Afraid of committing to this career choice and going through 3 years of MSW program. I can do an MBA within 13 months, offered by the same school at a way lesser price. What do I do??

So I'm 5 years post undergrad with a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies, mainly in cultural studies, race studies, and the arts. I was also really interested in Business Administration, but I got this degree because I wanted the flexibility to work across more than just one discipline.

After I graduated, I ended up going into the social services field. If I'm being honest, the first job I got as a patient coordinator in a psychiatric clinic didn't require a bachelors and I just took it because I needed employment. A year later, I got a position with a foster care program for unaccompanied refugee minors - which I loved and that put to use the education I'd earned from my B.A. I ended up leaving because of my daily commute and enrolled in a Master of Social Work program where campus was really far from work.

For the past 2 years I've been going back and forth about being a Social Worker. I even applied at a different school and backed out before settling into this one. I'm afraid of what it will look like financially for me in the next few years if go through with this. I've heard from most people that you don't make that much money as a Social Worker especially in the first few years as an MSW without a license.

This is pretty much the one setback I have about being a Social Worker. I've always been passionate about being an agent for social justice and social equity and developing the wellbeing of society. I especially love working with youth and communities of color, immigrants and refugees, and that's where I'm hoping this path will take me.

But I also really want to make money and aspire to a certain lifestyle, which is why I'm also leaning toward an MBA. There's an online program at the same school that can land me an MBA in 1-2 years with prereqs. I'm not interested in being an accountant or business manager but I have an entrepreneurial spirit and I'm very creative and I want to help people. From what I've seen and heard, Social Workers tend to be overworked and underpaid and this terrifies me because I'm trying to get out of where I am. I'm trying to leave the place I live in a way that won't burden me too much financially.

The same university I'm doing the MSW at offers an MBA that I can complete in as little as 11-13 months. But is there potential for an MBA to be maneuvered into the humanitarian, social welfare & justice type of work that I'm so passionate about? I'm not so sure I won't just be written off as some money-grubbing business major instead of someone who genuinely wants to serve vulnerable people.

My reasoning for being a Social Worker is about empowering people who—like myself—come from vulnerable and marginalized communities. My reasoning for wanting to switch and go into business is about empowering myself. I feel like if I pursue one or the other I have to give up one of those things. :(

My family came to the U.S. as refugees the same year I was born. I grew up poor and lived in some really terrible places. We were evicted once out of nowhere and ended up living in a mobile home infested with ants and plumbing that didn't work. Then we lived in an area full of dangerous and illegal activity, where people were getting murdered right next door and the cops came by almost every week to arrest someone.

We lived off housing assistance and got food from food banks and food stamps. At the time my dad had a heavy accent and an ok grasp of English, but not enough to get anything more than a job as a taxi driver. We could barely afford food. I remember one winter it snowed so bad that everything got closed down, and my dad couldn't work, and we literally could not afford to buy anything. All we had in the fridge was bread and cheese and I remember going to bed starving many times. In high school, I remember helping with our school's food drive during Christmas one year, standing outside stores with my classmates and collecting canned goods to donate to poor families. I was so proud of what I was doing, so happy to be a part of something that I knew was going to help people. It was a huge thing at my school, and the end, students would drive out and bring food by the truckloads to struggling families.

My classmates ended up coming to my house. They didn't know it was my house—I think they were just given the addresses of people who qualified for the donations. I'm not sure how they got that information, maybe my mom signed up for the program or something. But anyway, they brought crates and crates of food into our garage, and I went up to my room and just hid and waited until they left.

I was so embarrassed and ashamed, even though as a potential Social Worker I know there's no shame in receiving assistance but damn it I'm so done being poor. I don't want to be anywhere near poor again. But I'm torn between my desire to help others and my desire to help myself.

I don't know what to do. I've already started my MSW. It's only the first quarter. I don't mind what I'm learning or the career itself. It's the return on the investment of the next three years that terrifies me. I feel like at 18 years old I was pushed to go to college too soon and just picked something that sounded interesting to me, without really thinking about what I wanted my life to look like long term. I feel like I should have spent more time working and exploring different fields before I went to college. Now at 27 I can't help feeling like I'm doing the same thing all over again. I've only shadowed Social Workers as an administrative assistant or patient coordinator—I've never actually done the work myself in order to know that this is what I want to do. But everyone has been encouraging me and telling me this path is just "right" for me. Me, I'm not so sure.

I'm scared, walking through a dark tunnel and just hoping there's light at the end of it. I don't know what to do. I'm posting this because I'm hoping someone will give me some light, tell me there's potential to do a lot with an MBA other than being an accountant or a manager, that I can be as successful as I want to be and still have a life dedicated to serving humanity.

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