job outlook for college majors

[AngieW in Texas]

My middle dd is planning to major in neuroscience for a bachelor's degree and possibly major in something else as well. After that, she really wasn't sure whether to get a MS/PhD in educational psychology, neuroscience, occupational therapy, pharmacology, or something else.

 

She knows that she doesn't want a straight psychology degree because she doesn't want to do counseling. She is very interested in how the mind works. All the things she has thought she might possibly do require at least a master's degree and all of them will follow nicely after a pre-health bachelor's in neuroscience.

 

Apparently all the lab sciences (neuroscience, biology, and chemistry) have horrible job outlooks because we've been cranking out tons of MS and PhD degrees in these fields for several years despite the job market drastically shrinking for them.

 

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2012/07/09/subtleties-of-the-crappy-job-market-for-scientists/

http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2011_11_18/caredit.a1100128

 

On the college confidential boards, a graduate degree in neuroscience is seen as comparable in usefulness to having an art history degree.

 

What do y'all know about job outlook for occupational therapy (especially working with kids, because that's what she'd prefer), educational psychology (again, working with kids), and pharmacology? Pharmacology is a rather recent interest she developed after talking with the pharmacist at People's Pharmacy where they do custom compounding of medications.

[AngieW in Texas]

I don't know why I didn't think to check there. I'm on that board regularly. The dd in question is actually Aspie and has been to an OT. That's what got her interested in it as a profession because she absolutely adored her OT. Her younger sister is dyslexic and saw an educational psychologist for testing and that's what got her interested in that field.