Thursday, August 19, 2010

Sociology or Social Work?

I'd like to become a social worker in the future but I'm not sure what to pick as my major. I know, it should be obvious but would taking sociology give me a better range of jobs?





One of the colleges I'm applying to offers a reduced tuition for Sociology but not Social Work and I have noticed that many others don't even offer Social Work!








What's the difference between the two? Which should I pick?

Sociology or Social Work?
Sociology is the study of the humans' social world. It includes topics like discrimination, social class, social order, social status, social structure and stuff. If you want to do social work, the social work degree is definately better because you will be studying more about how to help a divorced family or how to help a teenager who got into some teenage crisis sth like that. So, sociology or psychology are the ones who's finding out all those theories and stuff and social worker are the one who use it. They are not the same. Well, in fact, my mom was a social worker and from what I heard, you need a social work degree to become a more specific or official social worker, so I would recommend social work over sociology.





Just for your information, social workers are the one who are solving those serious and insane problems. The bad things is they do work really hard and get paid very little. You also go to dangerous neighbourhood, talk to insane people and face very difficult challenges with difficult kids. But in my opinion, its one of the most meaningful job and you really get to help a lot of people. One of the important thing is you have the ability to change people's lives. You will be helping hopeless kids who cuts schools because someone is bullying them in school, teachers think they're lazy and parents are too busy to care. And you will be supporting them and help them face those diffcult things in life. Its difficult, and low paid, but it makes you a hero.
Reply:Social workers do a very wide range of things. Sociologists study society and ect. I would head more towards psychology and sociology. A lot of psychiatrists actualy do a lot of social work. If you are wanting to do social work specificly, your 4 year university should have a list of required classes for you. You need to start there at the university that teaches social work and find out what they require you to have so you know what to take before you get there.





Make sure you look in to it though. Social workers work their butt off, often with very rude people and the pay is not much more then minimum wage.
Reply:Social Work... if that is what you like, you OUGHT to pursue it!!





GOOD LUCK!
Reply:do social work, sociology majors often end up living in boxes
Reply:If you want to work as a social worker, get a degree in social work. A sociology degree is not as focused on working with people. You will get a better social work job with a degree in social work.
Reply:Ken is clearly NOT a social worker. The pay in social work actually is NOT that bad. It actually is one of the higher paying human service related professions at the MA level. Also as others have pointed out here in the choice between social work and sociology - social work is a much better career choice in terms of actually getting a job with a BSW. Now it is true you do not need a BSW to go for an MSW - though with a BSW you can apply for advanced standing saving yourself a year of study - this can be a huge financial and time saver. So if you want to pursue social work there are lots of advantages over sociology (and the saving for soc. now may cost you more later if you pursue a MSW.





DA
Reply:Social workers have more jobs in the real world than sociologists, but if you want to do social work, you will need your master's (MSW). You should really consider that anyway, no matter what you finally select as your major. Social workers can do a lot of the same work as sociologists, but sociologists can't much of the same work that social workers can.





Also, you don't have to major in social work to get an MSW. I didn't.


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