Communications

By Francesca Huynh and Stephanie Nguyen

A degree in communications can prepare you for work in many different fields. Within communications there are many specific areas that you can choose to specialize in. Some fields are:

Communications studies
-This deals with the nature of mass communications and the various ways it effects our lives. Also the nature of mass communications itself from its structure to its social impact. Classes can include studying politics, media, sociology, and cultural studies.

Health communications
- To keep the public informed and the prevent panic and spread of incorrect information. People in health communications must spread accurate facts to the public. They deal with any major public health concerns and their classes include studying both communications and medical fields.

Journalism and Mass Media
-A degree in journalism can prepare students to pursue careers in traditional and also web based media. Studying this include writing, editing, publishing and broadcasting news. It’s important to use their skills in new and traditional media. Related fields can also include advertising, public relations, English language and literature, and television and film writing.

Types of programs available:

In communications, the skills that one can gain are applicable in many different fields; so even an associate’s degree may be very useful in the real world. No matter what degree you pursue, you must excel in communications to succeed in the world of professional communications. A bachelor’s degree prepares you for work in a specific field of communications and teaches you the basics of the field. It will provide you with necessary background to begin working but what is most important is experience. If you want to pursue the more academic aspects of communications and maybe teach it, you can get a graduate degree in communications. It all depends on you career goals when choosing what degree you would like to pursue in college.

There are many different careers in communications including but not limited to:

Salary Range
Since there is a wide range of career paths available to graduates with communication degrees, you can not generalize how much one makes in the future. For example, a news anchor can earn $250,000 a year and only have a bachelor’s degree while his producer who has a master may only make $125,000. You should research the specific fields that you want to pursue to see a better representation you can earn.

Interior Design

By Sharon Huang, Xinger Zhai, and Abrar Ahmed

Interior design is designing of the entire interior in the space. Things like flooring, windows, doors, walls, lighting and furniture are the essential elements in the interior designing. Making a space that is both comfortable and aesthetically pleasing is the interior designers’ final goal. The interior design process follows a systematic and coordinated methodology, including research, analysis, and integration of knowledge into the creative process, that required the designer to study hard in varietal fields including furniture, business science, computer technology, presentation skills, and craft skills and so on.

There are several schools available for interior designing. For students out-of-state, Academy of Art University is a place you can go to become a successful interior design career. It located in San Francisco, California. You can get Associates, Bachelor’s, and Master’s degrees here. After you finish your study, there are many jobs you can choose: Junior Designer, Design Assistant, Intermediate Designer, Senior Designer, Project Management and Lighting Designer. The interior design profession is divided into residential and commercial work. For students in Massachusetts, Boston Architectural College (BAC) is an independent professional school with an excellent reputation among Boston’s designers and architects. The degrees you could have are Master’s and Bachelor’s.

The average annual earnings for interior designers is about $40,670. The middle 50 percent earn between $30,890 and $53,790. The lowest 10 percent earn less than $23,440, and the highest 10 percent earn more than $71,220. Average annual earnings in the industries employing the largest numbers of interior designers through the past years were as follows: Architectural, engineering, and related services: $44,740; specialized design services: $42,000; furniture stores: $37,750.

Medical Psychology

By Sharon Cheng and Jamie Diu

Medical psychology is a field that helps individuals deal with illnesses, diseases, or traumatic injuries. It’s a new and rapidly growing field. A doctorate degree in medical psychology or clinical psychology is required, and post-doctoral fellowships and training in biological sciences, pharmacology, and clinical medicine, and a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in psychology or science are recommended.

The Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (MCPHS) offer a bachelor’s degree in health/medical psychology. It’s located in Boston, Massachusetts with an urban setting. Regular and online application fee is $70. To apply to MCPHS, high school records, standardized test scores, and GPA are required. In-state and out-of-state tuition and fees are $25,480 and other expenses including books, supplies, transportation, and personal are $3,404. Living on campus room and board is $12,290 and living at home is $1760.

Medical psychology consists of psychotherapy, pain management, pharmacology, and behavior therapy. Psychotherapy helps patients manage emotional aspects of chronic illnesses. Pain management includes finding ways to limit physical symptoms of diseases and minimize side effects of treatments. Pharmacology is the prescribing of medication for patients with mental issues or disorders. Behavior therapy imposes behavioral interventions and stress reduction techniques to enhance immune systems. Other services needed for medical psychologists include managing patients’ emotions, reduce physical/mental symptoms and side effects of treatments, and minimize physical symptoms with behavioral interventions, relaxation techniques, hypnosis, and energy medicines.

Common cases that medical psychologists encounter are chronic pain, sleep disorders, neurological disorders, respiratory disorders, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer. Common work places are hospitals, medical centers, and health care facilities. Some work as solo or group researchers. Over 25% of psychologists are self-employed. The annual salary for medical psychologists is on average from $88,830 to $150,890.

Social Work

By Ni Cao

Nature: Social worker is an occupation for those who are willing to help and improve others’ lives. They will be the one who’s dealing with others’ personal problems and struggles; disability, disease, unemployment, abuse, and etc. Social workers also have specialized in one particular problem such as child protection, homelessness, foster care, or adoption. They may often work in Hospital, Family service agencies, or governments.

Work Environment: Social Workers often work in hospitals, family service agencies, or government agencies. They often spent a lot of time in the office, but sometime they have to visit their clients home, or meetings. Even though they improve others’ lives, but it can be very stressful at time. They work about forty hours a week if they are full time, but there is also exceptions such as attending meetings, emergency situations, or even meet with their clients.

Training: It is a requirement to have a bachelor’s degree in social worker and they must have license, or certification to qualify for a job. But if you want a higher position in the field than you need to get a master’s degree in social worker such as administrative, and supervisory. Master’s degree of social worker required at least 900 hours of internship and field instruction and it lasts for 2 years.

Employment: In 2008 there are 642,000 jobs as social workers. 292,600 were Child, family, and school social workers. 138,700 were medical and public health social workers. 137,300 were mental health and substance abuse social workers. And 73,400 were just social workers of others. About 54% of the social workers were in the healthcare facilities, and 31 percent were hired by government agencies.

Earnings: The most paying social worker would be the mecual and public health social workers with a median wages of $46,650 in May of 2008. The lowest would be the mental health and substance abuse social worker with a median wages of $37,210. And the child, family, and school social workers earned about $39,530. A quarter of social workers are either members of covered by a union.

Optometry

by Trami Nguyen, Ni Cao, and Kayla Li

Job opportunities for optometrists are primarily in offices of optometrists, offices of physicians, including ophthalmologists; and health and personal care stores, including optical goods stores, in hospitals, the Federal Government, or outpatient care centers, including health maintenance organizations. About 25 percent of optometrists are self-employed. A small number worked for optical chains or franchises or as independent contractors.

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