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Which career would be more affordable to achieve?
Education and careers are expensive and processes are time-consuming, but which would be more affordable to strive towards/achieve?
A lawyer, a crime scene investigator, or a forensic scientist of sorts (maybe anthropologist or psychologist)? These are the careers I'm interested in so far.
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Michelle’s Answer
Hello, Andrea !
It's really not advisable to choose your life's work by what takes how long or the expense. There are ways to handle the expense. You need to go with a career that you love and see yourself doing it for a long time.
I think you may need some clarification about what a forensics scientist is. It is NOT an anthropologist nor is it a Psychologist. So what is it ? It is a scientist that works in a lab examining materials gathered at a crime scene. So we can eliminate anthropologist and psychologist from the mix.
So, now it's between becoming a Lawyer or a Crime Scene Investigator. To become a Lawyer, you would attend college as a major in Political Science or Government for your Bachelors Degree and then attend Law School. Your main duty as a lawyer would be to defend people in court and you would not examine or determine anything about evidence examined by the lab about any crimes.
To become a Crime Scene Investigator, you would have to get your Bachelors Degree in Administration of Justice, Criminal Science or Crime Scene Investigation (which a few colleges offer) or Chemistry. A Certification from the International Association for Identification’s Crime Scene Certification would also be good to obtain. Your job would focus on evidence collection and documentation and you'd interact with the police/law enforcement. The unpredictable nature of crime scenes means CSIs must be on call and ready to respond outside of regular business hours, leading to irregular and extended work hours, especially during complex investigations.
Shadowing for these careers would be good so that you can further decide which one you'd like best. To shadow lawyers, sit in on court cases at your local courts. To shadow law enforcement, call a police station, ask about a ride along and what the guidelines are to ride along with police officers on their shift. You can try various Labs, too but I am not sure if you can be around as they deal a lot with crime scene materials and may not be allowed to have other people inside the lab knowing information about any certain crimes.
To become a Lawyer in your state of Texas would take fours years of college for your Bachelors Degree and then attend law school which is three years and then take the Bar Exam and a four hour course in "The Guide to the Basics of Law Practice" within the first year of being admitted to the bar. You will also need to have a character and fitness review and that is about a year's duration after Law School so the whole process is about eight years. Under no circumstances should you fast track or short cut the education because there is a lot to learn for being a Lawyer and for being a CSI.
The less expensive path is the Crime Scene Investigator education, but could be more if you decide to go for a Master Degree in it to be more competitive for work. That would mean four years for your Bachelors and two more years for a Masters Degree for a total of six years.
You can also start exploring scholarships and grants to help fund your education and you can also explore starting out at a community college where the tuition is less expensive - you'd get an Associates Degree there and then transfer to a four year university for two more years for your Bachelors Degree. To make it less expensive, look into state colleges as private colleges are more expensive. This will take a lot of exploring on your part and now is a good time to start to make it easier for yourself to decide what to do. No one can tell you what will be affordable because you didn't mention specific colleges. You can go to college websites and see how much their tuition is. Remember that there is Federal Student Financial Aid, Scholarships and Grants that can help with the cost.
I hope this helps and I wish you the best !
It's really not advisable to choose your life's work by what takes how long or the expense. There are ways to handle the expense. You need to go with a career that you love and see yourself doing it for a long time.
I think you may need some clarification about what a forensics scientist is. It is NOT an anthropologist nor is it a Psychologist. So what is it ? It is a scientist that works in a lab examining materials gathered at a crime scene. So we can eliminate anthropologist and psychologist from the mix.
So, now it's between becoming a Lawyer or a Crime Scene Investigator. To become a Lawyer, you would attend college as a major in Political Science or Government for your Bachelors Degree and then attend Law School. Your main duty as a lawyer would be to defend people in court and you would not examine or determine anything about evidence examined by the lab about any crimes.
To become a Crime Scene Investigator, you would have to get your Bachelors Degree in Administration of Justice, Criminal Science or Crime Scene Investigation (which a few colleges offer) or Chemistry. A Certification from the International Association for Identification’s Crime Scene Certification would also be good to obtain. Your job would focus on evidence collection and documentation and you'd interact with the police/law enforcement. The unpredictable nature of crime scenes means CSIs must be on call and ready to respond outside of regular business hours, leading to irregular and extended work hours, especially during complex investigations.
Shadowing for these careers would be good so that you can further decide which one you'd like best. To shadow lawyers, sit in on court cases at your local courts. To shadow law enforcement, call a police station, ask about a ride along and what the guidelines are to ride along with police officers on their shift. You can try various Labs, too but I am not sure if you can be around as they deal a lot with crime scene materials and may not be allowed to have other people inside the lab knowing information about any certain crimes.
To become a Lawyer in your state of Texas would take fours years of college for your Bachelors Degree and then attend law school which is three years and then take the Bar Exam and a four hour course in "The Guide to the Basics of Law Practice" within the first year of being admitted to the bar. You will also need to have a character and fitness review and that is about a year's duration after Law School so the whole process is about eight years. Under no circumstances should you fast track or short cut the education because there is a lot to learn for being a Lawyer and for being a CSI.
The less expensive path is the Crime Scene Investigator education, but could be more if you decide to go for a Master Degree in it to be more competitive for work. That would mean four years for your Bachelors and two more years for a Masters Degree for a total of six years.
You can also start exploring scholarships and grants to help fund your education and you can also explore starting out at a community college where the tuition is less expensive - you'd get an Associates Degree there and then transfer to a four year university for two more years for your Bachelors Degree. To make it less expensive, look into state colleges as private colleges are more expensive. This will take a lot of exploring on your part and now is a good time to start to make it easier for yourself to decide what to do. No one can tell you what will be affordable because you didn't mention specific colleges. You can go to college websites and see how much their tuition is. Remember that there is Federal Student Financial Aid, Scholarships and Grants that can help with the cost.
I hope this helps and I wish you the best !