Choosing this career vs. another?

[Great Satchmo]

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I'm at what is becoming a cross-roads.

I am a bit over a year post-college, I was an RA in college for 2 professors, and I am coming up on my 1 year at my current full-time RA-ship. This has been in social psychology, health psychology, and now public health/policy/advertising/health communication/etc research (cross-disciplinary).

I took the GRE's, did a round of applications for clinical PhD's (in hindsight I was terribly unprepared for, but still had some interviews). The work I'm doing, I feel, points me directly at graduate school. I also just took the LSAT's and will get my results back on the 19th of this month.

However, now I feel like even when things in research are moving fast, there is still a disconnect and slowness to everything. My interest in clinical psych is more for the health and behavior change, rather than being a practicing clinician.

I'm feeling torn.

I want a career where I get to change things up, and where there is interaction and tangible change. Clearly this is evident in therapy, but again, I don't see myself as a clinician for the most part.

I feel like this is also somewhat coming out of continually searching for my research interests. I know them in a general sense, but as I'm sitting here starting to think about writing personal statements for this round of applications....I don't know what to say, and I don't know how true what I'll say will be.

For example, I want to research and develop ways for behavioral health and preventive care to be implemented in health care systems to benefit (a) the public health, (b) patient health and prevention of disease/injury, and (c) to be economically beneficial to the provider based on prevention and proper care utilization. So...what, in a research program personal statement, do I write about? I feel like this is a combination of 5 applicant's research interests, not just mine. And what, within that, would I actually study? How do I meet the goals, through what discipline?

So, here is where I get frustrated and begin to question that future.


Has anyone struggled with questions like this? How did you weigh your options on training and a future career?

 

[psychmama]

HAve considered a Masters in Public Health?

 

[Great Satchmo]

HAve considered a Masters in Public Health?

Only as an intermediate or supplementary program. My career goals are either in a higher level of practice or research, and honestly the job I have right now, people with MPH's from top 20 MPH programs were turned down for.

I've thought about the JD/MPH programs, and am still considering them.

I will be applying to a few MPH's as safety schools, just in case all PhD's and JD's fall through for this year. I have a strong compulsion to be back in school this next year.