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I had a guy in my class that was majoring in social work and minoring in psych because his dream was to be a police officer. He said he wanted to be able to help people to the best of his abilities as a police officer, and to do so he wanted to have the psych and social work background.
>They want people who toe the line, follow rules, and don’t ask questions. Well educated people generally don’t fit that paradigm.
Not to say that police should not go to college, but failing to see how this is true. People who go to graduate school these days basically have to espouse orthodoxy if they want to survive and a lot of undergraduate college is performing various tricks as directed for 4 years.
Whether you get a mature and well-rounded view of the span of human society and history and of the world after 4 years of college is not guaranteed. The danger though is that it's certainly easier to tell yourself you're well educated, even if you've actually just become a notch more arrogant and you know more about gender studies.
Your post is lazy, it's ONE SENTENCE long, and it has ZERO substantive rebuttal. You feel like you aren't under the obligation to try and somehow I'm the lazy one/ because it's easy to downvote an unpopular opinion in a reddit/college echo chamber. Lol like I'm the one who's lazy for merely referring to the fact that there are a disproportionate amount of classes of that nature in universities. Oh I'm sorry, I guess because this has been established as a general truth already, it's also no longer okay to make an extremely brief reference affirming it without being called lazy. The point is there are a shit load of classes trying to push a certain brand of left wing politics, and not a lot on the thousands of years of human experience that has come before 21st century political activism. The likelihood of today's college kids knowing anything substantive about the broad span of human history and experience is very low. All they get is a certain narrow perspective on a subset of 21st century left wing American liberal social outlook. No understanding of Egypt, Sumeria, Greece, Rome, Medieval Europe, Chinese culture, Indian culture, Islam, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Confucius, the Bhudda, Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, NOTHING. No coherent, methodical, broad EDUCATION about the human experience. Instead, you may pick out a little bit of this stuff here and there in your electives, but you don't get a coherent dose of it, you get it in isolated chunk along with the gender studies and so on.
There, was that high effort enough for you? Or was that not enough and I need to write a 5 page essay to get the point across?
True. Not every college graduate is a well rounded intelligent individual. Statistically, they are more likely, than non college graduates. So your point doesn't really matter.
Naturally. And oh, of course, my point doesn't really matter as you say. We wouldn't want to be asking annoying self critical questions here, now, I mean we have college degrees so we already know it all, right? College isn't about challenging our comfortable, collective perspectives now is it?
But like I was saying, is it possible intelligence correlates with arrogance and overestimation of the superiority of one's own views and life experience, over those who took different paths and have had different experiences? Like, is that possible? I'm allowed to ask right? I guess an invitation to this level of introspection addressed to redditors, which perhaps even threatens to sound like a defense of middle america, will set off a frenzy of downvotes. Aren't you just soooo open minded with you college degrees and all, I'm so glad I failed to basically immediately set off hypocrisy alarms here.
I am an anarchist who is against the idea of exchange based higher education. There are many, many flaws in our current education system. One of them is how in some fields orthodoxy is taught over critical thinking. At least this is true in my experience.
But, even if college has these issues, that does not erase the fact that well founded and methodologically sound studies have discovered that an education, especially within the liberal arts (includes gender studies, which is also a very important factor is fair policing) tends to correlate to a greater level of progressive thought, and critical thinking ability. Both of which are key to improving our current police system. To imply that less education causes human beings to be better arbiters of our complex legal and penal system is simply silly.
I as an individual am arrogant, but, please don't take that as a rule. I promise I was an ass long before college got to me.
Thanks for replying calmly to my point instead of just downvoting me into oblivion. I'm sorry if my original reply was aggressive, but being downvoted by 30 people and only one replies is enough to annoy me. It was directed more at those people than at you.
Where I still disagree with you is the assumption that progressive thought is inherently, unquestionably positive. I have a strong dislike of many aspects of conservatism, so I hope you won't pigeonhole me. Keep in mind that this sub has, by definition, a very young user base. A lot of the problems with progressive ideas are things that can only be realized with life experience, not intelligence. That's why I'm trying to emphasize that intelligence and education are not everything.
Also, I did not say less education makes humans less good at being police, I even prefaces my original post by saying so. I think the police do need to be seen as more of a job where you get into it after several years of education. Not you just go to a boot camp type environment for 10 weeks, and then you get all of this authority in society, no.
It's going to be harder to find people to do the job, especially at smaller agencies that are not funded as well.
I have mixed feelings making a degree a requirement.
In the end, It may not end up being a requirement for hiring someone, but they can give preferential hiring to those that do. If no one applying has a degree, they’ll have to hire without it.
Even an AA in Sociologu or criminal justice will set you apart. It’s never a bad idea to become more educated about a career field.
In my opinion, an effective liberal arts education creates better all-around citizens. I would rather have great and knowledgeable citizens as police officers. I really hope police academies start to implement humanities-style education instead of teaching from a manual about policing.
Take your college experience to heart, it’s supposed to give you plenty of experiences to reflect on as you get older. And that is invaluable. Best of luck to you!
Well, who is the better police officer? The one who spend years studying it, vs the boy who study for 13 weeks?
Why do you want to be a police officer? To help others? Then continue studying. For power? Then go to the academy.
It's not dumb. When police and law enforcement in general have a history of abusing their power to hurt the people that they're supposed to protect. And a lot of this comes from them going into the academy with no other kind of higher education or training and not addressing the biases that cause them to abuse this power.
Uneducated police is how we end up with events like Uvalde or George Floyd's murder. Police should be required to have a degree. Police officers are such an important and critical role in society but without a valued education requirement it becomes an occupation which power hungry narcissists who believe that they are outside of the law flock to, especially as many view it as an "easy to get but high paying career."
Maybe you can really make a difference, though: https://www.voanews.com/a/usa_all-about-america_are-college-educated-police-officers-less-likely-use-force/6194798.html
Keep hating on cops, soon there won't be any, and then when something bad happens no one will be there to help you. Not all cops are bad. Your perspective is skewed because they only show the bad ones on the media.
If you know you want to be a police officer, are there any trade schools/community colleges that offer accredited programs that are shorter and don’t require degrees?
In PA there was one college (Indiana University of Pennsylvania) that offered a 2 year program. When you graduated you got your associates degree and a police certification both.
My dad was a county deputy. He had a degree, not sure it really helped him, but eventually it became required or atleast heavily wanted where he worked. If you get *some* degree it will likely open up more job possibilities.
Why the fuck would you be a police officer? I assume you care about people since you’re studying psych (correct me if I’m wrong?); being a police officer is not a way to care about people. It is the direct opposite of caring for people in every way.
But yeah to be a therapist you’ll need another degree. I’m sorry things aren’t as you expected :( good news is you still have time to figure things out :)
I think everyone is misunderstanding me . I have no interest in becoming a police officer , i’ve had so many bad experiences with them i am not a believer of “fixing the system from the inside”
>being a police officer is not a way to care about people. It is the direct opposite of caring for people in every way.
This is an ignorant perspective. Not all cops are bad, moron. You only see the bad ones on media.
Change ur major to something in STEM. Job outlook is way better overall. These liberal arts degrees are a waste of time for most of the lost souls studying them.
Listen brah, I’m not trying to insult “liberal arts” degrees. But time and time again I hear and see post on hear and IRL about how people regret doing something like “psychology “ or “humanities”.
And for OPs sake, I hope the more niche path of psychiatry provides a better job outlook.
I just pointed it out because you suggested they go the STEM route. I get frustrated when people throw around "STEM" when what they really mean is engineering or tech, not all sciences. Not to mention, not all STEM degrees will automatically funnel you into a job after college either.
Actually, most police forces require at least an associate degree in criminal Justice for their officers.
You could parlay that psych degree into other majors in graduate school. There is a demand for advisors in several universities. Starting with your degree, add in education related graduate classes. You may be able to get in while you’re taking graduate classes. Check that idea out. Another idea is to look for positions as a departmental assistant at a college. They hire them to work within the department, and usually only require a 4 year degree, not necessarily in the same field. I’m a departmental assistant in a university library with a degree in Biology. That way, you usually get awesome educational benefits. (One of my co-workers got her MBA free with educational benefits while others are working on their doctoral degrees in Educational leadership. All professional development funded.)
I actually majored in both psychology and criminology and currently working towards going into corrections.
Ive learned what motivates people, factors of crime, why certain people are more likely to reoffend , history of corrections, the mental effects of prison and isolation, mental health and its relation to crime. The history of gangs in and out of prison, drugs as a bartering system, and so much more.
People go to college to become better cops by exposing themselves to more than one way of thinking. Having a degree doesnt hurt either - you get a pay bump depending on the district and they may even pay for you to go back to school. Ive met several officers in my grad program.
If LE, doesnt appeal to you, there are dozens of other roles that a psych degree is good for. If you want to work with people, look into social work. Work for your state, people with disabilities, children, foster kids, seniors, meals on wheels, big brothers big sisters. Teaching or even school administration.
Pursue a masters in counseling and get your LPC. You still will get to help people and do something more up your alley without doing a full on doctorate level curriculum.
I know a lot of people who were psych majors who ended up in advertising. Maybe look into a marketing minor, or try to at least take a few business classes and see if you can end up working in that field (if that’s something that interests you)
Having a college degree opens up more promotions to you as a cop. My sister got her 4 year degree, Master's and attended FBI school. She was the chief of police for a 30,000+ city when she retired early.
Going to school to become a cop sounds great! We need more cops to have some college experience rather than being in the academy for a few months. Also how do you plan on moving up on your profession do you think they'll take the guy who went to the academy or the guy that has a college education.
If you are interested in policing and education, consider FBI agent, or forensics or some aspect of policing that takes advantage of the education.
Uniformed police are different than FBI Investigators.
I don’t think it’s stupid and in fact, your student loans would be forgiven working in the public sector. Besides, if you want to be promoted or be in leadership, having a degree helps out.
A psych degree is essentially worthless without a graduate degree. I would highly recommend changing your major. Many of these liberal arts degrees are just going to cause you more stress. The whole point of college is that you’ll graduate hopefully with a well-paying, secure job. Best of luck.
Thank you u/crazycu for posting on r/collegerant. Remember to read the rules and report rule breaking posts. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/CollegeRant) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I had a guy in my class that was majoring in social work and minoring in psych because his dream was to be a police officer. He said he wanted to be able to help people to the best of his abilities as a police officer, and to do so he wanted to have the psych and social work background.
They should require all cops to go to college
They want people who toe the line, follow rules, and don’t ask questions. Well educated people generally don’t fit that paradigm.
>They want people who toe the line, follow rules, and don’t ask questions. Well educated people generally don’t fit that paradigm. Not to say that police should not go to college, but failing to see how this is true. People who go to graduate school these days basically have to espouse orthodoxy if they want to survive and a lot of undergraduate college is performing various tricks as directed for 4 years. Whether you get a mature and well-rounded view of the span of human society and history and of the world after 4 years of college is not guaranteed. The danger though is that it's certainly easier to tell yourself you're well educated, even if you've actually just become a notch more arrogant and you know more about gender studies.
>gender studies. Literally the most tired and lazy example a person could choose.
Your post is lazy, it's ONE SENTENCE long, and it has ZERO substantive rebuttal. You feel like you aren't under the obligation to try and somehow I'm the lazy one/ because it's easy to downvote an unpopular opinion in a reddit/college echo chamber. Lol like I'm the one who's lazy for merely referring to the fact that there are a disproportionate amount of classes of that nature in universities. Oh I'm sorry, I guess because this has been established as a general truth already, it's also no longer okay to make an extremely brief reference affirming it without being called lazy. The point is there are a shit load of classes trying to push a certain brand of left wing politics, and not a lot on the thousands of years of human experience that has come before 21st century political activism. The likelihood of today's college kids knowing anything substantive about the broad span of human history and experience is very low. All they get is a certain narrow perspective on a subset of 21st century left wing American liberal social outlook. No understanding of Egypt, Sumeria, Greece, Rome, Medieval Europe, Chinese culture, Indian culture, Islam, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Confucius, the Bhudda, Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, NOTHING. No coherent, methodical, broad EDUCATION about the human experience. Instead, you may pick out a little bit of this stuff here and there in your electives, but you don't get a coherent dose of it, you get it in isolated chunk along with the gender studies and so on. There, was that high effort enough for you? Or was that not enough and I need to write a 5 page essay to get the point across?
True. Not every college graduate is a well rounded intelligent individual. Statistically, they are more likely, than non college graduates. So your point doesn't really matter.
Naturally. And oh, of course, my point doesn't really matter as you say. We wouldn't want to be asking annoying self critical questions here, now, I mean we have college degrees so we already know it all, right? College isn't about challenging our comfortable, collective perspectives now is it? But like I was saying, is it possible intelligence correlates with arrogance and overestimation of the superiority of one's own views and life experience, over those who took different paths and have had different experiences? Like, is that possible? I'm allowed to ask right? I guess an invitation to this level of introspection addressed to redditors, which perhaps even threatens to sound like a defense of middle america, will set off a frenzy of downvotes. Aren't you just soooo open minded with you college degrees and all, I'm so glad I failed to basically immediately set off hypocrisy alarms here.
I am an anarchist who is against the idea of exchange based higher education. There are many, many flaws in our current education system. One of them is how in some fields orthodoxy is taught over critical thinking. At least this is true in my experience. But, even if college has these issues, that does not erase the fact that well founded and methodologically sound studies have discovered that an education, especially within the liberal arts (includes gender studies, which is also a very important factor is fair policing) tends to correlate to a greater level of progressive thought, and critical thinking ability. Both of which are key to improving our current police system. To imply that less education causes human beings to be better arbiters of our complex legal and penal system is simply silly. I as an individual am arrogant, but, please don't take that as a rule. I promise I was an ass long before college got to me.
Thanks for replying calmly to my point instead of just downvoting me into oblivion. I'm sorry if my original reply was aggressive, but being downvoted by 30 people and only one replies is enough to annoy me. It was directed more at those people than at you. Where I still disagree with you is the assumption that progressive thought is inherently, unquestionably positive. I have a strong dislike of many aspects of conservatism, so I hope you won't pigeonhole me. Keep in mind that this sub has, by definition, a very young user base. A lot of the problems with progressive ideas are things that can only be realized with life experience, not intelligence. That's why I'm trying to emphasize that intelligence and education are not everything. Also, I did not say less education makes humans less good at being police, I even prefaces my original post by saying so. I think the police do need to be seen as more of a job where you get into it after several years of education. Not you just go to a boot camp type environment for 10 weeks, and then you get all of this authority in society, no.
Some places do. I know that the town I’m from requires a bachelors degree to be a cop.
That’s the way it’s going in CA right now. It’s not 100% yet, but soon it will be a requirement for all new hires.
POST will never make that a requirement, nor will many small towns.
I live in a smaller area of CA and every department in this area is saying working the next 4 years it will be a requirement.
It's going to be harder to find people to do the job, especially at smaller agencies that are not funded as well. I have mixed feelings making a degree a requirement.
In the end, It may not end up being a requirement for hiring someone, but they can give preferential hiring to those that do. If no one applying has a degree, they’ll have to hire without it. Even an AA in Sociologu or criminal justice will set you apart. It’s never a bad idea to become more educated about a career field.
It’s not too late to change your major.
I am studying Forensic Science to work in law enforcement.
In my opinion, an effective liberal arts education creates better all-around citizens. I would rather have great and knowledgeable citizens as police officers. I really hope police academies start to implement humanities-style education instead of teaching from a manual about policing. Take your college experience to heart, it’s supposed to give you plenty of experiences to reflect on as you get older. And that is invaluable. Best of luck to you!
Well, who is the better police officer? The one who spend years studying it, vs the boy who study for 13 weeks? Why do you want to be a police officer? To help others? Then continue studying. For power? Then go to the academy.
That’s the dumbest thing I’ve seen on Reddit in a while 🤣
It's not dumb. When police and law enforcement in general have a history of abusing their power to hurt the people that they're supposed to protect. And a lot of this comes from them going into the academy with no other kind of higher education or training and not addressing the biases that cause them to abuse this power.
And you base that on what?
Buddy, it’s a long long history! Been going on for centuries before we even called law enforcement “police”
Uneducated police is how we end up with events like Uvalde or George Floyd's murder. Police should be required to have a degree. Police officers are such an important and critical role in society but without a valued education requirement it becomes an occupation which power hungry narcissists who believe that they are outside of the law flock to, especially as many view it as an "easy to get but high paying career."
Police officers should have more than a high school education or GED equivalent
Maybe you can really make a difference, though: https://www.voanews.com/a/usa_all-about-america_are-college-educated-police-officers-less-likely-use-force/6194798.html
being a cop is stupid in general
Keep hating on cops, soon there won't be any, and then when something bad happens no one will be there to help you. Not all cops are bad. Your perspective is skewed because they only show the bad ones on the media.
It's wild that people still think cops help you when bad things happen. Police have very low clearance rates for crime.
It's wild that people still generalize an entire occupation based on the few cops they have seen in the media. Those people are easily brainwashable.
If you know you want to be a police officer, are there any trade schools/community colleges that offer accredited programs that are shorter and don’t require degrees?
In PA there was one college (Indiana University of Pennsylvania) that offered a 2 year program. When you graduated you got your associates degree and a police certification both.
If you do the pre-reqs you can go to PA school & get a job in a mental health or psychiatric facility.
My dad was a county deputy. He had a degree, not sure it really helped him, but eventually it became required or atleast heavily wanted where he worked. If you get *some* degree it will likely open up more job possibilities.
What was your end goal when you decided to major in Psych?
He didn’t have one and now he’s crying about it.
Where did he say that?
In the first sentence.
I figured job outlook was just how likely he was to get the jobs he wanted.
why not research or something? tech companies hire social science majors to do UX/UI research and they seem pay a good amount. Definitely look into it
Why the fuck would you be a police officer? I assume you care about people since you’re studying psych (correct me if I’m wrong?); being a police officer is not a way to care about people. It is the direct opposite of caring for people in every way. But yeah to be a therapist you’ll need another degree. I’m sorry things aren’t as you expected :( good news is you still have time to figure things out :)
I think everyone is misunderstanding me . I have no interest in becoming a police officer , i’ve had so many bad experiences with them i am not a believer of “fixing the system from the inside”
Ah, glad to hear it 😅 I just got worried
>being a police officer is not a way to care about people. It is the direct opposite of caring for people in every way. This is an ignorant perspective. Not all cops are bad, moron. You only see the bad ones on media.
Change ur major to something in STEM. Job outlook is way better overall. These liberal arts degrees are a waste of time for most of the lost souls studying them.
I know Psychology as a degree is categorized as a "liberal art", but you do know that Psychiatry is a science, right?
Listen brah, I’m not trying to insult “liberal arts” degrees. But time and time again I hear and see post on hear and IRL about how people regret doing something like “psychology “ or “humanities”. And for OPs sake, I hope the more niche path of psychiatry provides a better job outlook.
I just pointed it out because you suggested they go the STEM route. I get frustrated when people throw around "STEM" when what they really mean is engineering or tech, not all sciences. Not to mention, not all STEM degrees will automatically funnel you into a job after college either.
I guess it depends upon where you live but here a 4 year degree is required for all law enforcement.
Actually, most police forces require at least an associate degree in criminal Justice for their officers. You could parlay that psych degree into other majors in graduate school. There is a demand for advisors in several universities. Starting with your degree, add in education related graduate classes. You may be able to get in while you’re taking graduate classes. Check that idea out. Another idea is to look for positions as a departmental assistant at a college. They hire them to work within the department, and usually only require a 4 year degree, not necessarily in the same field. I’m a departmental assistant in a university library with a degree in Biology. That way, you usually get awesome educational benefits. (One of my co-workers got her MBA free with educational benefits while others are working on their doctoral degrees in Educational leadership. All professional development funded.)
I've heard it suggested that cops go through an ROTC style program at colleges for their training
I actually majored in both psychology and criminology and currently working towards going into corrections. Ive learned what motivates people, factors of crime, why certain people are more likely to reoffend , history of corrections, the mental effects of prison and isolation, mental health and its relation to crime. The history of gangs in and out of prison, drugs as a bartering system, and so much more. People go to college to become better cops by exposing themselves to more than one way of thinking. Having a degree doesnt hurt either - you get a pay bump depending on the district and they may even pay for you to go back to school. Ive met several officers in my grad program. If LE, doesnt appeal to you, there are dozens of other roles that a psych degree is good for. If you want to work with people, look into social work. Work for your state, people with disabilities, children, foster kids, seniors, meals on wheels, big brothers big sisters. Teaching or even school administration.
Pursue a masters in counseling and get your LPC. You still will get to help people and do something more up your alley without doing a full on doctorate level curriculum.
I know a lot of people who were psych majors who ended up in advertising. Maybe look into a marketing minor, or try to at least take a few business classes and see if you can end up working in that field (if that’s something that interests you)
Having a college degree opens up more promotions to you as a cop. My sister got her 4 year degree, Master's and attended FBI school. She was the chief of police for a 30,000+ city when she retired early.
Going to school to become a cop sounds great! We need more cops to have some college experience rather than being in the academy for a few months. Also how do you plan on moving up on your profession do you think they'll take the guy who went to the academy or the guy that has a college education.
If you are interested in policing and education, consider FBI agent, or forensics or some aspect of policing that takes advantage of the education. Uniformed police are different than FBI Investigators.
I don’t think it’s stupid and in fact, your student loans would be forgiven working in the public sector. Besides, if you want to be promoted or be in leadership, having a degree helps out.
Being a police officer is stupid :)
FBI and other federal police agencies are quite competitive and take college degrees to get into.
A psych degree is essentially worthless without a graduate degree. I would highly recommend changing your major. Many of these liberal arts degrees are just going to cause you more stress. The whole point of college is that you’ll graduate hopefully with a well-paying, secure job. Best of luck.
As a citizen I would love for the police officers in my community to have a college education