An undergraduate's dilemma
I'm a undergrad student majoring in sociology, going into my second semester. Sociology is my passion and it has opened up avenues of intellectual thought in my life, as I'm sure it has for most of you. It has compelled me to change and critique my own life. As much as I love the subject, I am worried about graduating in this field and heading to
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The fact is, there are very few undergraduate majors that qualify you for jobs in anything, anymore, unless you are doing something applied like accounting. You aren't going to get hired as an economist anywhere with a BA in Economics; you're not going to get hired as a psychologist with a BA in Psych. With a sociology degree you can go the quantitative route (as described above) and you will be highly employable. You could focus your studies on criminology and go into corrections or law enforcement, on the white collar side, without too much difficulty. If you study health and aging, there are more opportunities to work for policy groups or NGOs in that area.
An undergrad degree is as much (if not more) about learning to think, meet deadlines, review pre-existing bodies of literature, and assemble facts in order to support an argument, as it is about learning a profession. Successfully completing the degree demonstrates that, no matter you study (although obviously some programs are more rigorous than others). I think you can find a way to turn sociology into your career, if that's what you want. Since the profs in your department don't sound helpful on this front, I suggest talking to people at your campus career services, and seeking out resources on the ASA website.
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