Does every Psychology major necessarily need graduate school?

It is not that a graduate degree will let you earn more money, it is that it opens up eligibility for a lot of jobs that are not accessible by persons with just a 4 year degree. With a 4 year degree you are limited to very generic entry level jobs. Many of these just require a college degree with no specificity as to the type of major. In the field of psychology, you are not going to do much of anything that resembles therapy with the 4 year degree. Because there are so many people out there with doctorates, plus State licensing often requires a doctorate to practice as a psychologist, even having a master's degree may not be enough. However, completing the master's degree will show educational institutions that you have the ability to successfully pass graduate level courses in this field and the master's degree might be your stepping stone into a doctoral program. However, to practice at the doctoral level, you will need to spend years preparing yourself with respect to earning the degree (2 or 3 years past the master's) and you must then successfully complete up to a 2 year supervised placement before your state will license you.

This depends very much on what sort of job that you want. If you want to work as a psychologist of some sort, a master's degree will be helpful, or even vital.

However, many jobs use the skills that you have learned in your psych degree, but don't label you as a psychologist. For this sort of job, a master's degree will not help (and might even be a hindrance.)

My response would be to ask yourself these questions: Do you plan to work in the field of psychology or anything counseling-related? (e.g., clinical psychology, counseling psychology, social work?). If you plan on being licensed as a psychologist, social worker, therapist, then a graduate degree is important.

If you don't plan on working in the field of psychology, then going onto a higher degree in psychology would not be useful. For example, I had friends that obtained their psychology degrees (and took pre-med courses) to become medical doctors of psychiatrists. I also had one friend with a BA in psychology end up going into something totally unrelated (selling sunglasses).

I'm not sure what you could do with an MA in psychology alone, as most people with an MA in psychology end up getting their Ph.D. degrees in psychology to make use of becoming a professor, psychologist, etc. A Ph.D. is usually 2 years of your master's, plus 4_+-more years of doctoral classes and dissertation. Lastly, one year of supervised experience to become licensed as a psychologist. A PsyD (also a doctorate) is give if you want to focus more on clinical work and less on research. For people who have excellent grades, recommendations and experience at the bachelor's level, they could bypass the master's and go into a Ph.D. program, but still have to take the requisite master's courses.

If you want to stop at a master's for a terminal degree, I would recommend a master's of education in counseling psychology, or master's in school psychology or master's in social work (MSW) or marriage and family counseling (MFT). With an MSW or MFT, you can become licensed and earn more money than you would without a license. However, to be licensed, after you obtain your MSW or MFT, you would need to be supervised by someone who is licensed, and accrue at least 3200 hours of supervised practice (equivalent of 2 years full-time), take additional trainings, and take 2 exams to become licensed.

You could be a licensed professional counselor (LPC) if none of your degrees fit the category of MFT or MSW (such as a master's in counseling psychology).

When I looked at jobs in Indeed, there were actually lots of jobs, including school counselors that only required a BA in psychology or social work as long as the person had a Pupil Personnel Credential. There were also jobs for case managers, or psychological assistants. If you are curious, you could type in "psychology" for indeed.com and see that there are many positions for people with bachelor's degrees in psychology.

I hope this helps!

I agree with the first statement that Jeremy Miles made, "this depends very much on what sort of job that you want." I disagree with his statement that "if you want to work as a psychologist of some sort, a master's degree will be helpful, or even vital" BECAUSE to call oneself a "psychologist" in every state in this nation, one needs to have a doctorate in psychology (PsyD or PhD), pass a national licensing examination, and have supervised hours by another licensed psychologist. The exception to that general rule is that if your employer's job title includes "psychologist," you may use that title in your employment capacity.... Some master's level folks have been "grandfathered" into licensing laws if they had been practicing with only a master's degree for a number of decades already when the state's credentialing statutes came into existence.

There are many good careers for someone with just a bachelors degree in psychology (go to www.apa.org to explore these options for starters). You need to decide first what you want to do with your career...and then will determine what graduate program, if any is the right course of action to follow. IF counseling is appealing to you, you might want to look into programs that provide the LPC credential (Licensed Professional Counselor), which is also regulated by each state and requires passing a national, licensing test. Go to the American Counseling Association's website to explore this particular credential and then find schools in your geographic region that provide coursework that qualifies, in part, for that credential.

I wish you the best in your future.