<prompt> Human: Im an 18 year old kid going to a state college in the US with parents who never went to college, no way to pay for my loans other than through my own hard work, and an aptitude for working with numbers in a scientific setting that is limited. I have always enjoyed analyzing other people and understanding how they work, and feel as though Psychology is the correct major for me. However, I have heardread that Psych majors have some of the highest unemployment rates in comparison to those of other majors, not to mention that the entry level pay grade is much lower than a good number of other fields, such as engineering. I feel as though the older and more experienced redditors of this sub may have some wisdom that can aid me in not fucking my life over financially.Some academic background:GPA: 4.07SAT: 1810Highest Completed Math: Honors Calculus 193 avgHighest Completed Science: AP Phyiscs Part A80 avgHighest Completed English: AP Literature AP Language89 avgYears of foreign language:394 avgTL;DRNeed advice as to major choice so i dont get screwed over by loans after college.Edit: To be totally honest, I am really thinking of changing my major now, so thank you for those who have shown me that the stats do not lie. Anybody have any suggestions for majorsdouble majors I could pursue with my academic background that would bring economic success?Edit 2: My original plan was to go to college and major in Psych and minor in Economics, and then attend grad school for Law almost immediately after. Sorry for not putting that in the OP.Edit 3: Holy crap! I didnt think I would get so many replies! Thanks so much for all the time you guys have put into replying to this post, over the course of the next couple days im going to really take the time to do some more research for myself. I can honestly say I think my major is not going to be Psychology now I know I seem easily swayed and all that, but I was really on the fence prior to this post anyway, the amount of responses that have backed up my fears has now cemented my decision to change my major. I am going to look into a double major of Computer Sciences and Engineering, because I honestly believe I will have better success with those degrees, and believe that the careers offered to graduates with either of these degrees will be more appealing to me than if I were to take a career in the mental health field. I plan on doing a follow up post in a week or so to let everybody know what I have decided upon. For now, Im off to work at my local deli for the next 8 hours, so feel free to continue commenting or PM me if you like, any tips or advice is greatly appreciated :Edit 4: To those of you telling me to go with either CS or Engineering as a major as opposed to both, thank you. I figured that i could take classes that apply to both a concept another redditor had suggested but it seems as though that wont work. Im just trying to figure out what combination of majorsmajor and minor would be the most future proof and give me the greatest chance at financial success.So yes, I am flip flopping a bit, but for the reason that I am still at the point where I am trying to basically create my new life plan from the ground up and wish to have those with more worldly experience show me the pros and cons of my ideas, seeing as I am only a teenager with academic experience limited to the American High School classroom.Anyway, back to slicing meat!Edit 5: I just got home from work and all I can say is thank you so much you guys! All of your feedback and ideas are really helping me see that I really had no idea as to what I could do and what I want to do with my life. Ive been trying to read and reply to as many peoples comments and PMs as possible but I literally cannot keep up with them all, so sorry if I dont reply to you! Anyway, feel free to keep commenting and PMing, as in the next week I will be meditating on your ideas before I decide to let my college know I would like a major change. For those curious, I will be attending Umass Amherst, so if anybody has any connections there let me know! Also, I am really interested in learning more about majoring in CS and was thinking that a double major in CS and Neuroscience or perhaps CS and Computer Engineering might be neat. Just to reiterate, I know very little about these majors and how they would interact together, so I will be doing A LOT of research over the next few days those who arewere majors in CS, Neuroscience, Computer Engineering fell free to PM me with wisdomhelpful things to know. Finally, I will be making a follow up post once I do a bit more soul searching in this subreddit if thats OK with the mods to let you guys know whats up. Thanks again for all the knowledge, every little bit of wisdom helps! Assistant: I have always enjoyed analyzing other people and understanding how they work, and feel as though Psychology is the correct major for me.The problem with this is that its human nature to enjoy analyzing other people. As such, many people feel the same way, and many people end up with psych degrees. This means that the supply of psych majors is HUGE but the demand doesnt quite match it. How many careers are there that involve analyzing other people?And while I know many many psych majors who have trouble finding jobs... one of my highest paid friends, and most success people I know, is also a psych major. So while its tough, you can still succeed. But lets be honest here: Other people will have an advantage towards success, and you will have a disadvantage. This disadvantage is not insurmountable, and 10-15 years from now it may not even matter... but you need to know that you will have to work harder to succeed than others, and your chances of failure will be greater.I know its very hard to do at this stage, and many counselors - and society as a whole - may not seem to be very helpful, but what you need to do is not to have psych major as your goal... but instead have a longer-term career goal in your sights. That longer-term goal will help you decide what to major in. What do you want to be doing 10 or 20 years from now? Sure, you may have no idea what that longer-term goals might be, but start thinking about it, and choose your top 3 long-term career goals. Base your major on what those top 3 are. If you need more schooling eg med school look at acceptance rates and requirements. If its a particular job or field, find people in those fields eg through linkedin and determine what path those people took to get there... what kind of degrees do they have? Better yet: contact them, and ask them about their recommendations to getting into the fields that you are interested in. Determine if psych is the best way to go, or if there is a better and more favourable option.Some might say university is about finding yourself, and networking, and making friends, and acquiring experiences - and this is all TRUE! But... university is ALSO about getting yourself a foot in the door towards a career. Some people have wasted that opportunity, and have regretted it, or have had to go back to school again which can be VERY difficult once you are an adult.Its not fair that we ask people under 20 to make such important life choices... but thats the way it is, and youre gonna have to do the best you can. Youre future self will thank you for it in 10 or 15 years.And dont be TOO terrified of making the wrong choice - we all make wrongblind choices. Thats life, and I dont mean to put TOO much pressure on you... but make sure you do your best to make the most informed choice you possibly can. If it turns out you were wrong, thats okay, just like my friend made the wrong choice, but ended up fine in the end. But just be aware that this choice does in fact matter, so its important to do your due diligence and do some research.Good luck!edit: speelingHuman: Wow, you made some really great points! I had never thought about why the job market for Psych majors was so dead, but your reasoning makes total sense. As for future goals, my plan was to major in psych and minor in economics so I could possibly land a marketing job as a fallback or something and then attend law school. I never intended to use my Psych degree to become a practicing therapist or clinical psychologist, seeing as you need a PhD in order to do so; rather I had intended to use any and all skills learned from my psych classes in order to be a more efficient and successful lawyer. Again, I am still young and ignorant, but at this particular moment Im not really certain as to what the best path to take is.Assistant: Really wish youd put the law stuff in your original post. Psych major to me does make more sense as a precursor to grad school, but its still not ideal. Ideally you should pursue something that will give you options and a fallback if grad school doesnt work out. You seem already aware that a psych major is sort of like a poly sci major - good for grad programs but not high on any HR managers lists.So stratys3 said to make your career the goal, not your major. Heshe is totally right and in that spirit, what is your actual long term goal? Lawyer is too vague. Other redditor pointed out that law school is SUPER dicey, with horrible employment rates and dropping starting salaries. I would advise against law school generally, but if youre set on it, it should be because you have a specific career goal in mind and a plan to get there.Last point- its a pain in the ass, but whatever career path you start down, start doing relevant internships before you graduate. These and the ubiquitous networking will get you further than good grades.TL:DR; 1-Major in something that can get you a job or get you into grad school, not one or the other. 2-Be very very sure of law school, and precisely what legal career you want, before going. 3- intern.Human: I was hoping to go into the world of law as a criminal defense attorney, but honestly the biggest motivator for me was the money made by lawyers. I am willing to work hard, and do whatever it takes to be financially well-off because I am literally just barely living below the poverty line and I am tired of it and wish to have an adult life without the crippling debt of my parents. Not looking for pity, just figured I would give some background as to my reasoning.  <response>: I am a criminal defense attorney. Im a public defender; I work with private defense attorneys all the time.My standard advice is that the only reason to go to law school, and then to do criminal defense, is because you have a burning desire to defend people and fight the police state, and you will be content with nothing else. STEM careers do better financially than lawyers on the whole, and business lawyers make a lot more money then criminal lawyers do. When youre a criminal defense lawyer, your clients are poor. They struggle to come up with 500 to pay you to represent them on the domestic violence that they picked up against their wife. Yes, occasionally you get a big drug dealer paying you 10,000, but thats rare. There are a few criminal attorneys who earn fantastically, and a ton who are scrapping to get by. Watch Better Call Saul for a reasonably accurate portrayal of the typical solo criminal defense attorney or solo practitioner in general. You either have to collect the money up front and your clients never have the planning skills to save money or have to try chase down your clients to collect. Its a challenging line of work to be financially successful in. And like others have said, the field is swamped with way too many lawyers. 