Guidance Counselor vs. School Psychologist?

Question

I either want to become a school psychologist or guidance counselor. What's the difference between the two? And which one is harder?

Answer 1

A school psychologist has a doctorate degree. You have to go to school longer and I think that it is definitely harder.

A guidance counselor will get a 4 year degree and is not that bad of a job. I worked in the counselors office for a while and they are really hectic the first 2 weeks of school and then again during the first couple weeks of the new semester. Everyone wants to see them so that they can change their schedules. The rest of the year is not so bad though. They can take breaks if they want to, or go walk to meet a student so they are not stuck in their office all of the time.

They help kids with their schedules and with small problems. They do not take on intense counseling as that is not really their job. When a child has a very serious problem they help to refer them to the appropriate agencies. Kids come to them a lot with problems but they also come to them with scholarship stuff and with good stuff.

Our psychologist has to go between the different schools. He has to work very hard to keep up with all of the testing for the kids because he is not there every day. I think that it is challenging.

Answer 2

The world always needs more engineers! How are your people skills? As a doctor, you need to be able to interface with many different types of people all day long. Plus, with the state of the healthcare industry, who knows where doctors will be in 10 years (when you finally finish school). As an engineer, you can be out and employed making excellent money in 4-5 years. As a doctor, you will be in school 8-10 years ... and you'll graduate with a ton of debt.