester you will have 8 weeks of student teaching, all day. Some states require you to earn a master degree within 5 years of issuing you your temporary teaching certificate.

Education, no biggy but if you go into psychology also you will be burning the candle on both ends. But I worked in public schools during both my master degrees but I had to stop for two years for my Ph.D. solely because I had to make time to earn 275 clinical hours in my field.

Good luck and take the Job Preference Inventory. You might be surprised in what you learn about yourself.