I'm Lindsey Doe, doctor of human sexuality, clinical sexologist, and your host for Sexplanations.

[Intro]

Here are some questions and answers for you.

(0:11) Happy birthday Ashen Blue! You asked me: "What are your education views? What classes, majors, or path should I choose?"

Oh Sexplanateer, I'll share my story. Gather more knowledge though, a posteriori. It's not enough to live through another, you must for yourself explore and discover. Some of you are applying to colleges and grad programs; you're getting ready to register for classes and you want to know which ones to take.

There isn't one path to the cornucopia.

Here's my attempt at being your Haymitch. My experiences and what I've learned from them. When I was in high school I knew I wanted to study sexuality, but I didn't choose my university for this, I chose it based on location. This was an excellent choice for me. Another option would be to choose a school based on the program it offers. There's sites and magazines; your guidance counselor/advisor can make recommendations on the best school for dadadada.

This is if you're choosing for the best classes, the best professors, the best research. My recommendation is to go where it is affordable. In-state, community college, ROTC, scholarships, whatever it is that you can do to make it so that you aren't accumulating debt as a result of getting higher education.

And if you don't want to go to college or grad school, don't. There are many, many ways to get educated and increase awesome without paying tuition.

(1:19) "What did you major in?"

When I acquired the course catalog I started highlighting majors, as if they were subjects in high school. I didn't understand. What I ended up with was psychology because it was the fastest for me to get through and it was really important for me to do peer education: educating people on sexuality close to my age.

Plus psychology is really fascinating, and it lays a great foundation for master's and doctorate in other soft sciences.

(1:43) "What should I major in?"

If you don't know what to do, ask more questions, gather more information. Take classes that meet general education requirements, things that everybody has to do, like math, writing, language. And then look at what courses you WANT to take and see if they have prerequisites.

Abby's here! Let's give them an example.

So, if you want to take Psych 400, it might have a prerequisite like Psych 200, and Psych 200 might have a prerequisite like Psych 100, so right there you have 3 semesters already planned out.

(2:14) "What and how did you write in your composition notebooks?"

I kept all sorts of things in journals. This is for my senior project, this is for my internship, my master's thesis, and my doctorate.

What do I keep in my journals? Well, all sorts of things. Books that I've read, goals that I have, things that I've learned. I can even use a page or many to document the classes that I want to take or have taken and how they relate to sexuality.

Planning your college career can be as simple as setting up a list of all the classes that you want to take, how much time you want to spend in school, and then playing Tetris with them.

Somewhere on this chart include internships, research experience, and civic engagements. These are all resume or CV-building experiences that you could earn credit for.

(2:58) "How do you get involved?"

I wandered around halls in buildings where flyers are posted looking for people to help. I made myself available to professors in my department. And I searched on Google 'sexuality' and 'volunteer'.

(3:11) "What do you mean by volunteer? Volunteering?"

I called organizations and asked to help. I joined committees and clubs. Task-wise, I hung flyers in bars, I administered health surveys. I watched and coded 135 hours of infants and mothers interacting for a psych professor. I led workshops and taught English as a second language. Anything I could do to get wet. Yep, wet, sopping.

It doesn't where or how you participate, just that it's consensual and documented. Write things down, put them in your phone.

(3:41) "What do I do if I don't think my parents would be supportive of my interest in becoming a sexologist? They're going to be the one's paying for my education after all, at least temporarily."

How would you answer this question if it didn't involve sexuality? If your parents weren't supportive of your degree in IT, music, or pre-med? So very often people have answers to their questions, but because of the taboo nature of sexuality, they get tripped on it and don't know what to do. Here is the best tip I can give you: Take your question out of the sexual context. Answer it with the tools that you have. And then put it back into a sexual context.

(4:15) "Where would you recommend going for graduate school?"

Mmmm, grad school. This is what my Haymitches taught me.

Take the GRE, the graduate record examination, as soon as you can, while you're in testing mode. Some programs aren't going to require it, but others are.

Number 2 on the hot Haymitch list, look into who's doing research you want to be doing too. This is grad school, learning how to research from your professor's research. Investigate your professors and what they're studying at the time you will be going to school then e-mail them and let them know that you're interested. Show them that you're curious.

Number 3, does the program have funding for you? Prioritize places that are going to grant you research or teaching assistantships. If you're going to specialize in sex for your doctorate, then do something mainstream for your master's, like a social science. Psychology, counseling, or health.

Think of it like a pyramid. Here you are in undergrad learning how to learn. This is very broad; you're becoming a well-rounded individual. Then up here, in grad school, you're learning how to research, and you're getting more specialized, but you're not so rigid or narrow as you might be when you're in your doctoral program. This is when you're doing your own research; you're really, really focusing on what you want to contribute to the world.

Finally, talk to graduates of the program. Do they like it?

There isn't a formula, you're gonna figure it out. You can take our tips and tricks, apply them as you wish, but most of all you need to focus on the experiences you want to collect.

Stay curious.