u/Comfortable_Sea_5843

I’m honestly very confused about my career path right now and could really use outside opinions, especially from people in psychology/academia/HR.

I’m currently pursuing a 4-year psychology degree (BA Hons with Research), but I have the option to exit now with a regular BA degree instead of completing the 4th year. The main issue i have with this course is that it is expensive, and while I’m not extremely poor or anything, finances are definitely a major factor for me.

My dad doesn’t work, so my education is basically being funded by my mother’s salary, and I carry a lot of guilt about that sometimes. there’s actually no pressure from my parents at all. They’ve completely left the decision up to me.

Part of me feels like I should just continue my course for one more year because at least I’ll graduate with a research degree, which might help later. But then another part of me keeps wondering if it’s financially worth it when I don’t even know exactly what I want to do in life yet.

The thing is, if I leave right now, I don’t really have many strong backup options either. My CUET PG score honestly wasn’t good, I completely messed it up, and I haven’t really applied anywhere else. So if I exit now, I’ll basically just have a BA degree and no clear plan.

Another huge factor is that if I leave now, I’ll probably have to do MA in my hometown. Which i don’t think i want to. I live in a joint family, and you know how people always joke that if you stay home for college, you pay with your mental health, in my case it genuinely feels true. I’m currently home for summer vacations and almost every day is exhausting.Being away for college has given me a sense of independence and peace that I didn’t realize I needed.

So now I feel stuck between:
\- continuing an expensive degree for another year
OR
\- saving money but sacrificing my mental health and independence

And then comes the even bigger issue: I genuinely don’t know what career path I want.

I think I want to go into teaching. I’ve thought about preparing for NET+JRF because I like the idea of teaching psychology in the future. My original thought process was:
\- Finish the 4 year research degree
\- Prepare for NET+JRF
\- Hopefully crack it
\- Use the JRF funding to go directly into a PhD
\- Then eventually work in academics

But then I found out that for NET+JRF, you usually need a master’s degree first. So now I’m confused because if I do:
4 year degree + 2nyear master’s + PhD,
it suddenly starts feeling like SUCH a long road financially and academically. And who’s to say ill crack net jrf anyway.

I know education isn’t technically a waste, but because of my family’s financial situation, I think about time and money constantly. Part of me keeps thinking: if I already spent 4 years on an honors with research degree, will doing another 2 year master’s just delay everything even more?

At the same time, I’m also interested in organizational psychology/HR related work, which is a completely different direction altogether. If anyone here works in organizational psychology or HR after a psych degree, how do you even go about entering that field? MBA? Master’s in organizational psychology? I genuinely have no idea where to start.

I think my biggest fear is making the wrong decision and regretting it later, especially because I don’t come from a situation where I can comfortably spend years figuring things out without consequences.

TL;DR should i exit the course and join a college in my hometown or should i continue and finish my degree

I’m honestly very confused about my career path right now and could really use outside opinions, especially from people in psychology/academia/HR.

I’m currently pursuing a 4-year psychology degree (BA Hons with Research), but I have the option to exit now with a regular BA degree instead of completing the 4th year. The main issue i have with this course is that it is expensive, and while I’m not extremely poor or anything, finances are definitely a major factor for me.

My dad doesn’t work, so my education is basically being funded by my mother’s salary, and I carry a lot of guilt about that sometimes. there’s actually no pressure from my parents at all. They’ve completely left the decision up to me.

Part of me feels like I should just continue my course for one more year because at least I’ll graduate with a research degree, which might help later. But then another part of me keeps wondering if it’s financially worth it when I don’t even know exactly what I want to do in life yet.

The thing is, if I leave right now, I don’t really have many strong backup options either. My CUET PG score honestly wasn’t good, I completely messed it up, and I haven’t really applied anywhere else. So if I exit now, I’ll basically just have a BA degree and no clear plan.

Another huge factor is that if I leave now, I’ll probably have to do MA in my hometown. Which i don’t think i want to. I live in a joint family, and you know how people always joke that if you stay home for college, you pay with your mental health, in my case it genuinely feels true. I’m currently home for summer vacations and almost every day is exhausting.Being away for college has given me a sense of independence and peace that I didn’t realize I needed.

So now I feel stuck between:
- continuing an expensive degree for another year
OR
- saving money but sacrificing my mental health and independence

And then comes the even bigger issue: I genuinely don’t know what career path I want.

I think I want to go into teaching. I’ve thought about preparing for NET+JRF because I like the idea of teaching psychology in the future. My original thought process was:
- Finish the 4 year research degree
- Prepare for NET+JRF
- Hopefully crack it
- Use the JRF funding to go directly into a PhD
- Then eventually work in academics

But then I found out that for NET+JRF, you usually need a master’s degree first. So now I’m confused because if I do:
4 year degree + 2nyear master’s + PhD,
it suddenly starts feeling like SUCH a long road financially and academically. And who’s to say ill crack net jrf anyway.

I know education isn’t technically a waste, but because of my family’s financial situation, I think about time and money constantly. Part of me keeps thinking: if I already spent 4 years on an honors with research degree, will doing another 2 year master’s just delay everything even more?

At the same time, I’m also interested in organizational psychology/HR related work, which is a completely different direction altogether. If anyone here works in organizational psychology or HR after a psych degree, how do you even go about entering that field? MBA? Master’s in organizational psychology? I genuinely have no idea where to start.

I think my biggest fear is making the wrong decision and regretting it later, especially because I don’t come from a situation where I can comfortably spend years figuring things out without consequences.

hi guys, I have something that I wanted to talk and get advise on. I want to remain anonymous so I won't give a lot of details.
I am 20f from India and im currently enrolled in a 4 year psychology course, im done with three years and have one year left but we have the option to exit. So if you are from India from a psychology background, you know that this is something that a lot of people in our field are confused about.
We can exit after the third year Or we can continue another year. So I have been contemplating about it a lot these past months.
And one of the biggest reasons why I want to leave the course is because the college that I go to is very expensive and my family's financial situation isn't the best. So i always feel like a burden to my mom, That's something you should know about my family; my dad is unemployed and I have a little brother as well. So, my mom handles all our expenses.

Anyway, the thing is that at this point in time if I exit I do not have many other options rather than coming back to my hometown and doing a course here. (The college I attended is in another city) But I don't think that would be the best for my mental health staying here feels like pure torture.
My dad is an alcoholic. he drinks every damn day and creates chaos in our home.

I always have to defend them and fight with him and it gets more with difficult everyday. And that all usually results in me sh-ing and ive been doing it quite a lot these past few weeks. Like I have been doing it for years now but it was never this frequent
in the past two weeks, I have done it three, four times. And I did not use to do it that often and even today like a few minutes before writing this, I fought with my father and I had this uncontrollable urge to do it. I controlled myself but to be honest I know I'm going to do it before I go to sleep tonight. And I feel like im in deep now, as i said ive been doing it occasionally for years but it was never this bad (though its just an outlet for me, i can confidently say i will never commit s, i can’t do that to my mom) so anyway l feel like if I come back to my hometown it might not be the best for my mental health. But one part of me wants to come back to be here with my mother and support her and stuff.
also I honestly don't know what's right for me career wise either. Should I stay and continue the four year course. or Should I leave this course and then join a college in my hometown for masters? If I do lean towards continuing in my college, the financial issues also a big problem. I don't know what to do

hi guys, I have something that I wanted to talk and get advise on. I want to remain anonymous so I won't give a lot of details.
I am 20f from India and im currently enrolled in a 4 year psychology course, im done with three years and have one year left but we have the option to exit. So if you are from India from a psychology background, you know that this is something that a lot of people in our field are confused about.
We can exit after the third year Or we can continue another year. So I have been contemplating about it a lot these past months.
And one of the biggest reasons why I want to leave the course is because the college that I go to is very expensive and my family's financial situation isn't the best. So i always feel like a burden to my mom, That's something you should know about my family; my dad is unemployed and I have a little brother as well. So, my mom handles all our expenses.

Anyway, the thing is that at this point in time if I exit I do not have many other options rather than coming back to my hometown and doing a course here. (The college I attended is in another city) But I don't think that would be the best for my mental health staying here feels like pure torture.
My dad is an alcoholic. he drinks every damn day and creates chaos in our home.

I always have to defend them and fight with him and it gets more with difficult everyday. And that all usually results in me sh-ing and ive been doing it quite a lot these past few weeks. Like I have been doing it for years now but it was never this frequent
in the past two weeks, I have done it three, four times. And I did not use to do it that often and even today like a few minutes before writing this, I fought with my father and I had this uncontrollable urge to do it. I controlled myself but to be honest I know I'm going to do it before I go to sleep tonight. And I feel like im in deep now, as i said ive been doing it occasionally for years but it was never this bad (though its just an outlet for me, i can confidently say i will never commit s, i can’t do that to my mom) so anyway l feel like if I come back to my hometown it might not be the best for my mental health. But one part of me wants to come back to be here with my mother and support her and stuff.
also I honestly don't know what's right for me career wise either. Should I stay and continue the four year course. or Should I leave this course and then join a college in my hometown for masters? If I do lean towards continuing in my college, the financial issues also a big problem. I don't know what to do

TL;DR : Should i join a college in my hometown or continue college where i am?

hi guys, I have something that I wanted to talk and get advise on. I want to remain anonymous so I won't give a lot of details.
I am 20f from India and im currently enrolled in a 4 year psychology course, im done with three years and have one year left but we have the option to exit. So if you are from India from a psychology background, you know that this is something that a lot of people in our field are confused about.
We can exit after the third year Or we can continue another year. So I have been contemplating about it a lot these past months.
And one of the biggest reasons why I want to leave the course is because the college that I go to is very expensive and my family's financial situation isn't the best. So i always feel like a burden to my mom, That's something you should know about my family; my dad is unemployed and I have a little brother as well. So, my mom handles all our expenses.

Anyway, the thing is that at this point in time if I exit I do not have many other options rather than coming back to my hometown and doing a course here. (The college I attended is in another city) But I don't think that would be the best for my mental health staying here feels like pure torture.
My dad is an alcoholic. he drinks every damn day and creates chaos in our home.

I always have to defend them and fight with him and it gets more with difficult everyday. And that all usually results in me sh-ing and ive been doing it quite a lot these past few weeks. Like I have been doing it for years now but it was never this frequent
in the past two weeks, I have done it three, four times. And I did not use to do it that often and even today like a few minutes before writing this, I fought with my father and I had this uncontrollable urge to do it. I controlled myself but to be honest I know I'm going to do it before I go to sleep tonight. And I feel like im in deep now, as i said ive been doing it occasionally for years but it was never this bad (though its just an outlet for me, i can confidently say i will never commit s, i can’t do that to my mom) so anyway l feel like if I come back to my hometown it might not be the best for my mental health. But one part of me wants to come back to be here with my mother and support her and stuff.
also I honestly don't know what's right for me career wise either. Should I stay and continue the four year course. or Should I leave this course and then join a college in my hometown for masters? If I do lean towards continuing in my college, the financial issues also a big problem. I don't know what to do